December 13, 2008

What A Surprise...

You know the memo about that whole "global financial crisis" thing? The New York Yankees didn't get it. Their fax machine is broken, and they haven't checked their email in forever.


To the surprise of absolutely no one, everyone's favourite former Toronto Blue Jay A.J. Burnett is Bronx bound. Five years, $82.5 million. As David Putty would say: "yeah that's right."

In three days, the Yankees have shelled out $243.5 million dollars for Burnett and Fat. Fat. Sabathia. 

That's a quarter of a billion dollars. That's fucked up. But business as usual in New York, I guess.

I ain't mad at A.J. It was probably best that we go our separate ways, and I said goodbye a long time ago. And let's not kid ourselves, he ain't no fool. You and I both know we have taken that deal as well. A.J. had to follow the money, and I'm happy for him. The Burnett clan will be taken care of for many a generation.

It's the Yankees who are foolish. It's the Yankees who deserve to be punished by the baseball Gods for offering an injury plagued soon-to-be 32-year-old a five-year deal.

It's nothing personal, and I wish A.J. all the luck in the world, but I want him to be an even bigger bust than Carl Pavano was in pinstripes. I want Burnett to struggle. Badly. I want the bright lights of New York to mess with him. I want A.J. to hit that disabled list, and hit it early and often.

As I watch the Yankees spend crazy ducats while the Jays shop at the free agency thrift store (see Clement, Matt) and shed payroll, I'm reminded why I hate New York, the entire Steinbrenner family (yes, even the grandchildren), and everything the Yankees stand for.

I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to Roy Halladay vs. A.J. Burnett, Blue Jays vs. Yankees, at the Rogers Centre next summer. I'm definitely going to be there. And I'll probably be booing. Here's hoping Doc teaches A.J. a lesson or two, or ten.

I think Stoeten of Drunk Jays Fans stardom said it best about our friends down in the Big Apple, and pardon the language:

"Honestly...Yankees, Yankee fans, friends and relatives of Yankees fans, please, for the love of fucking Christ, go fuck the fucking fuck out of your fucking selves."

Amen, Stoeten, you crazy mother sucker. Can't anybody put it any better than that. 

See you on the other side, Allan James.

5 comments:

Ian Hunter said...

I agree with you, I'm not mad at A.J. for getting the most money that a team is willing to pay for him. On paper, the Yankees starting rotation is shaping up to be one of the best on baseball. The problem with that is, baseball isn't played on paper; it's played on the field.

kushnir said...

just wait till we shed more payroll, trade harry, and have to find another new guy for the banner.

ughh, im already losing any enthusiasm i had for this season. as Cito aleady said "wait till next year".

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

@ Ian: The Yanks' rotation is looking downright scary. But Roy Halladay fears no man, and certainly no rotation. Like you said, we still have to play the games.

@ Kushnir: Please, no talk of trading Halladay on this blog. I don't even want to think about replacing him in the banner. Ugh. Remember what Ian said. On paper shit is looking bleak, but the games still have to be played. Remember how our lineup played down the stretch in August and September when we won 11 in a row? That offense is coming back, WITH Aaron Hill.

I'm concerned about the pitching too, but we must heed MLK's words: "We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope."

This is the time for our kids to shine.

Down Goes Brown said...

Now that Sabathia has a.) a ton of money and b.) no new contract to play for the rest of his career... how big can he get? Is there even a realistic limit to how fat he can get now?

I say the over-under for training camp is 315 lbs, and I really think by 2014 or so that 400 lbs is a realistic goal.

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

DGB, it's amazing that more isn't made of Sabathia's weight. Dude is fat. Period. Full stop. Fat.