Yankees Notes and Quotes

The MLB playoffs are in prime time, while the Yankees lurk in the background. Bombers' fans used to bait the haters with their rings, the shoe is now on the other foot and it's not pretty:

• "For the New York Yankees, this is the worst October since 1986"
• "You’re not thinking about the Yankees at this point, just about our club and what we’re trying to accomplish,” Longoria said." The audacity of youth.
• "So forget the Cubs and the dead-dynasty Yankees. Rejoice that the sport’s top three teams in payroll, including the Tigers and Mets, didn’t even make the playoffs. In the division series, the Nos. 5-6-7 teams in payroll were eliminated, too. The result: The ludicrously low-budget Rays, next-to-last in salary, are in the final four with the Phils (13th) and the young Dodgers (eighth), who may be almost as stage-struck if they make the Series as Tampa Bay.” I miss the good old days.
• Now they tell us: "it's an exciting time for the Red Sox...Red Sox General Manager Theo Epstein believes in developing a stable of reliable youngsters who can serve as a talent pipeline to the major leagues. Since young players usually remain healthier, have more room to improve and do not earn as much money, they are vital assets." This time last year the Gotham media were bombarding us with the notion that Brain Cashman was to youth movements as Al Gore was to the Internet. Fair to say Cash saw the writing on the wall and morphed to a new story?
• The good news file: " there will be more forces in play than just geography or even the actual dollars. Keep in mind that, in high-profile free agency cases like this, the Players Association also plays a role. And that potential impact should only help the Yankees.' The CC sweepstakes starts to resemble election time in Florida.
• So much for a glimmer of hope: "The Yankees of 2008 weren't going anyplace special, whether they were managed by Joe Girardi, Joe Torre, Casey Stengel or Miller Huggins. They were too flawed and too injured and in certain ways too old to put up a fight against the Red Sox or Devil Rays, the two division heavyweights who'll have it out for the American League title. The slow disintegration of the Yankees was bound to happen sooner or later" Actually, the Yanks had the resources to stave off "disintegration" unfortunately, Theo is a tad better at implementing plans than Brian.
• Speaking of Cash: "If anything, Cashman has been treated with kid gloves by the press...Now that times are tough in Yankeeland, Cashman is wanting more credit for everything he did over the past twenty years in the organization. Forget Gene Michael and Buck Showalter - apparently, the good things were all Brian’s doing. Of course, this all flies in the face with him insisting that he didn’t have any real power until 2005.
  Cash got his power, he got his full autonomy, and by any objective standard, it has been a complete and utter failure, even if he did say that “I don’t necessarily see this has gone awry.” --NY Daily News/Subway Squakers (Technical problem setting up link.) Cash needs to get his stories straight--good luck with that--in the meantime it appears, it's time for a new plan.

Photo/NJ.com