One of my favourite columnists State-side is Steven Goldman who writes a weekly column 'The Pinstriped Bible' for the YES network. I wait for it each week with baited breath. The man is a witty, literary, raconteur of all things Yankee baseball. Unfortunately, today's column was a bit of a diss-job on the recent tour of Japan where they played 2 of their 162 regular season games in Japan.
"The location of the games was drab and uninteresting, a Pacific clone of the Metrodome or the Trop Dome complete with Astroturf, a vile substance that has mostly been eliminated from the Major League game. So closely did the ballpark resemble Tampa Bay's gray home field that it was hard to tell that the teams had left the country. There are people alive today who believe the 1969 moon shot did not happen, that the lunar landing was created on a television sound stage. These same people may now claim that the Yankees did not go to Japan either, and it will be hard to argue with them. What about all the Japanese in the stands? Easy. They were extras.Then he rips:
"In an alternate universe, the Yankees played at the Japanese equivalent of Camden Yards, with cherry blossoms festooning the grandstand and Mount Fuji looming over the outfield wall. Apparently that park does not exist. That location would have been worth the trip. This one wasn't, so we're still without a rationale for the Detour."
"Yankees broadcasts are among the game's most lucrative products. Putting them on at a time when no American can watch them makes zero sense, especially for a trip that has no definable purpose. It's spitting the face of the very audience that keeps the game alive. Next time, please — send the Brewers. No one cares about them anyway.For a man of great erudition and open-minded-ness, this article is just plain mean. Mr. Goldman, with all due respect, occasionally, you can share your Yankees with its fans world-wide; that's what it means to go global. As it is, the 2 season games you complain about were home games for Tampa Bay, so if anything, it was Tampa Bay fans (all four of them) who lost 2 home games to attend. It's not like the actual home fans of the Yankees miss out on anything except a couple of hours sleep. The point, Mr. Goldman, was that the Yankees went to Japan to play games that 'meant something' in the scheme of the season; not exhibition circus jobs like Ruth's '34 tour or Stengel's '55 tour.
"Just in: as part of the brilliant marketing initiative to make baseball unavailable to American baseball fans, this year's World Series will be held at an undisclosed location near the Arctic Circle. Reserve your tickets now, and maybe they'll let you know where you can pick them up."
Anyway. It's not like this really matters because the Yankees exactly aren't going to help us get to space and as Dave Brew calls it, baseball is part of the big smoke that keeps us distracted from the big picture (well, young Alvy Singer had trouble with too much big picture didn't he?).
The other half of the article about Kenny Lofton and a joking proposal to trade for Cleveland Centerfielder Milton Bradley is his ususal funny self.
- Art Neuro