Official Yankee fan thread

[Kccitystar]

Phil Mushnick's take is contrarian click-bait. CC's been my guy through those post-championship years so I got something to say:

CC’s No. 52 isn’t being retired because of nostalgia alone. From the moment he arrived in pinstripes in 2009 through 2012, he was the Yankees’ ace. Literally the workhorse who shouldered more innings and October pressure than anyone in the rotation. In an era where the Yanks were transitioning out of dynasty mode, he gave the team stability: Cy Young contention, October starts, and tough outs when they mattered. He was far from Ruth or Gehrig, of course, nobody is arguing that, but to pretend he didn’t define an era for this team is revisionist garbage.

This guy leans on strawman arguments like “grandfather didn’t remember the number” and personal attacks about weight and temperament instead of actual baseball context. That’s like saying a fastball is “too heavy”, like it’s an opinion with no connection to the facts on the field. Sabathia’s Hall of Fame induction, his 3,000+ strikeouts, and his impact on Yankees pennant runs are baseball qualifications, not fluff. Then he starts dragging in BS about "what the game has become,” or random politics, or comparing Sabathia to non-baseball figures? That’s garbage grievance projection. If Phil had any writing talent and made his column truly about merit, it would compare Sabathia’s WAR, innings, postseason impact, and franchise significance to other retired Yankees. Instead, this joker pulls cheap shots about weight and attitude, which have zero bearing on whether his number belongs in Monument Park.

IMO if we’re going to criticize Sabathia’s number retirement while ignoring how the franchise has already honored other post-dynasty greats like Andy Pettitte, Bernie Williams, or Paul O’Neill, then we’re just throwing shade. The bar has shifted in the modern era, yes, not because of Sabathia’s play but because the Yankees haven’t had a multi-title core since the early 2000s. Fans are frustrated, and that frustration is real, but Phil's trying to ride that frustration without offering real insight. At the end of the day, Sabathia’s number isn’t being retired because he was Babe Ruth, it’s being retired because he was the keystone starter for the Yankees’ first competitive run after the dynasty and most fans understand that as a legit reason. Not this guy though.

[sabugo]

He does sound like an angry old man, that's for sure. I'm not a fan of Rapinoe, and I can't see how she relates to this matter, but anyway.

I think he makes some fair points though. The bar for having your number retired is lower for sure. I don't think that's CC's fault though. If I remember correctly, he got hurt when he tried to trim down. I wrote about that on the shoutbox at the time. 
I agree that CC had a few too many bad seasons. 

Harsh words, again, can't disagree on the general point that it feels like a watering down of the number retirement process. Can't disagree that the Yankees are taking advantage of this to make some money, selling tickets and special merchandise.
 

[Kccitystar]

1 hour ago, sabugo said:

He does sound like an angry old man, that's for sure. I'm not a fan of Rapinoe, and I can't see how she relates to this matter, but anyway.

I think he makes some fair points though. The bar for having your number retired is lower for sure. I don't think that's CC's fault though. If I remember correctly, he got hurt when he tried to trim down. I wrote about that on the shoutbox at the time. 
I agree that CC had a few too many bad seasons. 

Harsh words, again, can't disagree on the general point that it feels like a watering down of the number retirement process. Can't disagree that the Yankees are taking advantage of this to make some money, selling tickets and special merchandise.
 

 

When you grow up with Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle, Berra, Ford, when you inherit Monument Park mythology, anything short of inner-circle immortality feels like a downgrade.

 

The part people are skipping is that the standard didn’t really drop with CC. All of this basically shifted after the dynasty. The Yankees already retired numbers for Bernie, Andy, and Paul O'Neill. None of them are Ruth-tier, obviously. None of them are even inner-circle Hall of Famers. They’re just era-defining Yankees and I find that that’s the modern standard the team has been looking at.

So if the bar ever felt lower, it’s because the Yankees haven’t had a multi-ring core since 2000. Like that’s not a Sabathia problem, that’s a franchise results problem.