Well, Steinbrenner Had to Fire Somebody, Right?

I didn’t get the Yankee game on Tuesday night (MLB tv is becoming more appealing by the day), so I watched a few episodes of "Rome" instead. It’s a little early in the post for me to go off on a tangent but let’s get it out of the way. I don’t know how many of you have seen Rome but it is absolutely amazing.

I’m in the middle of season one and am completely captivated by it. Since I’m too much of a tightwad to buy the actual dvds, I have to rely on Blockbuster Online to provide my fix… this means I can only watch a three or four episodes a week. But when I’m not watching Rome, I sit around fantasizing about what life would be like in Rome. I’ve come to the conclusion that if I was ever whisked away to ancient Rome in some fantastic sci-fi event, I’d be happiest in the role of Atia of the Julii – I am not only willful and cunning but I also have no problem with being sexually voracious and totally amoral.

My other option, as I see it through seven episodes, is being a madam whose brothel caters to high-society clientele. Big money, relaxed lifestyle. Anyway, let’s move on. 

So sometime Tuesday evening I got a text from my buddy Coz: "Yanks are snakebit…I’m sick to my stomach." Didn’t make much sense. As far as the mlb.com gamecast was concerned, Philip Hughes was blistering through a no-hitter. What’s so tragic about that? Crazy, melodramatic Coz, right? No, stupid slow gamecast.

Fully intending on writing back to mock him, I checked the Yanks website just to cover my arse. That’s when I saw this headline in 24 pt. bold font: "Hughes Leaves Game In Seventh With Injury." I went back to the gamecast and it had finally updated — the Yankees only hurler not using Just for Men had left the game in the middle of an at-bat. I looked at the headline and then at my phone and then the gamecast. Headline, gamecast, headline, phone, headline, headline, headline. The next thing I knew, my phone had the misfortune of encountering a nearby wall.

But while my phone snapped back together in less than 4-6 minutes, the Yankees rookie pitcher will be out with a severe hamstring for 4-6 weeks. Hughes is the third Yankee hurler to suffer a hamstring and the fourth player overall, with Hideki Matsui also turning in a hamstrung DL stint earlier this season.

Two players succumbing to the same strain is bad luck but when it happens to a third, you begin to wonder. When four players are taken down by the same issue in less than a month, there is a serious problem – or – as Brian Cashman put it, "It got to the point where the perception is there’s a problem here." 

No Brian, that is not the perception. That is the reality. In five weeks, five key Yankees have suffered from muscle-related injuries and even more are struggling. It’s bad enough that 3/4 of our roster qualifies for MLB’s AARP package. Now our youngsters are going down for the count, too?

Chien-Ming Wang is 27 and Phil Hughes is 20. There is no reason for their muscles to be a hot mess. Somebody has to swing for that and since Steinbrenner already vowed not to fire Joe Torre and Brian Cashman (this week), happy trails to Marty Miller. Miller is, er, was a strength & conditioning coach. Our genius staff plucked him out of del Boca Vista Ballen Isles Country Club in Palm Beach Gardens, where he was posing as a fitness instructor (read: water aerobics instructor for my Bubbe and her friends)…

Ya know, sometimes I get the feeling that Steinbrenner & Co. are just trying to see how far and ridiculous they can take things before it all goes to pot. I wish they’d stop; it’s just not funny anymore.