Getting "Buck Showaltered" is now a thing!

Hey everyone... long time no Rant.... sorry After the Yankees lost I was pissed I didn't want to say anything that I would regret (Go suck an egg Altuve). But the Yankees decided to "Part Ways" with Joe Girardi and I was speechless. Yep I said that... No idea why they would let go of a guy that came 1 win from going to the world series with a team that wasn't supposed to win more than 83 games. 

I guess the Yankees thought that they had gone as far as they could with Girardi, or that 10 years was long enough and it was time to move on... or that he was too "robotic" and they wanted someone that was a little friendlier with the players, I don't Know. All I know is that I have seen this before.  In 1995 the Yankees were the first winner of the AL Wild Card and played in a playoff game for the first time since 1981. Buck Showalter was the manager. He had managed the Yankees for the past 4 years. He had taken them from a dysfunctional laughing stock to a respectable playoff contender. They lost that one game playoff and Buck was let go.  It was shocking and unexpected. No one knew why since the Yankees looked primed to be a playoff contender for years to come.

Within the next few weeks they hired Joe Torre, won 4 World Series Titles and in the next 12 years was in the playoffs every year under Mr. T.  Buck went on to be the first coach of  the Arizona Diamond backs. He was fired the year before they won the World Series too.  Then he moved onto to Texas Rangers.... they made (but lost) the World Series 2 years after he left.  The term "Being Buck Showaltered" was born.  Fire a guy right before you go on a championship run.  Girardi was just Buck Showaltered.

We can't predict if the Yankees will win anything the next few years... injuries happen, people do not hit or pitch like they did the year before.  All this is true but we all can see the Yankees have a lot of YOUNG Talent and when you have Young Talent yo are usually pretty good for a number of years.

So who will be the next Yankee manager?  No one knows.  Looks like they want a puppet that will go by the numbers, listen to the front office and do as told. A Younger manager that is more "relatable" to the younger player and less 'Robotic"   Kevin Long, Aaron Boone, Rob Thomson, Al Pedrique (Current AAA Manger) and John Flarhety have all come up. Jerry Harriston Jr. has been said to be a front runner too.  They have the a guy that is everything I just mentioned but he is too hatted by the organization and polarizing a character for them to admit and hire....... Alex Rodriguez!

Yeah that's right, Good Old AROD. Oh stop your eye rolling and "hes a cheater" crap.  If anyone has paid attention to him as an announcer you will know that he is very well prepared, knowledgeable and baseball smart. Like him or not he is one of the reasons DiDi, Castro, and Sanchez are hitting well at the big league level... When Sanchez was benched this year cause he couldn't catch a cold and also wasn't hitting, who did they call to have diner with him and discuss hitting... ARod. What did he do after that.. nothing but bat .320, with 20 or so HR's and like 50 more RBI's.. no biggie. Hes not a robot like Girardi.  He's player friendly.  He works off of the "analynics" as you will see from his announcing stats he pulls out and like him or not, he still considers himself a Yankee.  Biggest knock on ARod the Announcer is he says "we" whenever he mentions the Yankees. When asked he said he could never not consider himself part of the Yankees.

ARod should be your next Yankee Manager, but he won't be... cause they hate him.  They screwed him out the door and they won't give him a chance to do what he will eventually be doing anyway, Managing the game he loved so much he cheated even when he didn't need to just to be the best.  Thing is he would have been great even without the junk.  He is a terrific student of the game and has more knowledge about baseball then most of us could ever dream of.  I'm rooting for you AROD... DILLY DILLY

The Yankees Rule THE LAND

GOOOOOOODDD DAY Fine People. Ah today is a glorious day. Why yes... yes it is.  I decided to delay this weeks rant until AFTER the results of the Yankee/Cleveland (The Land) series.  Why did I wait you may have asked in your head? That Series determined the level of my Anger Rant and I,'ll tell you.


Over the past 10 years or so the NY Yankees have been Managed by Joe Girardi.  Some people like Joe's managing style, some people hate Joe's style. I have been indifferent. The entire time I have believed him to be a very good manager of talent, developer of young talent and dedicated to the focus of winning a World Series (He wears number 28 so he can look at the number every day reminding himself he needs to get the Yankees to their 28th World Series championship btw).  Joe is very much a by the number kind of guy.  Looks at match ups between people, does this guy hit that pitcher well, does this guy pitch better verse lefties, etc.  He manages to what he sees the numbers to be in his favor.  I get that and understand it. If your a baseball purist and hate all the numbers then you want him to manage more with his "gut" and probably hate his guts. Trust me I get that too.  To be clear though, just because you don't like someone's management style does not make them a bad manager


Last Friday, Joe WAS a bad manager.  It may be the first time I thought decisions that he made were illogical, out of character and at the time in my opinion would cost the Yankees the Series. I'm a passionate fan.  It was bad. What made it worse was at first he didn't want to admit he made a mistake.  That infuriated me.  Almost made a voodoo Girardi Doll... not gonna lie.


But than something happened I never could have guessed.  THEY WON THE WHOLE F#*CKING THING... well at least the series. His team never gave up on him. Winning 2 games at home and then coming back to "THE LAND" to beat this years (expected) Cy Young award winner, thats the best pitcher in the league award for those playing at home who don't know.  I have no words.  This team made up of mostly Young Kids with a few veterans sprinkled in surprised everyone.  They also won one for their coach. 


Joe is a very loyal coach. To a fault almost. He will stick with a guy through their troubles even when every sports announcer, analyst and fan is screaming for their head.  To the public his confidence in them never waivers. Even when he has to remove them from the line up or a roll they currently are in his answer is usually " We will get him right and get him back in there". It looks like the team showed that same confidence in him. They needed to play perfect baseball to rectify a mistake their coach made and they did.  Like him or not, that kind of leadership and loyalty is impressive.  Tip of the hat to you Joe.  Don't do it again though.... and keep on winning.


On a side note, in the soap opera that is the NFL. It looks like the owners may demand the players stand for the anthem, the players are making statements that they won't listen to it and I am at a point where I don't give a F#*K anymore.  Hey guy that gets paid a lot of money to play a game, if your boss says enough is enough you all stand... you stand.... or you will have now given someone else an opportunity to make a lot of money to play the game that will listen to their boss.  Don't worry, McDonalds is giving out like $15 an hour to say "do you want fries with that". I'm sure you can kneel all you want there.


Good luck to the Yankees in this upcoming series (sorry Houston) and I'm excited to see how much more destructive the NY Giants can be this season as this year moves along. Heard a rumor of Eli to Jaxonville.  That would be interesting. See ya next week sports fans!!!




PS - Happy Belated Birthday Uncle Mitch.  I know you read this. Have a cigar for me tonight.

Free... Free Fallin

It's Only Tuesday and its been a hell of a week already.  Before I get to the "Toy Store" aka sports (thanks for that analogy Joe Boningo) I just want to quickly address a few things.




First I would like to send my thoughts and prayers to all of the family's and people affected by the shooting in Las Vegas this Monday.  I hope that you will receive whatever is needed in this awful time.  No one will ever know when Evil will show its ugly head.  It seems as though it is showing up more and more now causing everyone to question their safety.  The answer is, we can no longer feel the safety we once did because of the world we live in. It's sad.  There are ugly, evil people in the world today and nothing will stop them. Not silly gun laws.  Not security checks. Nothing. If they want to spew their evil, they will find a way.  Shame on anyone out their pushing their own agenda's in a time like this. This is not a time to debate gun laws or terrorism definitions. It is a time to help your fellow man (or woman). Please do so.




Second, Kudos to Jerry Jones in regards to last weeks "To Kneel or not to Kneel" topic.  In a sea of crap that was our NFL last week, Jerry Jones (like he usually does) proved he is a smart business man that is always one step ahead and can create a solution for almost any problem.  In a sign of unity, Jerry had his entire team and staff kneel before the national anthem in prayer against diversity and for equality and freedom of rights.  He then had his entire team stand as one for the Anthem to show Unity. Good Job Jerry well done. "Dilly Dilly"




Third, yesterday we lost one of music's great talents.  Tom Petty passed away after falling into a coma after cardiac arrest.  He was 66.  It's heart breaking to many when someone such as Tom Petty passes. His, and many others music touch us in ways that the artists will never know. Luckily their music will always live on. So turn up that "Last Dance with Mary Jane", 'American Girl" or "Free Falling" as well as countless other hits and celebrate the terrific life of Tom Petty




Speaking of Free Falling..... How bout them Giants (See what I did there).  From a team that thought they were superbowl contenders, they now are just a team that needs their first win of the season. 0-4 hurts no matter how you look at it. Don't Worry Giants, you may be one of the worst so far this year but it could be worse. You could be the LA Chargers. Not only are they 0-4 as well but they got moved from their home town in San Diego to LA and no one is showing up to watch them play.  Most Football Stadiums hold between 75k and 100k people.... The Chargers are playing in a 27k seat Soccer Arena while they build their new building.  And they can only draw 10,000 fans a week to that stadium.  That's pathetic.  More people go see College games than that.




I feel bad for the soon to be Las Vegas Raiders having their star QB hurt 2 years in a row.  A fractured back has to hurt. Poor Derek Carr.  The Bears are so bad that they have decided 4 games into the season it's time to go to their rookie QB to save their season.  Yep that works every time I'm sure it will work out for you Chicago.  I'm pretty sure Alabama could beat the San Fran 49ers at this point btw.... they are so bad (Roll Tide).  In a personal side note, I have also been calling out the Atlanta FalCANTS for being the softest "good team" all year and it showed last week. After the Football Gods gifted them 2 wins this year to make them 3-0, lady luck finally kicked them in the balls this week as the Buffalo Bills rolled all over them.  I'm calling an 8-8 finish for the FalCANTS this year Just Watch.




Well, till next time everyone stay safe and protect yourself from the evils in this world.  Sports and Music really are the toy store of our lives and its a shame when tragedy and politics get intertwined.  God Bless

To Stand, Kneel or Sit... You Son Of A Bitch!!!!

Many moons ago I decided it was time to End Ant's Rants. I thought no one really wanted to listed to me complain about sports.... no one likes a whiner, but 2 things happened recently.  First, I've had this uncontrollable urge to do this again. There are so many thing in the sports world that I feel very passionate about.  That coupled with the realization that this rant is as much for ME as it is any of you smacked me in the face faster than Ray Rice would (sorry Ray it was too easy).  Second, I actually have had people ask or tell me to do this again. Maria, Uncle Mitch, and you Knuckles, thanks for the support and lets see how this goes.

Why not start with the Hottest topic of the NFL year so far. No it has nothing to do with Tom Terrific and Bell-a-cheat.  Not the pathetic G-Men and their "Diva Receiva".  Its about 2 of the best known symbols of this great country... the Flag and OUR National Anthem.  

Last year Collin Kapernick started a revolution of sorts when he decided that he wanted to silently protest what was going on in this country with Police Brutality.  Let me say now that I am a huge supporter of our men and women in blue and always will be. These people go out there every day and put their life on the line to make sure we are safe.  That bravery and sacrifice, in my opinion can never be repaid. Not every police officer is honest and loyal, I understand that, but not every officer is an evil "shot first ask questions later" monster that the miserable media portrays in an attempt to boost ratings and sell papers either. 

Kapernick's protest has now been taken to a new level and i'm not even sure some of the people doing it know why they are anymore.  My family and I will always stand and salute our flag for our nation anthem. To me its a time to be proud of this country, to be proud of the men and women that fight for this country and to all the men and women that protect and serve this country in any way. That's soldiers, police officers, fire fighters, EMS workers and any other group i may have missed. That's what I believe and my right as an American.  

It is also every Americans right to silently protest any way they chose to. That is how this country work.  Just like it is MY RIGHT to say that I think that sitting, kneeling or doing anything other than standing and placing your hand over your heart during our national anthem is completely disrespectful and moronic.  Chose another form of protest please.  One that does not show disrespect for the country that provides you with the freedoms to be such an idiot. You see I can say that... cause it's my right.... just like you can sit or kneel or sit on a Gatorade cooler, wearing a knit hat while eating a banana (I'm looking at you and your skittles Marshawn Lynch).

As an American you have the right to say how you feel and feel however you would like.  Everyone. Including the President of the united States of America.  President Trump can feel strongly about whatever he would like as a person..... BUT as the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, you can not verbally tell people they do not have the right to do something that is in the Constitution. You just can not. And you CAN IN NO WAY call a group of individuals "Sons of Bitches".  You are the President of the United States of America.  Please show respect to the office you hold and speak in a professional manor when reflecting anything ESPECIALLY your opinion on something. I completely disagree with the manor in which President Trump addressed this situation.  Hundreds to thousands of players took on a protest not for what Kapernick had intended it for. They took on a protest to show that they have the right under the first amendment to protest and not even the president can tell them not to. It had less to do with what Kapernick wanted his protest to be and more to do with their first amendment right at this point.  But can they actually protest?

In the end it comes down to this. Football is a sport, we are all entertained and athletes make a TON of money.... but in the end they are employees. Employed by a team, that has a management system in place and an owner. Further prof it is a job is they are unionized as a group. This union is to look out for their rights and best interests as employees.  If an owner feels strongly about something he should let his Employees know what is exceptionable and what is not. I am required to come into work everyday in a dress shirt and dress pants. Some companies allow you to wear jeans and a t-shirts for the same job. I can protest and start coming in to work dressed in t-shirts and jeans saying that my company needs to change with the times and change their dress code. That's my right. I would also be fired on the spot as it is understand that for my job,with my company, this is the proper dress attire. Same applies here. If an owner allows their team to protest then fine they can protest that's their right. But if an owner does not think that at this job (which is playing football), while working for them they should use their job as a platform for politics then its simple. Tell them that, tell them what is expect and if someone does not listen to the rules and regulations set up by you as the owner of their company then fire them. Unfortunately, there is too much money to be lost so most of the owners are to gutless to do this. Except one? It has been said that Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys does not want any of his players or coaches to sit of kneel for the National Anthem. If they do it was reported that they will be fired immediately. He put that out there. Their Game is played tonight on Monday Night Football. Only time will tell if Jerry is true to his word or gutless like the rest. 

As always if you have anything to say leave a comment. Thanks everyone #ComeGetSome

#YeahJeets! (Jeter Haters piss me off)

He's a sell out. This is a joke. This isn't tradition. He's just trying to make money. He should be ashamed of himself. And of course the ever popular, he's isn't worth all this fuss. To all of you Yankee haters and some Yankee fans out there that are saying this about Derek Jeter, all I have to say to you is, go F yourself ya rat bastards. 

Derek Jeter is only the 13th player ever to be named a captain in one of the oldest and most successful sports organizations ever to exist. With all of the great players to ever put on Yankee Pinstripes, none have gotten more hits in their career than he has. He has 5 world championships. Others have had more (yogi and his 10 come to mind) but none have more in the free agent era. It's a different time now. In a time where it is almost impossible to build a dynasty,  Jeter was the corner stone of one. When the game was on the line, the one person everyone wanted up was Derek Jeter. 

And more importantly, when it seems like everytime we turn someones taking drugs, performance enhancers, accused of domestic violence, beating children, and even killing people in sports today, Jeter did it right. Never accused of taking drugs. Never let his personal life get in the way. Always seemed to have the right answer and always seemed to do the "right" thing.  

For everyone that is hating this send off because "they are just doing this for the money, sell outs, hypocrites" let me ask you this. After seeing Jeter play this year did you not figure it was his last year even if he didn't announce it?  Did you want the last impression of him to be him

breaking his ankle in the playoffs verse the Tigers? Or when he couldn't stay on the field last year?  

Jeter was due 7 million this year to play and the Yankees gave him a 5 million dollar raise for no reason to 12 mil and everyone was like WTF. 2 months later he announces this is his last year. No one but Jeter and the people involved know what was said or happened but could it have gone like this? Jeter tells te yanks he's done. They tell him to give the fans a better send off then the injury season he had the year before. They will be able to make some money on ticket sales,  so his "gold watch" was 5 million more he wasn't worth and memorabilia sales. 12 mil and memorabilia sales probably total this year to about 20 million combined. Let me ask you this, who would turn down 20 million. If you said yeah, your a dirty lier. Even for a rich man, 20 million is 20 million. So the fans in every city get to show their respect, Jeter gets to say goodbye the right way (not injured) and everyone makes money. And if you don't like it then don't go to the games or buy the memorabilia. It's that simple. But don't attack the man as a player. His "numbers" may not put him as one of the top Yankees of all time but anyone that watched how he played and carried himself throughout this career knows Jeter was a class act and one of the greats. We don't have anyone (as Yankee fans) to look to like this after Jeter.

Final thoughts are this. No one said boo last season when Mo had a patch the entire year, had his tour, and said goodbye crying on the mound.  Maybe people are sick of it 2 years in a row. Who knows but knocking the guy for makin money, people giving him gifts, and where he bats in a batting order he doesn't set is obsured. You don't know what you have right in front of you until it's gone. Who's the leader next year? McCann? Gardner? CC? ARod? Right not lookin so got now is it. Thanks Jeter. Thanks for giving me someone that I can tell My kids about like my grandfather talked about Joe D and Mikey and my Aunts about Thurman. Thanks for being part of the Tradition, Ledgend, and Class that is the New York Yankees 

#YeahJeets

USA USA... Oh wait soccer's over

Let me tell you a story about a 14 year old kid and his dad. You see, this kid loved his dad and looked up to him. Both father and son are big sports fans. The son always talked to his dad about sports and obviously liked the same teams his dad did. Baseball, football, some hockey and a little big of basketball. It was great. There was one thing that the son never understood. How could his father love SOCCER more than any of those sports?!?!  It's slow, it's boring, the rules are a little complicated and I don't understand why the clock never stops?!?  But looking up to his dad, the son wanted to learn why he loved it so much. So when his dad asked him to go to a World Cup game at Giants stadium that year, he was happy to go. Upon entering Giant stadium that day he saw 2 groups of fans that loved their countries and teams, he saw passion that was unmatched from any sporting event he had ever been too, he saw competitiveness but comratery. But what he saw that touched him most of all was has Dad, a person he looked up too for his entire life, watching a sport he loved so much with a look in his eye like a little kid. At that moment, that 14 year old boy was hooked on soccer, and especially the World Cup. 

That 14 year old boy was me many moons ago. Even though I may never have the love for soccer my dad did (mine will always be baseball), I went on to learn, love and play soccer. Learning this wonderful game is not easy but in doing so I have some insite on why Americans can not embrace this wonderful game because I needed to come to grips with a few things to do so. Below you will find the list  

1. There is no clock:  Americans are so used to structure, clocks stopping, out of bounds, time outs incomplete passes and whatever else that will stop a game clock. It's something we can control, use and even minipulate if we want to (kneeling down at te end of a game). With soccer you don't have that. A clock runs but it's not official. There is only one person that has the official clock and that's the ref on the field. Everything else is an estimation and a guess. You can't stop the clock when it goes out of bounds,  when a goal scores, to call a time out, at a 2 minute warning, or when someone "injures" themselves. You need to except that not only is the clock not your friend, it's your enemy and there is no way you can stop it, speed it up or minipulate it. Except the ref will stop play when the time is up in his watch and that he will not call a "play dead" and end a game in the middle of a chance to score if his time runs out. Play will only ever stop at a neutral point not in the middle of someone trying to score.  

2. 1-0 games and 0-0 games are the norm:  Soccer is not built to be a high flying lots of scoring type of game. It's a game a skill and finesse that needs to have a perfect situation for a scoring play. As Americans, we hate this. 90% of people hate pitchers dules, don't like the defensive football games with low scoring, if a basketball team plays good defense first before scoring it's not an enjoyable game and low scoring is the reason no one really likes hockey. Unfortanetlaly we are trained to expect action to be entertained. We need to except/appreciate the skill over the action

3. MOST IMPORTANT... We are not the best in the world:  Baseball, Basketball, Football, Hockey, even Tennis, Golf and the Olympics. We expect excellence out of all of these sports. The top leagues play here (for the most part), more importantly, even if the best players aren't American, the goal is to get to America to play here, make the most money, and showcase your ability. With soccer, this will never happen. The best players/league is set up in Europe. This game is older than us.  We can play it here but we will not get the top players until they are done with the leagues over in Europe. MLS is like the retirement league that helps older players extend their playing carrer. We need to except this and not be upset with players from

America that go to these European teams to play. They are just doing what foreign players have done for so many years by coming here to play in the NBA, NHL, MLB, and NFL. 

4. Soccer Players are sissys:  Listen, just because players are diving like they just got shot in the leg ever time someone touches them doesn't make them a sissy. It makes them an actor. They are trying to draw a penalty (falsely) to get a free kick in order to put their team in a better position to score and win a game. Anyone that basically is running for 90 minutes strait is not a sissy. Get that sissy thing out of your head. 

Once you understand all of this and except this as fact, you can start appreciating this game that has been played before our time and that the entire world embraces. Alas I know the answer to this. 90% of America can't get past the fact we are not the best at something, the rules are not what we are used to, and no one is willing to "change things" to appease us.  Watching my dad's passion for a sport, since he is from Italy and has played soccer there as well as here in the US, was one of the greatest things I remember as a young teenager. I learned and played, wanting to make him proud. Hope I did. I leave you with this. Give soccer a chance. Open up your mind and except it's rules, with and without its flaws and you will see an amazing sport, with amazing passion. #JustSayin

FU Robbie Cano

Good riddance Robbie. You may have ended up being the best 2nd baseman to ever play the game but instead your gonna be that guy that took the money and went to a team that never won. 

I'm not saying Robbie won't be missed, I'm saying this signing (or lack there of) is surprising.  The guy talked about the Yankee history, how important it was to him to be a Yankee and and the right things but in the end I guess he was just talking to ARod too much about his phyilospoy on baseball. 

For everyone having a baseball cow right now you need to look at it this way... We just got Brian McCann and Elsbury for the price it would have cost to keep Cano and Elsbury and McCann > Cano and Steward. Especially when you add Beltran in there as well (would not have been signed without a no Cano signing). But this leaves the question of who will play 2nd base for the yanks. 

We need to remember that this is a business and not personal so when I say this, your gonna get pissed but your gonna have to deal with it.  We need to move Gardner for a second Basmen. I want Beandon Phillips from the Reds (owner wants him moved so he will go). Of course for Philips it will take a lot more then Gardner but I feel like this is a move that needs to be made. 

Brandon Philips is not only one of the top 5 second basemen in the league but everyone talks about his character and how great of a guy he is in the club house (just like McCann). We need these kind if guys to be the future leaders of our team. Jeter isn't gonna be around forever you know and Mo is already gone. 

Whatever needs to be done to get Phillips should be done. Then add a Pitcher (tanaka ?) or two (colon) that will solidify a rotation. Anyone know if Tim Tebow can pitch? #justKiddin #Maybe