Yankee Talk: Bad Early Returns on Big Investments

CC, Tex come up small in pinstripe debuts


BALTIMORE – As a Yankee fan, I keep high expectations of my players. Unlike some fans of other teams, I hold a much different standard that sometimes may border on excessive.

If that sounds arrogant or snobbish, tough.

When CC Sabathia was given the ball for Opening Day, it was to be the start of a new beginning. It was a showing that the past five years have been eliminated and the start of a new present, with an outlook bright because of the newly formed pitching staff that figures to be the best in baseball.

Instead, I was treated to watching 4 1/3 innings of eye closing, un-watchable pitching from a man who is being paid the most for a pitcher in the history of baseball. It was not what we all signed up for.

When Mark Teixeira was placed at first base, it was supposed to be the start of a new era as we officially said goodbye to Jason Giambi. The switch-hitting, slick fielding, always smiling Tex was set to give the team a new look.

Unfortunately, the new looked a lot like the old.

Now, it is just one game and both players will unquestionably have better days. The bottom line though is that with the Yankees, this is a results driven business. Perhaps in Cleveland or Texas (including Atlanta and Los Angeles) these performances would be glossed over and dismissed. With the Yankees and us fans, the scrutiny level rises for each player far more than have ever seen before. When the money is given to you, anything less than good performance is unacceptable. It is included in the manual you get upon signing to play here. The money comes with that disclaimer.

If you don’t like it, here is a simple message: GET OUT!

For Teixeira, the scrutiny not only came from us, but from most of the sold out crowd at Camden Yards, who booed him relentlessly during player introductions and in each subsequent at bat during the game. Each out was given mocking applause and by the time the game got later, it appeared that he was in fact pressing, trying to shut up the Oriole fans who had been riding him the entire afternoon and early evening.

He had his chance in the eighth inning with the score 6-5 and pinch runner Ramiro Pena on third base with two out when he stepped to the plate after Johnny Damon walked.

It was his moment to finally quiet the haters and even earn some Yankee pinstripes of his own on his first day. On this day though, it would not work out. A slow groundball to second baseman Brian Roberts ended the threat and kept the score at 6-5.

For Sabathia, his problems began right at the start. He put the first two runners on base with no one out in the very first inning before escaping trouble. However, it was becoming obvious that he was lacking his usual command.

He was never able to find a rhythm and it appeared to be just a matter of time before the Orioles would be able to find their bats to the ball. In the third inning, they struck for three runs and in the fifth used some lucky bounces and spotty defense by third baseman Cody Ransom to take a 5-1 lead and had the bases loaded with one out.

Sabathia’s pitch count was rising, but he still had a chance to escape trouble and pitch another inning to allow his first start to be looked at more as grinding as opposed to abject failure. He got ahead of Luke Scott 0-2 in the count. But without having control of his “number 1”, Scott was sitting on breaking stuff and was not going to bite. Four consecutive pitches later, Scott was aboard with a bases loaded walk, Manager Joe Girardi was coming to the mound, and the big man was leaving now on the wrong end of a 6-1 Baltimore lead.

96 pitches were what he threw and nearly half of those pitches were out of the strike zone. He did not strikeout a batter and got as many outs (13) as he allowed base runners (13 – 8 hits and 5 walks).

Was it nervousness? Maybe.

There was no indication from the time he donned the white jersey, navy blue pinstripes and the interlocking “NY” on the left side months ago and in the spring that would have made you believe this would be the case. He talked a good game, but when it came down to it, even the biggest of players can come up small when playing in the Bronx.

It was just one day for both CC and Tex. Here’s hoping that there will not be many more of these days to follow.

Otherwise, the pressure on these two will grow to gnat like proportions.