Mike Francesa has had enough.
The big guy ripped into the Yankees and general manager Brian Cashman during his latest BetRivers podcast. Francesa slammed the team for its continued whining about the 2017 ALCS loss to the cheating Astros and issued a simple challenge: How about they actually win something for a change?
“I am so tired of hearing the Yankees moan and groan,” Francesa said. “How about getting back to being the Yankees on the field, off the field, and getting back to that? And maybe they’ll find the recipe they used to have. Which is where they acted like champions and played like champions, instead of whining and whining and making alibis and excuses. It’s sickening. Enough already.”
Francesa added: “The Yankees can’t find the World Series with a map.”
Some other highlights from the rant:
On the continued Astros relitigation:
I don’t want to hear anymore about this 2017 stuff. The Yankees, and especially Cashman, have to just be quiet. They stole signs and that’s why the Yankees lost?
The Yankees lost because they went down to Houston and scored three runs in four games. In Game 7 they got shut out. (Charlie) Morton went five innings and then (Lance) McCullers went in there and, hey, the Yanks are talking about what an advantage the Astros have because they knew what was coming. The Yanks knew what was coming for four innings from McCullers. He didn’t throw anything except a curveball the entire four innings.
He threw curveball after curveball. I believe if I remember right, he threw 24 curveballs in a row,. And Yankee after Yankee went down, they got four scoreless innings and they got shut out on three hits in that game. They scored three stinking runs in Houston. They got a (Greg) Bird homer, a (Aaron) Judge homer and scratched out one other run. You’re not winning anything if you go to a place and in four games you get three runs. That’s why they lost. The Yankees just have to stop it.
On the Yankees’ own skeletons:
First off, the Yankees brought in every steroid guy known to man. In 2003, Game 7, when (Jason) Giambi is hitting home runs, did anybody say, “Oh, wait a second, we’ve got to give that Game 7 back, I know (Mike) Mussina held the fort and Mariano (Rivera) was brilliant for three innings, (Aaron) Boone hit a big home run but you know what? We’re got to give the game back because we had guys” … noted steroid users helped the Yankees get past the Red Sox in that game. I never heard that. Yankees lost the World Series that year, as we know, after having a 2-1 lead. Never should of, but they did.
(…)
And I’m not getting back to each Yankee that did steroids but let’s be honest, there is a whole truckload of them. And not a word. So how about the Yankees just forget about the fact the Astros cheated?
On the postseason struggles:
The Yankees have gone through a terrible postseason run here. They’ve continued to get to the playoffs. They’ve continued to win their 90 games, sometimes more. They have been very consistent but they have been awful. They have won one World Series, and if not for A-Rod they don’t win anything. He carried them that postseason. He had 16 postseason RBI. They don’t win anything without him that year. That year he finally came up huge in the postseason.
[The Astros did cheat]. We all know. But fine. Guys got sat down for a year, other guys lost jobs, Beltran lost the job, we understand that. But that’s not why the Yankees didn’t win. It’s not why they didn’t win that series. And we don’t even know if they would have won the World Series. Because they won one in 20 years. They’ve been to one since 2003. And I for one am so tired of hearing the Yankees whine. How about the Yankees stop trying to find reasons for excuses and remember what it is to be the Yankees? And maybe those postseason failings will go by the board if they remember what it is to be Yankees. Get clutch hits, get big hits, get big outs. Because they haven’t done that forever. They have been a lousy postseason team. They’ve gotten there most years, and they’ve been terrible most years.
Closing thoughts:
It has been a long, long time for the Yankees. When you think about it, how long it has been, and just think about how different careers would have been if they hadn’t won that championship against the Phillies in 2009. How many guys would have had different careers, including Cashman. He would never have been here now if he didn’t have that World Series.
As this year starts, how about a new leaf? Forget about what happened, how lousy they’ve been in the postseason in the last 19 years. Just start a new era and get back to how the Yankees used to be.
