THE Yankees have pitching woes.
The Yankees aren’t hitting.
They claimed there were 31,000 people in the stands for last night’s game against Oakland, but anyone with a seasoned Yankee Stadium eye could tell you that was an exaggeration.
There are still three million people trapped in Dolanville who can’t see the games on television. Ad rates for the YES Network are tumbling.
The free CD they gave away at the ballpark last night had too much Kay and Sterling and not enough Sinatra.
And after losing, 4-1, in a lifeless performance against the Athletics, they now have plunged two games behind the Red Sox in the race for the AL East.
Now, everyone repeat after me: So what?
Come September, the Yankees will be right where they are supposed to be, right where they are destined to be so long as George Steinbrenner owns the healthiest checkbook in baseball.
If a month doesn’t cure Andy Pettitte’s woes, the Yankees will find someone who can fill his spot.
If Mike Mussina has another dozen outings like the one he had last night – not bad, and not good enough – then Ted Lilly or Sterling Hitchcock or some pitcher we haven’t thought of yet will take up the slack.
If Jason Giambi remains mired in mediocrity and Bernie Williams never comes out of his perpetual concussion, and if neither Shane Spencer or John Vander Wal or Rondell White turns out to be the answer in the other two outfield spots, Steinbrenner will go out and trade for or buy someone who is.
There will be baseball in the Bronx this October, and every October, so long as the economics of baseball remain as they are.
The real difference between ballclubs is not in the big-ticket items, like Giambi or Mussina. After all, the Texas Rangers emptied Fort Knox for Alex Rodriguez and bought themselves a permanent spot in last place.
It is in the backup guys, the insurance policies teams like the Yankees can afford to pay for but the Twins and Expos of the world can only long for.
Mussina’s now had two ineffective outings in a row. The $120 million lineup didn’t hit a lick. In fact, it struck out 10 times against six pitchers, all of whose pitches travel safely within the legal state speed limit.
But in the overall scheme of things, it doesn’t matter a bit.
As always, these Yankees are as deep as the ocean. And unlike the Yankees of past eras, not nearly so turbulent.
Pettitte goes down, Lilly steps in. And right behind him looms Hitchcock.
What other team could afford to give a Sterling Hitchcock $12 million just for insurance? Or risk $7 million on a Wells, who didn’t look to be worth seven cents at the end of last season?
Same goes for their less-successful, but no less wealthy cross-town rivals, the Mets.
How many other teams could afford to risk $40 million on a Mo Vaughn, who hadn’t played in 18 months? How many others would sink $19 million in a Roger Cedeno, who still doesn’t know how to find a routine fly ball?
It’s a lot easier to be a genius when you never have to worry about money.
So it is for the Yankees, who despite having three-eighths of its TV audience blacked out because of a squabble among billionaires, still will reap a healthy increase in its television revenue this season.
So what if Giambi, the $120 million man, failed in the clutch twice again last night?
So what if Mussina, the $88.5 million ace, couldn’t outpitch Eric Hiljus?
So what if Williams hasn’t earned a nickel of his paycheck this season or that Derek Jeter is barely earning his?
These are the Yankees. The kind of investments that would bankrupt other teams are mere business expenses to them.
And by the time the games get serious, the Yankees will straighten out their problems, ether with the players they have already bought, or the players they have yet to buy.
Really, there are no dark days at Yankee Stadium because there are no bad investments, there are no financial mistakes.