The cheapening of MFY Memorial Park

[Guest Mets Guy in Michigan]

Supposedly the MFYs announced today they are going to retire Jeter's number and give him a plaque in Monument Park.

Seriously, MFY's? Somebody look up what number Mike Pagliarulo wore, because he's gotta be next. Lee Guetterman, too.

Jeter's plaque will be really bland, with the plaques to the left and right mounted unusually close to make up for the lack of range, but it will be under a sprinkler so soft rain can continually fall upon it.

[Edgy MD]

It's an insult to Mike Gallego, too.

[G-Fafif]

Can't cheapen admission to that which they've been letting everybody in for decades.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I thought they retired Jeter's number 20 years ago.

[Guest Mets Guy in Michigan]

G-Fafif wrote: Can't cheapen admission to that which they've been letting everybody in for decades.

Bad ass!

[batmagadanleadoff]

Five Yankee Monument Park honorees wore the Mets uniform. Name them all in one error-free post and you might win a prize.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I'll give it a try: Berra, Torre, Randolph, Stengel, Stottlemyer.

[Edgy MD]

Berra, Torre, Randolph, Stengel, ... and Henderson.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I'll give it a try: Berra, Torre, Randolph, Stengel, Stottlemyer.

That's the winner! Three honorees were better known as Mets managers than players. Stengel was exclusively a Mets manager. And Mel coached but never played for the Mets.

[MFS62]

I heard on the radio that the ceremony (I use the term loosely) will be held on Mothers Day.
Seems to me that they're missing a hyphen and another word.

Later

[Fman99]

Just the thought of this makes me want to take a No. 2.

[Zvon]

Fman99 wrote: Just the thought of this makes me want to take a No. 2.

lol. THAT is a good one It also stinks.

[nymr83]

MFS62 wrote: I heard on the radio that the ceremony (I use the term loosely) will be held on Mothers Day. Seems to me that they're missing a hyphen and another word. Later

Great post.

Great job by the Yankees furthering the culture of "Participation Trophies" by giving a monument to the worst defender of all time.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Nobody hates the MFYs more than me and Jeter's greatness is universally exaggerated, but he's the kinda cat who should have his jersey retired by the MFYs. It's the shitty short-timers and pretend legends that trouble me about that park.

[batmagadanleadoff]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Nobody hates the MFYs more than me and Jeter's greatness is universally exaggerated, but he's the kinda cat who should have his jersey retired by the MFYs. It's the shitty short-timers and pretend legends that trouble me about that park.

I've been ignoring the Monument Park aspect of this thread because it didn't resonate with me either. But if I was gonna write a post, it would've been just like the one you wrote. I hate Jeter probably more than I hate the Yankees organization. To me, Jeter's always been the most overrated player I've ever seen play in my life. I've never seen anywhere else in sports, the humiliating lengths to which the media has gone to in order to ingratiate themselves to Jeter and the bullshit over-exaggerated legend they've created around him -- a delusional legend unsupported by any evidence -- a legend that oughtta be insulting to any sentient baseball fan, even a Yankee fan. Off the field, Jeter's always been a soulless phony, cultivating his image with calculating precision, playing the media for suckers to advance his self-serving agenda.

But that said, Jeter's a no doubt about it Hall of Famer. Jeter's induction into Monument Park is deserved, a no-brainer.

[Frayed Knot]

Yeah, that's been the problem with the whole deification of Jeter thing, that the worshipers have taken a legit HoF'er and still somehow managed to over-rate his importance.
I'm already dreading the talk, sure to come up four years hence, about how HE is finally the one above all others who deserves to go in unanimously which, given the coming era of open ballots and the specter of public shaming that could go along with it, may actually happen. And as much as I hate the whole narrative (stemming largely from DiMaggio's time) about how no one should ever go in unanimously, the idea that he alone should be the one to break the trend is distasteful enough for me to temporarily jump on that wagon and hope that at least a handful of voters do as well.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I am hopeful there's just enough cluelessness among the old school, and just enough new-school snarky apple-cart upendeders, to pull that off.

The narrative similarity between Jeets and DiMaggio is just absolutely staggering.

[seawolf17]

There's no question in my mind that Cap'n Intangibles is an MFY HOFer and worthy of number retirement.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Definitely. Is anyone really questioning that?

[Edgy MD]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I am hopeful there's just enough cluelessness among the old school, and just enough new-school snarky apple-cart upendeders, to pull that off. The narrative similarity between Jeets and DiMaggio is just absolutely staggering.

With Mickey Mantle playing something of the A-Rod forerunner.

[nymr83]

why is Jeter a shoe-in? if you accept the evidence that he was a [u:14gc4ndi]liability[/u:14gc4ndi] on defense his career rate stats on offense aren't very impressive - he's just a compiler who stuck around long past his shelf-life

[Centerfield]

Frayed Knot wrote: Yeah, that's been the problem with the whole deification of Jeter thing, that the worshipers have taken a legit HoF'er and still somehow managed to over-rate his importance. I'm already dreading the talk, sure to come up four years hence, about how HE is finally the one above all others who deserves to go in unanimously which, given the coming era of open ballots and the specter of public shaming that could go along with it, may actually happen. And as much as I hate the whole narrative (stemming largely from DiMaggio's time) about how no one should ever go in unanimously, the idea that he alone should be the one to break the trend is distasteful enough for me to temporarily jump on that wagon and hope that at least a handful of voters do as well.

Yup. Which is why I am so hoping someone gets the unanimous nod before him. It would just kill me that of all the great guys through history, that Jeter would be the one unanimous choice, validating all the over-inflation of his worth.

I've said before that any writer who didn't vote for Rickey Henderson is simply too stupid to vote.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I don't know what everyone else is saying, but my opinion is he definitely deserves to be honored by the Yankees. I'd put David Wright in the Mets Hall and retire his number, but I wouldn't put him in Cooperstown either.

[Frayed Knot]

Nymr83 wrote: why is Jeter a shoe-in? if you accept the evidence that he was a liability on defense his career rate stats on offense aren't very impressive - he's just a compiler who stuck around long past his shelf-life

Nobody simply compiles the 6th most hits in MLB history, or nearly 900 XBHs, or hits a career .310 with 12 full seasons of over .300
And even if one were to argue that he was over-praised by writers or that he was a sub-par defensive player (true for parts of his career IMO but not all of it), he was still playing the most important defensive position while ringing up ten top-10 MVP years, five Gold Gloves, four Silver Sluggers, etc. And aside from his almost entirely missed age 39 season followed by his swan-song year at age 40, there were essentially 17 consecutive seasons where he was at worst an above-average player and more often a good to great one. The idea that his was NOT a HoF career is as big an over-reaction as are the ones acting as if his career stands out above all others.

I've said before that any writer who didn't vote for Rickey Henderson is simply too stupid to vote.

Some of those non-votes aren't as stupid as they appear on the surface. At least one of the Griffey 'No' votes, for instance, was explained as the voter knowing that he'd get in regardless and so wanted to use that vote elsewhere for a borderline case coming up on one of his last chances. I wouldn't do that if I had a vote (partly because I rarely advocate for anywhere close to ten candidates) but I can at least understand the logic.

The other problem is the 'No First Timers Ever!!' logic but that at least appears to be dying on the vine. Much of it sprung from DiMaggio not getting in in either of his first two tries but that was under different circumstances. Mainly there was no five-year rule back then and, because he retired at the relatively young age of 36, some writers weren't all that sure that he was going to stay retired so they held back votes just to wait and see. It wasn't like there was a perceived view that he wasn't worthy, they simply didn't see any rush. Unfortunately the upshot of all that was that his two-year wait was then misinterpreted by the following generation of voters causing many of them to adopt the stance that if Joe D. didn't go first ballot then no one else would either and it wound up leading to this unofficial 'two-tiered' HoF where there the 1st ballots types are mentally placed in a semi-separate class from the others.

[Ceetar]

does it matter who's in monument park? They close it before the game starts and have enough security hurdles to get in that it's hard to get in before the game starts, so it's not like anyone sees it.

[Edgy MD]

Report riling up the Yankee organization is that Clint Frazier asked if the Yankees would un-retire a number, and that the number he wanted was 7.

Brian Cashman rushed to firm and unequivocal denials, declaring the story to be "totally untrue."

The problem with crying FAKE NEWS! though, is that the source is notorious Yankee shill Suzyn Waldman.

[Frayed Knot]

Waldman has been known to flip-flop on issues if/when she gets marching orders from MFY brass, so we'll see if she back-walks this one in the coming days.

[MFS62]

Nymr83 wrote: MFS62 wrote: I heard on the radio that the ceremony (I use the term loosely) will be held on Mothers Day. Seems to me that they're missing a hyphen and another word. Later Great post. Great job by the Yankees furthering the culture of "Participation Trophies" by giving a monument to the worst defender of all time.

Its appropriate. He had the defensive range of a monument.

Later

[ashie62]

It's their park. Let them have at it.

[Fman99]

Sure fire way to get a YLDB all riled up is to refer to A-Rod as the "greatest living Yankee."