About the Off-Day: Meanderings of My Mind

About the Off-Day: Meanderings of My Mind

By Tim Kabel

May 7, 2024

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After seventeen straight games, the Yankees finally have a day off. This is an opportunity for me to take a break as well. There is no game to recap today so I will cast a wide net. I will wander from topic to topic like I am at a country fair, going from food cart to food cart. I will start with the turkey leg and slowly work my way to the fried ice cream.

·       The Yankees are 23-13 and in second place in the American League East. They have the same record as the presumptive World Series Champion Los Angeles Dodgers, the team that signed everyone. There is not much to complain about.

·       Most people eat soup in the fall and winter. It is comforting on a cold night. The one exception to that is chowder. I would bet that more clam or other seafood variety of chowder is consumed in the summer months than at any other time of the year. When people go to the shore, they frequently go to seafood restaurants of some type. Those restaurants almost always feature a chowder. Most people won't eat other types of soup very often in the summer, unless they are on diet or not feeling well. However, everyone loves a good bowl of chowder. I will be making one today with a leftover ham bone from Easter and scallops and shrimp.

·      Gleyber Torres may be pushing himself to the bench. His shaky defensive play is nothing new, but it has hurt the team multiple times already this season. In the past few years, he has been reliable offensively, although he does tend to be streaky. This year, he is not streaky; he is just bad. I don't know that there is a trade available for a second baseman, but I would prefer to see the Yankees recall Caleb Durbin as soon as possible. He could provide a spark to the team.

·      I have been a bit under the weather lately but, I think I'm finally turning the corner. I have not been able to finish the final stages of organizing my new apartment, but I did make some progress. However, my younger son returned home from college and somehow installed everything from his dorm room into my office. He thought it was funny when he placed his mattress topper on top of some boxes in my office. The cats thought it was a new bed.

·      I have to admit it when I am wrong. I was 100% wrong about Juan Soto. I did advocate for the Yankees trading for him but, in the past, I never thought he was as good as advertised. He is not; he is better than advertised. He is a far superior outfielder than we had been led to believe. He is a team player. He engages with the fans. He has an excellent sense of the game and is definitely someone the Yankees should sign to a long-term contract.

·      This coming weekend is supposed to be very pleasant. I am planning to break out my smoker. It is an electric model that works very well. I think I will smoke a bunch of chicken thighs and then smother them with Raspberry Chipotle BBQ sauce. My kitten, Nut, is ironing his apron.

·      Aaron Judge is batting .220. Gleyber Torres is batting .222. Giancarlo Stanton is batting 226. I would bet everything I own that Aaron Judge will not remain at that average for the rest of this season, but that the other two very well might. 

·      The more I think about the John Sterling retirement, the more peculiar it seems to me. The whole thing seemed very rushed and the conflicting stories regarding the reasons for his retirement were also unusual. To me, the strangest thing was the set of gifts from the Yankees. The Yankees always do things on a grand scale. To give the man who was the voice of the team for 36 years a big screen TV and a silver microphone statue, oh yes and a pair of cufflinks, seems a bit cheesy. I really hope they do something bigger at some point in the future.

·      Oswaldo Cabrera has turned himself into a fairly good clutch hitter. I know it's early in the season but if that continues, he could be an important part of this team this season, which no one really considered. While his future looks bright, the same cannot be said of Oswald Peraza.  There is no timetable for his return and no clear role for him. He will most likely have to play in AAA to reestablish his value to the Yankees or someone else.

·      One thing that I have been able to do over the past few weeks is write. I am seven chapters into my new novel and hope to finish another three this week.

·      Since the Yankees like to pick up players off the scrap heap, it is noteworthy that Aaron Hicks was designated for assignment last week.

·      I used to think that going to the DMV was the most annoying and frustrating thing that anyone could ever do. That was nothing in comparison to calling my cable provider. I will not divulge the company's name. However, the automated woman's voice starts things off by saying my name in an annoyed tone. She sounds like a principal addressing a youth who was sent to the office. Then she goes through every possible machination invented to avoid sending me to a live human being. The absolute worst part is when the fake voice engages in fake typing, which is supposed to lead the listener to believe that it is a real person clacking away on a keyboard. If you ever get to a live agent, you are so frustrated that you forgot why you called in the first place.

·      Anthony Volpe should be allowed to steal more bases. If he was standing on second base with Soto at the plate, there is an excellent chance that he would score before the inning is over.

·      Alex Verdugo has been an excellent acquisition by the Yankees. He is a very good leftfielder, and he is coming on offensively. He is very productive and has shown the ability to hit in the clutch.  I would say it's much more likely that the Yankees offer him a contract for next year and beyond than they offer one to Gleyber Torres.