About the Off-Season: Meanderings of My Mind

About the Off-Season: Meanderings of My Mind By Tim Kabel

March 2, 2024

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• Opening Day is less than a month away. Four weeks from today, you will be reading a recap of that game. It seems like we were just trudging through snow moments ago. Well, time flies, just like my Uncle Albert’s toupee in a windstorm. I will now move through a number of topics and issues like a hummingbird flitting through a garden, drinking nectar. 

• The Yankees are still rumored to be interested in Blake Snell. This is getting more tiresome than the constant stories about Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. Snell should just tell Scott Boras to get a deal done. Apparently, the Yankees are the only team to have made an offer to Snell. They could certainly use him, but this endless dance is getting tedious. 

• By the way, i just discovered that hummingbirds eat approximately 80% of their body weight in water and sugar every day. I think I would like to be a hummingbird. Of course, I would be a very large hummingbird. 

• Who will play more games for the Yankees this season, Giancarlo Stanton or Jasson Dominguez? My money is on Dominguez 

•  Tomorrow I will complete my third week of living in my new home. I believe that just about everything now works, except me of course. I'm still retired. After a somewhat lengthy adjustment, the stove, oven, refrigerator, electrical outlets in the kitchen, washer and dryer, and dishwasher are all working at the same time. The “at the same time” part is a little misleading, because, if I run an electrical appliance on the counter at the same time the dishwasher is on, I will lose power. I asked to speak to the person who put the wiring in here but I was informed that Mr. Westinghouse had passed away. 

•  As I was writing this article, I saw that Austin Wells was scheduled to catch Gerrit Cole last evening. That is a very good thing.  If Cole and Wells work well together, Ben Rortvedt probably won't make the team. I think Wells brings a lot more to the table than Rortvedt. 

• My wife and I purchased a combination washer-dryer for the new apartment. It is actually one machine that functions is both a washing machine and a dryer. It tells you the exact time that it will finish. It even tells you when it needs to have its filter changed. There hasn't been anything this efficient in a home since Shirley Booth played Hazel. My wife, channeling her inner Walter Brennan, said she is “suspicious of this newfangled piece of equipment” but, eventually, she will come around. Although, she does have her eye on an ice box in the Montgomery Ward catalog. 

• Brian Cashman and the Yankees’ organization do not seem to be especially enamored with Gleyber Torres. Cashman said that Torres is the second baseman “right now." The team has not expressed any thoughts regarding his long-term future. It is certainly possible that Alex Verdugo might stay with the Yankees beyond this year, while Torres does not. 

• The season hasn't even started yet and every day I read an article telling me which team is the most likely to sign Juan Soto for next year. Interestingly, none of the teams listed include the Yankees. Why don't we let him play an actual game or two with the Yankees before we determine where he will be playing in 2025? 

• I always liked Mickey Rivers. He walks the way I feel. He always did. Unfortunately, when he ran the bases we parted company. I continued to hobble along as if my legs had been beaten with bats while he ran like the wind. 

• Which of the Yankees’ veterans is least likely to be on the team after the trade deadline? My vote goes to Giancarlo Stanton.  

• I think the people under the greatest pressure with the Yankees this season are Brian Cashman and much more so, Aaron Boone. At least Cashman acquired Soto, Alex Verdugo, and Marcus Stroman, along with some others. That lengthens his leash. If Boone cannot win with this group, his days will be numbered. 

• I am looking forward to the warm weather this year because my new apartment has a massive, covered deck with two ceiling fans and i have a tremendous electric smoker, which I was unable to use for the past couple of years. In addition, I will be getting a nice big grill. I can imagine smoking a wide variety of meats, vegetables, and even cheese and grilling almost anything. I may have to get a harness and leash for my kitten, Nut, so he can be the assistant Smoke-Master. Otherwise, I will see his little face pressed up against the glass sliding door while I am cooking out there. 

• If the Yankees struggle at the beginning of the season, my prediction is that Brad Ausmus will become the next manager. 

• Nut’s sister, Catalina, thinks she is Snoopy. I bought them a special woolen cat cave that allows them to burrow inside. She sleeps on the roof, collapsing the entire cave. Nut and the others attempt to tunnel their way back in but, they can't do it. The whole spectacle is rather amusing. 

• I think the Yankees with the shortest leashes this season will be Giancarlo Stanton, by a mile, followed by DJ Le Mahieu and Anthony Rizzo. If any or all of them struggle, it will be a long season for the Yankees or a short one for them. 

• The one good thing about moving is that it forces you to go through almost everything you have accumulated over the past 20 or so years and get rid of a lot of it in some fashion. Whether you sell it, donate it, or simply throw it away, it is wonderful to declutter. Things that are no longer necessary, useful, or desired must be jettisoned. The Yankees may be taking that same approach with some of their players and possibly the manager this season. Last year they did it with Josh Donaldson, Aaron Hicks. and the hitting coach Dillon Lawson. 

• I think it is high time that Thurman Munson and Don Mattingly are elected to the Hall of Fame.