About the Off-Season: Meanderings of My Mind

About the Off-Season: Meanderings of My Mind

By Tim Kabel

March 9, 2024

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In less than three weeks, the regular season will open with the Yankees playing their first game on March 28th against the Houston Astros. Spring Training will be over before we know it. Right now, we are still in Spring Training where things are not so serious. Because we are a little more relaxed, I can continue to take the time to go from topic to topic, like Forrest Gump sampling a box of chocolates.

• Oswald Peraza has been sent for an MRI because of a shoulder injury. He is in danger of becoming the next Nick Johnson or Greg Bird, a prospect who never realized his potential due to chronic injuries.

• I am getting the hang of cooking on the gas stove in the new apartment. I think in the long run, I will enjoy it more than cooking on an electric stove. I think this weekend I will try out the oven by baking my first batch of cookies in the new apartment. I have a recipe for pecan cookies with chopped Toblerone bars I want to try. The most difficult part will be avoiding the temptation to eat the Toblerone bars instead of baking with them.

• I know it's very early but so far, the new version of Giancarlo Stanton seems to be hitting about as badly as the old version was. The only difference seems to be that he takes up less physical space in the dugout. Time will tell if his efforts to reinvent himself will pay off. 

• My kitten, Nut, has found a new perch. He leaps up onto the corner of the counter and then on to the top of the refrigerator, where he sits like a young cougar surveying his domain. I'm afraid that when I open the door to get something, he will pounce on me to get cold cuts. I did follow the advice of reader Robert M. by purchasing a laser pointer. My older cat, Archie, who is almost 15, ignores it as does Jasper, who often acts as if he is above everything. The two younger cats play with it excitedly. However, Nut has done something i've never seen a cat do before. Sometimes, he will stop chasing the dot and turn and trace it back up to my hand. He will follow the light all the way back and sit there, staring at my hand, as if he figured out the magician's trick. Maybe all that mortadella he eats has made him smart.

• Jasson Dominguez is continuing to make tremendous progress in his recovery from Tommy John surgery. He has increased his throwing distance to 75 feet and began hitting right-handed on February 26th. He is scheduled to resume hitting left-handed on March 11th. It is possible that he could begin playing minor league rehabilitation games as early as April. I stand by my earlier prediction that Dominguez will play more games for the Yankees this season than Giancarlo Stanton. By the way, my friend Brian suggested that the second S in Jasson stands for superfluous. I told him that was an unnecessary comment.

• It is hard to believe that this week marked the 30th anniversary of John Candy's death. He was another one who was taken far too soon.

• At this point, Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery must be looking at Scott Boras the way Jonathan Winters looked at Phil Silvers in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World.

• Since I will be writing full-time now that I am retired, I upgraded to a MacBook. This is the first thing I have written on it and so far, I am very pleased.

• I was sorry to hear that Steve Lawrence passed away the other day. I always felt he was an underrated singer but he seemed perfectly happy with his life, performing with his wife, Eydie Gorme. I always enjoyed his version of “I’ve Gotta Be Me.”

• Marcus Stroman could turn out to be an extremely important acquisition for the Yankees. He's talented, extremely competitive, and most importantly, he wants to be here.

• Thursday night, I found All in the Family on my cable network. I can watch every episode in order for no charge. I have seen almost every episode, but not in many years. I watched the first two episodes on Thursday. The opening line of Archie's letter to President Nixon is a classic: “Dear Mr. President, Your honor, Sir”.

• Juan Soto and Aaron Judge should make a very potent 2-3 punch in the Yankees’ lineup this season. However, it will be essential that DJ LeMahieu or whoever bats first is on base enough to take advantage of it. Also Anthony Rizzo or whoever bats fourth will have to provide enough protection for Judge. When Jasson Dominguez returns, perhaps he will slot into the fourth spot.

• My wife told me about a Facebook group where people give things away in the town where her friend lives and told me that her friend found beautiful furniture and other quality items on the site. I followed her lead and signed up for a similar group in my town. I found a T-shirt that had “little Sis” written on it and furniture risers. I guess it's true what they say in real estate, “location, location, location.”

• Apparently, Austin Wells has improved so much defensively as a catcher that he will be pushing Jose Trevino for playing time. I think Wells will bring a great deal more offensively than Trevino, who may revert to his previous role as a backup.

• If this warm weather continues, I may be firing up my smoker sooner than I thought. I bought some Blues Hog barbecue sauce online recently and was favorably impressed. I can't wait to smoke a couple of racks of wild boar ribs which I will rub with seasoning first and then smother with sauce when they are finished. Nut purchased a bib online to prepare for the occasion.

• The Yankees just put out a list of their promotional dates for this season. I have a few thoughts after looking at it: 

·      I don't know why there are two Gerrit Cole bobblehead days. 

·      I have no idea what a Yankees’ Harry Potter hat would look like but I'm fairly certain I wouldn't want one. 

·      The fact that the John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman T-shirt Day is the day before my 60th birthday makes me want one even more. 

·      I don't believe we will ever have bat day again. I never went to one but, I remember all the pictures of kids holding their bats up in unison in the stands, which is probably why we'll never have one again.