About the Off-Season: Meanderings of My Mind

About the Off-Season: Meanderings of My Mind

By Tim Kabel

February 10, 2025

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Spring Training opens for the New York Yankees tomorrow. We made it through the hardest part of the off-season. At least now we will have “baseball activities” on a daily basis I don't scrutinize spring training games with the same level of interest that I do regular season games, but I do pay attention. Well, today is Monday and it is the off-season. That means I will now move from topic to topic like my friend Roger perusing one of my articles, looking for a typo. If Roger ever needed a transfusion, he would refuse to admit that he was a Type O. 

·      If the Yankees are going to acquire a player to man third base, I hope they do it before we get too deep into Spring Training. I remember in 1977, the Yankees acquired Bucky Dent at the very end of Spring Training in a trade with the Chicago White Sox. Bucky became an important member of the Yankees for a few years, but I think it is better for the team and the individual player to use Spring Training to acclimate to the new team.

·      I'm trying to accomplish more on a daily basis. Although I am retired, I am now a full-time writer. I have one novel that is with the publisher now and just finished the final round of editing. I have another one that I recently finished and two more that I completed earlier but need to go through another round of proofreading and editing by me. Ideally, when the Yankees open their season, I will have three novels polished and ready to go to either an agent or a publisher and another one out on the market.

·      I am glad that I held off on buying a Jasson Dominguez jersey with number 89 on it. Now that he has been issued uniform #24, the old one would have been obsolete. Since that number was most recently worn by Alex Verdugo, i would not say that Dominguez has big shoes to fill. However, it was once worn by Robinson Cano, Rickey Henderson, and others. It will be nice to see what Dominguez does while wearing it. I think he will have an excellent career as a Yankee. By the way, having read the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, I wonder what expression a Hobbit would use to say that someone has big shoes to fill, since they don't wear shoes.

·      I'm continuing to trudge along on my “fancy weight loss journey” and have righted the ship after things went a bit awry during the Christmas season. I have to make sure that I get enough protein on a daily basis. Otherwise, I am able to eat just about anything I would like. Since the portions are significantly smaller, I can't waste time on things that have no nutritional value. One thing that I have going for me is that I have always liked vegetables and fruit. However, I draw the line at kale. I agree with Louisiana senator, John Kennedy, who stated, “kale tastes to me like I'd rather be fat.”

·      I predict that one of the three following prospects will be traded before the end of Spring Training: Everson Pereira, Oswald Peraza, or Spencer Jones. I'm not sure who the Yankees will acquire. I suspect it will be someone to play third base. There is a lot of speculation that they may now turn their attention to the Cardinals and acquire Nolan Arenado. I think if the Yankees were going to do that, they would have done it already. It is possible that the Cardinals will become desperate and accept less in prospect value but, I think the Yankees may go in an entirely different direction. If Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. is serious about needing to have a contract extension with the Blue Jays before Spring Training begins or he will go to free agency, he might be available. It would shock a lot of people is the Yankees acquired him. But it would be a great move, particularly if the Yankees were able to lock him up to a long-term deal. They don't need a repeat of the Juan Soto situation.

·      As part of my efforts to increase and improve my productivity, I have resumed using a To Do list, something I found very beneficial during my career. I find that if I put a few smaller, easier tasks on the list, I get a nice feeling of accomplishment when I check them off. Maybe it is a psychological trick but, it is nice to see those checks appear on the list. Another thing I did was to change the ringtone on my cell phone alarm clock I had something rather gentle that invited snoozing. I brought out the big guns and it will be in effect tomorrow. It is Johnny Weissmuller doing the Tarzan yell. I suspect Clancy and any other cat sleeping on the bed will hit the ceiling the first time they hear it. I used it before, and it was quite effective. As an aside, I read somewhere that in his later years, Johnny Weissmuller lived in a retired actors’ home and sometimes late at night, he would wake up disoriented, and emit that famous Tarzan yell, causing quite a stir among the other residents.

·      With Anthony Volpe, Jasson Dominguez, and Jazz Chisholm, Jr. in the lineup, the Yankees could rack up a lot of stolen bases this season. That is, if Aaron Boone actually lets them run. I'm not worried about Chisholm, because I think Boone would be reluctant to attempt to rein him in. I'm more concerned with the others. Depending on whom the Yankees acquire to play the other infield position, they may have another potential base stealer. But again, it's great to have something but if you never use it, what's the point? It would be like having a bottle of 12-year-old Scotch sitting on the counter for years but never opening it. You will never know how good it tastes if you don't taste it.

·      Clancy is growing physically and mentally every day. At just four months, he is already over 8 lbs. He's also very smart and comes when he is called. More than that, if I tell him to head into the bedroom with me at night, he will do it. Apparently, the Maine coon cats are also quite capable of fetching when you train them to. We haven't advanced to that level, but I am looking forward to it. This leads me to another thought. I mentioned Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan in a comment above. When I was a kid, I used to watch those movies every weekend, usually on Sundays before doing my homework. Tarzan had a word, “ungawa” that originally, he used with his chimpanzee, Cheetah. At first, it was to bring Tarzan a knife or a vine. Eventually, ungawa became sort of a Swiss army knife word. It meant everything. Tarzan would say it to Jane, Boy, and Cheetah. It always meant something different, and no one ever knew exactly what it meant but, it got results. Whatever Tarzan needed was delivered, whether it was a herd of elephants, a lion, or the aforementioned vine. My plan is to eventually be able to say “ungawa” to Clancy and then have him do whatever it is I need him to do at that exact moment. This could be fetching his toy mouse, going to the bedroom, getting off the table, or even bringing me a ham sandwich.

·      Barring injuries, the Yankees could have a tremendously successful starting rotation this season. With Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, Louise Gil, Carlos Rodon, and Clarke Schmidt, they really don't appear to have any weak links. At this point, Marcus Stroman is still there but, I think he will be traded very soon. With a revamped bullpen to go along with that rotation, pitching should not be a weak point for the Yankees this season. Will Warren is another prospect who could be dealt at some point this year. 

·      I submitted this article before the Super Bowl was played. I predict the Kansas City Chiefs will win the Super Bowl. I don't follow football closely enough to guess a numerical score with any degree of confidence, but I will say 28-14, for the sake of argument.

·      I would like to take a moment to recognize my brother, Will, who celebrated his 73rd birthday yesterday.