by Paul Semendinger
June 10, 2024
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I have been running SSTN since its first day, October 23, 2017. In that time, I have written thousands of articles and tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of words.
I have celebrated. I have complained. I have enjoyed the Yankees' great moments and been (somewhat) angered when they have made terrible and horrible and foolish decisions.
I have shared my thoughts, ideas, perspectives, hopes, dreams, and so much more a gazzion times.
AND, in my reviews of the Yankees and their decisions, I have been proven correct, a lot. I'm not going to list all the times I've been correct, but it's been a lot. It's been often.
But, because baseball is a sport, and we're dealing with real life, and human beings, and chance, and luck, and hope and so much more, anything can happen. And anything often does.
AND, I have also been wrong more than my fair share of times. I also won't list all the times I've been wrong. It's been enough...
(Readers, if you'd like to list those times when I have been wrong, that's fine, but if you do, it would be only fair to also list the times you have been wrong. Fair is fair. People who lives in glass houses... and that sort of thing.)
It's is all in good fun, even if it seems (and can be, at times) serious. We keep politics and "real life" stuff out of these pages so that we can escape into baseball and our Yankees rooting. I think we all do a great job taking rooting for the Yankees seriously, but also keeping it in perspective in regard to the more meaningful and important things in life.
All that being said.... over the last 24-hours, especially, I have been wrong a lot, and I think it's only fair that I eat a little crow today.
I own up to my mistakes. I admit them. I think this is a trait that many others fail to do - especially those who write about sports. We've all seen and heard sportcasters and commentators and writers make bold statements and then write the opposite as if it was their position all along when proven wrong, never acknowledging the errors they made. You won't get that from me. When I'm wrong, I'm wrong.
Yesterday I wrote that Aaron Boone consistently makes the wrong decisions. I said that any bold move he ever made didn't work out. I challenged our readers to tell me when he made a bold move and it did work out.
And then last night Aaron Boone batted Trent Grisham fifth. FIFTH!?! That was a bold move. And...
On this site and on the SSTN Podcast that I pre-recorded with Mike Whiteman yesterday before the game (I have a book talk tonight so I can't go on live), I was critical of the move to bat Trent Grisham fifth. "What are they... crazy?" I asked.
And then last night, Trent Grisham hit a huge three-run homer to give the Yankees the lead in what was a very important game to win.
So, right there we have, in an instant, two situations where I was wrong, wrong, wrong. Aaron Boone made a bold move - and it worked. Trent Grisham batting fifth turned out to be the right move, the exact right move.
Good for Boone! Good for Grisham!
When I speak to the concerns I have about the Yankees, I often add, "I hope I'm wrong." I was last night. It worked out great for the Yankees. I am glad!
Still, I'll continue...
I was very concerned that Aaron Judge was playing hurt this year. Everything seemed to point to that. And maybe he was. He wasn't good in April.
But since April, he has been a monster. Wow! Aaron Judge is on fire.
I am glad my concerns about Judge have been proven wrong.
I didn't like the Yankees making Anthony Volpe a leadoff hitter last year. I also hated that they kept moving him all over the lineup. (I was correct about that.) This year, I wanted the Yankees to leave Volpe alone and simply bat him ninth and let him blossom into a solid big leaguer. I especially didn't want him leading off in 2024.
Anthony Volpe has been THE best player to be leading off for the Yankees. Right after Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, Anthony Volpe has been the most important cog in the Yankees' offense.
I was wrong about not batting Anthony Volpe leadoff.
I like to be correct. It is fun to be right. I am correct a lot. But not always. And, when I write about a Yankees concern I have - as nice as it might be to be correct, I'd much rather be wrong.
I have been concerned from the first day he was hired that Aaron Boone isn't a manager who can take the Yankees to a championship. I really hope I am proven wrong about that - especially this year. I hope I'm wrong about that many many times after this year as well.
Let's Go Yankees!
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To all who write about and talk about sports. Thanks for visiting and reading Start Spreading the News. I love that you are here. Please, though, if you borrow our ideas, and such, give credit to the site and the writers. I appreciate it. Thank you!
To be fair, you weren’t the only one in the podcast to question the move.
My problem is that you didn’t edit it out :)
Sure, the race is not always to the swift or the battle to the strong, but that's the way to bet.
A lot of times, we are wrong because we base our opinions on numbers. Analytics. Which also can be what makes Boone's, and the other 29 MLB managers, wrong from time to time. Numbers don't tell the whole story. Grisham is a proven BIG GAME hitter. In 2022, he had a very poor offensive REGULAR season with the Padres. But in the 2022 NL Wild Card series against the Mets, he became a beast, hitting 3 homers and batting .381. His effort during the regular season was just as good as his effort was during the post season, but the rush of adrenaline he gets when playing in BIG GAMES spikes up his performance to new levels. As…
It was far from wrong to question batting Grisham 5th last night.
Let's be honest - they got lucky with Grisham last night. I mean good on him for coming through with the biggest hit of the night while hearing those "We want Soto!" chants. But are you ready to bat him fifth every day until Soto comes back based on that one at bat?
Good luck tonight.
We are all right and wrong and different times. But what we do here is state our own opinions, and sometimes even say the whys. Is most of our reasoning based on sound thinking? Yes it is. You & I disagree on Boone's dos and don'ts, but we each have sound thinking behind it.
Volpe was based on last year, and the idea of just let the kid learn how to hit in the Majors. Personally, I think Volpe would be a better hitter hitting 5th or 6th, but he does have enough skills to bat leadoff, but with Judge/Soto directly behind him, he can't use all his skills there.
Grisham hitting 5th was I think part…