DROB THROWS A STRIKE AT YANKEE HEART

I’m sure that you’ve read the news on David Robertson and his comment regarding his former employers.  DRob simply said: "The White Sox give me a better opportunity to win. The direction this team is going in is something I want to be a part of.''

Before you lose your mind and start calling for the young man’s head on a pike, take a second.  David didn’t call out the Yankee teammates, or the fans.  He simply said that the South Side Sox are just going in the right direction and he didn’t feel that way in New York.  It’s a tough pill to swallow, but get a Big Gulp to chase it after you choke it down. Yankees fans, David Robertson is right…and what’s worse, we know it.

I will always like DRob.  He was a homegrown kid and gave us all he had while he was playing in the Bronx.  He was a well-liked guy in the clubhouse and never dodged responsibility when it fell on his shoulders.

I was sad to see him go, but I knew he was going to leave.  The Yankees did the all too familiar “We Kinda Don’t Want Ya” 2 step with him.  It was clear that the two sides were going their separate ways.  David had the monumental task of stepping in for Mariano Rivera.  Maybe he didn’t want that job.  Robertson is not a Joba Chamberlain type gunslinger.  He is a mild mannered, Clark Kent.  The boyish charm and ah shucks attitude you’d expect from a baby faced kid from Alabama.  Maybe New York wasn’t really his speed?  Whatever the reason the fact is the Yankees didn’t want DRob that badly and David didn’t want to stay either.

His comment will be poured over and poured over again.  He will now surely receive a Bronx Welcome when he returns in the Chicago grey this season.  Is it warranted? No.  In my opinion, it isn’t.  In just the past few weeks two players who are really the epitome of stand up guys, Robertson and Ichiro, have said that it wasn’t all that wonderful playing for the Bronx Bombers.  Folks, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck…  The Yankees are not your father’s Yankees and they are no longer our Yankees.  They are in a strange, less than glamorous slump from the bottom to the top.  The ownership knows sushi bars, corporate sponsorship, where to put the in-stadium steakhouse, but NOT BASEBALL.  Hal is not his Dad.  Cashman, well…

David Robertson said what EVERYONE is sports knows.  And knowing David a bit I am sure it didn’t bring him much joy to do so.  He simply said that he was excited to play for the White Sox and have a better chance at winning.  It hurts us because it’s true.  It was in no way a parting shot, it was tough love. And any club worth it’s salt would see it as that and begin to fix it.

Like in Smokey & The Bandit 2 when the Snowman, played by the great Jerry Reed, wakes a fat, hung-over, depressed Burt Reynolds out of his bed and gets him back in shape…the YANKEES NEED A SNOWMAN!!  Maybe DRob is that guy.  Maybe he was saying he expects more from the New York Yankees.  Ya know what, DRob? We all do.

** Here’s one for a young kid with an electric arm. We’ll miss ya, David.  G’luck.

And another one…because I love the song. **



 
--Mike O'Hara
Senior "Features" Writer
Twitter: @mikeyoh21






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