THE END OF THE DARK KNIGHT

Finally.  I can't stand this guy.

Photo: Getty Images

If you know anything about BYB, you know that being an ego maniac gets you nowhere and we see that garbage immediately and cut right through that. Matt Harvey falls into that category and now, it's all coming back to haunt him, and I am hoping once reality sets in, he will either just be quiet, or eat some humble pie and become a regular person.  Hard lesson to learn, but I have a hunch he will eventually learn it, or maybe not because tools don't always learn when they fall from grace... or fake-grace... whatever this is that Harvey is in right now.

Metro writes a great piece about the latest Harvey saga.  Check out this gem...

"The New York Mets being able to trot out their five stud starters of Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey, Zack Wheeler and Steven Matz isn't going to last for long.

Some of that is because veteran southpaw Jason Vargas, who was signed during the winter provide some much-needed rotational depth, will be returning from an injury to his non-pitching hand in the coming days.

Photo: Getty Images

But most of that is because Matt Harvey simply is not an MLB-caliber starting pitcher anymore and we all saw it again on Thursday night."

The Mets lost to the Braves, and suddenly there has been a change in the Mets playing style.  They are starting to lose. There is a lot of speculation that Vargas will replace Harvey in the rotation. And I'd love to see that happen. Hell, I think Mets fans would... he's just not good.

Now I'm not a Mets hater, but I am not a fan of Harvey. And hey, Harvey is a Met, so people think I'm anti-Met. I'm not. I just want Harvey to have a reality check.  He's not the same pitcher he once was according to many, but to be honest, I think he was never that pitcher... I think he was just once lucky.

Photo: Getty Images

As I wrote in IF JUDGE STAYS HUMBLE... HE'LL BE FINE,

"Harvey... knew he was good, pretty much told everybody he was great, bought into the hype and reeked of arrogance as he said it, and tried to bang strippers using the ol' "I'm the Dark Knight, wanna see my penis?"

Photo: Getty Images

So once Harvey started to realize he wasn't very good, and started having problems, the media pounced, because like I have written earlier, while celebs and athletes can be cool, there is always someone to remind them they are not, because they do digging through scandal, or blow up stories to try and knock them down."

Harvey was knocked down, but much of it was because of his own self-consumed arrogance.  When reality set in, he was no longer Nolan Ryan, he was more like Mark Fidrych (God, rest his soul)

A fun character, but that's about it.

No one likes to see a person be successful more than me, but admittedly, I enjoy watching failure happen when a person thinks he is untouchable. Matty is that.

Here's some humble pie, Mr. Harvey....

Eat it.

And good luck to the Mets, they'd be better off without him.

SORIANO'S UNTUCKED SHIRT MEANS "GAME OVER"

It’s pretty unbelievable to me to hear non-Yankee fans bitch and moan about Rafael Soriano and him untucking his shirt after a save and a Yankees win.  I mean, a lot of players have a “thing”, let RaSo have his.  Mark Fidrych used to literally manicure the mound.  He’d be on his knees combing the mound with his hands so everything was perfect. 

(In Photo: Mark Fidrych)

Ryne Duren used to jump over the bullpen fence when he was called out to pitch and never used the gate...read HERE.  And of course, Mariano Rivera trots out to Enter Sandman when it was time for him to close the door. 

Every player’s different and it was crystal clear to me that Soriano was trying to make a statement. “Game over, Yankees win!” and the shirt comes untucked. It's simple thinking and it's obviously the end of the ball game.  I mean, what comes next anyway? The dude takes a shower and changes clothes.  What difference does it make if he untucks the shirt on the field or in the clubhouse? Really.

But no... people aren't satisfied.  They think it's showboating.  Now it seems that Rafael Soriano’s "Untuck-gate" is a big deal.  Much like when Nick Swisher pounded his chest in excitement and much like Francsico Cervelli’s fist pump, Rafael Soriano untucking his shirts is now considered “showing up” the other team. Don’t believe me? Bryan Hoch of MLB.com tweeted that Joe Girardi said this about Soriano:

Now look, I find this whole thing ridiculous.  The game is over at that point. If a team was “showing up” the other team, well, all they need to do is win, which they did, hence, Soriano untucks his shirt.  Game over. 

Maybe teams should just ban champagne after championship wins… we don’t want to “show up” the losing team or anything.  Why don’t we just give little trophies to every pro ballplayer who plays this season so we’re all even and no one gets their feelings hurt.  Seriously, what the hell are we doing here? 

It’s funny how ridiculous this story is, and to be honest, I can’t believe I’m writing about it.  I think I wanted to just bring it your attention so we can laugh as Yankee fans because it’s more and more evident to me that people need to bash the Yankees any way they can…plus, what the hell happened to winning and losing, I mean, both are very different, aren't they? No one is "showing up" anyone in this case.

It is funny though, ironically no one bashes Derek Jeter for “showing up” the other teams when he fist pumps after a win.  True, the Captain is a Major League stud, but let’s face it, this falls into the same category.  Oh no…What did I do? I just thrust Jeter’s game ending fist pump into the spotlight! What have I done?  

See? Isn’t this all alittle too silly now? I think so.

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WHY CHARACTERS MAKE BASEBALL FUN

I'm an unusual Yankee fan because while I love the corporate image the Yanks present, yet, I've always embraced the funny, entertaining and sometimes crazy characters in baseball.
I think it all started with Reggie Jackson for me. As a kid, he was larger than life and just said all kinds of crap that as a fan, you either loved or hated. I loved it of course. In the 70's, the Bronx Zoo had several characters. Mickey Rivers was another guy I always enjoyed listening to, as well as watch play. I was sad when he went to the Rangers, no doubt.I'm not sure what happened but I guess as Steinbrenner got older, the strictness of the Yanks corporate image was enforced alittle more. I'm really not sure, but players seemed to say and do crazy stuff less.But because I'm a baseball fan, I moved on searching for more fun characters. I started paying plenty of attention to the Tiger's Mark Fidrych. He fascinated me and I loved to watch him talk to the mound, pat it, manicure it and it was just all nutty to me. That fascination ended as fast as his career and then I was consumed by Bill "Spaceman" Lee and his wacky antics. But no, not the evil Red Sox Lee, I hated him. I'm talking about the Expos Lee of the early 80's. He was truly bizarre and I could listen to him talk in interviews for hours. I still can.

As I grew up, the Yankees calmed down. Yes, Billy Martin and Ed Whitson knocking the crap out of each other at bars was always a treat, but for the most part, the Yankees characters vanished for a short time. Players like Danny Pasqua, Mike Pagliarulo showed up. It was a quieter time for the Yanks. The characters on the Yanks almost seemed non-existent. With Mattingly leading the pack, you could see it was strictly baseball. Again, nothing wrong with that, but my mind wondered in in search of more crazy characters.

(photo: William Hotz)
I latched on to crazy Earl Weaver for a short time, who had always been there but he got crazier in the 80's. Him with the umps was great, his nutty interviews were better. Hilarious.

Then suddenly, the Yankees were back with a character. A true character who spoke his mind and did whatever he wanted, without dragging his team into trouble. He was chubby, he liked to party and he loved Babe Ruth... David Wells arrived.
(photo: Daily News)
This guy was the ultimate character and for a while, I'm not afraid to admit, I liked watching Wells be Wells, both off and on the field. The Yanks managed to keep the corporate image all the while Boomer did his thing, so for me, it was the perfect storm.Then AJ Burnett showed up. Now, you're thinking "That dude's a tight ass, what are you talking about?". Hear me out. Can you say pie? 2009 had more pie than I'd ever seen and I loved when I knew it was coming after a comeback win. It really made 2009 fun. You always saw AJ in the shadows ready to pounce. Pie may in fact be one of my favorite moments with the Yankees in recent memory.
(photo: Daily News)
Then of course Nick Swisher, who is probably the coolest character alive. He just has fun, he's comfortable in his skin and still plays a great ballgame. There's nothing bad I can say about the guy. My friend Victor always says, another character in my life always says, "I can do my work and still have fun." Swisher must read Victor's playbook because it works for him. You've got to respect that.At this moment, my favorite baseball characters have to be Burnett, Swish and someone you'd probably guess for sure... Brian Wilson of the San Francisco Giants. Now, have you seen this guy? The beard is ridiculous and genius, he speaks with such great delivery, he should be a comedian on the Sunset strip. Plus he goes out on the field with a confidence and pride for his team. This guy means business and has become a true baseball character. He's hilarious. Expect big marketing and promotion from this guy, ESPN, Giants TV, whatever. There's a talk show with this guys name on it, trust me.So yeah, baseballs my passion, the Yankees are my passion, but baseball characters rule and cannot be ignored. They lighten up a sometimes very competitive game. They bring a human element to the game. They make it fun, and thank God for that.

So while your watching Sportscenter or the YES postgame, seek out your favorite baseball character. They're out there, it just depends what kind of character your looking for. You have one in mind? Tell me who...comment. If we have some great ideas, we will do a follow up and I may use them and include you in my post. How much fun is that? Keep it corporate, but keep it fun, you BYB freaks.

Please comment and let me know what you think and follow me on Twitter @BleednYankeeBlu and join the group Bleeding Yankee Blue on Facebook, just type it in.