Good morning, everyone. We have a quick update for you as 2021 winds down: there won’t be much activity at the blog until the new year. There’s absolutely nothing going on regarding the Yankees at the moment, and there won’t be much to talk about for at least the next couple of weeks. We’ll return with our regular programming in January, but for the time being, here’s what you can expect from us:
Our next live chat will be tomorrow at noon eastern. This will remain a weekly feature on Wednesdays.
The podcast is on hiatus until things get moving again. Given the holidays and lack of CBA news, there’s really nothing to discuss. Hopefully, January will provide for more topics.
Please send your mailbag questions to viewsfrom314 at gmail dot com. We may bring a new edition next Monday, but if not, it will return in January.
If any of us do get the writing itch on any other topics, we won’t hesitate to post them. No guarantees, though.
Hope you all have a happy and healthy new year. Speak to you soon.
Friends, a new season is upon us. As you know, we were looking for new writers to join our team. We are very happy to say that we found them – but before we make the formal introductions, let us just pause to say that we are humbled by the number of applications you all sent us. We cannot thank you all enough for taking the time to write a sample and send it to us.
But now on to the new team members, and we are thrilled to be bringing aboard four new writers to the Views team. All of our new friends bring something unique to the table. In alphabetical order, they are:
Jaime Acevedo (@JaimeDavid3010) is new to sportswriting. He will bring all sorts of statistical insight to the Views team, including scouting the trade and free agent markets, current player trends, and everything in between.
Ana Apostoleris (@AnaMariana42) returns to the sportswriting game with us. We’ve known Ana for a while and know she will bring sharp insights about the current Yankees. She will also write in-depth historical perspective pieces.
Rohan Arcot (@rohanarcot20) joins us by way of Bronx Pinstripes, where he has been a contributor for a while. You can see his archives here. Rohan will bring a ton of good stuff about the Yankees’ pitchers, their arsenals, the Yankee farm system, and cover the draft for us.
Domenic Lanza (@DomenicLanza) returns to us from RiverAveBlues, from which most of you probably remember him. Dom will bring us the same toolset he brought the fine folks at RAB. He will be writing statistical analysis and prospect-related stuff.
We encourage all of you to throw them all a follow on Twitter and give them a hearty welcome to the Views team. They will help take our site to the next level and ensure that we are delivering you the same consistent analysis, game coverage, and prospect writing that you have come to expect from us.
So, with that out of the way, let’s get to some baseball, shall we? It will be a fun season of baseball for the Yankees. The entire VF314 crew, new and old alike, can’t wait to watch and enjoy it with all of you.
Another baseball season is nearly upon us, and while we don’t know the specifics of how and when the season will function, we do know one thing: we’d like you to write for us. We’re going to be looking for writers to join us, specifically any who are interested in doing everything it is that we do here:
Covering specific games with game threads & nightly recaps
Previewing upcoming opponents in series previews
Providing original analysis and thoughts on the latest and greatest with the Yankees
Pitching in with prospect coverage & nightly recaps of the farm’s games
Joining our weekly podcast
Arguing about the Yankees in our Slack channel
You get the idea. Unfortunately, these are unpaid positions. This blog is a passion project for all of us. Of the limited revenue we do generate, 100% goes to keeping the lights on with the site and podcast. We all have different day jobs and do this strictly because we love doing it.
With that in mind, we will hold you under no obligations in terms of written volume. We would not expect a set number of posts per week or anything like that. In other words, you can write as frequently as you want. We just hope you’d be a willing participant in our season’s coverage.
There is no prior writing experience necessary. We strongly encourage anyone, especially those from communitiestypically underrepresented in baseball writing circles,to reach out. We would really like to emphasize this point. Having a diverse team with a variety of perspectives and points-of-view is extremely, extremely important to us.
So, if that sounds like something you’d be interested in, please do send us an email at viewsfrom314 [at] gmail [dot] com by Monday, February 8. To be considered, please include a brief bio/introduction and one original, unpublished post as a sample of your style and voice. There is no strict word count or topic – all we want is to hear your voice and see your perspective shine through in a post you’d think would fit on Views.
We will do our best to respond to everyone, and we’d ideally like to bring everyone aboard before the start of Spring Training. Thanks, and go Yanks!
We last gave a housekeeping update in early February, which was somehow only four and a half months ago. I don’t believe it either. A ton has changed since then, but team practices are resuming this weekend. (They’re actually calling it Summer Camp, believe it or not.) That means it’s a good time to hit on the basics again.
But first…old friend Melky Cabrera signed with the Mets yesterday. The Melk Man is still in the league, believe it or not, and that’s an excuse to watch this play of yesteryear:
I love everything about this, from Damon’s reaction to Manny’s exasperated stare of disbelief. It never gets old. Anyway, onto the housekeeping stuff.
Spring Training Summer Camp
Camp is set to begin this weekend, and we’ll do what we were doing for Spring Training: providing daily updates on the biggest news of the day. See here for an operative example. It’s probably going to be weird – who knows what kind of access reporters will get given the pandemic – so there may be less to go on, but we’ll see. The point is that we’ll do our best to provide regular news updates to keep you up-to-speed. How that will actually materialize remains to be seen.
The Usual
It may have been a while, but things haven’t changed that much around here. It’s going to be a strange season, if it even happens at all, but we’ll continue to do everything we normally do to keep you up-to-date on all things Yankees. We’ll continue the following familiar features:
I was looking forward to taking over DoTF in Steven’s absence this year, but alas, it wasn’t meant to be. If there is Minor League Baseball this year, we’ll keep you posted just like we would have – but, again, this is not a usual year, so we’ll see.
The Mailbag
I bring up the mailbag as it’s own little blurb here because, well, I stopped doing it for a while. There just wasn’t that much baseball to talk about! Weird, right? It’ll be back starting this Friday as usual, so please send in your questions to viewsfrom314 [at] gmail [dot] com. We’ll choose our favorites each week, and those that don’t make the website might get covered on the podcast.
Finally, I’d be remiss to note that this is not a normal season, and that’s not just because of the fact that it’ll be shortened. The context in which the season will proceed is obviously one that is unique in baseball history, and we can’t (and won’t) ignore that. Eireann Dolan had a good thread on this on Twitter the other day, which you can see here:
As we move forward with 2020 baseball, it’s important to think critically about how sports should be covered this year. The way we talk about 2020 sports will have to be fundamentally different from how we’ve talked about it in the past, because sports are fundamentally different
She raises a ton of good points, and while we’re just a lowly blog, we all will do our best to cover this season with the proper perspective while still covering the day-to-day operations of all things Yankees. If we fail in that balance, please keep us accountable.
It’s going to be a weird season (if it’s a season at all), but we’re excited to follow it with you. Go Yankees.
Folks, we are officially in The Bad Times. I was depressed when the league postponed Opening Day, of course, but it’s feeling a bit worse thing week. Even though it was for an obviously good, science-supported public health reason, it is still very unfortunate that the Yankees are not taking the field this Thursday in Baltimore. Alas, there is nothing we can do but wait for Opening Day, whenever it comes.
I will say that there is some irony in all of this. The Yanks finally signed Gerrit Cole after a decade of trying to bring him home…so it makes sense that baseball is indefinitely cancelled now. What else did we expect? In better news, though, Giancarlo Stanton would “probably” be ready to play in Spring Training games if those were still a thing right now, so it’s nice to hear that he’s progressing.
Anyway, I’m sure you’re dying for baseball every bit as much as I am, so I decided to put together a quick survival guide. It isn’t the same as real baseball, but it’ll do.
Stream Old Yankee Games
Live baseball may be a relic of the Before Times, but our good old friends at Major League Baseball decided to help us out a bit. You can stream any game – regular season and postseason – from the 2018 or 2019 seasons for free over at MLB.tv now. That’s pretty cool! Check out the full archives here. Here are, in my estimation at least, the three best Yankee games to rewatch from the last two seasons:
Ken Giles Punches Himself (5/1/18): Remember when the Yanks and Astros were knotted up at zero in the 9th in Houston and then Gary Sánchez hit a 3-run blast to center? Ken Giles punched himself! I remember it too. (MLB.tv link)
Severino Shuts out the Astros in Houston (5/2/18): The Astros sure weren’t stealing signs on this one, when Luis Severino was absolutely dominant and shut out the ‘Stros. This is probably Severino’s finest hour and it’s fun to relive this one again. (MLB.tv link)
Gleyber Torres Arrives in the Bronx (5/6/18): Remember when the Yankees couldn’t lose back in 2018? That perfectly coincided with the call-up of Gleyber Torres and it also featured one of the most memorable games in the last few years. Down 4-0 to Cleveland entering the bottom of the 8th, the Yanks rallied for 7 runs and won it on a heroic walk-off blast from everyone’s favorite son. (MLB.tv link)
The Yankees Demolish David Price (7/1/18): Which one is this, you’re probably asking? There are so many examples! That is true of many games! It’s true, but this one is especially memorable. The Yanks pounded Price in the first two innings of this Sunday Night game in a complete rout of Boston. It was very good. (MLB.tv link)
Tanaka Blanks the Rays (6/17/19): Masahiro Tanaka is good for a few absolute gems a year. This was last year’s version when he threw a complete game shutout against Tampa. Glorious, glorious Masahiro. (MLB.tv link)
The Aaron Hicks Game in Minnesota (7/23/19): Come on, we all remember this one. A classic Yankee game if there ever was one, and who cares that it is approximately 900 hours long? You have nothing else do to. (MLB.tv link)
There is also a selection of older games available on YouTube, including:
The 2017 Wild Card Game: Come on. This one needs no introduction. (YouTube link)
Game 4 of the 2017 ALCS against Houston: Neither does this one, but Gary’s double in the gap still sends chills down my spine. (YouTube link)
Derek’s Last Game in the Stadium: I still can’t believe he did this. (YouTube link)
RAUUUUUUUUL: The 2012 playoffs ended up being horrible, but this one was as memorable as it gets. (YouTube link)
Jeter’s 3,000th: A 5-5 day and a huge blast of David Price for number 3,000? That’ll do. (YouTube link)
I prefer live ball, but this will work. There’s no excuse if you’re missing the Yanks and holed up in quarantine, really.
Read a Good Yankees Book
Once you’ve watched all those, check out a good Yankee book. There are plenty of them! These are five of my favorites:
The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood, by Jane Leavy: This is a masterclass in the baseball biography genre and is worth everyone’s time. Mickey Mantle is one of the most fascinating characters in baseball history, and Leavy is up to the task in telling his tale, to the surprise of nobody (her biography of Sandy Koufax is as good as they come). Be sure to check this one out. (Link)
Joe DiMaggio: The Hero’s Life by Richard Ben Cramer: This one shattered many of the myths DiMaggio, who was as PR-sensitive as anyone could be, had created about himself. Cramer, an investigative journalist, writes with a ring of authority and the result is a great book about a Yankee legend. This one has a special place in my heart as my DiMaggio loving grandfather gifted it to me when I was young. (Link)
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City by Jonathan Mahler: This one, a story centered around the 1977 Yankees, is a snapshot of one of the most turbulent eras in New York’s history. Mahler, an excellent journalist in his own right who penned a piece on the importance of the subway that I come back to time and again, wrote a really memorable book here. Anyone interested in the Yankees and New York City’s history should check this one out. (Link)
Pinstripe Empire: The New York Yankees from Before the Babe to After the Boss by Marty Appel: A thorough overview of Yankees history worth anyone’s time. It covers everything from on-the-field drama to the construction of Yankee Stadium in the early 1920s. A must read. (Link)
There are many more, of course, but these are the Yankee books that are always top of my mind. Please recommend some that I may have missed! I always have time for more Yankee-related reading.
Play Good Baseball Video Games
Lucky for us, a few good baseball video games just came out. I’ve been playing an embarrassing amount of both.
MLB: The Show 20: Easily the best traditional baseball video game out there, available exclusively to PlayStation 4 players. Derek and I are both playing a ton of this one. I’ve created a player who is now in his rookie season with the Yanks as a starting pitcher, Derek has won the World Series in the game’s March to October mode, and both of us have Yankee franchise modes going on. If you have a PlayStation and don’t have this game right now, I don’t know what to tell you. (PlayStation Store)
Out of the Park Baseball 21: The ultimate simulator for a baseball fan. I’m working my way through this one – and I’ll eventually review it for our site along with a simulation of the 2020 season – but I’ll say this: it is, as always, magisterial. There is nothing you can’t do in this one. Check it out for sure and watch the hours melt away. (OOTP Store)
Listen to a Good Yankees Podcast
We have a podcast now! Check it out wherever you get your podcasts. We’re doing it every week even in the Bad Times because everyone deserves at least one hour of distraction, right? More info here.
Anyway, that’s a brief survival guide for the Yankee-lover amid Week 2 of the Bad Times. Please let me know if I’ve left anything off because, like you, I am dying for good Yankees content.
