"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”, so wrote Charles Dickens. Well no one would argue that Joe Girardi had probably his best game as manager in Tuesday  night's Wild Card win against the Twins. He was decisive and stern. He pulled no punches and used his bullpen masterfully. It takes guts to pull your headline grabbing, gifted #1 starter out of a game with only 1/3rd of an inning. He was terrific Tuesday in an 8-4 victory.
           Oh but how Dickens' worst landed on all Yankee fans- it will probably never stop stinging, actually causing pain. Somehow the Yankees pounded the best pitcher in the AL getting him for 6 earned runs in 2 and 2/3rds of an inning. Kluber left the game down 6-3. The Yanks added 2 more, an 8-3 lead. Then came the 6th inning- no Yankee fan will ever forget the 6th inning, October 6 2017. After pulling C.C. Sabathia (only 77 pitches) for Chad Green, the most disturbing chain of events in Yankee post season history  occured. Green, who clearly did not have his stuff, had just given up a 2 out double.  With an 0-2 count, men on 2nd and 3rd Chisenhall at the plate: Chisenhall fouls several pitches off on the outside corner, Green cannot put him away. Green comes inside, the ball appears to hit Chisenhall, the ump signals for Chisenhall to take first, Catcher Sanchez and 3rd basemen Frazier protest that it hit his bat and was caught by Sanchez- strike 3, inning over. This is a reviewable call. Manager Joe Girardi only has to request a review- what would he do? NOTHING! He allows Chisenhall 1st base, Chad Green has to face Lindor, one of the most lethal hitters in baseball- WHAM! GRAND SLAM! 8-7 Yankees,  all Yankee fans know- this is a loss. You can't hide that kind of stupidity. When you look at the replay, it's like the Ivory soap ad: 99.44/100 pure. It was a strikeout- Green is in the dugout with an 8-3 lead still intact. Instead, Joe Girardi gave up 4 runs in 10 seconds! Why? "Because he didn't want to disrupt Green's rhythm” Really!!! He had no rythymn- he finally made an out pitch and Joe ignored it. His "book" told him Green struck out Lindor twice previously, not that night- he hit a colossal game changing, crushing grand slam. This was not only Girardis' "worst of times", it could be the worst managerial decision of all time! (There have been some beuat's: Ron Washington; Joe Torre; Grady Little; John McNamara...) What makes this so very bad is this: How hard is it to say: "I'd like to review that call" There is no risk, no down side- if the call stands, so be it, at least Yankee fans won't want Girardi fired. Now: I can't even watch Joe Girardi manage another game. What Joe's "worst of times" did is make Yankee fans miss boss George, who would've fired him last night! Most of us Yankee fans sure did!  The "worst of times" indeed...

            Joseph James