yankeechick

No, this is not the title of a poem.  There's no poetry in driving a sportscar in the snow and ice. 

A couple of years ago I was in the market to buy a car.  I found several cars I was interested in, and then did my due diligence and researched their pros and cons.  After narrowing it down, I wrestled with myself over practicality vs. want.  Most of my life, well, at least my adult life, I've done the responsible and practical thing which translated into conservative.  With my annual bonus burning a hole in my pocket, I said I'll be damned if I go the sensible route now!  Enough of that, and I freed myself! 

I bought a Nissan 350Z.  You're probably thinking that was the end of my venture into the other side, and I got it in black or silver, a traditional color.  Nope.  Ever hear of the color, lemans sunset?  Yeah, it's a copperish orange, and I got it with burnt orange seats.  I have never been a fan of orange, but this color was hot.  Did I realize I was going to call the police's attention to me?  Yeah, and I didn't care. 

I admit I've done impulse buying before, but never a purchase as big as this.   I've been in clothing stores deciding between several outfits, one being substantially more money than the others, and I've bought it.    Or, I've gone into the store with a set goal of buying 2 outfits, and that's it, and walked out with 5.  I would stand there in the dressing room looking at all the clothes I wanted while calculating how much they were going to cost me in total, and comparing that amount to what I could afford.  Yeah, I still bought what I wanted.  I've purchased bigger tvs than I needed and electronic equipment I didn't need at all.  These are the extents of my walks on the wildside of impulse buying. 

You might say the car wasn't an impulse buy because I did my research beforehand.  Nah.  I did that research for a good month, and I was tired of it.  I got on the phone with a Nissan dealership specifically looking for the 350Z touring model.  As I spent about an hour on the phone with the salesman as he looked for what nearby dealers had in stock, it became increasingly clear to me that I wanted the car right then and there.  Maybe it was because I knew it was then or never, and I'd chicken out.  I had the salesman look for the conventional color, but he couldn't find one that met my needs that he could get quickly.  He did find the lemans sunset one which he could have for me in a week.  I tortured the poor guy while I looked at the color on the internet and kept asking if he could find anything else.  He did wind up finding one in silver, but again, I tortured the poor guy while I clicked back and forth on both colors on the internet.  You know what happened.  We made the deal over the phone.  I faxed him my info, and he got a loan approved.  A week later I drove out of the dealership with my brand new car.  I was beaming. 

Two weeks ago, we had a pretty bad snowstorm in the Northeast.  I checked the weather forecast before I went to work in Manhattan, and they said no more than an inch accummulation, so I drove in.  They lied.  As I watched the snow come down while I was at work, I started to panic.  I couldn't leave because I had a meeting to attend.  At around 5 PM when it was over, it had stopped snowing, and the roads didn't look too bad.  I made a run for it.  Almost as soon as I started driving, the snow started coming down again, and these were no flurries.  We're talking flakes that impaired visibility.  The roads still weren't that bad because Manhattan is a heavily traveled area.  Even when I got out of the Lincoln Tunnel, the traffic was so slow, I still didn't have a problem.  It wasn't until I got off the highway when I hit unplowed, unmelted territory.  My car was sliding all over the place even at the speed of 10 mph.  I got about a half a mile and pulled into a parking lot.  I called a cab, yeah, I laugh at myself for that now.  How could I think anyone was coming to get me?  I looked for the bus, but we're talking NJ Transit here.  If you don't know it, feel lucky.  I started walking home.  Hey, it was only 2 miles, how bad could it be?  At a subfreezing temp, trudging through about 6 inches of snow in shoes that were never made for that, bad. 

Not that I'm complaining though because to do so would mean admitting I might've made the wrong choice in cars, and how could I do that when I loved my car so much.  So, I reminisced about making it to Rochester, NY in 4 hours at 100 mph and not getting pulled over.  Ah, the memories.  Then, I'm going to have the memory of today.  On days like this when I have to work late, it's necessary for me to drive in.  Not happening today when it hasn't stopped snowing since last night.  Since it's nearly impossible to get a cab home late at night in weather like this, I'm staying in the city.  As I looked around my hotel room when I checked in before work, I said, damn car. 

Thing is, nothing is ever going to be perfect in life.  There are times when you just have to do what makes you happy despite all the negatives.  Having always had a practical car before, it didn't occur to me that this one couldn't survive snowy roads.  I just didn't think about it because I wanted that car.  If I could go back knowing what I know now, I'd still have made this impulse buy.  Sometimes, you just gotta do, what you gotta do. 

I thought it was time I did a sports related post.  I realize this is old news, but now that the dust has completely settled, my thoughts have too.

The "big 3." That's the nickname for Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy. The last time I heard that nickname used it was for Tim Hudson, Barry Zito and Mark Mulder when they were all on the A's. Let's see......what happened to them? Hudson's doing pretty well and he's pretty consistent. I wouldn't use the word "big" when describing his talents anymore though. I'd use the word, medium. Mark Mulder has barely pitched in the last 2 years because of injuries. And, well, Barry Zito signed the big money contract with SF, and sucked in his first season with them.

Would all of this have happened if they weren't broken up? One might say no if they believed Samson lost all his strength when his hair was cut off. I personally don't believe that myth, well, I believe it, but I don't believe it was his hair that did it. I think his hair was an excuse/metaphor for his self-confidence. Do I think the old "big 3" had more confidence together rather than apart? Probably. There's something to be said about knowing your fellow starters can also get the job done and pick you up the next game if you had a bad outing. While I say probably, I still think their careers would've taken the same course. Zito did fine with the A's once the other 2 left, fine enough to earn that big money contract. The thing is, he was already in a decline, so people should've anticipated his below average season. Now, I do think he'll bounce back and do better in '08, but he'll never be the pitcher he was years ago. The types of injuries Mulder's had would've happened no matter what, and Hudson was never a power pitcher.

With that said, I turn to the talks of trading 1 of the pitchers who you might call the future of the Yankees  that took place during the offseason.  Like I said, breaking up the established, older "big 3" didn't alter their careers, and I don't believe it would've happened here either. They haven't come close to spending enough time in a starting rotation together to get comfortable. Doesn't mean they shouldn't get that opportunity though. 

Much back and forth went on between the Twins and teams competing for the services of arguably the best pitcher in baseball, Johan Santana.  The Twins understandably wanted to get the best package of players for him.  The Twins also held out hope they could strike a deal with Santana themselves.  Their offer even went as high as 5 years for $100 million.  He wanted 7 years.  The Mets wound up getting Santana for 4 prospects thought to be beneath the offers the Twins got from the Yankees and Red Sox.  Ok, fine.  The Mets needed him more than anyone anyway, he's now out of the AL, and most importantly he's not a Red Sox. 

While the Yanks are now the 2nd place team in the AL East chasing the Red Sox,  I truly believe they made the right decision.  I myself waffled between salivating over Santana and wanting to keep the homegrown youth who had already been cultivated to understand the NY/Yankee way from conception in the minors.  You can't put a price on that.  New York is the hardest market to play in, I don't care what anybody says.  Now, if Santana was about to be traded to Boston, the Yanks should've done whatever they had to, to prevent that from happening.  A rotation with Santana and Beckett at the top of it for years to come is formidable.  I still shudder at the thought. 

I also shudder at the thought of signing a pitcher to a 7 year contract that includes a no-trade clause.  I know some will disagree with me, but I don't think any team can justify that.  I understand the Mets did, but they were pretty much backed into a corner considering the other starters on their team.  So, they threw the money and years at him, gave him whatever he wanted.  At what cost?  While Santana has proven extremely durable, it's unlikely he never spends any time on the DL for his entire career.  I know, that could be said of any player, but what about skills.  A pitcher's skills are more likely to decline with age than a position player's.  That coupled with higher probability of injury makes a pitcher a more risky investment than a position player.  Ok, that's common knowledge, but I'm saying this in the context of 7 years.  History has shown that pitchers given such a lengthy contract have not lived up to it.  Even pitchers given less years haven't lived up to it. 

The Yankees had a choice to make; either trade youth which is the direction they've been trying to move toward, or keep them, and go in a different direction than they've gone for the past 7 or so years.  Those 7 or so years proved to be failures in Yankeeland with no World Series rings.  When one method doesn't work, it's time to try another.  The other part of this choice was either signing an ace for 7 years at $140 million who probably wouldn't live up to all 7 years, or keeping 2 potential aces and a #3-4 starter for less money than that combined.  I'm sorry, the business end of baseball has to be considered in all transactions.  It would be nice if it didn't,  but that's reality.  To me, the choice became easy after weighing all the odds, prices and talent. 

I can't wait to see these kids perform for a whole season.  Go Yankees!

I know my blog title implies your typical sports knowledge which I do possess, but life can prove sporting at times too, in my opinion. I certainly don't mean playing games because I'm a straight shooter and appreciate others who are the same. In any event, my blog items will certainly turn to your typical sports at times, but as you can see, my first posts have been about the sporting life, and this one is no different. I also feel the need to vent in a philosophical way sometimes which means you're all going to be subjected to my thoughts on people and life. 

This post is going to focus on what I call tunnel vision. The definition of a person who has such an affliction is someone who can only see things and people through a narrow tunnel rather than a wide open picture. These people are basically stuck in their own worlds and can't appreciate that everything is not about them. If these people had their affliction treated when it acted up, we'd all get along much better. 

How to treat it?  Take one step back, take a deep breath, look around you and call me in the morning.  I add that call me in the morning part in partly as a joke, but partly to say it's best not to get into it when you're in the dreaded tunnel vision.  If you can't empathize with anyone else but yourself, you're not going to be in the right state of mind to resolve a disagreement since you can't see the other side of it.  For example, person A is walking down the street after just having been fired.  A accidentally bumps into person B who has tunnel vision.  Person B immediately starts going off on A even though they apologized.  Voices rise, a fist fight ensues, and the police have to break it up.  Person A may have gotten to relieve their stress for a little bit, but they also get to go to the hospital to treat their arm that got broken, and afterwards have to go to the police station because they were charged with disturbing the peace, etc.  If Person B had taken a moment, they might've realized Person A wasn't paying attention for a reason and accepted their apology instead of making their day markedly worse. 

Maybe this is too much to ask of a stranger because it's really not fair to expect someone to be a mind reader.  My point though is when you're in tunnel vision, you don't think anyone else can have a problem other than you.  So, it's not too much to ask to acknowledge that with the everyday people in your life, at the very least.  If your coworker arrives late to relieve you, ask why instead of getting pissed off first.  When someone in your life does something out of character, don't criticize them, recognize this isn't them, and find out why.  They may have a problem they're keeping to themselves and need your help, but are afraid to ask.  Deviant behavior usually has a cause.  When you're in a bad mood yourself, don't take it out on a salesperson thinking what do they care.  Maybe they hate their job, and people like you are making it worse. 

Take one step back and a deep breath on a daily basis, and I bet you'll have less arguments and stress in your life.  You'll also feel better about yourself because your actions will affect others in a positive way instead of a negative.  Isn't it better to put a smile on someone's face rather than a frown?