HE SAID: Booing Javy's Boo-ers

Javy Vasquez got booed at Yankee Stadium last Wednesday for two reasons:

1) He allowed a grand slam in Game 7 of the ill-fated 2004 ALCS
2) Yankee fans have nothing else to boo about

Look, I understand the knee-jerk reaction when it comes to the name Javier Vasquez. I was at that game in 2004, and Johnny Damon's (essentially) game-winning salami for the Red Sox practically landed in my lap. But to make him the face of the Reverse of the Curse is simply unfair, revisionist history. How about Kevin Brown, the $100M man that loaded the bases in the first place, causing Joe Torre to have to take him out before he'd completed 2 innings? How about the legendary Mr. Torre himself, who elected to start the hapless Brown instead of Vasquez, prompting him to summon Javy to make his first relief appearance in 6 years, with the bases loaded, in a pennant elimination game? Not exactly the fairest of circumstances.

Vasquez' Yankee years are certainly an albatross on his otherwise impressive career. I was shocked to read this week that he had the third worst ERA in Yankees history among pitchers with at least 200 innings (5.17). I definitely wasn't shocked to read that Jeff Weaver was the worst of the bunch. His numbers are a bit misleading in a lot of ways. I'm sure many shortsighted Yankees fans forget that Vasquez made the AL All-Star team in his only season as a Yankee, and pitched brilliantly before a second-half injury hampered his effectiveness. Vasquez entered that playoff series with little left in the tank, but took the ball out of sheer competitive spirit. It was Torre's mismanagement that led the Yankees to have to rely on damaged goods in the most important game of the year, but I digress. So despite what the number says, what Vasquez is right now, what he was on Wednesday, and what he will be for the rest of the season, is absolutely unworthy of the boo birds at Yankee Stadium.

This is a pitcher that finished 4th in the National League Cy Young voting last season. While the NL is a joke in many ways (I think Jim Abbott won the batting title one year), Javy put up grown man numbers: 15 wins, 2.87 ERA, 238 K's. That is beastly regardless of the league. While his ERA will certainly rise, and his K's will certainly drop, Vasquez is going to be a key contributor to the 2010 Yankees, and I believe that starts tonight in Oakland.

While Javy committed the mortal sin of informing the media that the booing got to him, he was 100% right in calling the booing "unfair". At the point Yankee fans started booing, Vasquez had allowed 3 runs in 5 or so innings. Check the numbers. This kind of production is about standard over the past decade for beloved Yankee Andy Pettitte. Would he have gotten booed if he was pitching Wednesday? Unequivocally NOT. Which brings me to my original point: Vasquez is being booed for the events of 6 seasons ago. Which, as Javy put it, is unfair.

Where Javy made his mistake was failing to recognize that sports and sports fans are inherently unfair. While I think the booing was stupid and counterproductive (clearly, he is sensitive about it), I think the fan can do whatever they want at the park. And Yankee fans have shown a remarkable proclivity to embarrassing displays of booing. In the past decade we've seen one of the most beloved Yankees of All-Time (Jeter), and one of the best players of all time (Rodriguez) get booed in Yankee Stadium. Any fan with a brain knows that their immense talent, work ethics, and levels of production over a fair sample size suggest that these players should never ever be booed. The mere fact that they were shows that a) no one is immune to booing, b) sometimes Yankee fans leave their brains at home. Hopefully this is a temporary phenomena in the case of Vasquez, but I fear it wont be. With Rodriguez, it got to a point where fans would boo every time he made and out, and reluctantly cheer when he didn't. Rodriguez and Vasquez seem to both take the fans' reactions to heart. I am hopeful and confident that like A-Rod, Javy will prove his mettle with the fans and rise above all the ignorant negativity.

Again people, if you buy a ticket, you have free reign to boo whoever you want. Just please, choose your targets a bit wisely. There are plenty of Kevin Browns in this world that deserve your scorn for being bad people and not doing their job in the right way. Mark my words, Vasquez is not this person, and will prove to be an asset to the 2010 Yankees. And one more thing: If you ever boo Mariano, turn in your pinstripes and go root for the Mets.