“The Aspect Of Being Out There”

Maybe now that New York has caused the world’s entire economic system to collapse people think the city kind of sucks. And the Yankees’ inability to quickly sign superstar pitcher free agent C.C. Sabathia is the first sign of The End of New York:

On Friday, it will be three weeks since they barreled into the free-agent negotiating period with a six-year, $140 million offer to starter C.C. Sabathia. His response has been silence. Derek Jeter had already called Sabathia by then, and Alex Rodriguez has called him since. Yet the offer sits there, an anomaly in a depressed free-agent market, begging to be accepted but met with indifference.

. . .

Typically, the Yankees do not need to beg free agents to accept. The Yankees’ strategy is usually to identify their target, overwhelm him with an early offer, intimidate the competition and get their man. They have done the first three things, but Sabathia is still a free agent.

“If they went to Sabathia with $140 million, he could go back to them and say, ‘Give me $170 million and I’m there,'” said one major league general manager, who was granted anonymity so he could freely discuss another team’s plans. “He hasn’t done that. The Yankees aren’t his first choice. Why isn’t he jumping on their offer?”

The Yankees have continued to negotiate with Sabathia, and they would like to sign him next week. But they have not sensed the usual enthusiasm that accompanies a splashy Yankees offer.

Mike Mussina signed quickly after the 2000 season, and a year later, there was never much doubt about Jason Giambi’s intention. Both times, the Yankees had just been to the World Series. Both players wanted to be in New York — or in Mussina’s case, somewhere close to his Pennsylvania home — and both had a veteran agent, Arn Tellem.

Sabathia is a different case entirely, and the reason he is stalling, to those who know him, is just as the general manager suspected: his first choice is not New York. Sabathia is from Vallejo, Calif., near the Bay Area, and it is well known that his preference is to play for a team on the West Coast. But the money is elsewhere.

“It’s not that he doesn’t want to be a Yankee; that’s not it at all,” said a friend of Sabathia’s, who was granted anonymity because Sabathia had not authorized him to speak on his behalf. “It’s just the aspect of being out there, his family, that kind of stuff.”

Side note: Red Sox fans, probably still boiling about years of obnoxious “1918” chants from the right field bleachers at Old Yankee Stadium, should consider chanting some aspect of Prince’s “1999” to remind the Yankees of their last World Series win, as in, “Two-thousand zero zero party’s over it’s out of time . . . party like it’s 1999.” Red Sox fans are insufferable yahoos, but this would be funny.

Obvious Concern

Mets coach Jerry Manuel, striking notes of concern, obvious concern:

Almost incomprehensibly, the Mets are facing the same predicament at the same point in the schedule against the same team as last season. “Obviously, I would have to say I’m concerned,” Manuel said. “There’s no doubt about that.”

Baseball As Zero-Sum Game

The underperforming Yankees are hurting the city in more ways than one:

City businesses stand to miss out on making $141 million this fall if the Yankees fail to make the playoffs for the first time in 13 years, according to a study commissioned by The Post.

The report conducted by NYU adjunct professor John Tepper Marlin shows that if the Yankees snag at least a wild-card berth, a first-round appearance could fill the coffers of bars, restaurants and other businesses across the city with $26 million.

Marlin, a former number-crunching chief economist for three former city comptrollers, said the Bronx Bombers would need to make the playoffs every year if the city hopes to reap any economic benefits, a feat many fans and businesses have taken as a given since 1995.

“If they’re not, you can argue that the city loses money,” he said. “You would think that with such a bloated payroll, the Yankees would make the playoffs.”

Only The Mets . . .

As in, only the Mets could make people angry for firing a manager who not only led the team to the worst collapse in Major League history but followed that up with trailing the Phillies in the standings by six-and-a-half games in only June. That’s basically the definition of “bumbler”:

Cowardly. Embarrassing. Disrespectful.

These are just some of the words used Tuesday by Mets fans and analysts to describe general manager Omar Minaya’s bizarre firing — at 3:14 a.m. New York time — of manager Willie Randolph and two coaches at a Los Angeles hotel.

“We could not go on as a team as it was this weekend, it was not fair to the players,” Minaya said at a hastily arranged news conference Tuesday in Los Angeles, where Minaya had fired the trio after the Mets beat the Angels.

“I had to tell him as soon as I felt the decision was made,” Minaya said of the timing.

While many agreed the Mets needed a new manager, the manner in which Minaya fired Randolph and replaced him on an interim basis with bench coach Jerry Manuel has been universally panned.

“The team handled it terribly,” said Joe Pietaro, editor in chief of New York Sports Scene Magazine. “The way they did it was to have the least amount of New York media on top of it as it happened. To bring him out to L.A., to do it after the game at the time was inappropriate.”

Besides Randolph, Minaya also fired pitching coach Rick Peterson and base coach Tom Niento. All were announced in a news release that went out in the middle of the night.

“I don’t know what they were thinking,” Joe Hamrahi, managing editor of baseballdigestdaily.com., said of the firing’s timing. “These guys are not amateurs; they have a full media-relations team that should have advised them that this would have made them look bad. I think it was a terrible mistake and Minaya is going to live to regret it.”

. . .

“I thought it was dirty,” said Jeff Mitchell, 40, of the Bronx. “They did it in the middle of the night and on the West Coast. Why let him fly out there? It makes it looks like there’s bad blood. They should’ve shown more class.”

“Terrible,” sad Robert Wilson, 46, of Murray Hill. “They could’ve handled it more professionally and more gracefully.”

Despite their historic collapse last season, the Mets were favored to win the NL pennant this year. However, the team’s $138 million payroll along with the addition of pitcher Johan Santana hasn’t helped the team rise above mediocrity. Going into last night, the Mets were 34-35, six-and-half games behind the rival Phillies.

See also: “Damn Mets!” (Observer, June 17, 2008) — the URL for which features the snappier “No Balls,” which might be a better headline.

This Is Just Not The Yankees’ Decade

No wonder they haven’t won since 2000:

MLB is introducing a limited-edition version of the popular Crocs plastic shoe emblazoned with the New York Yankees logo.

It’s a tribute to the closing this season of the House that Ruth Built, which has played host to more World Series games than any other stadium.

The “final season” footwear is being offered only at Modell’s stores and went on sale yesterday, at $34.99 for adults and $29.99 for kids.

Each navy-blue Croc has a silver Yankee signature logo and a strap featuring the official club lettering and a Yankee Stadium patch.

“If you can’t take a piece of the stadium, why not grab a pair of collectible Crocs shoes,” company spokeswoman Stephanie Koon said.

Who do I look like, Mario freakin’ Batali?