NEW YORK, NY – It was November 29, 1982 when the best selling album of all time was released. Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” had a total of nine songs and all of them eventually made their way into the Top 10 Charts. It’s been over forty years and I still scratch my head over two songs that just don’t fit in for me.
The hits “Thriller” and “Beat It” are mixed in with Jackson’s lyrics of women and girls. Even the album’s title didn’t make sense. The hit song’s message is of ghouls and corpses with the other being of a street gang’s faceoff. Those two great songs could have been released on a later album, but instead were mixed in here like sugar on spaghetti.
Up in the Bronx something similar was brewing. Before last week The New York Yankees Hot Stove gossip had them going after leftfielder Juan Soto along with centerfielder Cody Bellinger. The last time I looked at the current roster their payroll had three guys making over 300 million dollars. They couldn’t even buy their way into the playoff berth. More Hot Stove talk had the Yanks going after two-way player Shohei Ohtani, who can only play the role of designated hitter because of his Tommy John surgery. Where would that leave their 30 million dollar DH, Giancarlo Stanton?
At least one of these “Yes Men” the Yankees employ, and I’m not referring to the television station, needs to step up to the mic and remind whoever thinks they own the team of what they really need. Someone has to grab his balls and shout, Who’s on third, What’s the catcher’s name, and I don’t know the leftfielder!
They also need to address who is pitching after Gerrit Cole, the 2023 Cy Young Award winner, who’s being compared to the Yankee greats. How quickly we forgot about his performances in the last two postseasons.
Only time will tell how it all plays out in the 2024 season. In the meantime I’m going to put the needle to the record and listen to the songs on “Thriller” while I reminisce of the time when George Steinbrenner signed free-agent right fielder Dave Winfield, even though he had a right fielder named Reggie Jackson. Let’s not forget how that turned out…
