What's Plan B?

With Rivera not there to trip them up, Yanks are home free

Too bad Ruben Rivera got caught. That was my first thought about the news that the 28-year-old outfielder was released this week from the New York Yankees for stealing, then selling All-Star shortstop Derek Jeter's baseball glove to a memorabilia dealer for $2,500. Too bad, indeed.

With the high-priced Bombers from the Bronx poised to fold, spindle and mutilate all opposition in the coming season, nobody predicting any differently, Rivera could have been the one factor to help bring the team back to the pack. He could have been Bud Selig's little mole, his operative, to insure parity.

I mean, one day you could have had Jeter misfielding ground balls because his favorite glove was gone. The next day Jason Giambi couldn't have been able to hit a lick because his favorite bats were missing. Mariano Rivera -- Ruben's cousin -- could have been called from the bullpen... but, no, wait a minute, he wasn't available because he couldn't find his hat. George Steinbrenner couldn't have held a press conference on the matter because he was missing suit pants.

There was an opportunity here -- the Yankees forfeit yet another game while the police probe the thefts of the Babe Ruth monument in center field and Don Zimmer's chewing tobacco -- but, alas, it's gone. Ruben is gone. The Yankees are back on the march and the partisans among us, the rebels opposed to this occupying army, must find another young patriotic lad to sow the fertile seeds of destruction.

Leigh Montville's commentaries appear regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated.

 

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