To all you Yankee fans out there: ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, etc.
I know that it might be wrong to hold the sentiment of schadenfreude, but I don’t care. Seeing the Yankees booted out of the playoffs brought a huge grin to my face and laughter to my cold heart.
The Yankees have shown us that they are indeed mortal. They do not strike fear into the hearts of their opponents as they once did. The stretch of championships between 1998-2000 could be as good a run any professional team as ever had. But that is now in the past.
Keep an eye on the Boss (Yankee owner George Steinbrenner) during the winter. Believe me, he is none too happy, and heads are going to roll. He demands nothing less than a championship and it has been two years now since one has been delivered to him.
The Yankees are not exactly in the greatest shape, (not that the our local nine are, but that’s another topic). At the beginning of spring training next year, the starting five pitchers for the Bombers are a combined 176 years old (not counting potential starter 26 year-old Jeff Weaver) for an average age of 35.2. Let’s face it; the workhorses may be just broken down nags.
All the offensive pop that the Yankees had this year overshadowed the holes in their pitching and defense. Unlike the recent past, the Yankees would often outslug their opponents on their way to victory. Surprise, surprise, it was exactly those two phases of the game that came up short at various times during the first round of playoffs against the Anaheim Angels.
The new collective bargaining agreement may alter the Yankee philosophy of spend-spend-spend, but the safe money is that the organization will do what ever it takes to get back to the top. Imagine that. Only two years removed from being world champions and the thinking is “Boy are we in a rut; we got to do something.”
Small aside from the Yankees, I’m just as happy about the Arizona Diamondbacks flopping as well. I don’t know why, but a professional sports team should not have a championship only five years into their existence.
The Yankees are still the models of baseball; they are steeped in lore and glory. But the 2002 season will not end up being one of their banner years. It comes down to winning and losing, and if you Red Sox fans want a little comfort for the long cold nights of winter, just think about this: the Yankees only played a little less than a week more than the Red Sox.
My modified playoff prediction from six months ago: League championship series !=!=-Angels over Twins in six games; Giants over St. Louis in six games. World Series Angels over Giants in seven games.