Yankees Claim Of 95 Wins Gains Called Into Question

Yankees manager Joe Girardi’s claimed yesterday that his team is “not satisfied with just winning 95 games or walking away with the division—we want to win the World Series.”

His statement was immediately pounced upon by the press agents of the Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox as being untrue. “The facts don’t support his [Girardi’s] assertion,” said Red Sox spokesman Brian Varney. “The Yankees have only won 77 games to date, not 95. The standings speak for themselves.”

But the Bosox are running into a problem: The Yankees’ assertions are being accepted as fact. Every time Girardi makes his 95-win assertion—as he did four times at different press stops yesterday—the meme begins to be accepted as true by fans and other teams.

As the 2008 baseball season heads down to the wire, fabrications and distortions have been circulated so quickly that they become accepted as fact before they can be completely vetted. Examples of management staying on message even after their statements have been exposed as false include:

++ GM Brian Cashman’s claim that “the rebuilding years are over and this group of home-grown youngsters is ready to bring a championship to Yankee Stadium in its final year.”
++ Girardi’s repeated statement that Melky Cabrera is destined to become batting’s first Triple Crown winner (leading in home runs, batting average and RBIs) in 40 years.
++ Chien-Ming Wang’s claim that he learned to pitch from his father, Whitey Ford.

“The other teams in the East can do all the fact-checking they like,” said media analyst Michael DiPonio. “The 95-win season claim connects with the fans because they see the Yankees, because of their history, as a championship team. That is the bigger truth in people’s minds, regardless of how the team is really performing on the field. I mean, how else can you explain the media coverage the Yankees receive in the middle of what all the statistics reveal is a mediocre season?”