We Really Are Going Fishing

If we look carefully at this team, and the season it has had, we won't be so shocked at what is now happening.

Remember those endless rants of mine in September, about; " if it wasn't for Swisher's walk-off home run; and A-Rod's dramatic blast when down to our last strike; and Jorge's pinch hit homer in the 10th; and Mo's miraculous saves, etc." ????

What I was saying was that without unbelievable drama and clutch hitting during a generally horrible month of play in September, we would never have gotten even to face the Twins.

The team's performance, overall, was worse than Toronto or Boston during the season's last 40 days. We generally beat the lousy teams, stole a win now and again from the good ones, and let everyone else beat each other. It works. And it worked.

But it masked the fact that this team has been sputtering for a long time.

We all turned the clock back to day one once we finally made it into the playoffs. We felt a resurgence of that old Yankee magic when we swept the Twins for about the twentieth straight time. And the late inning win against Texas re-assured us that the best of the Yankees was coming out.

Had the team been bored as the season wound down? Were age and injury beginning to take a toll?

For some reasons we may never be sure of this team has run out of gas. The offense isn't there. We used to score 9 runs a game for Phil Hughes. Now we don't. We used to drain the other team's pitchers and bullpens. Now we don't. We used to get clutch hits. Now we don't. We used to hit multiple home runs. Now we don't.

No one even remembers when Joba was "lights out" as a rookie relief pitcher.

Now we'll be turning out the lights.