Seven games we are supposed to win.
Listen: This is the biggest minefield of 2013.
Already, the Yankiverse is drunkenly eying July 18, with Jeter and A-Rod in the order and a 7-game winning streak behind us, maybe having whittled Boston's lead by three. We open there, then hit Texas for four, then the Rays and then - ugh - the West Coast. A stretch of bloody hell.
But that road trip won't be so bad... if we take these seven games, the ones we are supposed to win.
Well, if we learned anything about the '13 ghosts, it's that we should count on nothing. Phil Hughes pitches a masterpiece - then drops a whopper. Ivan Nova throws the greatest game of his career - then what? You want to think they discovered some lost pitching secret, which previously had eluded them. Yeah, right. Watch your heads in the upper deck.
Seven games we are supposed to win.
Folks, here's where it gets tricky. Go 7-0 or 6-1, ahhhhhhhh.... we finish at the break within striking distance of everything. Bloomberg should hold a parade down the Canyon of Heroes. The Overbay Overachievers - the Spartan 25 - will have done it: They held the line and fought off the Million Man Persian Army.
Go 3-4 or - gulp - worse, and we drift seven or eight games out - into deep space behind Baltimore and Tampa - and it won't matter if the cavalry returns. Yeah, sure, there will be a big stretch of big games, but this will be the week we blew it. This will have been the time we made our move.
This is the week that decides whether Cashman's wait-out strategy succeeded. For the last six months, we have scanned the beaches for junk metal and bottle deposits. By this time next Monday, we will know if it worked. The Harlem Globetrotters are coming to Gilligan's Island. This is a tale of our castaways...
we're heading to the Stadium Friday and our boys always win when I attend. Odd but true. I am also expecting Jeter at short. IIHIIFIIc readers: give me some Jeter Ju-Ju for Friday. I saw the Captain go down and be carried off. I want to be there when he returns and he looks ready.
ReplyDeletetell me this, duque. your blog is so much fun and insightful. you must have many readers but why don't they comment? I do feel some warmth here, even though I am new and obviously the odd man out. so, was gibt's?
ReplyDeleteThe intellectual ability necessary to comment on this blog is intimidating to most folks. Check out the other Yankee blogs. Illiterates, well-meaning toadies and compulsive text-messagers. Duque's blog is for the few, the impoverished elite. We may not have money, but we have style, college degrees and an impeccable sense of irony.
ReplyDeleteMost people here are driven by things other than public displays of their wit and acumen. Hangovers, mainly, and a couple of alcoholics who simply hit 'refresh' whenever they can see the screen.
ReplyDeleteAnd remember, KD: there is no 'odd man out' amongst Yankee fans. We are all part of the great brotherhood...er, personhood of pinstriped souls.
Sorry to get all PC but once in a while some dame might come by and who knows what the hell could happen.
Amen, John M.
ReplyDeleteKD you have made my day, it needed to be said. My cockles steam!
ReplyDelete