The last time the Yankees were five years from a ring, and two straight without a post-season, was 1983

O, that wonderful year.

We were starting the Omar Moreno Period, and look, LOOK! - two players under 30! We won 91 games - 7 better than this year's incarnation.

Imagine Nettles as Jeter, Baylor as Beltran, and Jacoby Mumphrey as Jerry Ellsbury - wait, is that right? - and think of time as a flat, circular roll of provolone, as outlined by Matthew McConaughey's crazy character in "True Detectivies."

Of course, we had yet to reach our Trade All Youth Era - with Otis Nixon, Doug Drabek, et al. Ron Guidry was starting to fade. Our rotation included Bob Shirley. Danny Tartabull, Ed Whitson and Sheriff Joe Cowley were flickering lights in the distant horizon.

As the modern Yankees revisit the 1980s - and Kansas City becomes the gold standard of the AL - maybe it's time to see what's in our future - via the past. Here's our pitching staff from 1983.

Do you see Sabathia? (Rudy May.) How about Pineda? (Righetti.) Capuano and McCarthy? (Rawley and Fontenot.) Shawn Kelly? (Dale Murray.) They're all here. Excuse me, I'm going out to stare at the sun.