"They’re good. It’s pretty obvious,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. “They’re good."

The professional play-by-play announcer should never mention a no-hitter during the early innings. Everybody knows this; it's kindergarten juju. He can talk around it, maybe note that one team has not yet had a base-runner, but he's not supposed to broadcast it, straight-up, until say, the sixth or seventh, at the earliest. If he jumps the gun, he looks stupid and - more importantly - he jinxes it. He breaks the James T. Kirk Announcers Prime Directive: Let primitive, indigenous cultures play their game without interference from the more-advanced, communicative species. 

Nevertheless, as we all know, The Master doesn't play by those rules - especially if somebody is throwing a no-hitter against the Yankees. When that happens, John is on it by the fourth - mansplaining to Suzyn about the need to overcome dogma and superstition and discuss the dire implications of what is happening. From there, he mentions the no-hitter roughly every 30 seconds, until the threat has been vanquished.

Which brings me to the 2017 Yankees: 

Do we dare state aloud how great this team could be?

Seriously, what do we make of this? Five football score blowouts in a row, over Boston and (the once dangerous) Baltimore. Who foresaw this? Not me. I predicted they would win 83 games. (See all your predictions here; Mike - take a bow!) The Yankees started 2017 as wild card contenders, probably 10 games behind the Redsock '17 Hall of Fame Superteam of Destiny (TM). Back in April, Judge was a coin flip, Hicks was a dog, Severino a disappointment, and "Jordan Montgomery" was probably some guy up for a Tony. Now... holy shit.

Well, here are the possibilities:

1. What if we are for real? Holy shit. We didn't just beat Baltimore. We killed their parents and made them watch. If Greg Bird returns to form, the .203 trench in our lineup, Chris Carter, moves to the bench and becomes a ninth-inning HR lottery ticket. Good grief, we could be watching a team on par with the 1927, 1961, 1998 Yankees. We could win the division, hands down. Even if we lose in October - rendering the season a complete failure, by the way - the worst case scenario: We head to 2018 fortified by Glyber Torres, Tyler Wade, Dustin Fowler, Chance Adams and Clint Frazier, the looming monster of the AL. We could be looking at future all-stars, MVPs, maybe CF monuments. When this team ends, around 2025, there might not be any numbers left to retire. 

2. What if we collapse? Let's start with the obvious: They can't continue what they did last week. They must fall back to earth. Last week, Judge was MVP, Castro came in second, and Sanchez and Hicks were tied for third. What we saw was a lineup with everybody hot at the same time. Usually, what happens next is that they all go cold. (That's where Greg Bird's return comes in, right?) But we still haven't put enough distance between us and Boston, and there is still the injury out there, lurking in the shadows: Somebody tweaks something, and that incredible breakout season becomes "next year..." 

Well, either way... We must have the foresight to enjoy this ride and be aware that something incredible might be happening. Tom Waits once said, "The obsession's in the chasing and not the apprehending, it's the pursuit you seek and never the arrest." The greatest moment is not being there. It's getting there. Aaron Judge's 496-foot home run will be a memory I take to the end. It really happened. 

This week was a great time to be a Yankee fan. The country may be going to hell, but we are watching the birth of Yankee legends. For four years, the Mets have ruled NYC, and the AL East has eaten our lunch. Not any more, folks. Today, I am here to shout it from the rooftops: The whole world stands in awe of the New York Fucking Yankees!