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| The hottest AL starters over the last month; we will probably face eight of them. |
Thus far, regarding the '17 Yankees, famed English sportswriter Bobby Blake has said it best:
To see a World in a Grain of Sand,
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand,
And Eternity in an hour.
Damn. Wish I said that! (Fun fact: I once said, "I think, therefore I am," not knowing that Rene Descartes had beaten me to the punch by 400 years. At time, I was six years old. I rose out of bed, looked out the window at a brilliant sun staring down at me and said, "Wow. I think, therefore, I am." For this, I received no recognition.)
The next five days will bring several Yankee eternities.
As psychotic fans, we've all experienced the Yankee eternity. It's the game we're sure is lost, then we miraculously rally, then we seem to lose again, then it looks like an incredible victory, and then - after a billion years of watching the firmament ferment - we win or lose the goddamm thing, fostering an unbearable loneliness. The only respite is to throw yourself from a bridge, but - well - you'd miss tomorrow's game. I believe every reader of this blog instinctively knows what's coming: An infinite number of eternities in just a few hours. The season is reaching that fulcrum point, the bend in the road when the killer is unmasked and the truth about Rooney Mara's dark past is revealed. It's not always pretty, especially if Mickey Rourke is involved. But it's coming.
Look, I can speculate about how the Yankees will do this weekend - anybody can. Look around the Interweb: Folks are thunderously proclaiming the "keys" to the next five days. But, seriously: Why bother? The First Sterling Law of Time and Space tells us, "You cannot predict baseball." (The Second Law: "Every day shall be different, because of the existence of two entirely new pitchers.")
Today, we face arguably the best team in the American League - twice. The odds of sweeping them don't look appealing. Boston arrives tomorrow - CC vs. Rodriguez. After that, it's Doug Fister, Drew Pomeranz and Chris Sale. (Our rotation is TBA, due to today's doubleheader.)
Don't get me wrong: By Monday, the 2017 season could still be just as clouded as it is today. We could split the next six games and still be sitting in the race, dumb as clams as to what's ahead. But this weekend, I believe the answers will be given.
Is Aaron Judge the next Hank Aaron or the next Aaron Small?
Do we have anyone capable of driving in a runner with the game on the line?
Do we really have a great bullpen, with an actual closer who can close?
Do we have anything at all in Aroldis Chapman and Jacoby Ellsbury - the infinity contracts of the next Yankee eternity?
I can ask questions all day. They don't matter. Today, we'll see the world in a grain of sand. Don't look too closely, or you might see yourself at age six, looking back.
I understand the tendency -- or is it an urge -- to say that these are really important games. And if the Yankees go 0-6 or 6-0, then I guess a lot of us will get together Monday to announce that, yes, all is lost or we've got something going here. But there's more than four weeks left in this slog through the flooded streets of the American League East and the fanboat race to the one-game Wild Card event.
ReplyDeleteOur boys in holy Pinstripes will continue to muddle along. They are neither great nor awful. We seem capable of winning series against the Detroit dregs and the Triple A Mets but not the tough guys like Cleveland or Boston. And forget about it with Houston, which now has the sports writer's favorite angle -- sporting success that signals civic redemption in the face of tragedy and natural disaster -- to fuel what will soon be labeled a magic season.
Our guys, warts and all, try their best, but unlike the great teams of Yankee past, they can conjure the magic only occasionally, not often. Currently and for most of the second half, there's no core group of reliables, other than Rockin' Ronnie Torreyes, who is now nailed to the bench. I'll continue to watch or listen because I don't have enough imagination to do otherwise, but it's not been an inspiring season.
el duque, you are getting a little older and I just want to make sure you memory isn't failing. Perhaps you are thinking of the time you were six and had shit the bed. You awoke and said " I shit therefore I am ".
ReplyDeleteJust checking.......
A Friend
ReplyDeleteWhat Tom said.
I dread this afternoon and the four days beyond it.
ReplyDeleteJust don't have a good feeling. Hope I'm wrong. Tom is right.
Hey Duque,
ReplyDeleteRemember the time I awakened from a long, long night of drinking and said, " what the fuck?"
So I think you are telling us that whatever will be will be. Win or lose.
That we ( those of us not on the field ) can't influence anything. That the dawn, each 24 hours, will bring a new day?
We watch why?
Because we need the pineapples.
We shove them up inside when we have a bad loss, why?
Because we want to distract ourselves from the pain of watching Yankees strike out.
Endlessly.
My final thought for the day....if you can keep your head when all about are losing theirs, and blaming it on you.....oh fuck it.
Yeah, we're fucked
ReplyDeleteTHE FIRST GAME IS JUST STARTING....
ReplyDeleteJAIME GARCIA AND HIS 5.95 ERA IS WARMING UP.....
BASE HIT!
I'M GONNA PUKE.
Three batters into the first game and it already feels like we have our answer for how the day is going to go. Watch that Cleveland team manufacture runs!
ReplyDeleteStory of the season: Sometimes the Yankees beat the teams they're better than, sometimes they don't, but they always seem to find ways to lose to the teams that are better than they are.
You can't tell me this team is seriously trying to win the division yet is content to trot Jaime Garcia out there every 5th day
ReplyDeleteKoch Industries is an advertiser on the radio broadcast. John just gave its an, It is high. It is far, it is foul! More signs of the Yankee apocalypse.
ReplyDeleteYet another meek performance against a shit pitcher from this crap team. Judge is up now. Don't need a crystal ball to know he's about to strike out.
ReplyDeleteI should have called a strikeout on a high fastball, but I was torn between that or a slider in the dirt. Either way he swung at both.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteLots of confusion (in my mind, and maybe here). One thing is clear, tho:
Aaron Judge needs to get his eyes examined.
In Scranton. They have all kinds of doctors there, don't they?
Feeling far less zen now, after dropping twinbill to Tribe. Now hoping for 0 for the rest of the season so maybe Girardi and Cash get fired.
ReplyDelete
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