Crazy, Stupid Love

I recently came across something I have saved for 50 years: the Sports Illustrated, baseball preview issue for the 1968 season. It is physically bigger than today's SI, much better written, its design more arresting and unusual.

The cover features a sliding Lou Brock, and inside it correctly predicts that the St. Louis Cardinals and the Detroit Tigers will win the last ever, single-league pennants. It also mentions that the season will be delayed due to the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and picks the Yankees to finish tenth and last.

Hey, things could be worse, both in our little band of brothers, and the wider world.

This spring's SI features Judge and Stanton on the cover, which may be just in the New York market, but it concludes, "New York is arguably baseball's best positioned team, with a championship caliber roster, payroll flexibility, and a top farm system."

Amen.

I have been following them since 1966, and I have to admit, I have never seen a deeper Yankees team. Not in 1998, when the fielded the greatest team ever, and brought up Roy Hobbs in September. Not in 1977, when our back-up outfielders were Jimmy Wynn, Paul Blair, and Roy White, who had led the AL in runs scored the year before. Not ever.

Yep, losing Greg Bird was a blow. But unlike last season, we won't have to watch Chris Carter turn in the worst performance by any Yankee regular since Charlie Smith.

Instead, all we have lined up to fill in are Tyler Austin, Neil Walker, Miguel Andujar, Billy McKinney, and Old Nassau Ford. I would bet one or more will break through.

Yep, it's highly possible that Walker's back will break down at second. All we'll have there is Tyler Two, and the Gleyber, and if worse comes to worse, Kyle Holder, who really came on this spring.

Think Drury will be a bust? Well, then there's Andujar again. Oh, and what about the Toe?

I haven't even got into how we have about five spare outfielders, injuries to Red Thunder and the Ever-Injured Ellsbury notwithstanding. Hell, even most of our injuries have been lucky this year, forcing Cashman to hang on to guys he might have disastrously traded away instead.

But what about pitching, you say? Well, yeah, pitching.

That 1968 Yankees team didn't finish 10th. It surprised everyone and finished fifth, with a winning record, despite an all-time, MLB record low .214 team batting average, and just 536 runs scored, a number this year's team is likely to match sometime in July.

How did they do it?

Pitching. And the 2018 Yanks' starting pitching is their weakest spot. But look at all our leading rivals this year. Each one seems to have a couple of formidable arms up top—then they drop off a cliff. And their pens just aren't as deep.

Were you terrified by the Indians' pitchers last postseason? Or the Astros', at least outside the park where every pitch they threw was an automatic strike? Which makes it all the more imperative we end up with the best regular-season record, seeing as what shameless homers the umps have become.

But we have as much depth on the mound as anyone, and probably more, and lots of good young arms still on the way up.

I'm sorry, I've tried my best to see how this Yankees team will crack, and of course it could, but I just don't see it—not with much of the AL and even our NL foes tanking to rebuild. I'm sure that Cashman will do something stupid soon, but even he seems to be on a colossal run of luck lately.

Call it skill. Call it the luck of the eights, that lucky Chinese number. 1998-greatest team ever. 1978-greatest comeback ever. 1958-comeback from a 3-1 Series deficit against a formidable Braves team. 1938, 1928-utter domination, and World Series sweeps, the last with Ruth and Gehrig turning in the best ever, 1-2 Series performance. Five pennants, five World Series titles, with a 20-5 record.

That's JuJu that I don't see even ODUMODU or his evil henchman, Dr. Balogun, overcoming.

I'm going high, calling 112 wins, something that really disturbs me since it goes against every grain of the professional pessimism that I have carefully cultivated for years. Of course, they probably won't win that many games, but 104-106 is very likely, and I'm willing to grab the high total, period.

For the record, my picks are:

Yankees          Cleveland      Astros          Washington     Cubbies            Bums        
Sox*               Twins*           Angels         Metsies*         Milwaukee*     Colorado
Blue Jays        Pale Hose      A's                Phillies           St. Louis           Arizona
Orioles            Royals           Mariners      Braves            Pittshburgh        Giants
Rays                Tigers            Rangers       Jeters              Redlegs              Padres

Sox over Twins             Mets over Brewers
Yanks over Sox             Nats over Mets
Stros over Indians         Dodgers over Cubs      Yankees over Washington
Yanks over Stros           Nats over Dodgers

As that 1968 SI noted, in reviewing the 1967 season, it was "one of those vintage years, the kind that remind you that baseball in its subtle and often laconic ways is still a thrilling game of sudden action and intense climaxes."

May it remain ever thus.