It's been a long, challenging year, a roller coaster ride between joy and despair, and its place in history remains unknown.
But with eight games left, here we are...
A three-game lead over Oakland for the home field advantage. (If the A's run the table and take them all, we need to win four.)
The third best record in baseball, behind Boston and Houston. (If we played in the AL Central, we would be leading Cleveland by 9 games.)
A solid batting order from top to bottom. (That is, if you believe Gary Sanchez is capable of redemption.)
Three relatively dependable starters, plus CC Sabathia.
One of the game's great rising hitters. (Miguel Andujar.)
A veteran star who has never seen a postseason. (Giancarlo Stanton.)
Several players in now-or-never career crossroads. (Sanchez, Greg Bird, Sonny Gray, maybe Luis Severino.)
A complete unknown. (Luke Voit.)
A roll-of-the-dice bullpen with, for now, no certain closer.
A rookie manager.
Well, folks, here we are. We will have at least one extra night of baseball before the curtain closes. We still have a shot at the Redsocks. And aside from Houston, perhaps, we still represent the greatest threat to their sense of well-being, and - by far - the most disastrous outcome they can imagine. So, celebrate. Yo, Yankiverse! We did it!
And the hidebound imbecility of CashMoney to steady the helm and take us the through uncharted unknown unfathomable waters (to Cashie anyway) of a post-season.
ReplyDeleteSo endeth the JuJu.
You know, the Yankee players certainly seemed to enjoy themselves last night.
ReplyDeleteOh how they lept and gamboled with child-like joy! Maybe we should all just lighten up and enjoy the season.
Nah.
WinWarblist, I agree with your last comment. It seems many on this site are so focused on the negative they loose the enjoyment of the hunt and the success the Yankees have had . They have 95 wins and the third best record in baseball. They could win 100 games this year. They may loose to Oakland, they may not. I don’t expect them to win the World Series , but hope they make a deep run in the playoffs. If you only enjoy the years they win the World Series , you are missing a lot. If they play like shit and lose, I will yell at the TV. But I am going to try to enjoy the ride and not lose sight of what they have accomplished and the improvement they have made over the last couple of years. When it is over the the winter improvement games will begin.
ReplyDeleteNooo! Bad! Bad TGoYP! Angst and pain!! Misery and loathing, yes!! No hope! No this so called "enjoy!" Complain complain complain! Bitch and moan; bitch and moan! That is the True IIHIIFIIC Way!!!
ReplyDeleteDear Ghost...in the real world, our negativity is based on a high commitment to negative Ju-Ju. Many of us were brought up on Haitian voo-doo in past lives.
ReplyDeleteWe learned long ago that clapping hands and singing high praise yielded nothing, whereas negative Ju-ju
provides " cover "when the Yankees fall apart ( i.e. yields a false sense of " we were right."). Makes us seem sage, knowledgeable and insightful. Like the real prescients of baseball. It gives us shelter from the storm.
In truth, none of it matters. Those of us who still are alive know that to the core.
But it is hard for us to express pure joy unless the miracles are on our side. We are greedy that way. We are not generous fans. We are hard core. We are the Harley Davidson badasses of fandom. Although Duque sometimes shows kindness and grace ( I don't know why, frankly ).
We aren't likely to change our approach or our tonality. We actually believe the negative Ju-JU has worked, at critical moments, in the past. Even though we know better.
I once expressed pure joy with Duque ( this is on record, and you can check it out ) when we saw Wade Boggs riding on a police horse around Yankee stadium after a certain victory.
And we are usually smirking in some quiet corner ( pleasant feelings and alcohol ?) when the Yankees pull off a big win.
Or hit a walk-off against Boston.
Even if Sanchez sucks and Cashman is an idiot, like his new manager.
Ooops, sorry...I digress.
Berth, not birth.
ReplyDeleteHear, hear, Alphonso! This could not have been put better!
ReplyDeleteA vital part of JuJu, Ghost, is to sacrificially take the onus upon ourselves. This is how much we truly love our team.
For instance, I have actually sat in the stands with a fellow JuJu believer, ostentatiously dismissing each Yankee hitter, knowing that if he succeeded, the opprobrium of all our fellow fans within earshot would fall upon us.
We didn't care if we were the ones who looked like fools and idiots. THAT'S HOW MUCH WE LOVE THIS TEAM.
(Unfortunately, the battler in question was Rick Cerone. Silk purses, porcine ears, don'tcha know.)
I'm so happy I almost crapped my shorts. Every dream has been fulfilled. I'm going to go eat some pizza and thank the gods.
ReplyDeleteI don't know nuthin' 'bout berthin' dem Yankees!
ReplyDeleteThe other thing to know about us, Ghost, is that what we value is SUSTAINED EXCELLENCE.
ReplyDeleteThat is a commodity that has sadly been abandoned in all too much of the American Experience.
When it comes to our sports, in fact, everything is designed AGAINST sustained excellence. The NFL even purposely un-balances its schedules.
Really, the model for the modern American sports league is the old James Caan, John Houseman, sci-fi dystopia, "Rollerball," in which players (and presumably, teams) are all faceless automatons, to be replaced after a very short team. MLB would love to emulate that, with a different "miracle winner" every year.
We say no. Besides our Haitian voodoo backgrounds, we were also raised in the Yankee tradition of SUSTAINED EXCELLENCE.
This has not always been pretty. We freely admit that our team has often been run by some of the worst people in the sport. We have been completely ruthless at times. We endorse all that.
"Rooting for the Yankees is like rooting for U.S. Steel"? We said, "Yeah, well where the hell is your money invested?"
"The Yankees have an unfair advantage coming from the big, bad, evil city"? We said, "Damned right they do. That's why WE came here, to gain an unfair advantage over the rest of you shitkickers, and unless you want to come here and pay our rents and our living expenses, shut your pie hole and lay back down for another stomping."
This is simply refusing to be a chump. Or as one of NYC's great fictional characters, Vito Corleone put it, we "refuse to be a fool, dancing on the string held by all those big shots."
We are not the fans of the New York Mets, or the Texas Rangers, or the old, beloved Boston Red Sox—now sadly no more, alas—happily turning over our money in greater and greater amounts every year, so that every 10-20 seasons our hometown nine can contend, and maybe even win the World Series!
We are not your patsy. We do not suffer fools—or malingering joggers, or emotionally confused catchers, or stupid and pretentious general managers, or team owners who (in Anne Richards' immortal phrase) were born on third base and think they hit a triple.
We are fans of the team of Babe Ruth, calling his shot in the World Series—then hitting it. The team of Lou Gehrig, dying at 35 and calling himself the luckiest man in the world. The team of Joe, Joe DiMaggio, going straight from the DL to Boston and knocking the Sox dizzy. The team of Mantle and Berra and Ford; of Reggie and Munson; of Jeter and the Mighty Core of Four.
If there are people who don't want to get with this program, then they are with the wrong ream, in the wrong town.
Interesting thing in the paper today. BTW I say paper because saying interesting thing in the zeros and ones used to make up the code that provides my digital access to NY sports dailies doesn't quite have the same ring.
ReplyDeleteThe Giants benched Eric Flowers. I bring this up because Flowers plays a key position, was a high draft pick, was given the left tackle job, seems to have an attitude problem, is potential unrealized, under performs and worse, constantly makes mistakes that costs the Giants penalty yards, sacks...games.
It's about time.
Why do I bring this up on this NYY blog? You know why. If you don't I will give you a hint. I'm drawing a line to Gary Sanchez.
Perhaps that hint contained a little too much information. Let me try again, Giant fans feel about him the way Yankee fans feel about Gary Sa... DAMN!
Hope it's a trend.
Doug K.
I had considered the wild card ours after the first month while they were winning a ton of games in a row. I'd be a more excited if we somehow manage to get home field advantage. Stupid Twins could have helped us out yesterday but they wild pitched the winning run in. Man! But then again I had expected the A's to get a grand slam if they did pitch in the strike zone, so oh well. Tonight they'll surely win the wild card against the hapless Twins. And now I see that Hicks is probably out on an injury.
ReplyDeleteWow, Walker gets the start over Bird aayyy first base? Does that mean Walker is on the post-fucking-season roster?
ReplyDeleteFuckers!
TGoYP, surely you understand. Your screen name suggests you do. One afternoon we were leaving the Stadium. It was 1999? The Yankees had thumped some tomaater can. We were taking a short cut through the Bronx around the traffic to the bridge. Painted on the side of a warehouse in large professionally printed letters or said: "They call it the World Series but we usually play it here."
ReplyDeleteWe are that kind of Yankee fans.
Oh, yes, Neil got the start. And in a first inning in which their starter had to leave during the first batter, and everyone was walking or hitting their reliever hard, even Hetch-Hetchy...Neil struck out. thereby costing us at least one run and maybe more.
ReplyDeleteGardner, in for Hicks, of course struck out in the next inning, with his patented, maitre d' swing.
Meanwhile, Happ, our potential wild card starter, is being hit hard by the Orioles' team of semi-minor leaguers. Oh, yeah, that's going to be one evening in Oakland.
ReplyDeleteWho is A.J. Cole, and why does he hate winning?
ReplyDeleteOn another note, does anyone else involuntarily giggle when they see the word "on us?"
"Onus," fer chrissakes.
ReplyDeleteHoss,
ReplyDeleteHear hear!
Doug K.
Thanks, guys!
ReplyDelete
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