Ask Dr. Occam!

Today's query for Dr. Occam comes from Little Timmy, from the Bronx, who stayed up late to watch last night's Red Sox triumph, clinched by Eduardo Nunez's pinch-hit, three-run homer, and Nathan Eovaldi's shutout inning of relief.

Little Timmy:  Gee willikers, Dr. Occam!  Players just seem to do great now when they leave the Yankees and go to the Red Sox.  Does this mean "The Curse of the Bambino" has been reversed, and now turned against the Yankees?  And what can we do about it?

Dr. Occam:  Dear Timmy:  it may well seem that the Yankees are the victims of a "curse" to people such as yourself who are still living in the demon-haunted world of Brian Cashman.

But the fact of the matter is that there never was a "Curse of the Bambino," just a Red Sox team that was badly run for many years by individuals whose bigotry and stupidity kept them from putting together a World Series champion.  It is that situation—and not any "curse"—that has been reversed.

The fact that not only these current Red Sox but all sorts of other former Yankees tend to do much better with other teams—while no player currently on the Yankees or in their farm system ever gets better but only gets worse—leads us to the most likely scientific conclusion.

That is, that the Yankees' organization "sucks."  This is an adult phrase, Little Timmy, meaning in this case that the Yankees' entire system is deficient in providing useful instruction or strategy.  Evidence shows this to have been the case for a long time, or ever since the advent of Brian Cashman.

Thus, Timmy, it is Mr. Cashman, and not some curse, that needs to be exorcised here.