With an easy opponent and a symbiotic media, the Yankees can preen over their greatness, but fans know better

In The Wall Street Journal this week, Jared Diamond calls it our "lost decade:" the 10-year barf since the Yankees last played for a world championship. Depending on how you spike the cocktails, this year's team either is poised to resurrect the Yankiverse, or we are stuck on a merry-go-round of hubris, doomed to believe the self-serving bleats of our own propaganda machine.

Two days ago, we celebrated the easy dismantling of baseball's worst team in this millennium. Today, with the wind at our backs and the pathetic O's in our cross-hairs, a seemingly magical season looms - no pain, no hardship, Allah Akbar! God is great! - and we can go through the motions of devouring ourselves in a vast buffet of expectations. 

But something's wrong. Today, we find the Yankiverse boiling with anger. What happened? Why are fans so hostile when we have it so much better than most teams? Are we spoiled brats? Ingrates? Or is it that we sit on the cusp of a lost decade, and here we are - exactly where we were last year? 

Let me digress. Ten years ago, when Hal Steinbrenner took over from his dying dad, the official plan was to build the Yankees along the models of great small market franchises of the past, like the Royals of the '80s and Blue Jays of the '90s. Along with Hal's virtually unlimited financial resources, Brian Cashman would build up from Single A, and the Yankees would contend every season - never needing to rebuild.

It didn't work. The team floundered. By 2013, a year when we should have pulled the plug, we instead signed Vernon Wells, Travis Hafner and others, and became a barge of mediocrity. Then came farewell tours for Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera, when other wheels fell off the cart. Instead of giving them post-season appearances, their final outings became meaningless pageants. We failed them both. 

In mid-2016, the Yankees finally adopted the "tanking" model, which Boston had used to win two world championships. They pushed A-Rod out the door and traded for enough prospects to vault to the top of the MLB farm system rankings. Last year, we dealt away that surplus in a failed run. To make matters worse - actually, about as bad as things can get - Boston won again.

This winter, we saw public angst over Manny Machado's statement that he'll never be a "Charlie Hustle" type. His words infuriated fans: A millionaire player  doesn't always play his hardest. That doesn't cut it. 

But why does not the same view hold for a billionaire owner? This winter, Steinbrenner sat on the sidelines, holding back with his wallet. This was the equivalent of a player jogging out a grounder. One can argue that Machado and/or Bryce Harper simply didn't fit the Yankee roster; fine. But the Yankees ignored auctions for Patrick Corbin - who at the end of his contract with Washington will still be younger than the pitcher we signed, J.A. Happ - and Dallas Keuchel. Again, we enter the year with the third highest payroll - below the Cubs and Redsocks. 

Hal is jogging, while the NYC media - bowing and scraping to Yankee influence -looks the other way. We even see hostility toward Machado and Harper, for being paid so much money. And of course, when writers want to make sure their calls get returned, they always mention the real culprit: Jacoby Ellsbury.  

So yeah, I'm still seething. Today, if all goes well, we'll sit back and cuff around lowly Baltimore. But our owner and GM have had 10 years to build the organization, and the Wall Street Journal now has given their tenure a name.

It's called "The Lost Decade." Worst in Yankee history.