It's September.
The leaves are turning, the schools are churning, the forests are burning, and Giants fans are yearning. You soon will be replaced every Sunday by the most violent collisions of humanity since the Crusades. It's what America loves, the true national pastime, and as baseball teams plummet out of contention - their fans will happily discard ballcaps and don football jerseys. Come fall and winter, only the Jets and Giants - two uniquely awful sports franchises - can save baseball in NYC.
For better or worse, it's time for you - that is, the Yanks - to show the world your true colors. Midnight Blue, or Piss Yella.
The Yankees started 2025 on a hot streak. As everyone knows - (history sucks, eh?) - you were 7 games up on May 28. That merry month is now just part of an ugly fossil record, a reckoning that looms ever larger, as daylight hours shrink. It's been a tough summer. That said, here we are - only two losses behind Toronto, and one ahead of Boston - and over the next two weeks, you'll face both. The Yankees can be champions or a laughingstock. They can embrace greatness or mediocrity. They can be the team that rose in the clutch - or that constantly went knock-kneed in the presence of a true contender.
Throughout the summer, you faded against good pitching and solid defense. Well, summer is almost over.
Let's acknowledge that whatever happens over the next two weeks - against Houston, Toronto, Boston and Detroit - the Yankees will likely still reach the postseason. That's because of an expanded playoff system, which rewards almost any team that finishes above .500. That's how the Yankees avoid being held accountable: Their also-ran teams qualify for the playoffs, even if under old-time standards, they would have been dropped from October games.
Well, here we are.
But over the next two weeks, if the Yankees flop, everyone will know the truth about this team.
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7 comments:
On my way up to Cornell to teach a course, two days a week. Am told we will be passing Scranton. I'm hoping we can stop and liberate Rumfield and Jones, convince them to jump the Railroaders and refuse to participate in the Triple-A playoffs—Brian Cashman's real love—unless the Yanks promise to bring them up.
Hoss, that would be something, but it's not going to happen. Jones got off to a blistering start at AAA, but he's tanking since: average under .200, few homers, a strikeout rate even worse than it used to be. Rumfield seems to be completely forgotten by the front office. Who knows if we'll ever see him in the bigs.
Ryan Yarbrough seems to be the pitching addition and Slater the position player. Whoo hoo. Maybe Yarbrough will be able to stem the bleeding in the bullpen, at least. If he still has his pre-injury form, that is.
VolpE-6 will be our undoing.
Have you ever read "Ithaka," by Cavafy? A great poem. What's the course you're teaching, Hoss? And Duque's post prompted an idea that's beyond my ken, but which should be easy enough for smarter people - what if we look at their record each year since 2003 and see if they would have made the playoffs every year under the OLD system, the "one true system," even though that also changed over the decades...
Don't do it! Scranton needs a pennant.
Re: “THE GAUNTLET”: Reality tells us that 6-6 is the best we can hope for, with a 3-9 beatdown more likely than a 9-3 surge. I’ve done my part by benching Stanton in my fantasy league, where my decisions have real world consequences like some third rate Twilight Zone script.
If there was a time for the Judge, The King Of The First Inning, to step up it is NOW.
JM : 🎯
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