Follow the Way of the Knicks.

Our Dauntless Leader says there is no way that the New York Yankees will ever win a World Series again in our lifetime, and chances are he is right.  

I keep saying the same thing, and in fact I think it is still entirely possible that the Yanks will manage to miss the playoffs altogether this year, and then with the labor Armageddon to come, who knows what will happen?  (Nothin' good.)

But that's just "thinking." Where does that get you?

Right now—right now—I want you to rise up out of your seats and repeat along with me... 

No, nothing so futile as "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore." That doesn't matter. Remember Howard Beals turns corporate stooge and gets shot in the end. 

No, I want you to say something much more profound. Something I never, ever thought I would say or write. I want you to say, "Follow the way of the Knicks."

I don't know much about basketball. How could I, being a lifelong Knicks fan? And I did write at the beginning of the playoffs that the Knicks were not going to do anything.

But...but...

That's because I thought the Knicks' incredible, otherworldly superstar with the Star Wars moniker to match, OG Anunoby, would be injured.

He wasn't.  

And on top of that, somehow the Knickerbockers got the playoff crapshoot match-ups that Boy Cashman can only dream about. No Boston, no Detroit, no Oklahoma City.  All those teams which were almost certainly better than the Knicks had burned themselves out taking regular-season prizes. 

The Knicks did not. Burn out, I mean.

And suddenly, there they were, thrashing mediocre playoff teams by 30 and 40 points. Smashing their way through to the final where, yes...it was OG with the tip-in.

I want you to say it to yourselves. I want you to say it over and over again, like a mantra, no matter how weird it sounds:

"That could be us.  We could be the Knicks."

Is it likely? Of course not. Was coming back from 29 points down in the second half "likely"?

What if we DO get Judge back, and he's fit and ready for the playoffs? What if we get Bellinger back, and he remembers how to play? What if Garcia gets hot? What if Spencer Jones becomes Shane Spencer...just for a month?

What if we get to play a bunch of AL Central flopsies, like we did in 2024? What if someone knocks off the Dodgers for us?

It could happen. We could do it. We have the pitching, and when you have the pitching you have just about everything. 

And now this super kid, with the super background. Grandmother a civil rights activist. Father a major-league ballplayer.  A wonderful, Jeeterian mixture of the best hybrid America can produce.

Say it to yourself. Keep saying it.

This could be us. We could be the Knicks. 

WE. COULD. BE. THE. KNICKS.