The Yankees' looming existential crisis

O to be young! (Or as Chris Berman once said, "Oddibe Young McDowell!") If the Shakespearean truth about romance and reproduction is that youth always prevails... here's a question for the Yankee brain trust on this grand morning after Tyler Wade's and Miguel Andujar's first MLB hits:

Why did it take most of the last two decades for the Yankees to figure out what every other team in baseball intrinsically understood?

Today, as the franchise is being hailed for its fully revved farm system - and I too stand in the Judge's Chambers, clapping along - maybe we should take a quick look back. Of course, it's easy to look at history with 20-20 vision, but in a quick glance, I can identify at least three crucial points over the last 10 years when the Yankees could have launched a rebuilding program similar to last July's. And I might add, there were voices calling for such moves. Last summer, it looked so easy, so effortless - and the fans loved it - when we traded Andrew Miller, Carlos Beltran and Aroldis Chapman for a future. But why did we wait so long?

The three fulcrum points:

1. In mid-2008, en route to a third place finish, eight games out of first, they could have moved the aging Johnny Damon and the wall-weary Bobby Abreu - both 34 - for a future that wouldn't require us the following winter to spend a zillion dollars on CC, AJ and Tex - and cripple our resources for nearly a decade. Our shot at a post-season ended with Joggy Cano nonchalantly waving his glove at a roller into right, launching winter rumors that he should go. But that summer, instead of cutting bait, we larded up with Xavier Nady, Ivan Rodriguez, Sidney Ponson, Morgan Ensberg, et al... because, as our ownership loved to say, the Yankees never rebuild.

2. In mid-2013, en route to finishing third, 12 games out, they could have traded Joggy for a chorus line of prospects, including maybe a 2B who would spare us from the likes of Brian Roberts, Stephen Drew and the cast of "Lost." In fact, trading Cano to some Stygian death hole like Seattle might have made him realize how much he'd miss NYC, and the following winter, as a free agent, he might have told Jay-Z to go for location rather than the Almighty Dollar. Would he have pulled an Aroldis and come home? Oh well, instead, that July, we traded for Alfonso Soriano, because, as our ownership said, the Yankees never rebuild.

3. In mid-2014, en route to finishing second, 12 games out, they could have forsaken their pathetic assemblage of old age - bringing in Chase Headley, Martin Prado, Stephen Drew, Brandon McCarthy et al - and offered to the market Hiroki Kurodi, David Robertson and/or Ichiro. Teams desperate for pitching could have shot their wad with Kurodi, and the funny thing about no-trade clauses is that when teams let a player know he's being shopped to a contender, they often just don't matter. Oh well, we chose to get older, because, as our ownership said, the Yankees never rebuild.

Again...  it's easy to pick apart the things we didn't do. I can assure you that humankind will never invent a time machine, because otherwise, some enraged Yankee fan would have come back and prevented the re-signing of A-Rod after his opt-out. What's done is done, and while critical voices were raised, a joyous chorus of Gammonites always cheered every move. We get one shot at life. (That's why I became a Yankee fan, by the way.) 

I would simply like to point out, however, that as the Yankees today enjoy a surge in youth and in hope, part of the reason for this newfound popularity is that our ownership kept its head stuck deeply in the sand for most of this Millennium. And here's the killer: There is no guarantee Hal Steinbrenner has learned his lesson. The question remains whether the Yankees next month will suddenly start sending young players in every direction to obtain new versions of Sori and Sidney, of I-Rod and Xavier.

Will we stick with youth or go back to our old ways?

Oh, one other thing: I have a bone to pick with Tyler Wade and Tyler Austin. How can a ballplayer christened "Tyler" not call himself "Ty?"