It's over

I had the privilege of attending yesterday’s Mariners vs. Yankees game in Seattle. It was a absolutely gorgeous day for baseball, the kind of day on which Ernie Banks would want to play a doubleheader - 72 degrees, not a cloud in the sky. I was with my two step kids and their dad (he’s a good guy and a fellow ardent Bronx Bombers devotee) and we had 13^th row seats right by the Yankees dugout on the third base line.

Further, it was my birthday weekend and we had been looking forward to this game since the schedule was released and discovered that our favorite team was in Seattle on my birthday weekend. I had just received a couple of really cool minor league baseball caps from Ebbets Field Flannels, a 1937 San Francisco Missions and a 1939 Baltimore Orioles. Had my road Yankees jersey on, with Derek Jeter’s #2 proudly displayed on the back, along with my much-loved Marino Rivera t-shirt and my sweat-stained New Era Yanks cap, so I was in full battle gear, ready to take it to the worst-in-the-AL Mariners. Hopes were high for a Yankees victory, especially since their best pitcher, Mike Mussina, was taking the hill. We all were happy to be a part of the Great American Pastime.

Except for the Yankees, that is. They somnambulated their way to a 5-2 loss, their only offense generated by solo homers by Jeter and Nady in the first and second innings. After that, they gave themselves a day off, going 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position, including a game-ending strike out by Wilson Betemit.

The loss dropped the Yankees into fourth place in the AL East, the depths of which they haven’t been since the day they signed a skinny shortstop named Jeter. While it’s still a mathematical possibility, for all intents and purposes, the Yankees’ season ended this weekend in Seattle, dropping two of three to the WORST TEAM IN THE AMERICAN LEAGUE!!!

I have to count it up to just not caring on the Yankees’ part. I remember when I was younger and relished every time I could step onto a ball field to play. Even when it was just slow-pitch softball, that love of the game was always there. What is it about making $20 million a season to play ball that diminishes that love?

Yeah, yeah, I know it’s a grinding season, but so what? Every year, some team gets it together to win it all. Why not the $209 million in payroll Yankees? They used to do that. The teams of the 20s through the early 60s routinely beat the holy crap out of their lowly opponents. The Joe Torre-led teams of the late 90s were cut from the same cloth. Those guys – O’Neill, Williams, Jeter, Posada, Rivera, Brosius, Knoblauch – would set themselves on fire, walk barefoot on broken glass and charge head-first through brick walls in order to beat you. If you thought you had the sack to beat the Yankees, you needed to bring your “a” game, every night in order to pull it off. No lead was safe; those Yankees teams would always find a way to beat you in the bottom of the ninth. They rarely lost because they never gave up on themselves.

Then came the 2001 World Series loss, on a freak Luis Gonzalez hit off Rivera in the 9^th inning of game 7. Steinbrenner decided that we needed a bunch of free agents, signed Giambi, A-Rod, Damon, and a bunch of lesser lights and the rest is history. They’ve been in a slow decline for 7 seasons, culminating in their first miss of post-season play since 1995.

It’s going to be a long, painful off-season (especially if those Chowder Heads win again) and head will undoubtedly be rolling. The Yankees need to get a lot younger and hungrier like they were in the 90s. Giambi, Abreu, Pettitte, I-Rod, Mussina, Nady, and Cabrera, are all guys whose deals are over at the end of the season. Out of that bunch, I’d say Mussina is the only one for certain I’d bring back. You can make arguments of varying strengths on the others, but I think the chemistry on the team is all wrong. There’s no denying the talent the Yankees put on the field game in, game out, but it’s an example of anti-synergy. The sum is less than the total of the parts (my math teachers are rolling their eyes on that one).

The good news is that it's only five months until pitchers and catchers report and the fun starts all over again.