And so we head into the break in a familar position: four teams, three slots. What was held for about 4-5 years by Oakland and Seattle, and last year by the White Sox and Cleveland, this year is held by the White Sox and Tigers: the two teams who, along with the Yankees and Red Sox, will fill the last three play-off positions.
The Yanks' four-game winning streak obscured for a moment just how truly exasperating they can be.
At the same time, what is truly obnoxious is, how every time the Yankees fall three or so games out of first place, or out of a playoff slot, gents such as those on The Sportswriters get to outshout one another acclaiming the Great Yankee Run all over. This is nonsense on stilts, for even if the Yankees do miss the playoffs, this year will have been little more than an aberration, with their corner outfielders missing (think, for a moment, of the Red Sox without Manny Ramirez and Trot Nixon, or the Astros without Lance Berkman and Preston Wilson). It will have been 1979 all over again, when the Yankees, coming off three World Series apperances and two victories in a row, lost their All-Star reliever (broken thumb), All-Star catcher (death), All-Star center fielder (wackiness), and fourth starter (several lingering injuries). The following year, they got healthy, replaced the missing parts (Rick Cerone et al), and--with the core of Guidry, Gossage, John, Jackson, Piniella, Nettles, Dent, and Randolph intact--made the playoffs in '80 and '81, and the World Series in '81, before losing the Series to the Dodgers, an act which prompted George Steinbrenner to take a wrecking ball to the team.
The Yankees, minus Matsui and Sheffield (with about 240 RBIs between them) have stayed in contention with the not-ready-for-prime time (but certainly potent) Melky Cabrera in left and aging-but-adequate Bernie Williams in right. Lord knows how bad things will get for Johnny Damon. Perhaps no team in baseball has looked forward so gratefully for three days off.
As it stands, for the balance of the regular season, the Pinstripers are a bat short. Should they make the playoffs, they'd be a starting arm (or two) short, unless we're only now seeing the real Jared Wright and Unit, circa 2006. Otherwise, it's Moose and Wang and then it goes wrong.
Even if they do miss the playoffs, the tendency (well, on my part) will be to think of 2006 as "just one of those years," as 1979 was, and before that 1959 (the year the White (Go-go) Sox won the pennant, despoiling what would have been ten Yankee pennants in a row from 1955 to 1964), and before that 1925 (when the Babe Ruth-Lou Gehrig-Miller Huggins team finished seventh, which in hindsight seems mathematically impossible). If these Yanks win 95-98 games and miss, you're looking at 1954, when 108 wins was beaten by Cleveland's 111. Yankee fans have to remember: our boys are not the only ones with talent.
Ach. I'm off to jog.
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Beauty of an All-Star break wrap. The bats that are missing are well....woefully depressing. Sorry, that's the best I can do right now. But Matsui was THE cog in that line-up and Chef's bat was just sick at times.
Oh well, my optimism is still in place.
Without trying to sound like a Bleacher Bum, may I rant for a moment? A-rod today looked lost. I know he's come up big lately, but 0-4 2 REALLY bad strikeouts and 4 LOB. Against Tampa!
Thank God for Giambi.
At least Papelboy got rocked for a blown save today. The Red Sox must be thinking, "Holy sh*t we've been playing great baseball, the Yanks are missing 2/3rd's of their outfield and yet there they are in our side-view mirror and objects ARE as close as they appear."
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