Yankee Talk: Wait until Next Year

Carl has never had to make this proclamation in a long time as a Yankee fan. But with the team nearing extinction from the playoffs, it is time to finally say what I have been feeling for a very long time.

It is over.

The New York Yankees 2008 season is over.

There will not be any playoffs this season and the month of October will be spent by me finding other forms of entertainment.

Because of this, my interest in football has moved up from the middle of October (in normal years) to this past Thursday night when the Giants kicked off their season beating the Redskins.

Can I really say I am surprised by all of this?

No.

At the beginning of the season, I actually predicted that the Yankees would not make the postseason. This was not some guess that I just threw out trying to be bold like the silly fiction writers on premier sports websites who call themselves “experts” and simply say that yearly as a means of trying to be “different”.

When Opening Day came on March 31, my feelings about this team were not very great. Sure, the lineup that they were fielding was going to score, but my chart for success was muddied by the fact that there did not appear to be enough quality thrown by the starting pitchers to sustain through the six months of the year.

It turns out, some of that was true.

Perhaps that is why I did not take the losses during the early part of the season very tough. I am usually very critical of the team when it loses, but something was different. My ability to care had waned.

The offense was performing so putrid offensively due to underperformance and the early season injuries to Jorge Posada and Alex Rodriguez that they were on some nights fielding a team that resembled a slightly above average National League team than one resembling the New York Yankees.

Add to that the early ineffectiveness of rookies Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy (winners of zero games in April and the entire season) to where if the team was losing by more than two runs after the fifth inning, it was best to find alternative programming.

Sure, the 2007 season started the same way, but we all hoped it would turn around, because well, it always has.

When they came back from three runs down on that Sunday in May to beat Seattle, we thought that could be a turning point that would springboard the season.

It did not.

When they rallied from two runs down in the ninth inning with two out against Toronto Blue Jays closer B.J Ryan, which was supposed to be the moment.

It was not.

Winning their first eight games after the All Star break, it was as impressive as they had looked all year and it appeared as the stench of the early season was past them, ready to blow past the Red Sox and reestablish themselves as American League contenders.

It did not happen.

There were teases, but nothing sustainable.

There were moments, but they came and went with next losing stretch of three out of four games.

At a certain point, you could not help but wonder if this was finally going to be the year where things would not bounce our way.

You could help to feel that way when you see Jorge Posada injured and on the disabled list for the first time in his career.

Seeing Johnny Damon crash into the wall at Yankee Stadium in a game against the Red Sox, and finding his way to the disabled list.

Watching Chien-Ming Wang, on pace to having his finest season, running around third base on a run scoring play and damaging his foot to the where he was knocked out for the season.

There were other little ones along the way, but it was becoming apparent the Yankees were making their own episode of “ER”.

All season we waited for the offense to breakout and become the 950-run juggernaut that they have always been.

In April and May, they did not hit and it was excused as them “adjusting to the weather” and a simple slow start.

“Wait until it warms up!”

That is what the optimists’ slogan when June came around. Still, at the end of that month, the offense had yet to hit.

“Wait until after the All Star break! We’re a second half team!”

For the first eight games after the Break, things were working out. An eight game winning streak took place. Joba Chamberlain dazzled and dominated the Red Sox and beat Josh Beckett 1-0 in Fenway on that Friday night.

They dominated the following afternoon 10-3 and all appeared well with the Yankees.

It would be as well as things would ever get this season.

August came and again the offense continued to struggle. Hitting with runners on base and in scoring position seemed like impossible tasks.

When they could not do that, they would strike out, weakly fly out or hit into double plays consistently to kill rallies and lose games.

The writing was on the wall. If anyone thought this was going to change now after 100 plus games, they were simply ignorant.

All it took was the Red Sox to deliver the final nails in the Yankees season coffin. Winning the first two games in Yankee Stadium in the fashion Boston did began to signal the end.

This group, compiled mainly of mercenaries could not muster up the fortitude to dig down deep at any point during the season to grind out games. It was as if they had a glass chin. Once they were hit, they went down for the count. Any remnants of toughness that the old Yankees had could not be found with this group.

They were as soft of toilet paper.

Other fans wanted to stay in denial and that this whole season was simply bad luck. If you want to use that excuse, go right ahead.

The reality of the situation is that this had been a few years in the making.

In 2005, the team started the same for three months before turning it around. In 2007, a similar script played out. While those seasons ended in playoff appearances, what it underscored was an old team was being held together by bubble gum rather anything strong.

The foundation of the team was eroding. As it has played out, this year is where it all broke down.

Since the night I was sitting in Section 135 row 29 in Pro Player Stadium in Miami during Game 4 of the 2003 World Series, I never would have projected that five years later I would be seeing what parades around as a baseball team these days.

Jeff Weaver was on the mound in that 12th inning and gave up that game winning home run to Alex Gonzalez that evened the series at two games apiece. The Yankees have not been a close to a World Series since that night. They had rallied from a two-run deficit in the ninth inning to tie the game and it appeared they would take a 3-1 series lead. The Yankees lost that night and never won another game in that series.

Since then, the Yankees have gone backwards every year from that night:

2004 – Blew 3-0 series lead in the ALCS to the Red Sox
2005 – Lost 3-2 in ALDS to the Angels
2006 – Lost 3-1 in ALDS to the Tigers
2007 – Lost 3-1 in ALDS to the Indians

They have fielded a weaker team in every year since the 2003 season.

In some ways, it was almost inevitable that this would happen. Somehow, someway, forces would align themselves in a year to bring you what has taken place on a nightly basis this season.

Not enough good starting pitching.

Not enough consistent offense.

Mix in not having enough quality, interchangeable players and you are left with the following result…

A lost season.

They are playing out the stretch now. Of course, they cannot admit as such because they are still mathematically in the race. But you now take the results with a grain of salt.

Likely, you will see hitters number improve (see: Rodriguez, Alex) because the “pressure” is no longer there anymore. It will be as if the burden of having the win will have been lifted and certain players will feel liberated. Thus, they are now content with “putting up their numbers”.

But no one should be fooled.

The start of the 2009 season cannot come soon enough.

This 2008 season is over.