The Yankees in the playoffs! I stole that line from Ned Beatty who played the role of Rudy Ruettiger’s father in the film Rudy, a film that still makes me cry like a little bitch. I like that line because while it’s simple, yet says so much. Emotionally, I watched the mountain the Yankees had to climb this year and when you looked at that opening day Pitching rotation, there is no way in hell that you believed that the New York Yankees would win the American League Eastern division. But’s exactly what's happened. 
Seeing Jesus Montero and Eduardo Nunez pouring champagne on Robinson Cano is truly extraordinary. Seeing Curtis Granderson and Rafael Soriano smiling ear to ear actually makes me really happy. And thinking about Brian Cashman’s patience rule come into play, it’s almost like he was Biff, using the Delorean to get the Sports Almanac and bringing it back with all the solutions to bring the Yankees yet another postseason berth. 
Admit it, you believed in your Yankees, but did you REALLY BELIEVE when Phil Hughes went down and Bartolo Colon suddenly filled the void? Did you believe that Curtis Granderson was going to have a season for the ages? Did you truly believe that DRob would emerge as the greatest 8th inning guy you’ve ever seen? Yankee fans believe in their team, but you just never know how 25 individuals will come together. When AJ Burnett started falling apart, the bullpen and offense lifted him up. When Rafael Soriano lost his 8th inning job, he accepted anything to help his team win, and checked his attitude at the door. And when Jorge Posada was called upon to pinch hit, he never complained and he delivered.
These are my New York Yankees. And while they are terrific this season, you have to also give some created to Joe Girardi. Yes, sometimes the Girardi binder pokes in it’s head and tries to lead Joe, but Joe’s less dependant lately, and he’s developed into a pretty damn good manager I’d say. Maybe Manager of the Year and I’m impressed.
One things for sure though, it’s not over. Not only do we need to keep winning, we’ve achieved 2 goals but we need to achieve 3 more:
WINNING THE ALDS: A short series win is more important now because it tests our pitching. We’ve seen the Yankees win plenty of Series’ this season and I’ve always preached that winning every series will get the Yanks to the playoffs, but now we’re going and it starts all over. We need to strike early and often and never lose the focus. We need to play hard until the end of the season and keep momentum going into the playoffs.
WINNING THE ALCS: A slightly longer series but important just the same. The prize is winning the World Series but you can’t do that until you win the ALCS. I believe that when we get through the ALDS, winning the ALCS will happen, again it's momentum. That’s the key.
WINNING THE WORLD SERIES: You can’t go to the World Series and lose. We’ve experienced that before and it sucks. The Marlins... the Diamondbacks... those losses still sting. We’ve learned our lesson. The World Series is a must win, and winning it all in our house is always better.
Yes, when the Yankees clinched and Soriano locked it down, followed by the Yankees having alittle celebration, it was in fact "The most beautiful sight these eyes have ever seen." But let’s be honest, it's bigger than that now, seeing them in the playoffs is, and then going further will be as well. I want to have more of that. We’re almost there.
As Jeet says “One game at a time, one game at the time.”
Please comment, we have DISQUS, it's easier than ever. Let me know what you think and follow me on Twitter @BleednYankeeBlu and join the group Bleeding Yankee Blue on Facebook, just type it in.
No comments:
Post a Comment