Championships Aren’t Won In August
August 10, 2009 · Mike Salvatore · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
Like every other Yankee fan on the planet, I thoroughly enjoyed the sweep of the Red Sox over the weekend.
The Yankees were firing on all cylinders; there was fantastic starting pitching, clutch performances out of the bullpen, and of course timely hitting. Now with the best record in baseball and a comfortable 6 1/2 game lead over the Red Sox, it’s finally time to start thinking World Series right?
Not so fast my friends!
The Yankees are playing their best baseball of the season; they’ve been on a tear since the All-Star break. At the same time, the Red Sox have been playing their worst baseball of the season since the break. Hence how the Yankees have been able to make up so much ground and eventually pass the Red Sox. Does anybody really believe that the Red Sox will continue to play this poorly, or that the Yankees will be able to maintain this torrid winning pace because I don’t.
Remember back in June when the Red Sox swept the Yankees at Fenway and ran their record to 8-0 against the Yanks. Everyone proclaimed that Boston was the superior team and that the Yankees would struggle to win the Wild Card. Now, less than two months later, the roles have changed. Now the Yankees are the dominant team and the Red Sox will be lucky to make the playoffs.
Folks, there is still two months to go in the season, there is a reason people refer to a baseball season as a marathon and not a sprint. Things change drastically from one month to the next; how many times have the Yankees been written off the last few years after slow starts in April?
For arguments sake, let’s assume the Red Sox aren’t able to recover from this series and the Yankees win the division. Well that’s great, only the goal is to win World Series titles and not division titles.
Remember back in 2004 when the Yankees beat the Sox in that epic regular season series when Captain Jeter dove into the crowd. The Sox were a mess, they traded away Nomar, and there were doubts that they could ever beat the Yankees when it mattered. I don’t want to go into the painful details, but we all remember how that season ended.
Hell even taking the Red Sox out of the equation, let’s go back to 2006. The Yankees crushed the Red Sox in that five game series in Boston, taking all five games in what was referred to as the modern day Boston Massacre. How did that season end? A four game division series loss to the Detroit Tigers!
Look I don’t want people to get the wrong idea. I am very excited after what happened over the weekend and I feel this is the most well rounded Yankee club in years. I just don’t want people to think that just because we won a series against the Red Sox in August it will mean anything in October.
Yes you can gain momentum in August, but you can’t win pennants then either.
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