MLB Baseball: Seriously, Did the Yankees and Their Fans Really Expect to Win?
October 8, 2011 · darcy fournier · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
The Yankees “Mission Statement” is to win it all every year, and when that fails to happen the entire season is a failure.
The Yankees know that it’s not a realistic goal, but one must have a standard to strive for.
However, there are some that take it literally.
A small, vocal group within the Yankee universe that consider themselves “fans”—you know the guys, they are really easy to spot—are ones that give Yankee fans a bad name.
These are the fans that declare the season over before spring training begins because the Yankees failed to land the the big offseason free agent (Cliff Lee immediately comes to mind).
When this happens they often call for the head of Brian Cashman, the Yankees General Manager, the most thankless job in all of baseball.
These are the fans that cry doom and gloom in April when the Yankees start the season off with a losing record, because we all know that April is the most important month, right?
When this happens they often continue the call for the head of Cashman but also include the manager, whomever it may be (it was Joe Torre every year after 2001, and now it’s Joe Girardi in every year other than 2009). They even call for the head of under performing players as well, because we all know how impossible it is to have a great year when you have a bad April, right?
These are the fans that cry all year unless the Yankees are in first, leading every category and the division by 20 games at the break.
Watching them implode each and every season that the team “fails” is actually quite amusing and entertaining.
They are blowing up on a forum near you right now due to the Yankees “failure” to defeat the Tigers in the ALDS.
I have a question for these fans. It’s a simple one really.
Did you really expect the Yankees to win it all this year when they fielded a team of aging, over paid fading stars without making any improvements to the team after their playoff loss the year prior while other teams in contention greatly improved their rosters?
Did you really expect them to win it all this year when they were forced to shop in the bargain basement for pitchers, that at the time looked like a huge mistake?
Did you really expect them to win when they had to continue to rely on A.J Burnett, as the number two starter, when his career numbers indicate he is nothing more than an average.500 pitcher with an ERA above 4.00, and who is perhaps the biggest head case in Yankee history?
Did you really expect them to win it all this year when Joba went down and Soriano was looking like a major bust making our bullpen, one that was supposed to be the best on paper in the game, look like Swiss cheese?
Did you really expect them to win it all when Jeter started off the year worse than he finished the previous one?
Did you really expect them to win it all when a large part of their offense was put on the shelf, namely A-Rod?
Did you really expect them to win it all with Swisher and Martin hitting under .240 and Brett Gardner, who should and could be hitting near .300, batting under .265?
Did you expect them to win it all this year when Curtis Granderson was coming in the season unable to hit lefties, and not knowing what he would contribute?
My point?
There is no one out there with a sane mind that thought the Yankees had a chance in hell of winning the division. The wild card was seriously in doubt for any normal, realistic Yankee fan.
Why bitch about their losing something they were never supposed to realistically be a part of? I am happy they even made it that far.
The Yankees did not so much “win” the division this season as much as Boston lost it. That was unexpected to say the least. It is no different than the 2004 Red Sox “winning” a World Series that the Yankees probably would have won had they not imploded like the 2011 Sox.
The Yankees “won” the division by 9 games, but everyone knows it was not that dominant.
Can Cashman really be blamed for the Yankees losing to the Tigers this year? Really? Had it not been for the players he gambled on the Yankees would have been lucky to finish fourth. You can stop blaming him for Burnett each year. Cashman gets one knock for signing him, the rest of it is on Burnett to perform.
Can Girardi really be blamed? He managed the pen better than it has been managed in years. He worked with bargain basement pitchers, a head case and some injuries. What could he have possibly done to improve their chances? Dropping A-Rod from the lineup would have only given you someone else to blame as no one else was a strong offensive threat either.
If your gonna slam A-Rod, and he does deserve some of the blame for a team that lost something there were never supposed to be a part of, then you also have to heap equal ire towards Swisher, Tex, Jeter, Martin and Granderson, each of whom were not exactly offensive power conduits.
Did anyone really expect A-Rod to save the day? What has he done since coming off injury to make anyone think he would deliver? It does not matter if he choked or was physically not prepared…everyone missed opportunities.
I am not an fan of A-Rod, but I am also not some spoiled, entitled Yankees fan dumb enough to pin a Game 5 loss on one man in a team sport in a series the Yankees had no business being involved in.
How can anyone blame a team for losing a playoff they were never supposed to be a part of?
Yeah, I know…the post season is a whole new start. Anything can happen in the playoffs.
What happened in the 2011 ALDS between the Yankees and the Tigers was simple to understand.
A team that dominated it’s division and outright won it via superiority defeated a talented team that appeared to dominate their division but really did not…a team that was old, out of gas and over matched.
The Tigers were simply superior. They were fresh and ready.
The Yankees were there by default…end of story.
You think they would have gotten past the Rangers with no offense and a limited rotation?
Faith has very little to do with reality. Ghosts or no ghosts.
I am proud of this team and what they accomplished this season.
They may have not won it all and to them, and some of their fans, that means that they supposedly “failed”.
However, I have been a realistic Yankee fan since 1976, and I have only wanted this franchise to compete and contend.
I know they will never win it all every year but they offer me, as a fan, the most realistic chance for that to happen as often as possible.
In a year where it appeared going into the season that Boston would dominate and the Yankees would struggle, a year in which Jeter was a huge question mark and Nova was not even on the radar, a year in which Granderson was not expected to do what he did, a year in which Montero was not expected to come up and make noise, a year in which Jeter and Mo made history…I saw no failure.
No, the Yankees did not win it all, but in what they did do, despite the odds coupled with Bostons epic, sweet, historic collapse this fan finds no fault.
If you happen to be one of those fans that bitches and moans because the Yankees lost…look in the mirror and the blame lays there for setting yourself up for disappointment.
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