Message # 73 Damn Yankees

This message is especially dedicated to the great Joe Torre, manager of the New York Yankees. Hopefully, Joe will still be the manager next year.

Ok, so I’ve had a full day to mourn for the loss of my Yankees. Did they play well? Not really. They never lost a game to the Indians during the regular season. But the Yankees are the Yankees…the highest paid team in baseball, and on paper they look unbeatable. So what happened? I have a few ideas.

1. They didn’t play well. They didn’t play like the typical Yankees who don’t really have a hole in their lineup. In fact, they didn’t have consecutive hits until late in the series.
2. They weren’t “into” it. Those of you who remember the Yankees dynasty in the mid to late 90s, know that they were a “team.” And they were into the game and having fun.
3. They weren’t confident. The team was saying how the early playoffs were scary and anything could happen. The Yankees from 1996-2000 expected to win.
4. They didn’t take advantage of opportunities. Several times they had runners in scoring position and didn’t capitalize.

Were the Cleveland Indians the better team? No. Did they beat the Yankees? Yes.

What does this tell you about what you do? Nothing is a guarantee. Anybody has a chance at beating anyone else. The best team doesn’t always win. You can outperform people with more skills than you.

What advice do I have for my Yankees? Fail successfully. Think about what you learned from this series. On a scale of 1 to 10, how did you play? What could you have done to get to a 10? In my opinion, they Yankees were on automatic. If they changed it up a bit with different strategies against the Indians, it might have been a different story. They just weren’t hitting and they were hoping that their bats would come alive. They didn’t.

Even though I bleed pinstripes, I cannot be too upset about my team because if they played like they way they did, they don’t deserve to go to the next round. Did they try? Sure, but did they do whatever it takes? Probably not.

“Do not look where you fell, but where you slipped.” – African proverb

Thanks for reading.