Monthly Archives: October 2024

Well, the Yanks were sloppy all season and it came back to bite them in agonizing, burn-in-your-brain-forever misery last night.

Surely, this was a Yankee series created by the fantasies of all true Yankee-haters. But our Bombers found cruel and unusual ways to lose this thing. You could call them chokers, but they’ve been sloppy like this all year. They weren’t in Game 6 or Game 7—their mistakes cost them them that chance. We’re left with 4 loses that could have all gone the other way, particularly Game 1 and Game 5.

Yup, nothing but pain and disgust for us Yankee fans.

Dag.

Congrats the Dodgers.

Could be the last game of the year, period. But at least the Yanks have lived to see another day, even if it is tonight.

I couldn’t believe Volpe’s base running gaffe last night. I bellowed and moaned and threw myself off the couch in despair. And then he goes and hits that homer, turns a single into a (lucky) double, steals third, and then beats a throw home on a grounder to second. I’d say a good way to make up for that mistake. Happy for the kid.

Hoping for more good things tonight.

Never mind oblivion:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

And the hits just kept coming in Game Three. More mistakes, all born of desperation, all too painful to recount here.

Now the Yanks are down 3-0 in this series of sadness.

Nothing to lose now. Go git ’em, boys.

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

Well, that sucked. Did it suck as much as Game 1? No, but it sucked all the same.

They’ve been down 2-0 before. Tonight in the Bronx will have us root-root-rooting for the home team.

Never mind the writing on the wall:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

Game One was a kick to the crotch loss if there ever was one; much will be forgiven if they manage to swipe a win today and leave L.A. with a split.

Lots to be pissed about but today is a new day.

Never mind the moaning’:

Let’s Go Yank-eees!

Yanks-Dodgers.

Hell, yes.

Yanks arrive in Cleveland up 2-0.

Wonder how they’ll leave town?

Never mind the memory of those little bugs:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

Alas, here we are again. The Yanks fighting for a pennant. Cleveland looking to get to the Whirled Serious and bring home their first title since 1948.

Never mind nuthin:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

I wouldn’t be a Yankee fan were it not for the Kansas City Royals.

In the summer of 1977 when I was almost eight years old, my family drove from Detroit to New York City for a vacation in the Big Apple. We saw dinosaurs at the Museum of Natural History, walked in Central Park, and went to the top of the Empire State Building. All the stuff. But the highlight of the trip came on the day when my parents let me choose what to do. I was a huge baseball fan, so I asked them to take me to a baseball game.

The Yankees were playing the Royals that day. Catfish Hunter got the start, and Chris Chambliss hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the eighth to give the Yankees a 5-3 lead that turned into a win when Sparky Lyle finished things up in the ninth. I hadn’t yet forged any bonds with the Tigers, so the die was cast that afternoon. I’d be a Yankee fan for life.

This matchup with the Royals in the ALDS is bringing up all kinds of memories, and not just my own. The game-winning home run that I witnessed wasn’t the first time Chambliss had broken Kansas City hearts. Just the year before he had led off the bottom of the ninth with the game tied in the decisive fifth game of the American League Championship Series and struck one of the most memorable home runs in Yankee history, sending the Bronx into bedlam — actual bedlam — and sending the Yankees to the World Series.

That playoff loss was the first of three straight the Royals suffered at the hands of the Yankees, one of which famously left Kansas City shortstop Freddie Patek crying in the dugout.

But revenge for the Royals would eventually come when they served me the first heartbreak of my Yankee life. After dropping the first two games of the 1980 ALCS, the Yankees took a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the seventh at Yankee Stadium. Tommy John got the first two outs, but after he yielded a double to Willie Wilson, John was lifted for Rich Gossage, hopefully for a seven-out save. But Gossage give up a single to U.L. Washington and then this happened.

As if that weren’t enough, then we had the Pine Tar Game three years later. All of this contributed to what was, for a time, the greatest rivalry in baseball. You don’t think so? Ask George Brett. Still don’t think so? Watch this absolutely insane clip from Game 5 of the 1977 ALCS.

This week’s matchup with the Royals might not include all this drama, but then again it might. Buckle up, everyone, and Let’s Go, Yankees!