The Beginning Of The End
As 5 PM Eastern nears here in the Bronx, ex-Yankees Bernie Williams and Tom Flash Gordon are here. Bernabe is to throw out the ceremonial first pitch (by itself something of a thaw in his slightly chilly relationship with the club since they dropped him – hes yet to go to an Old Timers Day). I suspect Flash showed up to come in for Burnett in the 2nd. This fourth game has all the feelings of the end of another up cycle for New York, a night reminiscent of the end of the 2003 World Series or the ALCS the next year or – for the elderly – more like the end of the 81 Series or some of the grim regular season finales later in that decade. The Yanks surefire stopper, Andy Pettitte, was vanquished (and before the top of the first inning last night) and having learned the lesson of the Pinstripes Latent Vampirism, Ron Washington played the six-run top of the ninth like he was down by a dozen. And three hours to game time and there isnt a Yankee on the field. It is as quiet as the cliche here – too quiet.
Baseball Nerd 
Geez, Keith, I’m a bit worried about the Yanks but you’re pouring it on a little too thick, gloom and doom-wise. As for comment from the Braves fan– I guess you haven’t seen Curtis Granderson at the plate lately, or that Boone Logan (acquired in the Vazquez trade) is the primary lefty specialist and a very good one while Atlanta just released the Melkman (thanks for the memories). Keith, you also had the Yanks written off last year when the starters were going on three days rest. You’re the best, man, but you can be a too much at times!
As a Braves fan I don’t have much sympathy for the Yankees or their fans but the Yankees desperately need to get younger. They need to stop going after every free agent and actually build from within if they ever want to have another run of winning multiple championships. Right now as they are constructed they will win one and then have a drop off. Their lineup is old. Trading Austin Jackson was a terrible trade. Trading for Javy Vazquez and giving up on Mike Dunn and Arodys Vizciano was dumb. They keep trading prospects and players in their early 20s, if that, and getting guys who’s primes will probably last only a couple of years in a Yankees uniform. Time to actually build from within.
Howdy Keith,
Gotta admit I’d love for my beloved Giants to have to beat dem Yanks to win the first SF World Series but you’re right it looks like it just might be The Rangers.
Just wondering when you’ll actually gonna notice and start to enjoy the amazing pitching and underdog scrappiness of the G-men out West?
come on. Show some spunk, MSNBC. Put up a topic on Olbermann’s suspension.