Monday, October 15, 2012

The Captain

For a Yankee fan, this weekend was the proverbial whirlwind of emotion. There was the ecstasy of Friday's victory, winning the decisive Game 5 in the ALDS against the very tough Baltimore Orioles. Then after a listless performance for 8 innings against the Yankee killers, aka, the Detroit Tigers, the incredible Raul Ibanez capped off an another ridiculous comback in the 9th to tie the game. But then there was Nick "1-32 in RISP in the postseason" Swisher misplaying a fly ball to give up the lead, which led to the iconic Yankee captain, Derek Jeter breaking his left leg.

It has been since 1995 that the Yankees have  played a postseason game without Jeter.  They've been in the postseason for every year since then except in 2008.  Jeter has amassed a Hall of Fame career in that span, along with being the catalyst for 6 World Championships.  He is truly the heart and soul of the team. Unfortunately, not many of his teammates have been showing any heart this postseason such as Alex Rodriguez, whose advanced age, long and slow swing, and no steroid use have made him an automatic out.  There is Curtis Granderson, who led the team in homers and RBI, but swings through everything now. Then there is Robinson Cano, the biggest culprit, who as the Yanks best hitter and in his prime and had entered the postseason on a .615 clip in the previous 9 games, has 2 hits in nearly 30 at bats and is on an 0-26 slide, the longest hitless streak in Yankees postseason history.

The Yanks ended up losing 3-0 yesterday to the Tigers to fall to 0-2 in the best-of-seven series. Once again they got great pitching from their starter and once again their hitters were an embarrassment.  You would think that with their Captain going down they'd show some pride. But they don't.  It seems the Yankees pride went down with Jeter.

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