The Toughest Division Title in Ages

As I've mentioned in prior posts, I've been blessed as a sportsfan. I grew up in a baseball split house. My mom, sister, and I were Yankee fans while my pop and brother were Met fans. But neither side hated the other team so we used to go to both Yankee and Met games all the time. Because of that, my first great sports memory was the dissapointment of the 1976 Yankee World Series loss to the Reds. It's more of an emotional memory than remembering events. I remember the dissapointment of my family. Then 1977 and the great penant race of '78, which both culminated in Yankee championships. I was also able to celebrate the Mets' triumph in 1986, unfortunately, their last championship.

Since I've been following baseball I've got to celebrate 8 championships in my lifetime (8 Yankee titles and 1 Mets). Now another postseason for the Yanks is upon us, the 21st in my lifetime. Amazing considering the Yanks missed the posteason for 13 straight years. This year was the hardest earned in my opinion, with the Baltimore Orioles chasing the Yankees from a 10 game deficit in mid July to be either tied or no more than a game back for most of September. This was a bona fide penant race because both teams wanted to avoide the new winner-take-all Wild Card game under MLB's new format.

The Orioles and Texas Rangers play that game on Friday with the winner meeting the game on Sunday. A tough matchup either way for the Yanks. I'll be rooting hard as I always do, but at the same time I'm eternally grateful for the wonderful memories I have of championships past.