THE SADDEST THING IN LIFE IS WASTED TALENT

"The saddest thing in life is wasted talent and the choices that you make, 

will shape your life forever." 

--A Bronx Tale

I heard that quote from the film Bronx Tale years ago.  It never left my mind.  It's a life lesson and it applies here, with my New York Yankees, whose job it is to win and play this wonderful game of ball. But not only play it, win it, after all, that's the goal.  The Yankees have been so inconsistent for the past 2 months, I don't see how in the hell they suddenly "Turn it on", but hey, stranger things have happened I suppose.

This is not me holding up the white flag, in fact, it's quite the opposite.  I am a fan, a true fan that believes in my team, but when we lose, it follows me throughout my day and it's the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning.  The Yankees are a truly talented bunch of ball players, but when the bases are loaded and all you can do is scrape together 2 runs like they did yesterday in Toronto, to a last place team mind you, that saying of "wasted talent" applies here. Wasted talent.  The Yankees need to play better and the fact that I'm even saying this now, on September 30th is mind-boggling to me.  

Let's break it down; Joe Girardi said this after the game: "We had plenty of opportunities to get some runs, and we just didn’t get it done."  How many times have we heard that this year?  To tell you the truth, I'm sick of it.  I'm sick of my Yankees telling me "Oh well, we didn't do it, we'll come back tomorrow and win." Well, it's simple for me the fan who forks over a ton of dough for each game and expects my Yankees to win, I simply respond with "Do better." All season long there were problems with Runners in Scoring Position. This is nothing knew, I was bitching about this in May, read YANKEE BASEBALL: THE BASICS OF HITTING. There were debates over the small ball issue and hitting homers all season as well. Remember when Kevin Long even came out at one point and said there would be more bunting?  That was quickly swatted down by Girardi the next day telling the press that the Yankees aren't the Bronx Bunters.  Obviously, there is no clear indication of what the Yankees formula was...except for being inconsistent, this was clear. 

I even had a conversation last night with someone, a Yankee fan I assume, who simply wrote: "You can win by leaving that many men on base if the other team is doing the same thing."  Hmm. I found that peculiar and silly.  I wasn't about to debate that person but let's break it down for the hell of it.  If you're saying that you just need to score "enough" runs to get by and "waste" runners in scoring position all season... well, that's not what the Yankees do, that's more like the Indians or something. Plus, it's not how you play the game.  You don't play to "get by", you play to compile a bunch of runs to shut down the competition!  My Yankees are supposed to play to win, but they haven't moved runners over all year and that's mediocre play to me.  Sure, it's an interesting story, the Yankees are first place, but how? We have a major problem with RISP and we've been injured all year. You'd think I was complaining about my last place Yankees or something.  I'm not! The Yankees are in first...but limping to the finish.  Sure, they've won some pretty tough games when they counted but let's break that down for a moment too.  The Yankees were cruising, until they weren't and lost that 10 game cushion in the American League East to the Orioles.  That's where all the wins came from, the first half.  Now, as we approach 4 more games left in the season, it's become evident to me that if they don't win the "must wins"... we don't win. Trust me, if we get the Wild Card, I'm not about to go out and buy the MLB approved "Wild Card" hat, are you?

Now they could win, hell, they could win it all this year. I'm a die hard fan, I'm a believer, but when reality sets in, you have to understand there's doubt. If you don't have doubt right now, you're a zombie.  I'm being realistic, this worries me.  No, it's not a "Collapse" like Bob Klapisch of the Bergen Record likes to write in his columns every 3 days, but it is a disappointment if the Yankees don't make the playoffs.  Even a non-Yankee fan understands that. 

So in the next 4 games, my Yankees need to stop wasting their talent, they need to put on their big boy pants and they need to push hard to the finish line.  That's why we root, that's why we're fans and that's why I even have this blog in the first place.  The Yankees are important to me, winning is important to me.  Guys like Derek Jeter and Ichiro and Andy Pettitte and Curtis Granderson... all these guys are important to me.  But one thing I hate, the one thing, the saddest thing in life...or on the ball field, is wasted talent.

Let's go Yanks... you're fans are united!

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