THE YANKEES WON'T COLLAPSE SO STOP SAYING IT

Why does the New York Sports media like to get us fans all jazzed up. I hate it.  I opened the Bergen Record yesterday to Bob Klapisch and his piece titled Only Pitching Will Avoid Collapse.  For the record, Klapisch is right about that first part. Pitching rules and pitching wins ballgames and the entire piece is quite good actually, as always, but let's face it, COLLAPSE is a buzz word that only gets thrown out there to make Yankees fans scream, and let's break it down before we start using that word.

The Yankees are in first place.  The Orioles are the hottest team in baseball.  Naturally, after the Yankees lost a 10 game lead on the rest of the AL East, us fans felt alittle suffocated. So did the Yankees and with injury and inconsistency, they still managed to remain in first place through it all.  Sure the 10 game cushion is gone, but all it means is there is some real baseball being played by the Orioles. That's it.  Guess what, that's baseball, that's NO collapse. 

Klapisch wrote this, check it out: ".... the bigger question now, whether Nova can sustain this rebirth throughout the season’s 11th-hour. The Yankees aren’t just hopeful, they’re desperate, considering how far Sabathia has regressed this summer. No one is asking Nova to be the ace, just as the Bombers wouldn’t put that burden on Hiroki Kuroda. But this could be the most crucial sequence of the sprint, finding out which Nova we’ll see between now and October and whether Pettitte can hurry up and catalyze his cut-fastball."

I'm with Klapisch here. CC Sabathia is not pitching well, and I'm telling you, I'm convinced he's hurt, but that won't come out until the end of the season for sure.  And to be honest, if it's true, I wouldn't even be mad, I would understand why Sabathia kept pitching if he WAS hurt. He's a gamer, he wants the ball every 5th day and he wants to win. I like that approach better than the Carl Pavano approach, you know what I mean?

Then Klapisch gives alittle more: "Make no mistake, the Yankees are sweating out the schedule as never before: this year’s team has lost its air of invulnerability, and if you don’t believe that, just compare their energy against the Orioles’. For the first time in a decade, the Bombers are giving off the scent of fear in the late innings."

OK, I've voiced the same types of opinions, alittle less harsh on my end because I'm a fan first, but it's true, the Yankees energy has been sluggish, read  RECOGNIZING LOST "ENERGY" IS THE KEY TO TURNING YANKEES SEASON AROUND. The Orioles on the other hand have been on fire.  But to me, things are about to change.  You can see the Yankee bats coming alive and you can see the pitching starting to click.  

Klapisch then writes: "That’s why Nova’s start was a tactical gem, because he was everything that Sabathia hasn’t been. If Pettitte can come close to that Tuesday – and with 13 of the last 17 games against the Jays, Twins and Red Sox – the Yankees might just survive the worst collapse in their history. Maybe."

There's that word, collapse.  Is it? Is it a collapse if the Yankees don't make the playoffs? No. Is it disappointing? It could be if it were to happen, but it's NOT a collapse.  A collapse was 2004 when we lost to the Red Sox. A collapse is watching the Red Sox NOT make the playoffs last season.  This Yankee season is not a collapse and won't be a collapse. That word's been used way to often and way too freely, in fact, Klpaisch uses it way to much himself.

His Yankees piece from August titled: Yankees' AL East lead is still secure: "... For the Bombers to suffer a full-blown, nuclear collapse, both Sabathia and Kuroda would have unravel at the same time. While not impossible, it's highly unlikely."

His book titled: "The Worst Team Money Could Buy: The Collapse of the New York Mets"

His piece about Pelfrey: "Mets turn to Pelfrey with '07 collapse rearing its ugly head"


His piece about the Red Sox last season: "Yankees enjoying every moment of Red Sox collapse"

Oh hell, you get the idea.  Not everything's a collapse though. Sure, those examples of the Mets and Red truly ARE collapses, it's crystal clear, but now he's going after a Yankee team that, I guess because we're always expected to win, he needs to insert "collapse" into the same sentence.  I don't get it and I don't like it. Why? Because we have 16 games left to play and we're still in first place throughout all that injury and inconsistancey.  Sure, the Orioles are hot as hell right now, but I have a feeling the Yankees will be OK.  Sure, if I'm not correct, I'll collapse,  but the Yankees wouldn't have.  It would however be a big disappointment for Yankee fans if we didn't make the playoffs...but that's just silly talk.

The Yankees have the tools, the Yankees will win.  The Yankees won't collapse.  I truly believe that.

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