THE TIPPING POINT OF WINNING

Here’s the deal, if you are winning, you are popular and everyone wants you but if you are losing, well, now that’s a whole different kind of situation.  Of course we all want to win, but what if we can’t?  I mean, what if the infrastructure is not strong enough, the ingredients not powerful enough and the environment just can’t support winning? 

In 2002, The New Yorker magazine award winning author Malcolm Gladwell wrote (HERE) The Tipping Point:  How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, and our world has never been the same.  In his book, Gladwell discusses how trends stick and epidemics spread.  He also brings to light a keen understanding of what and even who makes ideas stick.  A Tipping point, defines Gladwell, is the “name given to that moment in an epidemic when a virus reaches critical mass. It's the boiling point. It's the moment on the graph when the line starts to shoot straight upwards.” 

So what’s the Yankees’ tipping point of winning- what makes that graph gradually move up?  I say the Tipping Point for the Yankees, the one thing that keeps the Yankees going with enduring strength, despite bad break after bad break, injury after injury, and loss after loss is the fact that they were born to win. 

162 games- that’s what Major League Baseball presents to teams each year.  Some games are on the road and some back at home.  Some games are played in the rain, others in the snow and still others is in the sweltering heat.  Each game builds upon the next and what goes wrong one day, can go absolutely right the next.

As level-headed New York Mets manager Terry Collins continues to preach to both his players and the media is, “We’ve got a long way to go,” Collins said after the Mets beat the Padres, 11-2, on Opening Day. “We know we’re going to have some ups and we know we’re going to have some downs. But the one thing we’re trying to do is establish some credibility amongst our fans -- get them excited, as they were last year. But we want to finish it off this year. We want to make sure we continue to play as consistently in the second half as we do the first half." (HERE)

The difference between the Yankees and all of the rest of the clubs out there is that the Yankees are consistently in it- they do make their fans excited year after year, they do have credibility, they do finish what they started closing down the East year after year and although Derek Jeter won’t be back for sometime, no one seems to know what’s going on with CC Sabathia and his velocity woes and it seems like it will be a long haul for Mark Teixeira and Curtis Granderson, the Yankees still tip- they are still an epidemic, they are still making a difference. 

 (In Photo: Travis Hafner scores)
Yeah, we got guys like Hafner, Overbay, Wells and Boesch who we probably never thought would done a day in pinstripes, but this scrappy bunch is getting it done.  Would I like more wins, yes, but from the standpoint of being contagious, being infectious, threatening to win, threatening to score and just being the Yankees, I’m happy I am a Yankee fan because each year there’s an opportunity to be number one.

I mean who wants to be a Cubs fan, Mets fan, Pirates fan, Jays fan, Indians fan, Astros fan?  They don’t win and if they do, they don’t consistently- they do the fake out; make you believe that they will win, that this will be the year, but in the end, they bring up the cellar and leave you miserable in September.

I say for the Yankees, they were born to win and the games tip in their favor, overall.  The Yankees are legendary, they are epidemic, they are infectious, and they are ours.  Everyday is another chance to win when the boys are on the field.  And we have lots and lots of games to go!

--Suzie Pinstripe, BYB Opinion Columnist
Twitter: @suzieprof




Please comment, we have DISQUS, it's easier than ever. Let me know what you think and follow me on Twitter @BleednYankeeBlu and join the group Bleeding Yankee Blue on Facebook, just type it in.