THE YANKEES MUST BEAT THE JAYS, NOT THEMSELVES

It's time to knock down the Blue Jays.  That's it.

Ken Davidoff writes a terrific piece in the New York Post today, and it's obivous, but he had to do it. Still, it's well done.  I want to give it a forum here... some good stuff. Here's a few portions of it:

"'We’ve run into a lot of teams who have been extremely hot at the given moment when we’ve hit them,' (Chris)Young said, 'and as you play those teams, play things out throughout the year, you realize that none of that stuff really matters when you’re in the heat of battle. The run that you’re on doesn’t matter. It’s irrelevant.'

His words came laced with the hope that the Yankees could once again cool off the hot opponent arriving Thursday. Yet by the end of Wednesday’s work shift in The Bronx, you could have attached a different meaning: The wish that the Yankees can shrug off their last two days...

For sure, the Yankees can take pride in slaying some monsters this year. Remember when they ended the Mets’ 11-game winning streak by beating Terry Collins’ group two of three times April 24-26 in The Bronx? Right before that series, they beat the Tigers three straight times to deflate Detroit’s 11-2 launch (including a win over the Yankees) to the season, and set them toward a course of massive disappointment.

And when they temporarily disrupted the Jays last month, they ended Toronto’s 11-game winning streak.

'If you’re able to stay on that run, then more power to you,' Young said. 'But nothing’s given. Nothing’s predicted. You can’t be a fortune-teller and tell the future of how our last 25 games are going to be, no less how their 25 games are going to be... Runs are amazing. Twenty-nine and [nine], that’s amazing. The only thing that matters is the end-of-season record. It doesn’t matter how you get there.'”

Chris Young has been a good Yankee, and that's why I chose some of his quotes from Davidoff's piece.  Young was dead with the Mets, alive with the Yankees and has done his job well. 

But it's more than that. He brings confidence to an unstable Yankee fan base.  Many fans are worried.  I don't worry, I just get aggravated. I get aggravated when our big boppers get hurt at the wrong time and I get annoyed when we can't consistently win, especially with the players we have. 

There is no excuse for bad play actually. You're a professional, suck it up and play hard. You get paid a lot of money to do it.  Hit the ball, HARD.  That's how you make your money.  And that brings me back to the Yankees and their next 7 games against Toronto.  Our approach needs to be strong. Go up with an approach at the plate, execute. We can't just go up there hitting solo shots, that does nothing.  We need runners on, and then those same runners scoring. It starts with us.

Baseball cannot be predicted.  We've seen underdogs win over dominant teams before.  The Yankees must win against the Blue Jays. That's it. They know this.  What we need right now is alittle help from the Ghost of Babe Ruth, Red Ruffing and Thurman Munson combined right about now.

That's right, alittle superstition helps. We need Derek Jeter to text the team. We need a Jorge Posada closed door player meeting.

We need a smashing of the Paul O'Neill water cooler. We need energy from within as well. We need to get angry out there.  We need to start winning ladies and gentlemen...that's the bottom line.

And through it all, I need the Yankee fans, BYB readers to do me a favor;  Get loud, but be the smart fan.  Don't go bitching about the Mets winning... that's them, they deserve to win, especially when they play hard. 

 Don't go giving excuses about how we're injured and we need Mark Teixeira healthy.  We still need to play... forget that crap.  No excuses.  We have the team. We have the pitching, we have the ability. 

I leave you with a very important quote from Chris Young, "The only thing that matters is the end-of-season record. It doesn’t matter how you get there.”

So, let's get there. Go Yanks!




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