THE MODERN DAY RIVALRY BETWEEN BLUE JAYS AND YANKEES IS REAL

I am always grateful for a walk-off win. But the last two have been because the Yankees failed to get the job done when they had the opportunity. In Saturday's game, the Yankees scored their only two runs on an Anthony Volpe rocket in the bottom of the 8th after Gerrit Cole kept the Toronto Blue Jays at bay for 5 2/3 innings, allowing only four hits and lowering his ERA to 0.79. But just like that the Yankees couldn't hold that lead as the Blue Jays tied the game with a pinch hit two-home run by Danny Jansen. It took a heroic bottom of 9th inning to push the Yankees to the rubber game after a disappointing loss to rival Toronto on Friday night. That walkoff win is what we are going to dive into just a bit more, but it is more meaningful than you think. 

         Source: Associated Press

"Intrigue began even before the first pitch. Just as Cole was about to start the game, he was forced to wait, crouching behind the mound as Manoah and Kirk slowly walked from the Blue Jays bullpen down the left-field line to the dugout," reported ESPN. This is the kind of pettiness we have traditionally seen from the Red Sox, but they are a non-entity over the last few years despite their storied history of well, hating the Yankees.

Replacing that fierce relationship has been the Blue Jays led by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. who clearly has a dislike for the Yankees based on his remarks and antics anytime he plays or is asked about the Yankees. But today, it was about Gerrit Cole and Alek Manoah— who have had an ugly relationship for some time and that saga continued in Saturday's game.

"Last Aug. 21, Manoah threw an inside pitch early in the game that went near Yankees star Aaron Judge, then hit Judge on the arm guard above the left elbow. Judge glanced at Manoah as Cole started yelling and a few other Yankees came over the dugout railing. Cole was intercepted by bench coach Carlos Mendoza before reaching the umpires," reported ESPN. Manoah believes Cole is the biggest cheater in baseball, calling out his sticky substance history on NBA player Serge Ibaka’s YouTube show “How Hungry Are You?”

According to MLB.com, "Cole said he derived no additional juice from Manoah’s presence; they exchanged words last August, and Manoah spoke publicly about Cole again this past offseason. “I get all of my motivation from inside of this clubhouse,” Cole said."

Source: Associated Press

The drama culminated when Volpe hit the two-run home run to put the Yankees up 2-0 in the 8th "The afterglow of Volpe’s moment was interrupted a few minutes later when Danny Jansen tied the game again with a pinch-hit two-run homer off Wandy Peralta. Jansen’s homer ending up being but a footnote after the Yanks rallied in the home half," reported MLB.com. 

The game's hero was DJ LeMahieu whose base hit cemented the Yankee lead for good in walk off fashion. But the unsung hero in this game is Cole, who battled those birds like the true ace he is. He seems completed focused on his craft, ignoring the banter and complimenting the Jays and their starting pitcher.

Source: Associated Press

“They’re tough,” Cole said. “They grind; they don’t give a pitch up. They’re shifty, and obviously Alek was on his game today. He threw tremendous. I would have liked to get deeper. … It did feel like I kind of faded a little bit, but I gave it everything I had,” reported MLB.com. Thatta boy Gerritt, take the higher road. 

It will be another battle in the stadium on Sunday as the Yankees will once again send Clarke Schmidt to the mound despite his 8.79 ERA in the afternoon rubber game against the Jays. One thing is for sure, the Yankees need to prove they will not go away easily and that they can comeback and win series, which is what they have done all seven times this season. They have to take the opportunities when they come and make the Jays pay. That is how this modern day rivalry will continue to fuel itself—if they play with everything they have and take the higher road while doing it. 

--Suzie Pinstripe
BYB Senior Managing Editor
Twitter: @suzieprof

FEELING THE STING & COMING BACK STRONGER

2 years in a row, the Yankees have not made the playoffs.  2 years in a row iconic Yankees have retired. Yankees that had helped bring the club to the World Series 5 times.  It’s a damn shame, but that’s life and as Yankee fans, as spoiled as we may be, we are tougher fans because of it.  Don’t bow your head in shame. Stand tall.  Don’t start talking smack to your Dodgers fan friends and Orioles buddies.  The lesson is simple; their team won, ours did not.  If you’re a true baseball fan, you tip your cap to the better team and then we think about what’s next for ours.  It brings me back to the Bronx last Thursday night.

Derek Jeter stood there after his walk off and said to Meredith Marakovits, and I'm paraphrasing... "Congrats to the Orioles this year." Then there was alittle booing.  Then Jeter said, "They deserve it." They do.

We can discuss what went wrong in Yankeeland all we want.  The debate on firing everyone or no one and why our Yankee offense sucked isn’t going to solve a damn thing right now.  But now the seasons over, and now our team will regroup.  Here's the reality; Looking at our lineup on paper, we were ready to take on the world.  But that didn’t happen.

At the end of this season, did you think for a moment that guys like Chris Capuano and Brandon McCarthy would keep us going? I sure as hell did not.  I was wrong and I feel bad about that. When players believe, great things happen.  I’m thankful to those guys. Some things worked this season and some things didn’t.  But the worst thing we can do as fans is blast the competition because they beat us.  There wasn’t cheating or name calling… they just beat us. Get over it. We’re Yankee fans, we’re not children. We need to act like we expect our team to act.  Remember class and pride and tradition? Well, that means us too ladies and gentlemen.

A few weeks ago I stopped being mad.  It’s not my nature. My nature is to fight, stay angry and keep plugging away, and we’ve never stopped here at Bleeding Yankee Blue.

Glad everyone liked my Jeter By The Nos piece. But it wasn't aimed at @KeithOlbermann. Keith thinks Jeter mania is over the top. He's right!
— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) September 24, 2014

But here’s the truth;  Despite the rest of America and New York writers like Jayson Stark claiming the Jeter Farewell Tour was too much, it happened anyway.

The best part of us being Yankee fans is, we get it.  The reporters, the commentators will never truly understand fandom like we do because we’ve seen Derek walk tall since day one and fell in love with his professionalism and character.  The reporters, the non-Yankee fans don’t see what we see.  That’s OK. We get it… they don’t.  The sports reporters need to report first.  That’s their job.  If they need to press buttons to sell papers and tell us all that Derek Jeter’s a hypocrite and Jeter is not the greatest ever… they know they’re gonna get to all of us.  But you need to ignore it, we really do. Why? Because the reality is… they have a job to do… we are the fans.  Hey, in some regards that’s why Bleeding Yankee Blue is here.  We ARE fans, and we give you the fans perspective and that’s why you read us.  The sports guys aren’t gonna do that.  Here’s the thing though. Once you understand their craft, ignore it.  Read them, comment, but know it’s a game… it’s a job for them. We are the fans… ultimately, we control it.

The Derek Jeter Farewell tour was amazing down the stretch, but there is no question, it could have been better if the Yankees made the playoffs and perhaps won the World Series.  But we didn’t. But look... no one died.  The reality is, as a team, we didn’t have what it took to make it.

It’s disappointing… it sucks. Again though… you power through and as a fan, you rise above it. I’m not 18 and in college anymore and I’m not gonna punch a hole in my Yankee poster on the door because they lost… Those days are over.  I’m still the same fan. I just lived alittle more all these years later.  We lost, and now we need to fix it. I guess that's my fatherly instinct... sue me.

Put it in perspective. Are you gonna tell your kid to run over to the opposing team’s pitcher and kick him in the shins after a bad loss? No. You line them up and they say, “Good game”, even if you don’t mean it. The reality is, “The best man wins” and we weren’t the best man. Hell, we may not even been second or third best… but we tried with what we had.. and we failed.

I’m gonna leave you with this; Failure makes you stronger.  I belief that losing and allowing that sting to happen once, maybe twice, makes an individual see the eye of the tiger.  No one wants that sting to happen again.  You get a fire in your belly.  You see the big picture.  You believe that you can overcome failure.  That’s a life lesson. That’s what makes an individual come back with more ferocity the next time.  That’s why I always fell in love with guys in sports history that never gave up…

Olympic Gold medalist Dan Jansen. Michael Jordan. Rudy Ruettiger. Yankee pitcher Jim Abbott.  Jorge Posada.  Yankee Prospect Ty Hensley.  And yes… Derek Jeter.  Believe, fight, win.

2014 wasn’t our year, but losers don’t pack up and go home. Losers dig deep to find that flame again.  The Yankees will be back ladies and gentlemen as a team and even though Derek Jeter won’t be there, it doesn’t mean we fold.  The tradition is there.  The character and leadership is there. We will be back and come Opening day, when the New York Yankees take the field… guess who else will be there… all of us.

We’re the New York Yankees…. We’re family. We’re winners and will will rise again. I know that… and I know you know that too.

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ROOTING FOR THE BELIEVER

I am a father who has a love for my family so great, I just want to see my children achieving big things in their lives.  I like to see my kids “win” and bringing home the trophy, but sometimes that doesn’t happen. Hey, that’s life.  Sure, at that point kids, and even adults, want to quit. They become frustrated.  They believe they "Can't." But it’s the believer that steps back and says, “You know what, next time I WILL win.”  To me, they’ve won already because they know they CAN, it just may be that that time, they didn’t.

Believing is half the battle.  Anyone that has read Bleeding Yankee Blue since the beginning knows that I root for the believer.  I root for the underdog, because, quite honestly, I believe that if they are there, they have a chance.  There are so many athletes in history that may not been the obvious choice for a champion, but they were there and sometimes they won it all. I applaud that.  You can go through history and list dozens.  But there are a few that stick out in my mind, just because of what I remember, and the feeling I felt for those athletes when they were in the big moment. They knew they could achieve victory... you could see it in their eyes.

I remember Dan Jansen in the Olympics in 1994. The man had gone through tragedy losing his sister to leukemia years before and after competing in the Olympics in speed skating, he left the 1988 and 1992 Olympics with no medals, he was down and he was beaten... but he wasn't defeated. 

In 1994, he defied expectations and won the gold, only to dedicate it to his late sister. With time against him, he kept fighting and he believed he could... then, he did. I always found that courageous, as a high school kid watching this man and even today, years later.

I remember the media and the fans down on guys like Joe Torre and Jorge Posada, 1 a manager and 1 a catcher.  I remember the press suggesting both were not qualified to handle their jobs.  Both did though. Both became champions.  What the hell does the press know anyway? What do the doubters know? No one knows what’s inside a person, their abilities, their fire in their belly.  It's desire, ability, love of the game, and refusal to fail… all apply here.  

I think a lot about Ty Hensley, a first round draft pick for the New York Yankees in 2012.  Sure, that’s a great achievement, but he knew it didn’t stop there.  He knew he had to keep working hard. When he got hurt, he didn’t stop there either.  He battled, worked through his abdominal / hip injury, healed and he’s 100% ready to perform for the New York Yankees.

And even if the doubters come out and say, "Well, he'll never be great", let me explain something to those people; Ty, or Jorge or anyone with a goal, doesn't hear you.  Ty’s ready to do great things for the Yankees, because they took a chance on him.  He’s refused to fail.  Desire, ability, heart… the will to win.  The will to "want it."  Ty gets it. 

I believe in the underdog and I believe in the believer.  There were flashes in the pan that contributed huge in the past, all because they were given a shot and they held onto it and became winners when they saw a window of opportunity.  Shane Spencer had a nice run in New York. So did Aaron Small.  Jeremy Lin was a Knick a few years ago and no one gave the guy credit, until they noticed that he was more talented than anyone expected. Why? Because someone gave him a chance instead of him being benched and pushed aside.   He took the reigns and showed New York what he was all about.

It even applies to a guy named Dean Anna, a 27 year old minor leaguer with the ability to play, but no one but himself believed in him.  Now the Yankees do too. The Yankees signed the “Dean of Swing” this off-season and while his resume isn’t spectacular, they saw something in this young man; Desire, ability, love of the game and a refusal to fail.   

Anna gets knocked down but he gets back up.  Now look… No one knows what will happen with this kid and the Yankees.  The Yanks just signed Brian Roberts to man second base and most likely Anna’s shot will be limited.  Anna may be designated for assignment for all we know.  But he also may not. If he is though… what does that mean? Nothing! Especially if you believe. Anna believes in himself.  He’ll always have that fire and I appreciate that and you should too. 

Life is full of obstacles. You can either walk away from the mountain, or you can climb it.  I laugh at fans who think they have it all figured out.  The ones that see 1 strikeout in an at-bat and scream, “The guy’s a bum.”  I love this one, “He’s a full time minor leaguer, he doesn’t have a shot!” Are you serious?  Baseball is a game of failure and life is full of challenges.  We weren’t put on this earth to fail. We were put here to achieve.  Everyone is an underdog, until they win… then they’re a champion.  And let me also state something else… if you've never won that trophy, if you fall just alittle short but give it your all.  If you push hard, but you didn’t get the gold, know this… you’ve won already… because you never gave up on yourself.  In my eyes… that’s a champion.  Desire, ability, love of the game, heart...and refusal to fail.

All apply champ! Never give up, ever and no one can ever knock you down. 

I root for the believer, that’s me.

Thank you to all the Bleeding Yankee Blue readers for continued success.  You've made BYB the fastest growing Yankees fan site in the history of Yankees fandom.  Thanks for reading, sharing and enjoying. Follow me on Twitter @BleednYankeeBlu and join the group Bleeding Yankee Blue (Official) on Facebook, just type it in.

THE YANKEES WILL CRANE KICK THEIR WAY TO VICTORY

Hey Yankees... the time is now!  Our backs are against the wall.  We've been pushed around, humiliated, hassled and fought through plenty.  Now... we are exactly 3 1/2 out of the Wild Card.  The Oakland Athletics and the Tampa Bay Rays are ahead of us.  The Baltimore Orioles, led by the tough Buck Showalter... never goes down without a fight.  So, in the design of the Karate Kid... with nothing left in the tank but a few wins before today... it's time for the Yankees to make sure the Orioles stay down!


I've always been a fan of the movie with the guy who no one believes in.  But, in the spirit of confidence and determination, they believe in themselves.  That's why Jorge Posada has always been so appealing to me.  He was told he couldn't, yet, he did... a 5 time World Champion and one of the most loved Yankees of our time.

You know who was in the same boat at one point in his life? Yogi Berra.  I short Italian catcher with a lot of heart and a lot of talent and no one thought he'd ever make it.  But he did... and so did Casey Stengel and together, they made things happen.

Champions are made.  Not because someone says they're champions, but because of what they offer to a team.  Big moments...  big commitments... big confidence and in the end, they, or you, are standing on the top of the mountain.  There are people in your life, or players on the field that you see and say, "He's gonna make it."  I look at someone like Ty Hensley as a symbol of greatness.  I don't say that loosely.  I say it because if you look at what he's told us here at Bleeding Yankee Blue, read NEW TY HENSLEY INTERVIEW: CLIMBING THE MOUNTAIN, if you see the way this guy is fighting his way back from injury... you know he's going to one day be a champion.

The goal in life is to succeed... The goal in life is to never, EVER give up.  It doesn't matter if Bobby up the road told you yesterday on the Little League field that "You suck."  What matters is that you believe that you don't.  It doesn't matter if an injury throws a monkey wrench in your progress. What matters is that you can rehab and rise above it.  And it doesn't matter that the Yankees are 3 1/2 games out of the Wild Card.  What matters is that now... we rally!  We rally like the Yankees have rallied before.  We rally like Rocky Balboa when he beat Apollo Creed.  We rally like Dan Jansen in the 1994 Olympics...

(In Photo: Dan Jansen)
There are people that will tell you "You Can't". But need to to brush your shoulders off and say, "I can!"

The Yankees are at their "I Can" moment.  While this isn't Game 7 of the World Series... it's just as important, because right now... they need to win, sweep, fight and claw their way.  The Yankees haven't always played well this season and we were dealt a lot of bad cards this year.  But right now, they march with the soldiers they have.  They may not be the best, but they need to believe they are.

Today, and beyond, it's about confidence... and we will stand with them as Yankee fans, who love this club so much, that we can't bare to believe in anything less.

Today, we Crane kick the Orioles... we put them down and move forward.  There will more games and more Crane kicks... and we need to keep fighting... and we will... because we're the Yankees and we are making a run that we MUST have... not because someone's gonna hand it to us...... no. We're gonna make this run, because we want it and we will be champions again!

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