Christopher Ferrick-Manley
Staff Reporter
By the time the second issue of the McDaniel Free Press hits the campus, the Boston Red Sox will have clinched their fifth playoff berth in six years and the New York Yankees will be officially eliminated from postseason contention for the first time in 13 years.
Yankee Stadium is scheduled for demolition in the offseason, so Hank and Hal Steinbrenner can allow their lackey, the appropriately named Brian Cashman, to pump more money into players like Carl Pavano and Kevin Brown.
The Yankees are now the team saddled with a curse. The “Curse of Alex Rodriguez”, the only player in MLB history to have upstaged more World Series games then he actually played in. Including his 3-year stint with the Texas Rangers, every team with A-Rod has gotten progressively worse the following year.
The most likely opponent for the Red Sox, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, is a very good matchup for the Red Sox. This is the same franchise that has lost nine straight postseason games to the Sox dating back to 1986 and plays in a very uncompetitive division (with Texas, Oakland, and Seattle).
Futhermore, the Angels record setting closer, Francisco Rodriguez, has imploded in the Red Sox 3-game sweeps in the 2004 and 2007 ALDS’s. In 2004 he was 0-2, with losses in games 2 and 3. In 2007, he gave up a 3-run walk-off homerun to Manny Ramirez (now on the Los Angeles Dodgers with ex-Yankee manager Joe Torre) in game 2. The Red Sox should also clinch in plenty of time to have their top three starters: Josh Beckett, Daisuke Matsuzaka, and Jon Lester available to pitch the first three games.
As for the National League, the Chicago Cubs are favored for the first time in 100 years. Smart money expects them to choke it away however (see Bartman, Steve).
To the Yankees, who will be watching the playoffs on TV for the first time in Derek Jeter’s career, we can only offer one sentence of advice however. Wait til next year.
The New York Yankees are not the team they used to be. After winning the 1998, 1999, and 2000 World Series, the Yankees were deemed a Dynasty and “the team of the Century”. With the turn of the new millennium, the Yankees were fully expected to continue their domination. Yet this decade has been anything but domination Yankees.
It all started in 2001, when Mariano Rivera and the Yankees lost a heartbreaker to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Returning to the Series in 2003, after Aaron Boone beat the Red Sox with a dramatic home run in the ALCS, the Yankees lost to the pesky Florida Marlins.
The year 2004 was the changing of the guard. The Boston Red Sox made history by coming back and beating the Yankees in 7 games after a 3-0 deficit, something no professional team has done for any sport. They broke the infamous curse of the Bambino by going on to win the World Series. Yes, the Red Sox are the most direct cause of the Yankees’ demise.
This season, the Yankees have been plagued with injuries. Their starting left fielder Hideki Matsui, their ace pitcher Chien-Ming Wang, and their trusted catcher Jorge Posada, the backbone of their team, have all gone down for large portions of the season. The Yankees have been unable to assemble a team like they had in the late ’90s, a team filled with reliable role-players as opposed to big-named egomaniacs like Gary Sheffield.
What it really comes down to this year, as it has in this decade of collapse, is pitching. They hit well with leaders like Derek Jeter and Bobby Abreue. Their ace for the year, Mike Mussina, does not even have 20 wins, and their next best pitcher Andy Pettite has been inconsistent.
With Torre gone, the new Yankees manager Joe Girardi is left to inherit a shambled, disjointed team. Expect Cashman to acquire new starting pitchers in the off-season, looking to play in their newly built stadium with a new and improved team, with new hope.