Here Comes Those Damn Yankees!

OPINION EDITORIAL

By: Daniel Jason Andrews

Only two words can describe the way in which the New
York Yankees finished the 2007 Major League Baseball
regular season: Wild Card. Yes that’s right, the
Yankees are entering the 2007 play-offs thanks to
clinching the American League Wild Card spot on the
26th of September of this year. Honestly, I have no
problem with the Yanks’ acquisition of the Wild Card,
I’m just happy that they even made it in to the
play-offs this year. Majority of fans around the
league love to degrade the team that enters the
post-season as Wild Cards as weak, vulnerable and very
easy to eliminate. In my view, the Wild Card spot has
brung the Yankees together in order to focus more on
proving the whole league wrong by demonstrating that
they are as strong as any of the Division Champions.
If you think Wild Cards are weak then you are very
mistaken. Of the last six World Series champions,
three of the teams entered the play-offs by clinching
the Wild Card. Only time will tell whether or not if
the Yankees will become the fourth team in seven years
to win the World Series, but they certainly have come
a long way.
I myself still can’t believe that the Yankees are
even one of the American League’s four play-off
representatives. If I remember correctly, dating back
to as early as April, the team was left for dead at
the bottom of American League standings. Even the
annual losers of the League, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays
won more games than they lost by the end of the first
month of the season. The Yanks were terrible, poor
pitching, poor hitting and worst of all the defense
looked as if they were chasing a wild cat on the
field. For instance, Derek Jeter was making uncommon
errors, the pitching staff seemed liked it was
throwing Batting Practice to opponents and even
Mariano Rivera seemed to have resembled a forty-eight
year old veteran on the mound lacking both dominance
and passion. That first month was easily a good excuse
for team owner George Steinbrenner to fire Manager Joe
Torre as he been wanting to do for seasons past. Every
time a game was scheduled to come on I would rather
just wait to read the results the morning rather than
to see for myself. The only bright spot for the first
half of the season was the show MVP-candidate Alex
Rodriguez was putting on. His effort instilled a
little hope in to the team and fans alike, probably
even foreshadowing that the Yanks would have turn
things around later in the year.
Thanks to the three day vacation provided by
the All-Star break, the Yankees were then brought back
to life as well as regaining the attention of their
fans, including myself. As the remainder of the season
went on the Yankees began to improve and as a result
ratings went up, merchandise sales increased and fans
were once again to claim the Yanks as their number one
team. I remember ths season really turned around,
probably even foreshadowing what the result can be of
a possible play-off match-up. The Yanks swept the Los
Angeles Angels, a key October rival that has
eliminated th Yankees in the post-season in 2002 and
2005. Since the break, the Yanks have the best record
in the American League mainly thanks to Rodriguez and
Jorge Posada coming through with clutch hits and Andy
Pettite leading the way for the pitching staff. Not to
mention the return of the old Mariano Rivera that we
have all come to know and love. Another major asset to
the Yankees clinching the Wild Card have been the
rookies that have been called up way before they were
mature enough. Rookies including Phil Hughes, Joba
Chamberlain, Ian Kennedy and Shelly Duncan. I remember
Shelly Duncan’s second game as a Yankee where he hit
his first home run and received his first curtain
call. The addition of the rookies give this year the
same feeling I got when the Yankees won it all in the
season 1996.
Just as any fan, I don’t know how far the
Yankees will go in the post-season, but can only hope
for the best. It has definitely been a season of ups
and downs with a World Series title making it all
better. I mean what else can a fan ask for than a team
that has so much diversity as well as chemistry that
never learned how to give up. To tell you the truth, I
thought that the Yankees were just waiting out the
rest of the season, just giving the rookies a.k.a..
Baby Bombers a chance to play. I was defiantly wrong
about the Yankees plan but I’m still hoping that my
World Series prediction comes true. Now, I’m going to
say this for myself and fans throughout the world: GO
Yanks!