Wow, I’ve been MIA for a whole week… my poor blog has been abandoned and neglected. But in my defense, it CAN be difficult to keep this thing consistently updated. I mean, you guys should try it some time. You would all fail miserably. Mwahahahahaha! (Evil dictator laugh… that is NOT to say that I’m an evil dictator, of course… I just happen to laugh like one…) :)
So in case anyone hasn’t heard – the Yankees have clinched a spot in the playoffs! They’re moving on to the post-season! And, if by some miracle they can manage to win their last few games, and Boston loses theirs, they might even be AL East champions again. (Well, now that I’ve brought it up, I’ve completely jinxed it… so that won’t happen. I’ll just be happy with the wild card spot.)
Sadly, however, the end of regular season baseball is also the end of fantasy baseball. It was a disappointing year for me, as my offense started the season with all the power of a hamster in a little plastic ball. They scampered along for a couple months, struggling mightily, until they finally remembered they were men (I think) and not rodents. But by then it was too late, and I was firmly entrenched in the bottom half of the league. A few weeks ago, I took heart in the fact that I was quite safely in eighth place. I mean, I OWN eighth place. Eighth place is MINE. (No, it’s not quite as satisfying as ending up ten points out of first place like last year, but oh well.)
I’m just happy to see the Yankees in the post-season again, in another year when everyone counted them out in the middle of the season. But that’s something that I’ve learned about the Yankees – unless they’re wallowing in last place, twenty games back, with half the team on the DL, you CAN’T count them out. You never know what’s going to happen with them. Which is one of the reasons it’s so much FUN to follow them if you’re a fan. (And if you’re not a Yankee fan, it’s probably aggravating and annoying… and that’s why you should be a Yankee fan… come to the daaaaark siiiiide…)
Of course, when I first started following the Yankees, they weren’t very good at all. They were nowhere near the top of their division, they lost games every time my dad and Eric would go to Yankee Stadium, and I didn’t understand what the big deal was about baseball. It wasn’t until I went to a game myself – until I saw the Yankee Stadium grass and swore it was greener than the rest of the grass in the world – that I started to truly appreciate baseball.
And what’s more, the Yankees WON that very first game I attended. They also won the second game I attended. And the third. Even though they were playing horribly overall, I was convinced that my presence in the stands was the catalyst that brought them good luck. Even at that early juncture, before I understood all the rules or knew all the players’ names, I recognized the value of some good old fashioned baseball superstition. It was ME – I was the reason the Yankees won games. I was their good luck charm, and they didn’t even know it. Eventually they DID lose a game when I was in attendance, of course. Which left me trying to figure out what I’d done differently to change the course of the game…
Don Mattingly was playing when I first started following the Yankees… and Dave Winfield… and Rickey Henderson. And a couple guys named Mike Pagliarulo and Dave Righetti, who were known by the nicknames “Pags” and Rags.” I actually might never have known that had it not been for an unbelievably annoying ad that constantly aired in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area. It was a “come to Yankee Stadium and support your last place team!” kind of ad, and at the end, a little kid in a ball cap would exclaim, “Pags! Rags!” in a gratingly jarring way that made me want to throw Righetti’s baseball right at his or her little head. Apparently, I was supposed to set off to the stadium so I could see Pags and Rags in action, and that little kid wanted me to know how exciting it was. And that ad was SO annoying that I STILL remember it. Pags! Rags! Argh! Shut up!
Fortunately, it didn’t deter me from my Yankee addiction, and I can’t wait for the post-season to start. And if the Yankees lose, I’ll know exactly why – it’s because I (their good luck charm) wasn’t there…
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