New York Yankees Fans Don’t Need to Sweat Slow Start
This is certainly not the way New York Yankees fans envisioned the season starting. The Tampa Bay Rays are a good squad so it was never out of the question that a game could be dropped in the season opening series. Hell, maybe even two games. However, after the New York Yankees suffered a sweep at the hands of their division rival. I’m sure there are more than a few fans suffering through some degree of worry or frustration. I’m here to tell you that the New York Yankees will be just fine and that there is need to elevate your blood pressure.
CC Sabathia gets knocked around, Hiroki Kuroda got slammed, Mariano Rivera blows a game in the ninth, the offense gets shut down and shut out in the finale. It wasn’t a very fun three days. On the bright side, at least Phil Hughes showed some signs of life. I can understand why a fan might be a bit frustrated, but I want to urge them to let it slide. I won’t lie, three or four years ago, I’d be right there with you. I probably wouldn’t be inching toward the edge of the bridge, but I would have been thinking “Oh sh*t, this isn’t the year where Mo runs out of gas, is it?” I would have been screaming at Brian Cashman about trading Jesus Montero. Never mind that the latter is currently hitting .200 or the fact that Cashman can’t hear me no matter how intense my temper-tantrum gets. At 25 though, I’m a changed fan.
Back during the 2009 season I interned at Baseball Info Solutions (if you watch enough Baseball Tonight, you’ll probably hear them mentioned throughout the season). On a daily basis during those six months, I either watched every single pitch of a Yankees game or was made aware of every single significant play. In other words, there was no “let me just ignore them until they get hot in June” sort of mindset. I had to endure the tortuous 0-8 start against the Boston Red Sox and all of the other early season “gloom and doom”. As we all know, that worked out just fine in the end. My point is, the season is WAY too long to get bent out of shape at this point – and like I said, I know there are people ranting and raving as I type this.
Speaking of those Red Sox – who got slammed even harder over the weekend – we saw them get off to a horrendous start in 2011, but they were still a playoff team if not for a delicious September collapse. The New York Yankees will be just fine. If things are looking ugly by the All-Star break then I’ll start to get agitated. Until then though, just be patient and let them hit their stride.
For more positive points of view concerning the New York Yankees, follow me on Twitter @craigmwilliams.
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