Yankees Suck posts

MICHAEL: Before we wrap this up here, can I just put something out into the universe—like the secret? I just want to put something out into the universe. I just want to remind anyone who might be listening who works in the Dodgers organization of a truth about the universe, okay? Giancarlo Stanton has never once in his entire career made contact with a slider. If you throw Giancarlo Stanton a fastball, he will hit it 520 feet. So in my opinion, in my humble opinion, it would be a better idea to throw Giancarlo Stanton sliders. It would be more optimal for the Dodgers to throw him sliders low and away than it would be to throw him fastballs belt high on the inner half.

JOE: What would you think about throwing two sliders low and away that he swings at and misses and then throw three balls out of the zone and then throw a fastball? How would that work?

MICHAEL: I was with you until you got to the point where you throw him the fastball. Here's the way I would suggest you approach Giancarlo Stanton. I would throw him a slider low and away.

JOE: Yep.

MICHAEL: Then on the next pitch, I would throw him a slider low and away.

JOE: OK, good.

MICHAEL: And then as a change up, as a way to like throw him off balance ... I would throw him a slider low and away.

JOE: And then what would you do if he just said, “No, I'm not swinging.”

MICHAEL: It's a great question. I would throw him a slider low and away.

JOE: OK.

MICHAEL: Followed by two sliders low and away.

JOE: Yes.

MICHAEL: And then a slider low and away. And let me say one other thing. At some point, Dodgers pitchers, you may be thinking to yourself—because this is how you were trained as a pitcher—“I need to,” and I quote, “establish the fastball,” end quote. And what I would say to you, Dodger pitchers, “No, you don't.”

JOE: Right.

MICHAEL: You don't. You do not need to establish anything. What you need to do is throw a slider that starts at the knees on the outer half and breaks out of the zone. And if it doesn't work, you should do it 50 more times.

-- Michael Schur and Joe Posnanski, on the latest Poscast, with midseason vaudeville comic timing. It's an exchange that made me very, very happy.

I guess I'll have to take down my sign: 

THE WORLD SERIES: YANKEE-FREE SINCE 2009

They were so close to breaking their own record, too! No one's talking about that. Since they acquired Babe Ruth in 1920 and made the World Series for the first time in 1921, and then became the most successful, insufferable and loathed team on the planet, the New York Yankees have had the following gaps in terms of pennants:

• 2 seasons (1924-25)
• 3 seasons (1929-31)
• 3 seasons (1933-35)
• 1 season (1940)
• 3 seasons (1944-46)
• 1 season (1948)
• 1 season (1954)
• 1 season (1959)
• 11 seasons (1965-1975)
• 2 seasons (1979-80)
• 14 seasons (1982-1995)
• 1 season (1997)
• 1 season (2002)
• 5 seasons (2004-2008)
• 14 seasons (2010-2023)

Another season and they would've broken their own post-Babe Ruth record for futility!

Although ... maybe they did? Shouldn't the 1982-95 dearth eliminate '94 since no World Series was played? In which case, that era went pennantless for 13 seasons, and the Hal Steinbrenner group did 14. We have a new WEINER! And it's pinstriped!

This is the match-up the networks wanted, and some fans wanted, but it's not what I or Michael Schur wanted. The Yankees won their 41st pennant, the Dodgers their 22nd—and the Dodgers are second in all of Major League Baseball. That's how much the Yankees are ahead of everyone.

Actually this is how much the Yankees are ahead of everyone. The Dodgers have a chance to win their eighth World Series title, which would tie them with the Giants for fifth all-time, behind: the Red Sox and A's (nine each), the Cardinals (11), and the Yankees ... who have 27. Twenty-seven. Nearly three times as many as the second-place team. Rooting for them is like rooting for Jeff Bezos to get a tax cut.

Anyway, I'll be rooting for Shohei and the LA Dodgers, and hoping that my new sign, “THE WORLD SERIES: YANKEE-FREE SINCE 2024,” will have a long, long, long life.

 Are the Yankees better with a captain?

The other day the unofficial SABR daily quiz, Horsehide trivia, began a question talking about the 16th captain in New York Yankees history.

I was like, “Sixteenth? There've been 16 of those guys?” I could only name a handful: Gehrig, Munson, Jeter, Judge. But yes, according to Wiki, there've been 16. It helped that they had one every year from 1903 to 1925. That ended when they released Everett Scott and (presumably) didn't want to tap bad-boy Babe Ruth again, who'd been captain in 1922. But after a 10-year gap they anointed nice-guy Lou Gehrig, then seemed to retire the captain title, along with his uniform number (the first in MLB so retired), when Gehrig developed ALS and died young in 1941. But no, they resurrected it in 1976 for Thurman Munson ... who died young when he crashed his plane in August 1979.

You'd think that would be the end of it: back-to-back untimely deaths for Yankee captains. Nope. In the 1980s, Graig Nettles was tapped, and then we got the co-captaincy of Willie Randolph and Ron Guidry. Donnie Baseball took up the mantle in the 1990s. This century we've gotten Jeter and Judge.

You notice anything about those post-Munson captains? Something of interest to Yankee haters like myself? 

• Graig Nettles (1982-84)
• Randolph/Guidry (1986-88)
• Don Mattingly (1991-95)
• Derek Jeter (2003-14)
• Aaron Judge (2023-?)

They don't win much when they have a post-Munson captain. Ignoring this season, since it ain't over, 24 seasons are represented, with just two pennants and one World Series title to the Yankees name—both during Jeter's reign, and paltry numbers for Yankee fans.

Put another way: In the 121-year history of the modern World Series, the Yankees have won 40 pennants and 27 titles, meaning they win a pennant 33% of the time and a title 22% of the time. And sure, post-Munson, those numbers drop off to 18% and 11%; but when the Yankees have an official captain, it's much, much worse: 8% and 4%.

Like this:

So let's have more Yankee captains.

I saw it on the New York Times site first. Something about the Yankees? And it was good? A pitcher ... oh, crap! No! Who did he do it against? Of course. Had to be. Uccckhh.

I always liked that King Felix was the last MLB pitcher to throw a perfect game—way back in August 2012, when the world was young—but now that the world is old and haggard that honor belongs to the Yankees' Domingo German. He did it last night, against the hapless A's, before a tiny crowd in Oakland. He's the 24th pitcher to ever throw a perfect game—or 22nd if you ignore the 19th century, which I do. It's also the fourth time the Yankees have been involved in a perfect game, and, shocker, they're 4-0. In the win column, no other team is close. Isn't that sad? Even in this narrow category of ballyhoo, where, say, both Cleveland and Philadelphia are good, the Yankees still dominate everybody. Can't we have one nice thing ever? 

Here are the standings:

Last night the Yanks won 11-0, and apparently that's a record for most runs in a perfecto. This one will probably set another record, too, but we'll have to wait until October to find out. Right now, the worst team that's been on the losing end of one of these, at least in terms of season-long winning percentage, is the 1964 NY Mets, victims of Jim Bunning, who went 53-109 (.327). Second worst is the 2012 Astros, blanked by Matt Cain, who went 55-107 (.339), followed by the '81 Blue Jays, who lost to Len Barker and went 37-69 (.349) in that strike-shortened season.

The 2023 Oakland A's are currently 21-62 (.253). They're on pace to shatter the mark.

Joe Posnanski wasn't happy with the result, either.

“As an example, let's take mildness, which Aristotle describes as 'the mean concerned with anger.' ... Without any anger, if we saw something cruel—like a bully picking on an innocent kid—we might just stand there, slack-jawed and drooling, rather than responding with an appropriate amount of indignation. But if we have way too much anger, we might grab the bully and dropkick him into a lake and then grab his whole family and dropkick them into the lake and then burn their house down. The golden mean of anger—which, again, Aristotle calls ”mildness“—represents an appropriate amount of anger, reserved for the right situations, to be directed at people who deserve it. Like fascists, or corrupt politicians, or anyone associated with the New York Yankees.”

-- Michael Schur, “How to Be Perfec: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question.” I like that he then provides a footnote, and you think it's going to be a kind of J/K comment. Instead: “Ethically speaking, Yankees players and fans deserve an excessive amount of anger. It's the only exception Aristotle allows for. Don't try to look it up in Ethics; it's in a different book. I forget which one, but it's in one of them.”

Talking with friends, I became aware that the Yankees had won their 28th world championship. This was on the heels of a greater awfulness, probably political, which is why I hadn't really been paying attention to baseball. And maybe because I hadn't been paying attention to baseball, I allowed it to happen: 28 titles and ... how many pennants? 41? (Yes, they're on 40 now.) They'd started the season poorly, and some part of me was already counting this year as another World Series-less year for the team—their ... 14th in a row? (Yes, 2022 was 13 in a row.) And that's historic territory. And now all gone. And now we'd have to start over. Was I talking to Tim about it? In some residential woods? About how his friend Bill and all other Yankees fans would now get all their “28” merch, and that would add to the Yankees' coffers, and allow them to get even more and better players, and continue the dynasty, and ... Fuck!

It had begun with an early-season trade with a lesser team, the Giants or something, for infielders. Never trade with the Yankees! Stupid Giants. There were also hints something nefarious had happened mid-season, somebody who knew too much about Yankee history, or Aaron Judge, had been found dead, and, though murky, in the dream I accepted that it had been a hit, like some kind of Latin American coup, and now Judge and Yankees were bigger and more unstoppable than ever. They'd beaten my Mariners in the ALCS, and I'd been at the game that got the Mariners there. I flashed on sitting in the bleachers (where I never sit), and seeing a homerun land nearby, and rooting on the Ms even though in my heart I knew the Indians/Guardians had a better chance to stop the Yankees. But I'd rooted for the Ms and that helped the Yankees. And now, tomorrow morning when I woke up, there would be a moment when I didn't quite remember why I felt awful; and then the awfulness would hit me anew. On top of the greater, political awfulness. 

I was at the edge of the woods now, in a residential area, and watched a bullmastiff excitedly pulling his owner across the street and toward the woods.

The 2022 Yankees are done—swept in the ALCS by Houston: 4-2, 3-2, 5-0, 6-5. They led for a half an inning in Game 1 and for 2 1/2 innings yesterday and that was it. Whenever the Yankees went on top, Houston scored right back—like the Yankees used to do. The Astros beat them in the ALCS in 2017, 2019 and 2022. They keep breaking their hearts—the way the Yankees used to keep breaking ours.

Their hitting was anemic. Sure, hitting has been at a premium this postseason, what with these great starters and monster bullpens—these no-name middle relievers who come out for an inning and throw 100 mph with 90 mph breaking stuff, only to hand the ball over to the next no-name guy who can do the same. But even with that, the Yankees hitting was anemic. Here are the four LCS teams:

• Astros: .238/.326/.429
• Phillies: .237/.296/.494
• Padres: .202/.256/.333
• Yankees: .162/.232/.269

The Phillies slugged nearly .500, the Yankees couldn't slug .300. They weren't even close to .300. And sure, Astros pitching. But in the ALDS, against the same guys, and despite that 18-inning shutout, the Mariners still had a better line: .195/.265/.313.

Just think about where they were earlier this summer. In mid-June, I was resigning myself to another Yankees pennant and probable title. They had a .750 winning percentage, were projected to win 122 games, were seemingly unstoppable. And then they were stopped. Judge kept soaring but the bottom fell out on the rest of the team. He held them up. But not here. In four games, he went 1-16. The one was a single. He was booed by the hometown fans. Not sure what that does to his value. Before, I couldn't imagine the Yankees not trying to sign him. Now? “What does he do in October?” That's the Yankees fan question. And the most recent answer for Judge is 1-16.

We're in historic territory. These are the three longest pennant droughts the Yankees have had since they bought Babe Ruth for $100k on Dec. 26, 1919:

• 11 seasons: 1965-1975
• 13 seasons: 2010-2022*
• 14 seasons: 1982-1995

*active

I'll enjoy it while I can. Take us out, Carey. Start spreading the news.

So there's still some good news in the world.

Yesterday, the Houston Astros no-hit the New York Yankees, who have otherwise been rampaging through the league this season like Biff Tannen on a bender. It's not exactly a David-and-Goliath story (the Astros have been perennials since 2015, won the World Series in 2017, and infamously cheated throughout), and it wasn't even a true no-hitter, with one pitcher standing tall throughout. Astros starter Christian Javier went 7, struck out 13 and walked 1, but by then he'd thrown a career-high 115 pitches and Dusty Baker pulled him for an inning of Hector Neris (20 pitches, 0 Ks, 2 BBs) and an inning of closer Ryan Pressly (15 pitches, 2 Ks, no BBs). Now normally I'm not down with combined no-hitters but in this case I'll take it. For a day, the New York Yankees were shut down and shut up.  There's joy in that.

When was the last time the New York Yankees were no-hit? Turns out, June 11, 2003, also by the Houston Astros, and also with a combined no-hitter: six pitchers back then. Before that, you'd have to go all the way back to 1958 when the Orioles' Hoyt Wilhelm beat them 1-0. He's the last single pitcher to no-hitter the Bronx Bombers.

There's a very helpful website detailing all of this. The Yanks have only been no-hit eight times, and by some sterling names: not just Wilhelm, but Cy Young and Bob Feller. They were no-hit three times in the deadball era (before they really became the New York Yankees), and then not again until Feller in '46. Then Virgil Trucks in '52 and Wilhelm in '58. Those are truly impressive no-hitters, since those Yankee teams were, like this Yankee team, dominant. That may be the most interesting aspect of all of this. The Yankees weren't no-hit in, say, 1966, when they finished last in the American League, or in 1968, when no one could hit, or during the early '90s when they were rebuilding. They were no-hit in seasons when they went 87-67 (and finished third), 95-59 (and won the World Series), 92-62 (and won the World Series), and 101-61 (and won the AL pennant). These were no-slouchers getting no-hit. 

So how does the eight times the Yankees have been no-hit stack up against other teams? Fairly well, according to the website. The Dodgers and Phillies hold the record with being no-hit 20 times each. The fewest has been the KC Royals, who came into existence in 1969, with two (one vs. Nolan Ryan, which is like a bye). Meanwhile, my Mariners, who are 75 years younger than the Yanks, have been no-hit about the same number of times, seven, and, again, and oddly, not during our horrific beginnings, but in, say, 1996 when we had a Hall of Fame lineup Griffey, A-Rod, Edgar, Buhner, etc. Five of the seven have happened during the last 10 years, and four since 2019. I was at one of them. All of that makes sense. We've been hitless wonders, emphasis on hitless. 

Of the original 16 franchises, the Cubs, of all teams, have been no-hit the fewest times: just seven.

Anyway, for a day, there's joy in Mudville, the mighty Yankees have struck out. In this season, and in this year, I'll take it.

Sad Yankee fan, 2021

In the wake of their 6-2 loss to the Boston Red Sox in the one-game AL Wild Card playoff, Yankee fans are wringing their hands and calling for heads—chiefly manager Aaron Boone, but also GM Brian Cashman, pitcher Gerrit Cole, who didn't get out of the third inning (and whom the New York Post called Gerrit Bleepin' Cole and the staid New York Times refered to as the team's “nominal” ace), and assorted cast and crew—but one thing you can say for Boone: this team did better than it should have. By Pythagorean standards, they should've gone 86-76 instead of 92-70. They actually had the lowest run differential of any AL postseason team (+42) and the second-lowest, to the Cardinals' +34, of any of the playoff teams. Not sure if beating the Pythagorean speaks to smart managerial moves or just luck, but this definitely ain't your great-grandfather's Murderers' Row. 

You've got Aaron Judge, you've got Giancarlo Stanton sometimes. Both are .200/.300/.500 guys. The rest of the team? Most of the regulars were .200/.300/.300 this year. They're a dull three-outcome team: HR, BB, K. The Yanks were sixth in the Majors in HRs with 222; first in walks with 621; and sixth in strikeouts with 1,482. That's their game. Elsewhere, they ranked 23rd in team batting average, and a lot of that was just because of the dingers. If you break down the other hits, they ranked 20th in singles, 29th (to the Mariners) in triples, and, shockingly, dead last in doubles. The team they just lost to? The Red Sox? They finished first in doubles—clobbering 117 more than the Bronx Bombers. 

I know: Fenway. But generally the BoSox were a way better hitting team, ranking third in BA, sixth in singles, twelfth in triples and tenth in homers. They had a balanced offense. They had more than three outcomes. 

Me, I'm a huge fan of this outcome. Yes, I would've liked it more if the Yankees had missed the playoffs, or had a losing record, or, you know, gone 0-162; but I'll take it. The team's pennant drought now stands at 12 seasons, which ain't much for most teams, but is the second-longest pennant drought for the Yankees since the day they bought Babe Ruth in 1920. Only the shitty Steinbrenner years, 1982-1995, 14 seasons, eclipses it. Fun times. Take us out, Carey. 

In a world of many small defeats, it's important to celebrate the big defeats of perennial winners like the New York Yankees. 

The Yankees have been a hugely streaky team this year. Predicted by many (including me) to win the AL pennant for the first time since 2009, they started out poorly, revived, dithered, then put together one of the longest win steaks in team history—a lucky 13 games from August 14 to August 27. I was in New York for some of that and I could see fans growing confident again, wearing the caps and shirts again. This was the real Yankees, damnit! But all streaks must come to an end and this one did with a 3-2 loss to Oakland on August 28. “A loss is a loss,” said Aaron Judge, who hit a 2-run homer in the 9th to no avail. “It's time to start another streak, that's all.” Which they did—but not in the way he meant. They lost four in a row. Then they won two. Then they lost seven in a row. The 13-0 team had quickly become a 2-11 team. 

The num-num moment of this period was a four-game series with the Toronto Blue Jays at New Yankee Stadium. The Blue Jays have some of the best young hitters in the game (Vlad Jr., Bichette Jr., Gurriel Jr.) but the team has massively underperformed this year. They've had a huge 100+ run differential but have floundered back of the wild card pack, seemingly out of it. Last Sunday, the day before Labor Day, they were 4.5 games back of the Yankees, whose run differential was less than half theirs.

But the Blue Jays won the first game in resounding fashion, 8-0. They won the second, 5-1, off Yankees ace Gerritt Cole. They won the third 6-3 and were leading the fourth 2-0 in the 6th inning when Anthony Rizzo went deep for the pinstripes to tie it up. Aw, too bad, I thought. But the Jays scored another in the 7th, another in the 8th, and two more in the 9th to win it 6-4 and sweep the Bombers in the Bronx.

That's a rarity. But that's not the big defeat I referenced. The big defeat is this: the Yankees never held the lead in any of those games. 

When was the last time the Yankees lost a four-game series, anywhere, without once holding the lead? Would you believe 1924?

As a result, the AL Wild Card has gotten interesting. Friday night's games tightened things further, with the top three teams (BoSox, Yankees, Blue Jays) losing and the bottom two (A's, my own, young, unheralded, no-name Seattle Mariners) winning, so all five were within two games of each other. Last night the reverse: top three won, bottom two lost. It's going to be a bumpy ride. Three weeks left. 

Over the years I've written a lot about the how, why and when of the New York Yankees sucking. It started with the 61* reasons in The Grand Salami in the early 2000s, and I added more as I learned more: the org's historic racism, treating the KC A's like its farm club, David Cone's faux outrage speech against the Mariners in 1998, more historic racism, Derek Jeter's parting gifts, etc. etc. It should be a book. Maybe it will be.

But it's worth reiterating the No. 1 reason why the Yankees suck: They win. They win all the fucking time. They are the sports symbol of our horribly unequal society—U.S. Steel and Amazon.com all rolled into one. Rooting for them is like rooting for white people. A Yankee pennant or championship is like a Republican tax cut: It benefits the people who need it least.

It's worth reiterating all this now because the Yankees are in the midst of one of their longest pennant droughts. 

First, a little history.

The Yankees started out as a shoddy little organization called the Highlanders that didn't have its own ballpark for a few years; they had to make do with the Giants' ballpark. They were one of the last teams to win a pennant—the lucky 13th of the original 16 teams to do so. It took 18 seasons. That is still their longest pennant drought.

Then on Jan. 5, 1920 they purchased Babe Ruth for $125,000. Here are the Yankees pennantless runs since that day.

* Active

Just how dominant were the Yankees in their 1920-1964 heyday? For nearly half a century, Yankee fans never had to suffer for four staight years without a pennant. Not once. Put it this way: If, on Jan. 5, 1920, you'd told Yankee fans that for the next 45 years they could win a pennant every other year—every other year for 45 years—or they could let things play out as the fates allowed, I'm sure most would've chosen the former. And they would've shortchanged themselves. In these 45 seasons, the Yankees won 29 pennants and the rest of the AL combined won 16:

Ah, but the fun part. Some combination of new CBS ownership and longstanding racist policies led to their downfall. By 1966, the Yankees were the worst team in the AL. Good times. I like how, immediately after the Yankee Years ended, four Have-Nots stepped up to win pennants: Senators/Twins, Browns/Orioles, Red Sox and Tigers. And the first team to dominate was the team that had the least. Before 1966, the Orioles franchise had been to the World Series just once and lost. That was it. Then, in the next six years, they won four pennants and two titles. Then it was on to another Have-Not, the Oakland A's, which won three pennants and three championships in three years. No team besides the Yankees has ever done that. Then the Sox and their memorable '75 Series. And then, crap, back to the Yankees. Oh well. Fun while it lasted.

Indeed, even after the Yankee Years ended, who has been the most dominant team in baseball? Sadly:

Which is why we need to enjoy the Yankees' current pennant drought. Sure, it doesn't hold a candle to the Mariners' current drought (44 seasons and counting), or the Pirates (41 seasons), Brewers (38), Orioles (37), A's and Reds (30). Hell, almost half the Majors have longer current pennant droughts than the Yankees. But for the Yankees, this is still historically bad territory—their second worst drought since the day they bought Babe Ruth. Enjoy.

Read the body language: Chapman: Uh oh; Brosseau: Oh, yeah.

And here endeth the lesson. And the Yankees' season.

And the Tampa Bay Rays have joined the pantheon! 

I don't have cable, because Comcast, and I don't subscribe to MLB TV because it's not user-friendly and doesn't allow you to watch your home team. So in normal years I usually go to my local bar, Quarter Lounge, and watch postseason games there. It's a fun crowd. Well, this isn't a normal year, and if Covid hadn't ended the Quarter Lounge then redevelopment already would have. It was scheduled to go under the wrecking ball in August. Not sure when I was last at the QL. February? I left not knowing I would never be back.

Long way of saying I “watched” the do-or-die Game 5 of the ALDS between the Tampa Bay Rays and the New York Yankees via ESPN.com's play-by-play gamecast. I expected to watch just a little of it, but I was editing copy, and it was a good background image, and oddly riveting. The Yankees' $324 million pitcher, Gerrit Cole, aquired in the off-season, started on three-days rest for the first time in his career and seemed to be flubbing it. In the first innning he scattered two walks and a HBP to load the basess but got out of the jam. Still I was looking at his pitch count—something like 26 pitches that inning—and was hoping for a quick exit. But he settled down. Bottom of the second, he struck out the side. Bottom third, 2 Ks and a popout. You went back to the first and realized nobody had hit the ball out of the infield yet. That wouldn't happen until the bottom of the fourth, which would've been another 1-2-3 inning save an E-6. So he still had the no-hitter going. 

Meanwhile, in the top of the fourth, Aaron Judge sliced a leadoff homer to right. 1-0, Yanks. 

The Rays answered in the bottom of the fifth: Austin Meadows hit one to right, Judge had a bead on it, leaped, and crashed his head into padding that was overhanging the wall. Home run! I'm no Yankees fan, by any means, but the overhang thing seems way stupid. Guys have been leaping and bringing back homeruns forever, and it's a great highlight, and this impedes that. It's dangerous. I hope the Judge is OK.

But that made it 1-1. Rays kept using pitchers for two, two-plus innings. Their no-name squad. Someone really needs to do a “Moneyball” on the Rays org. Year after year, with no money and barely a fan base, they compete and thrive. Would love to see how they do it. (Here's the beginning of an answer from Eno Harris at The Athletic.)

In the sixth, Yankees got two on but didn't score. In the sixth, Rays chased Cole and got two on and didn't score. Just one baserunner in the seventh (Mike Zunino, E-5) for both teams. Top of the eighth, Judge walked but didn't move. And that set up the bottom of the eighth.

With one out, while Mike Brosseau battled Aroldis Chapman, I thought, idly, hopefully, “Hey, a run here and the Yanks will be three outs from the end of their season. Wouldn't that be great?” Brosseau wasn't even a starter. He's 26, this is his second year in the Majors, and he's had fewer than 250 plate appearances career. I guess he's brought in to face lefties. He's got exactly as many plate appearances against lefties as righties (120 for each) but his OPS against lefties is higher by 200 points. He's got 11 career homers—eight against lefities.

Chapman is a lefty. 

If Brosseau was known for anything it was a Chapman incident last month. The Yankees had been losing to the Rays all year, but they had a 5-3 lead with two outs in the ninth on Sept. 1 when Chapman threw a 101-mph at Brosseau's head. Yes, at his head. It was a punk move, and when Brosseau struck out to end the game, apparently the Yanks engaged in some trash talking—another punk move—and benches cleared. It wasn't the beginning of the bad blood but it was a nasty part of it.

So that was the background; that was the history. Friday, Chapman got him 0-2 quickly, then Brosseau worked it to a 3-2 count, and kept battling. Here's the full at-bat, the 10-pitch at-bat. Chapman was battling, too. Only one of the balls was obviously a ball. The others were just off the plate. A worse umpire might've called them strikes. But Brosseau worked it and worked it and worked it. And on the 10th pitch he went deep. As longtime Yankee left-fielder Brett Gardner positioned himself to grab it if it bounced off the wall, it landed and rattled around about two rows deep in the empty Covid-era seats. If I'd been at the QL, I would've been going crazy. I would've been high-fiving guys. Instead, I just walked into the living room, where Patricia was watching one of her shows, and said, with a stupid smile on my face, “The Rays are ahead.” 

But still the ninth. The middle of that lineup. Giancarlo Stanton, who's had, what, six homers this postseason, led off, and reliever Diego Castillo started out 2-0. Yikes. Then three straight strikes. All looking. Shades of Carlos Beltran. Next up, Luke Voit, who led the Majors in homers this year. K inserted, as a famous, departed announcer once said. That left Yanks 3B Gio Ursella, who'd had a good season and a bad postseason. And he didn't throw away his shot. First pitch, he rifled it toward left field—but 3B Joey Wendle leaned to his right and speared it. And the celebrations began. These kids deserve more. They deserve crowds. Maybe next year.

Biut now we can add the Rays to the pantheon of teams that have knocked out the mighty New York Yankees and helped us all sleep a little better. Since 2001:

• D-Backs, Angels, Marlins, Red Sox, Angels (2)
• Tigers, Indians, n/a, 27, Rangers
• Tigers (2), Tigers (3), n/a, n/a, Astros
• n/a, Astros (2), Red Sox (2), Astros (3), Rays

Welcome to the party, pals. Carey, start spreading the news. 

“By default, I was a Mets fan, because I knew being a Yankee fan was the wrong thing to do morally.” - John Oliver pic.twitter.com/nXPHFSRafa

— Roger Cormier (@yayroger) May 26, 2019

There may be no greater sense of schadenfreude than following the social-media paroxysms of Yankee fans rending their garments and pointing their fingers after their team has been blissfully eliminated from yet another baseball season. As happened last night in the Bronx, 4-3 to the Boston Red Sox. 

No one points fingers like Yankee fans. The title was meant to be theirs, and now it's not, and someone has to take the blame. The main scapegoat this year is 2003 ALCS hero and first-time manager Aaron Boone, who waited obscenely long, like until the 4th inning, to pull starting pitchers; and then, particularly in Game 3—the 16-1 debaccle—didn't go to his top-notch relievers. Also getting the brunt: first-timer Giancarlo Stanton, who hit .222 (with a .444 OPS) over the four Boston games.

But of course there are others. Here's an eloquent Yankee fan on the subject:

100 wins, third-best record in baseball, ALDS: What else could describe that but disgrace? It's shit. Fans deserve an apology.

The mainstream press in New York doesn't exactly try to tamp down these emotions, either. 

Shame? Wow. I‘ll remember that in April. I’ll channel Batman ‘66: “Come back, Shame.”

Over at the Times, Tyler Kepner’s think piece seems more circumspect (“Against the Red Sox, the Yankees Simply Don't Measure Up”), but don't kid yourself. Here's the end of Tyler's second paragraph:

“That makes nine seasons in a row without a championship.”

That sentence just drips with a sense of entitlement. He's not even talking about a pennant—something two teams (Nats, M‘s) have never even seen. He’s talking championships. He's talking rings. Because to the Yankee mentality, that's all there is.

As a reminder—to me if not Tyler—here's the championship/title drought for every MLB team, and where the Yankees place on it:

* Have never won World Series championship
** Have never been to World Series

So 23 of the 30 MLB teams are in worse shape. And they don't have those oft-mentioned 27 rings and 40 pennants to keep them warm.

But that's why, of course, nine championship-less seasons seem an eternity for the Yankee fan. Indeed, since 1923, when the Yankees won their first World Series championship after buying Babe Ruth and most of the best of the Boston Red Sox, they‘ve only had two title-less stretches longer than this: 17 seasons (between 1978 and 1996) and 14 seasons (between 1962 and 1977). The fourth longest, eight seasons, also took place in this century: between 2000 and 2009. Now this one has surpassed that.

So as Yankee-hating goes, this has actually been a pretty good time. Start spreadin’ the news. 

In case you‘re like some of my friends and don’t think this is of national import, the tweet below comes from the national correspondent of the Washington Post. 

Happy Sad Yankee Fan Day!

— Philip Bump (@pbump) October 10, 2018

Reading the schadenfreude on Twitter after the Yankees were eliminated by the Boston Red Sox last night, I have to admit: I didn't know there was so much of me in the world.