New York Yankes — The First Place Jinx ?
Yankees fans may want the team to lose a little before the end of the season. If tradition stays the way it has over the last ten years the yankees may be taking an early exit from this year’s postseason. Over the last decade, the bigger the lead in the division during the regular season has resulted in first round losses in the post season. No one knows why this is. It may be the fact that the earlier a division title is sewn up, the less meaningless the games are afterwords. This causes complacency sets in and teams aren’t as motivated to play meaningful baseball when they know that they have already decide their postseason fate. This also allows teams that are scratching and clawing to get in to get hot at the right time and upset the mor e favored team. Two recent examples of this are the 2004 Red Sox and the 2007 Rockies. Both of these teams got hot at the right timaand were able to get in to the world series. And it’s not just the yankees that this could happen to this year. As of this writing the Phillies and Cardinals have sizable leads in their division and the Colorado Rockies are once again the team that has everything falling in place again at the right time to make a run. Now with that said the yankees could have an easier time overcoming this so called jinx. Boston,while having a good 1-2 punch in Beckett and Lester are a little stretched in the back end of the rotation and the bullpen(The acquisition of Billy Wagner from the mets might help), not to mention streaky offense. Also lately boston has forgot how to whin when it comes to playing the Yanks, getting spanked recently 20-11 just to give an example. Anahiem while a good team is always just missing something that you cannot put your finger on to keep themselves out of advancing in the postseason. The central division winner which will be the survior between Detroit and the White Sox will most likely only be stopping in the postseason for the proverbial cup of coffee.The wild card in this whole scenario is the Texas Rangers. Like colorado they are getting hot at the right time and could surprise an overachieving teamand sneak in the backdoor. The solution to all this for the yankees should be consistency, which ultimately means that one Mr. Alex Rodriguez has to transform from mister not-tober to at least a consistent reliable postseason player. I know this is easier said than done, but it could be the difference between going almost all the way and going completely all the way. Also for Rodriguez, a stellar postseason could help many yankees fans and yankee haters forget about the steroid mess that started this season on an uncomfortable note. For many a world championshop makes it a lot easier for many to forget about past missteps and kind of helps add a new clean shine to what could be a tarnished legacy.
