Friday, September 21, 2007

The Playoff Picture through the Eyes of a Yankee fan

Finally… Baseball has come back…. to ChewThemOut.com! ::Applause:: ::WWE lawsuit::

Somebody had to break up the football monotony. Well here it is...

Perhaps all you Yankee-hating brethren had written them off too early. And best of all as you watched the Yankees ascend towards the peak of the Major league standings, these same people are watching their own ‘insurmountable’ September leads shrink faster than Raphael Palmiero in the bedroom.

But let’s take a Bob Ross-like view of the playoff landscape, from the point of view of the Yankee fans. The exciting Brewers-Cubs race? We really don’t care. There are really just four teams the Yankees are worried about: The Red Sox, the Angels, The Mets and the Yankees.

The Red Sox

As it stands, the Red Sox and the Yankees are both in. And any Red Sox fan cannot feel too pleased about that. With Eric Gagne’s newfound horribility, Okajima’s fatigued arm, Manny’s being Manny and all the innings suddenly taking its effect on Dice-K’s arm, it would be safe to say all’s not well in Beantown. Hey you could hang your newly purchased faded hat on Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell but we both know it’s going to take more than that and Kevin Youkillis HBP’s to get past the Yankees.

The Yankees

And as for those Yankees, it’s funny that with the performance-enhanced lineup that the Yankees put out in the beginning of the season, that all you needed was a little Joba with Melky to make it potent. (Barry Bonds just took about 19 of those) Their enthusiasm has resurrected a once-dead clubhouse, and given the fair-weather Yankee-lovers something to watch other than A-Rod do his best impression of his MVP year with the Rangers. But even as good as the Yankees look, they still don’t want to face the Angels.

The Angels

Unless the Yanks were to surpass the Angels in the standings, it seems as if they’re headed for a round one collision with destiny against a team that’s always been their Kryptonite. With their three-headed monster of unheralded aces in Kelvim Escobar, John Lackey and Jared Weaver; compounded with a small-ball team and a glove-less batter who hits intentional walks for average its safe to say the other guys aren’t exactly jumping to play against them either. And if the playoff picture holds up, it seems as if this might be the team to beat.

The Mets

And as a New Yorker, I really do feel for you Mets fans. Not only do you cheer when Boston makes fun of New Yorkers, since you hate the Yankees more than you love yourselves, but your confidence is now shaken. Just when you thought you were on the cusp of goodness (let’s be real now), you realize that perhaps you were a little drunk when you took that hot supermodel home. I hold out hope, because the Mets are still the best team in the National League (as long as they don’t smell cheesesteak) and should have an express ticket for the World Series to play a vastly superior AL team. But hey, chances are the Yankees won’t be there. So I guess you’ll be happy first, and sad second.