Last week after game one, I jokingly predicted the Yankees would go undefeated; that’s how confident this team and fan base came in after a great off season and even better spring training. Flying high with our stacked lineup, it was looking like we would roll through these opening series’ against the Orioles and Tigers to get off to a hot start, unlike last year when we dug ourselves into a hole against the Red Sox and really never recovered.
Then the hits just kept on coming.
Not actual hits, no no. Those have not come. Those have not come at all.
Injury after injury after injury… and then more injuries.
Strikeout after strikeout after strikeout… and then more strikeouts.
Men after men after men left on base… and then more men left on base.
We haven’t gone a day so far this season without a player going down to injury, so much so it has us sleeping with one eye open like, “Who’s next?!” or “Omg, do we actually need Ellsbury?” We haven’t gone a day so far this season where we have not seen a gazillion strike outs or at least one error. We haven’t gone a day so far this season without asking, “Will we ever win a series again?”
Needless to say our frustration, and fear, are in mid-season form.
We can’t officially panic the first week of a season, can we? We can’t say these games coming up on the road are now must-win games, can we? We can’t sit here and say good-bye to the division already, can we?
It’s been that kind of a start. One that leaves us asking the above questions. One that leaves us begging for the Yankees to take after the dramatics of sudden death games — just survive and advance. Survive the injuries. Survive the cold bats. Survive the losses. Find a way to win, surviving one game at a time, and advance to the next one.
The “survive and advance” cliche is most used during the popular sporting event going on right now: March Madness. And although the Yankees aren’t playing in any “one and done” situations like they are in the NCAA tournament, each day that goes by, and each player that goes down, has us feeling like we’re watching the Game of Thrones, Yankee style.
When you play the game of baseball you win or you… get injured.
When you play the game of baseball you win or you… strike out.
When you play the game of baseball you win or you… make errors.
When you play the game of thrones you win or you die.
Okay, that’s the real Game of Thrones. No one here is dying, except maybe our little Yankee souls.
What’s our hope in all of this? It’s knowing that the baseball season is a long one, and we may have started at rock bottom, but the good news is we are starting at rock bottom.
We can only go up from here, and I still believe these boys will finish the season on top and they will see to it that any team they face this post-season will be sure to pack their golf gear with them because,
Winter is coming.
