The 2019 Yankees have prided themselves on overcoming adversity, on picking each other up, on winning despite the overwhelming odds. They’ve seen it all this year, a year that began with CC Sabathia having heart surgery.
They arrived here in the most peculiar way, one no one would have written, yet it brought them closer together, gave them a reason to rally together, and offered a chip on their shoulder as everybody counted them out with each new injury. Against all odds, they showed up every day and delivered the big hit, no matter who it was.
It seemed as though this was a magical year. It was a year of destiny. A year that could only end in one way…
Victoriously.
But when CC walked off the mound last night in tears, it looked to be a fitting end to a series that has thus far been the opposite of the magic they have bestowed upon us all year long. The series has been sloppy, the offense a no-show, and in as close to a must-win game as you could have, the team looked all but ready. They looked nothing like the 2019 #NextManUp Yankees.
The boat is quickly filling with water and Justin Verlander is on the mound tonight to try and officially sink it.
And all I can say is, the Yankees can’t go out like this.
Not like this. Not without a fight. Not without some magic.
If they do, they’re not the team we thought they were.
The Yankees have their backs against the wall. Something they are all too familiar with this season. And if they have taught us anything this year, they will throw up punches until the bitter end. They will battle, and they will play for each other.
And now, play for CC.
As the game ended with the sad reality that Sabathia has pitched his last pitch in Major League Baseball, perhaps Aaron Boone’s closed-door meeting reiterated that very sentiment:
Do it for CC.
Maybe, just maybe, something good could come of this injury. If Sabathia would want anything to come of it, it’d be the motivation to see through his wish of a World Championship. To go out there and be warriors, just like he was. To go out there and throw punches until you can’t throw anymore.
Go out there until your shoulder literally dislocates.
That’s what this team has done all year, and that’s what CC has done his entire career.
And our hope is they go out there tonight and do the same.
Because this is not how the story is supposed to end for the 2019 Yankees.
The story ends with the Yankees doing what they’ve done all year long. Overcoming impossible odds and finding a way to get it done.
No matter what. No matter who. No matter how.
The Yankees can’t go out like this.
And if someone could tell Justin Verlander this, that would be great.
