In Between the Pinstripes #45

In Between the Pinstripes_45: It just wasn’t our year

Watch the confetti fall, sit and watch it rain red as the Astros celebrate their second pennant in franchise history. Soak in this feeling of being so close and falling up just short. Watch the players that you’ve cheered until you couldn’t speak all season long have long faces as they watch the team they had on the ropes going into yesterday afternoon celebrate and drink champagne. Rethink everything that went wrong in this series, and reimage how you think the Yankees would have the series. None of it will change the outcome—to that point, the game of baseball will humble you like nothing else.

The Yankees needed to go through this, they needed to come up just short to get to the summit of the mountain top. Don’t believe me? Well history will tell you different. The 1995 Yankees watching Ken Griffey Jr. race around third base and slide in safe to knock out the Yanks. A year after they celebrate since 1978 (and three in the next four years). The 2003 Boston Red Sox, enough said. The 2004 Houston Astros who fell up short against the Cardinals to go to the World Series the very next year. The 2010 Miami Heat, who had the best player in basketball and fell up short against a lesser Dallas Maverick team to only win back to back titles the following years (ending the demons that chanced Lebron James). The 2015 Cleveland Cavaliers, who battled against the MVP of the league, and battled all the way to a Game 7 the following year down 3-1, to win their first championship in 53 years. Lastly, the 2015 Kansas City Royals who went to a Game 7 of the World Series to fall short to the San Francisco Giants, to yes you guessed it, comeback and win the World Series the following series.

Long story short, a young team like the Yankees (who weren’t even supposed to be any where close to the World Series) needed to see the confetti fall for another team, and sallow the hard pill, endure the harsh winter, and answering all the questions tonight, mid-way through December, and all the way through the 2018 season to truly have an impact on their careers and make this team a team that could raise multiple World Series trophies. The feeling of never wanting to have this feeling again will drive this group, more than getting there this year ever could.

This is a season where yes, had a bitter ending, but was great. You will always look back and see the ball trickling away from Sanchez as Altuve slid in safe in Game 2, the catches that Springer made last night and tonight, the two homers that Altuve hit in Game 6 and 7, and of course, the Alex Bregman throw that cut down Greg Bird at the plate.

However, this was a season that gave you tremendous joy from the great start in April, the Judge MVP run, the improbable comeback against Baltimore in April, the Cub series in the beginning of May, the series win in Seattle at the end of August that showed the fight of the newly configured clubhouse, and the elation that the Didi home run in the 1^st inning of the Wild Card game, the three homers Didi hit in Game 5 of the ALDS against Kluber, and the Game 4 comeback of this series headlined by Gary Sanchez’  2-run double.

I get it, the defeat in the living rooms, bars, dorm rooms, etc. and the silence in the room as you watch the Yankees walk off the field heading back to New York. But, the numbness of this loss will turn into excitement as the Yankees toe the rubber and talk the field in 2018. It was an incredible season—it truly was and I will remember this playoff run for years to come, and as should the rest of the Yankee fan base because it was a season that none of us saw coming, for this group getting one game away from the World Series is truly remarkable.

2018 will give us a full year of Greg Bird (hopefully). Another full year of Didi, Gary Sanchez, and Aaron Judge. Luis Severino gets another shot at a Cy Young award. You get a full year of a bullpen that will have Tommy Kahnle, Dellin Betances, David Robertson, and Aroldis Chapman. Sonny Gray will have a full season in pinstripes. Tanaka and C.C. will hopefully comeback for another season. And, the youth movement has another year to go through the transition that us Yankee fans have heard about all winter last winter and throughout the season this year. The future is bright. 

Baseball is the most tantalizing sport there is—from unbelievable joy when your team secures the final out of the World Series to the deflation and sadness you feel to see the ball hit the glove, smacking the harsh reality of the season being over. From the start of April until now where there has been baseball on your TV set seemingly every single day, there is no more tomorrow. That’s it, plain and simple.

But, take time away, long for the days of summer, and start counting down the days until Opening Day 2018. The chase for 28 will have to wait another season, but the message never changes, LET’S GO YANKEES.