Something struck me, though, as I walked away from my computer. Did Olney really write that you could tell the difference between the dynasty Yankees and the current Yankees based on two close games in late June/early July against the Texas Rangers?
I came back to the computer. And yes, yes he did do that:
The past two nights, the Yankees have played the kind of games that, during the 1996-to-2001 dynasty, they would have expected to win. They have been drifting in the standings, and the Rays and Red Sox have begun to pull away in the AL East. The Yankees opened a series against the Rangers in Yankee Stadium on Monday knowing they had to start making inroads in the playoff chase.
Really? This series, pretty much exactly halfway through the season, against a mediocre non-division foe, is one that the '96-'01 team would've keyed on? Now is when inroads must be made?
The crazy thing is that if the Yankees went on a winning streak right now and A-Rod and Abreu and Giambi and Cano went absolutely house, you would definitely get articles about how "these guys can do it in July but can they do it in October???" And yet when they lose two boring, completely unremarkable games to the Rangers, they're still getting pilloried for not having "confidence" or "edge" or "expectation."
Finally: the Yankees scored 18 runs today.
Labels: buster olney, mystique, yankees
