Gnats....(ALDS Game 2 Postgame notes)

Last night's loss I could handle. It wasn't heartbreaking; it was just ugly.


Tonight's loss, however, has me near tears. Okay, I'm lying...there's something wet running down my cheek.

I know what you're all going to say.

You shouldn't be that attached to the Yankees.

There's still at least one more game to play, anything can happen.

Thing is, I felt so sure about tonight. I thought, there's no way that the Yankees would be in this position...not with Andy Pettitte on the mound, not with the way he pitched tonight.


Pettitte not might have, but did, give the performance of his life tonight. He did EVERYTHING right, and so did Mo, and so, for an inning and a third, did Joba.

In the world of heartbreaking losses, this one ranks up there with '95, '97, '01 and '04, and it's not an elimination game.

To be quite honest, I think the culprit right now for making me feel like I feel, struggling to even find the right words to say, is the frustration.

We are the Yankees. We mounted a historic comeback in the regular season. We've been the best team in baseball since May. We all thought, okay we went 6-0 against the Indians in the regular season, we'd much rather face them in the playoffs than the Angels...

The frustration gnaws at us. we've not gotten to the ALCS, and our shot at redemption since 2004. No big deal for most other teams, but the Yankees are NOT most other teams.

Our offense hasn't been able to do anything since game three of the 2004 ALCS, and everyone knows that all it really takes is one big, one good inning to break through. This isn't on any one player in particular. I will NOT jump that bandwagon. This is on the team as a whole.

As Jeter said, it's "what WE need to do," and right now, the Yankees, as a team, are not doing much.



I have hope it will change.

Hope that the Yankees will sweep the next three games and move onto the next round.

Hope that going back to Yankee Stadium for the first time since 24 September will do them some good.

Hope that they will break out of this funk.

Hope that they will pull a '95 Seattle LDS style comeback.


In 2007, nothing else, really, would be appropriate.


It's going to be hard to get through tomorrow, I'll give you that. I'll leave you with this thought:


These are the growing pains of a young team.

In 1995 and 1997 we made it to the playoffs as a Wild Card and lost in the LDS rounds. The next year in each case, we won the World Series.