Guest Blogger: Chris Mango

 Every so often I am going to ask a certain someone to blog about a certain subject. Today's specific person is Chris Mango who will enlighten us on this season as a yankees fan.

If you’re like me, a Yankee fan born in 1990, you know nothing but winning and success. You know nothing but October. You don’t know what missing the postseason is. Guys like Jeter and Rivera don’t know what being home for the playoffs is. This year might be a different kind of year. 2008 has been different from many other years in the past fifteen for the Bombers and the Pinstripe faithful. Why, you ask?

It is the emergence of the Rays? Maybe, we are 8-5 against them (including a pretty win tonight), but they sure are pesky as hell. They seemed like a nice story for a good part of the season, but after putting up 21 wins in August, they have legitimized themselves as a true contender. They care about the game. They play with energy and enthusiasm. They’ve just been doing everything right this year, and that might result in the Yanks missing the playoffs.

Is it because we have lost series that we would have eaten up in years past? Probably, find me another year in the recent past where the Yankees have lost home series to teams with worse records that Detroit (a sweep), Cleveland, the Mets (a sweep, the way they were playing in May), Cincinnati, Texas, Toronto, and lowly Baltimore, for Pete’s sake. The Orioles, the bane of the Yankees’ existence for the past few years (especially at Camden), have taken 3 of 5 series from the Yankees this year, a reason why we are in the shape that we’re in.

Is it the pitching? No, the pitching hasn’t been as a bad as everyone has made it out to be. Yes, no wins from Hughes, and Kennedy (who everyone hates now, including yours truly), but who thought Mussina would have 17 wins with a month left? You could put the onus on the offense for the most part. Don’t tease us anymore. Don’t put up 16 runs one night, and just one the next. Don’t put a man on third with one out, and then proceed to strike out and pop out to end the inning. It’s not just A-Rod, he’s had a solid year (and a stint on the DL, mind you), it’s been Jeter a lot of times (21 double plays, phew), Cano (ghastly for most of the year), and (minor-league) Melky for the most part, among others.

Is it the Torre factor? I’m afraid so. There’s panic this year. There hasn’t been panic since the early 90’s in Yankee-land. How much would it irk me if the Red Sox, Mets, and Dodgers (b/c of Torre) all make the playoffs this year, and we’re sitting at home? A lot. In some of the games that we’ve lost (I’ve watched all of them), the loss seemed to have more of an effect on me than on the players. This shouldn’t be, and this hasn’t been Joe Girardi’s finest work of art either. Now, we’re paying for it. No one thought that 6-0 shutout to the Reds on June 21 or that 2-1 loss to the Rangers on June 30 would ever have an effect on such a team, but all of these losses hurt, and that is why with 24 games remaining, we’re facing an 11 game hole in the AL East (not catchin’ Tampa), and a 7 game hole in the Wild Card (we can catch em’). Let’s wake up.