Additional Thoughts on the Yankees' Demise

In response to Jim's Son's comment on the preceding post (concerning Bernie Williams' possible unmemorable end as a Yankee), I would say that all the "real" Yankees became obscured by the corporate Yankee monster at least a few seasons ago. Sucks for them, but that's what you get for being a part of such a thing.

That, and for as badly as it may have ended for Bernie Williams, he can at least look back on those titles that he was TRULY a part of. I can't help but think that winning it all this year would mean a little less for him, forced to share at-bats on this All-Star team that startingly resembles all the Olympic basketball teams that continue to get embarassed in international play (no team play? no defense? no role players? sounds familiar).

Bernie's like the guy who used to work at the local hardware store (to use a tired analogy) that everyone would smile at when they went in on Saturday, only to wake up one day and find himself working at Wal-Mart, stuck doing loss prevention. Instead of selling hardware to real people, he's selling video games and makeup to the folks that buy things so they can have some semblance of an identity. The world has changed, the world has changed.

And for as much as I pontificate on the Yankees, it obscures where the focus should really be--on the Tigers. It should be on a city that hasn't had a sliver of the success the Yanks have had in the past two decades (Bernie's got 4 rings in the time that the Tigers haven't even made the playoffs), and a team full of guys (like Kenny Rogers--remember how he punched that cameraman? So adorable...) that deserve, more than any other group I see in the playoffs right now, to be where they are. Did you SEE them celebrate with the fans after winning that game? I couldn't help but smile; it almost made me giddy. I know who my horse is the rest of the way.