This is the pain of New York Yankees fans: The only day they can enjoy is the day their team clinches a World Series championship. This is the curse of George Steinbrenner.
It is a miserable existence for a sports fan.
The Yankees can roll through a regular season in first place, and it means nothing. Being bounced in the division series, as the Yankees were this year by the Detroit Tigers, is a failure.
Even if they had gone beyond that round and into the American League Championship Series or even the World Series only to lose, it would be considered a disappointment.
It is the joylessness of the New York Yankees.
You could see it in the faces of their fans at Yankee Stadium last week as they realized their team was about to lose to Detroit.
And in case any New York fans considered trying to gain a proper perspective and enjoy the rewards that come with supporting a team that wins two out of every three games it plays, Yankees management reminds them specifically about the Curse of Steinbrenner.
“We are the Yankees,” team president Randy Levine told ESPNNewYork.com. “That is the way the Boss set it up. When you don’t win the World Series, it is a bitter disappointment and not a successful year.”
That is absurd. The Yankees had a terrific season, managing to win the toughest division in baseball with a starting rotation that at times included such retreads as Freddy Garcia and Bartolo Colon. They finished 97-65, the best record in the American League.
Yet if we are to believe Levine, it was a failure.
Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis, who passed away Saturday, understood the commitment to winning. “Just win, baby” was Davis’ motto. But it wasn’t “Just win or else.” It wasn’t “Just win or nothing else matters.”
Losing hurts, of course, especially when you are used to winning. But it doesn’t diminish the path you took to get to the fifth and deciding division series game.
As a wise man once said, “The next best thing to playing and winning is playing and losing.”
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard this from Levine. At a sports forum at George Washington University in January 2007, Levine told the crowd that because of the pressures of New York, the goal of the Yankees every year is to win the World Series.
The Washington Nationals’ Ted Lerner responded jokingly as his team was about to embark on its first season under his ownership, “I might add we’re really not concerned with the World Series this year.”
It might be the right time for the Nationals to get a little Yankees attitude, however warped it may be.
Examiner columnist Thom Loverro is the co-host of “The Sports Fix” from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on ESPN980 and espn980.com. Contact him at [email protected].
