I was hoping that the lead pic for this post would be one of me spraying myself with champagne. Or, since the Yanks needed to come back and win in the ninth tonight, I contemplated a shot of Michael smushing pie in my face. Oh, well.
What a bizarre, stomach-churning, ultimately soul-crushing game, wasn’t it?
From Nova’s quick and rather mysterious exit… to the cavalcade of relievers that included CC… to the oddly silent bats… it was a game that kept me hoping but left me empty. Girardi made so many moves on the pitching side but none on the hitting side. Clearly, Tex, Swisher, Martin and A-Rod were struggling and yet there was no Montero? No Chavez? No Jones? We had a great bench this season, but he didn’t use any of them tonight. Strange.
So. The Tigers won and I congratulate them.
And I say goodbye to Gene Monahan for all the years he gave the Yankees and, very likely, to Jorge. What a series he had after his travails this season.
There will be plenty of time for more elaborate postmortems, but for now let’s remember the high notes of 2011, which for me included:
- Jeter’s 3000th.
- Mo’s 600th.
- The breakthrough of Nova.
- The MVP seasons of Granderson and Cano.
- The emergence of Robertson.
- The major league debut of Montero.
- The surprising performances of Colon and Garcia.
- Winning the Division.
It was a very good year for the New York Yankees – better than most expected – but they fell short. So be it.
The good part of losing? More hours in the day for other things. For example, tonight I went right from the final out to HBO’s Part II of the George Harrison documentary, having watched Part I last night. It took my mind off baseball and reminded me that I have other interests that I’ll now have time to pursue.
More to come after I’ve digested losing, which is never fun but is part of the deal of being a fan.
