Bad week for the Yankees.

You'd think the fans and writers in New York had never seen a slump before. (At the moment I am writing this, 54% of the respondents to the admittedly unscientific Daily News poll think the Red Sox will win the AL East.)


Joel Sherman actually questions if the Yankees can even make the playoffs this season.

Funny thing is, most of these Doomsday articles also include the proper historical perspective that suggests that this type of ebb and flow, slump and streak, getting-Red-Sox-fans-hopes-up occurs every season.

For instance, in the exact same article, Sherman talks all the Yankee fans down from the bridge because "from Sept. 15-Oct. 1, the Yanks lost 14-of-17 games and barely held on to what had been an eight-game lead on Boston, winning the division by 21/2 games. The Yanks righted themselves in October 2000 to win a third straight title, and fourth in five years."


A bad week is a bad week. In the big picture, the Yankees will almost certainly still get 100 wins and the AL East title. While they lost 5 games off the lead in a week, they've only lost 2 games off the lead since July. Five games is a huge lead with only 40 games to play.

Not make the playoffs? I think a more likely scenario is that the Yankees crank it up against lousy September competition and then Joel Sherman will write an article that warns that the team isn't playoff-tested enough because the lead is too big.

But even if the Yankees do somehow manage to eke out a playoff spot, it doesn't even matter. They can't beat the Angels, they can't beat the Twins, and we already know that they can't beat the Red Sox.

A perfect Felz scenario is that the Angels find a way to beat the Red Sox by one game in the AL wild card. I'll remember how happy the Red Sox were when the Angels swept the Yankees in August. Even when the Yankees get swept, it winds up hurting the Red Sox.


I don't know for sure, baseball is a funny sport. Worst-case is that the Yankees' switch has been turned off for the rest of the season. Worst-case is that they suddenly become a sub-.500 team for six weeks and miss the playoffs entirely. I can't say it's impossible, it just seems wildly unlikely.

But what if this is truly the beginning of the end? Is there some specific person we can blame for the bad week? For the recent slide? For an expensive team of all stars whoese entire season is suddenly in peril?

Joe Gergen pulls no punches proclaiming his disdain for poor Esteban Loaiza.

No word yet if Lawrence Rocca has changed his mind about the importance of John Olerud's calming presence in the clubhouse and no-maintenance professionalism.

As for ARod the Choker, he's going to hit .625 and 5 homeruns in one upcoming weekend against Boston, in sharp contrast to his 1-for-17 in Fenway in September. Bill Madden will then be forced to write another unflattering article about Columbus Clipper Shane Spencer.