The Yankees won zero titles in the 1980s, while George Steinbrenner was the owner.

In the early 1990s, George Steinbrenner bragged about the fact that the Yankees had a high regular season winning percentage in the 1980s.  He said that he wanted to win the World Series, but he had delivered a winning team in (something like) 10 out of 14 regular seasons. 

This explanation is known as spin.


Only when Steinbrenner was briefly exiled was a longterm winning strategy implemented. Supplemented, of course, by the emergence of Pettitte, Jeter, Posada, Williams, Rivera, and others.

Steinbrenner enjoyed winning the World Series, of course he did.  Winning the World Seriers undoubtedly boosted his considerable ego.

Mostly, though, winning the World Series made him a lot of money money money money money:

"Once the bottom line for Steinbrenner the Elder was winning it all, or else. For his heirs, it seems the bottom line is more about profit and loss, and that sure doesn’t mean the kind of loss the Yankees just suffered at the hands of the Tigers."

Don't you remember when the Yankees lost Game Seven of the World Series to Arizona? Steinbrenner said they were going to come back with a vengeance.

They didn't.

I don't know what Angry Steinbrenner could have accomplished this playoffs or this offseason.

It's like people are buying into Steinbrenner's own self-perpetuated myth.  The same people who were ridiculing him when he was ranting and raving.


"You better believe the Yankees are the most successful regular-season team of all time, even more successful than the Atlanta Braves were when they kept making the playoffs in the 1990s. And the Braves, by the way, didn’t just make the playoffs, they made it to four World Series in that decade, even if they only managed to win one."

The Yankees are also the best postseason team of all time.

It's not even really close, is it?

I mean, that has no impact on the 2012 ALCS, and why would it?


"This is 2012. Starting in 2002, the Yankees have made it to the World Series twice over the past decade, have won one. The people in charge still make it sound as if the Yankees not making the Series is some kind of aberration. Actually it’s become the norm. In that decade we’re talking about, the Yankees have lost in the first round five times."

Yep.

It's really amazing when fans, writers, analysts, announcers, players, coaches, managers, general managers, opponents, owners ... anybody ... talks about the present-day Yankees as if they're some sort of juggernaut.

This has been going on for about a decade and a half ... really starting in earnest in 1998.

I know a lot of this delusion is based on the relative payrolls of the teams, but it's still a lazy and hackneyed analysis.


Every time the Yankees start a playoff series against a superior opponent, their opponent is shoehorned into an underdog role.  It's silly after a while.

The Tigers had Verlander going twice and the Triple Crown Winner.

The Yankees counterbalanced these advantages with home field advantage, a superior bullpen, and (theoretical) advantages at ss and 2b (advantages which were quickly eliminated as the series progressed).

I did not identify a single game where the Yankees had a noticeable starting pitcher advantage.


So why were the Tigers considered underdogs in the first place?

Because people act as if wearing a pinstriped uniform fills a player with the spirit of Babe Ruth.  They believe the hype, and Lupica is a hypocrite because he holds the Yankees to this same silly standard.

It's like complaining that Carleton Sheets's No Money Down System didn't really help you make a fortune (with no money down!).

 
"We keep hearing that they’re going to get the payroll down to $189 million by 2014 to avoid serious luxury-tax penalties, but that is a bit of a hustle, too. The next year they can go right back to outspending everybody (well, maybe not the Dodgers going forward) if they choose to."

The smartest thing Lupica has ever said!

The Yankees are not going to try to get the payroll down to $189 million, and why should they?

But here's the part I don't get: If you know you're being hustled, then why are you acting all shocked and offended?


The 2012 Yankees were a good team, not a great team.  The Yankee Brand is cashing in on the reputation of Long Ago players who wore the same uniform.

It's a hustle, it's a con, it's a grift.  In other words, it's marketing.


I want the Yankees to win the World Series, of course I do.  In that regard, I agree with Yankee brass.

I don't think the 2012 regular season and ALDS were useless because I invested a lot of time and emotion into the 2012 regular season and ALDS.  In that regard, I disagree with Yankee brass.

But I'm not particular offended by the Yankees' spin because I know what it is. 

It's no different than a Mets fan at Spring Training 2013 when they hear promises of meaningful games in September.

It's a lesson I learned long ago when I purchased Sea Monkeys and discovered they were not quite as anthropomorphic as promised in the back of the comic book.