Regional Sports

Stop expecting greatness from the Yankees

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This town and the local media have a problem.

Whenever the Yankees win, it’s 1998 all over again. The new Core Four is put on a pedestal like the old Core Four. The Yankees are the team to beat. Future dynasty is in the making.

It’s actually amusing to say the least. It makes our town look like a small town when we get too excited about our Pinstripe heroes doing so well for the Yankees. That’s what happens when a team has been irrelevant and boring for the last few years. An eight-year old championship drought can get people so antsy that they are hoping for a sure thing.

After the Indians swept the Yankees this week at Yankee Stadium, it’s time to be realistic. The Yankees are not a World Series contender. They are a flawed team. It wouldn’t be surprising if they lose in the wild-card game. Shoot it wouldn’t be surprising if they miss the playoffs altogether.

It’s understandable why the expectations grew higher as the Yankees have done well this season. It has gotten to the point where expectations are higher. The bar gets high when Yankees general manager Brian Cashman acquired Sonny Gray, Tommy Kahnle, David Robertson and Jaime Garcia. It isn’t just to make the playoffs, but to win the World Series. Anyone that says playing in the wild-card game would make this season a success is lying. The fans want a 28th championship by the Yankees in the worst way.

Yankees fans forget there has to be a process before they can win a championship. The Royals and Cubs have to deal with heartbreak in the playoffs in recent years before they won the World Series. The Indians went through a disappointment of losing to the Cubs in Game 7 of the World Series in extra innings last year, and they are using this as a fuel to try to win it all this season.

The new Core Four need to learn how to handle adversity during games and after losses. They need to know how to take better at-bats. Luis Severino needs to make good pitches when it’s time.

The Yankees did their fans a disservice in 1996 when they won the World Series and went on to win three more championships. They won right away, so Yankees fans are now deluded into thinking it’s so easy that any Yankees team can do it. They still believe in the mystique and aura nonsense that fuels their team, even though that was a bunch of bunk as Curt Schilling pointed out in the 2001 World Series by saying Mystique and Aura are two dancers in the nightclub.

Maybe this year could serve a lesson for Yankees fans to let the players develop into being championship players. Let them learn from failures and apply it for the next few years. That’s how a team grows up. To expect Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Greg Bird and Severino to be all of a sudden Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada, Derek Jeter and Andy Pettitte right away was crazy. Even those guys have to go through ups and downs before they can be successful.

After Judge was credited for the Yankees resurgence, he has been a symbol of the team’s struggles by batting .181 with seven homers and 67 strikeouts in 187 plate appearances since the All-Star break prior to Yankees’ game against the Red Sox. He has been a strikeout machine every game. It was so bad that he had couple of days off to decompress this week against the Indians, and he was moved down to sixth in the batting lineup Thursday night in the Yankees’ 6-2 victory over the Red Sox.

Moving Judge did not make that much of a difference. He did not get a base hit. His bright spot was that he was able to work out a walk couple of times.

At least, Sanchez stepped up in a big moment Thursday night. He tied the game at 1 by hitting a home run in the third inning. He even had a RBI single in the fifth inning that gave the Yankees a 2-1 lead, which eventually paved the way for them to beat the Red Sox. It’s been a long time coming for him after not having a big moment in months.

What the new Core Four need is a signature moment. They will get their shot in September and maybe in October. If they can get that moment, the Yankees may be onto something.

Until then, these guys deserve a shot to figure it out. We should expect them to fail since this is their first shot of playing in big-time games. They are going to go through ups and downs. That’s reality, and it’s something Yankees fans have to understand.

This season is a success no matter what, even if they miss the playoffs.

Yankees fans need to temper their expectations and let the new Core Four grow into the job. So should the media who don’t have to make every game look like Armageddon.

The sooner Yankees fans and the local media get it, the better off the Yankees will be.

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