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Yankees are already done Posted: Wednesday April 03, 2002 11:36 AM
Man, they were wigging out in Maryland after Monday's big win. "Students" heaved things into raging bonfires. "ERRAAAAAGHWH," one scholar shouted, chucking his mattress into a blaze. His mattress? I guess the co-ed dorm thing isn't working out the way he had hoped. This is no joking matter, of course. People were hurt, damage was done, cable television broadcasts were interrupted. I do understand the Maryland sports fan's exuberance that day, however. How often does your team get such a decisive victory against such a storied opponent? After falling behind by one, due primarily to a careless error, the team from Maryland roared back and won going away. Days later, the heady feeling still prevails. The faithful are still marveling over that joyous, improbable, almost unimaginable final score: Baltimore Orioles 10, New York Yankees 3. Okay, I know it was that stitchless-ball game, them Terps squashing them Hoosiers, that had folks all hopped-up Monday night. They're still hopped-up today. But talk about misplaced emotion! Beating the Yankees was the omen that should have had all of Maryland, better yet the entire sporting world, rising up to take notice. Put it this way: If the Orioles can just go 100-61 the rest of the way, the Yanks will have to win 102 of their next 161 games to overtake them. With this motley bunch? I don't thiiiiiiiink so. Roger Clemens has an ERA of 16.62. New York's newest reliever, Steve Karsay, who comes with a price tag of $22 million, is up at 18.00. Bernie Williams is a telling 0-for-1. This Jason Giambi cat? Heck the guy's batting .250 and does nothing with the bases jammed. What's happened to that once hairy, now clean-cut slugger? I'm not saying George Steinbrenner can't order his players to trim their hair. I'm just saying we know what happened to Samson. Folks, the Yankees are done. Forget the World Series. Forget the playoffs. Forget life as you know it in Yankeeland. Their fielding stinks and that's not all. Clemens has a bad hand. Sterling Hitchock has a bad back. Ramiro Mendoza has a bad neck. Derek Jeter has bad dreams about Ruben Rivera. Not even Papa Joe Torre can overcome this kind of badness. The Yankees lost on Opening Day, a day when odd things happen and people blame it on the trivial. My favorite downplay this year came after Colorado ace Mike Hampton gave up nine hits, three walks and six runs in 3 2/3 innings against the Cardinals. Hampton later said he wasn't concerned and that he'd really only made a couple of bad pitches. The Rockies went on to lose 10-2 and Colorado first baseman Todd Helton said, "it's just one game." Meantime, Pedro Martinez got shelled in Boston and the customary pessimism began to settle upon Fenway. Yankees fans say "it's early," but that's just a desperate cry. Fool yourself if you must, Bombers faithful, the team knows it's in trouble. "Everything went wrong," New York third baseman Robin Ventura said darkly after Monday's game. I am determined to interpret this Orioles win -- achieved in large part by a man named Batista, which is as good a name for a batsman as you can find -- as significant. Even if the Yankees complete their long road back to .500 in Wednesday night's rematch at Camden Yards I won't be convinced they've shaken this off. The Yankees may be baseball's best team, they may be the 1:1 favorite to win the World Series, they may have ball boys who could start for the Devil Rays, but I am not just going to sit here and take it. This is springtime and the first week of baseball. This is a time to be hopeful, to seize upon small portents and write them large. This is a time to see an April Fool's Day game between the Yankees and Orioles and decide to take the outcome seriously. Or not. Sports Illustrated senior writer Kostya Kennedy takes sides every Tuesday at
CNNSI.com.
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