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Yankees: It’s not about where you start, it’s where you end up

By Steve Contursi |
(Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
(Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

The Yankees, jettisoned by their season launching 21-9 start, will earn the chance to play in baseball’s Second Season. But that only represents another beginning, and the only thing that matters then is where they end up.

The Yankees may have the start of something good going on in Detroit as they seek a sweep of their series at Comerica Park. The team still holds the number one seed in the Wild Card race, and they get the opportunity to challenge the Red Sox for the Division lead next week with four games set against them at Yankee Stadium.

But it was Barack Obama who reminded us in 2014 that it doesn’t matter where you start, it’s where you end up. In context, Obama was speaking about the value of a college education. But his statement applies to the Yankees season as well.

Because for all the excitement the team has created, from their eye-opening 21-9 start to the season, to the emergence of burgeoning stars in the league like Aaron Judge, Luis Severino, and Gary Sanchez, it’s all for naught if they can’t close the deal.

It’s kind of like getting a 95 grade each semester and then failing the final exam.

The opportunities to make it to the World Series are rare, even for the vaunted Yankees, who are seeking their 28th World Championship. Just ask Don Mattingly, who waited until his final season as a Yankee to even appear in a playoff game in 1995, only to lose and retire without a ring.

A team built to last?

The Playoffs have proven to be a crapshoot. The team that gets hot and stays hot is the team that wins. The regular season counts, but it only counts as much as the first series a team plays once the playoffs begin.

(Photo by Greg Fiume/Getty Images)
(Photo by Greg Fiume/Getty Images) /

In 2001, for instance, the Seattle Mariners went 116-46 during the regular season but succumbed in the ALCS losing four out of five games.

The Yankees, if they can’t capture the stubborn Red Sox and win the Division, could face the same fate, but instead of five opportunities, they could get only one game in a shootout with the second Wild Card team.

Yankees General Manager, Brian Cashman, apparently felt the Yankees had a chance to take it to the limits with an appearance in the World Series. He was active at the trade deadline, bringing in new and proven major league talent in Sonny Gray, Tommy Kahnle, David Robertson, Todd Frazier, and Jaime Garcia.

In doing so, he broke his promise to himself that he would not surrender the talent brewing in the Yankees farm system, all for the sake of merely “making the playoffs.”

More from Yanks Go Yard

Yes, it’s a big deal to play 162 games over six grueling months and achieving the playoffs. But once you are there, it’s only another beginning to a new season.

And at that point, the only thing that matters is where you finish. It’s kind of like getting a 95 grade each semester and then failing the final exam. Ten months of hard work during the school year evaporates in a split second.

In baseball, though, there’s always next year and teams, as well as fans, have a way of rebounding quickly when Spring Training rolls around, symbolizing another opportunity to begin anew, erasing memories of the previous year.

September is the new Pre-Season

Mentally, the Yankees need to start playing playoff baseball now, rebuilding the confidence they had earlier in the season when they dominated other teams.

They have a good start to that in Detroit. But it’s only the game played today that counts. That’s the way it is in the playoffs, and that’s the way it needs to be for the team from here on in.

Next: Who's in line for a call-up on September 1

21-9 in September? Why not?

As always, I invite you to share your thoughts and comments about this story or anything Yankees on the Yanks Go Yard Facebook page.

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