Yankees clinching AL East would still mean something even with October expectations
These are the good times.This is the good stuff.
Sometime in the next couple of days — maybe as early as Tuesday — the Yankees are going to win a baseball game, something they’ve done 59 percent of the time they’ve taken a ballfield this year.When that happens, the magic number will melt away to zero.The players will storm the field after the final out and will then retreat to the clubhouse, goggles at the ready, to participate in the ages-old tradition of dousing each other with as much champagne as they can fit in the home-team clubhouse at Yankee Stadium, right behind the first-base dugout.Maybe, if the fans are so inclined, they can fire up an old classic chant, and let that serve as a complimentary soundtrack for the evening, riding shotgun to The Chairman crooning about his little town blues, all melting away:“We’re Number One!“We’re Number One!“We’re Number One!”That would be a fine thing to hear, because when the Yankees win their next baseball game, they will officially clinch first place in the American League’s Eastern Division.
And that is still important.Even in a time where there are far more second- and third-place finishers who qualify for playoff berths in North American sports than first-place teams, first place still says something.First place still matters.It mattered to the Rangers when they finished in first place in the Metropolitan Division last spring.
You can believe it would matter to the Jets, who have finished in first place exactly twice in 54 years.The Mets have gotten a lot of attention for their gritty run at a playoff bid; you can believe they’d prefer to have held a few of those ninth-inning leads they squandered in May and June, which would’ve given them a reasonable chance to catch the Phillies for first place in the NL East.Even around the Yankees, this should still matter.
Yes, we know: the Yankees measure success in championships.It’s part of the team’s mission statement, and if you ever fo...