Denial in Yankeeland--The Red Sox Can (and Probably Will) Ruin Our Summah

As a lifelong fan of the New York Yankees, I have a some fond memories of the legendary 1998 team that won 125 games en route to World Series sweep of the sacrificial San Diego Padres. In particular, though, I vividly remember watching a May game against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. It was the second time the teams had met that season, and the day earlier, a Sox lineup of pseudo "stars" (Mo Vaugh) and bona fide scrubs (Darren Lewis, Troy O'Leary, Jon Valentin, Darren Bragg, Mike Benjamin and Lou Merloni) had, behind Tim Wakefield, somehow won the opening game of the series. The next day, normal service was restored, and as the Yankees were putting the sword to the Sox on their way to a 12-3 rout, one of their announces (Ken Singleton, maybe?) said, "This is just one team telling another, 'Hey we're better than you.'" While watching the Sox administer the second Bronx beat down of this season earlier this week, those words floated back to me in a kind of Proustian memory. Except this time, it was the Sox who were emphatically delivering that message.

You would think that even those Yanks fans who see the world though rose-tinted, pinstriped glasses issued by YES Network, the Bomber's in-house propaganda arm, couldn't deny that the Sox are a superior team. In fact, the question of whether the Sox are currently better than the Yankees is no longer a subjective one. Unfortunately, it is a fact that the answer is "Yes." These last few games served as a kind of mathematical proof. To argue to the contrary is to deny objective reality and betray a mind warped by homerism. It would be like asserting that John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman are a good radio broadcast team or that Tom Brady's haircut is actually cool. These kind of delusional statements are like dog whistles signaling your listeners that you don't know what the hell you are talking about.

And yet, if you choose to crawl down the rabbit hole of sports talk radio, you'll hear people like WFAN host Mike Francesa argue that the Yankees are as good as or better than the Sox. The current standings, this line of argument theorizes, are skewed by Boston's dominance of this year's head-to-head match-up. But doesn't that head-to-head dominance actually verify their superiority? Whatever. This kind of denial is made more irrational by the reality that it doesn't matter who is the best team in early June. Of course, Yankee fans shouldn't be too optimistic about the Yankees overhauling the Red Sox anytime soon, especially now that the bullpen is in shambles and Bartolo Colon just injured one of his ponderous legs.  That the health of Colon matters this much is, in and of itself, troubling, but without beefy Bartolo and his magic arm, we're left with the tragicomic prospect of watching A.J. Burnett pitch Game 2 of a post-season series. The Yanks will likely look to make a move before the deadline, but, then again, won't the Sox, as well? As much as I'd like to deny it, the truth is it could be a while before the Yankees can once again tell the Red Sox, "Hey, we're better than you."