The crunching sound you hear last night was the collective will and pride of Orioles fans being destroyed by the big-bad-impossible New York Yankees. How impossible?
The Yankees homer bats account for over 60% of their total runs scored. Russell Martin, a guy who hadn’t cracked .700 OPS in the last two years and in his best year hit 14 homers, already has six. Jorge Posada has nine hits all year, six of them are homers and two came against the Orioles. Sure you can sit here and say their starting pitching is suspect and they are giving up almost five runs a game in the early going but so what, it doesn’t matter when they are scoring almost six runs a game.
The Yankees are what they always have been and what they always will be. They don’t age, they don’t falter, they just keep going. Other teams have windows of competitive time and risks that need to be taken, not the Yankees they are simply one thing: impossible.
The way they run their team they will always be in the playoff hunt, they will always be near the top of the division they will always hit the ball.
Last night, combined with the deflating games of the last two weeks, you can feel spirits being broken. Is Buck’s magic gone? Is this just another bait and switch being perpetrated by the American League? Have the Pagan Baseball Gods committed yet another dodge against the gullible fans of Baltimore?
Yes yes it IS still very early. This is true, it is also true that the Orioles are in last place, if only by default. Yes the Orioles are now three games under .500 that should not be such an impossible deficit to overcome. So why does it feel that way? Why does it feel like the Orioles will never get to that point where they finally put the damn car in gear and start driving. While the Yankees is a story of impossible rebounds and continuations of careers the Orioles’ is a story of missed opportunities, stuttering starts and impossible disappointment.
Simply impossible.
The Orioles hope to salvage a split and notch their first win against the Evil Empire today on Easter Day at 1:30pm.
Perfect day for a resurrection.
