by Paul Semendinger
September 3, 2023
***
I am an optimist. I really am. People who know me wonder how I stay positive about so much. Always. All the time. Seriously.
But, boy was I a pessimist about the 2023 Yankees. I felt like the Grinch. Everything was bad. Or so it seemed. No, let's be honest - or so it was.
And, then, all of a sudden, it seems that many of mistakes have been corrected.
All of a sudden, the kids are getting a chance. Many of them. Tons of them. Game after game.
All of a sudden, the Yankees have a host of lefty bats.
I didn't want the Yankees to rush Jasson Dominguez. But they did. And he homered again.
I feel my Yankees heart growing and growing again. The team is fun to watch. (I'd rather see Oswald Peraza strikeout than Josh Donaldson. With Peraza there's the hope that he'll figure it out. With Donaldson, there was no hope.) It's easy to root for the kids. It's much more difficult to root for washed-up players who shouldn't have been on the 2023 Yankees in the first place.
It's fun being a fan right now. (I never thought I'd write that in 2023.)
I have small hopes for this season. Finish over 500 and ahead of the Red Sox. Nothing impossible.
How sweet would it be to see the Cheat-tros finish one game out of a playoff spot at season's end? How sweet is it NOT watching the Donaldsons and Hickses go K,K,K,K every day? If only Stanton could spend the rest of the season on the bench. To, you know, "avoid injury." (Wink, wink)
Last sweep 2013? What was Pettitte's on why he went the whole way? There was no Mo to come in behind me.
Thank you for the Donaldson laugh. Peraza, Volpe, Cabrera, Wells, Dominguez, again offensively. Torres instead of Judge tonight.
My question is, does Michael King in the rotation mean with all the SP kids coming, is Schmidt going to be traded this offseason?
To misquote Jackie Gleason, "How sweep it is!"
Oh, and the last time the Yankees swept the Astros, it was the 2013 "Tanktros," who finished 51-111. This sweep is of a real team, in its house, battling for a Division title. Delicious.