Post It Again Vic

[Centerfield]

Every year I look forward to the post from Vic (formerly Ralph) telling us why it's good rejoice in the demise of the MFYs.

[Vic Sage]

I originally offered this here after the Yanks lost the 2001 WS to Arizona. Reprinted here per request.


To those who don't understand a Mets fan's joy in this Yankee loss...

It is a blow against The Ubermensch. It is a strike back against the lockstep, jackbooted minions of the machine, pouring money into a bottomless, soulless maw while turning the crank that says, "win"... just "win", and nothing else will do.

It is a victory for those who find nobility in the struggle alone, knowing ultimate victory is an illusion, out of one's control, except for the effort required to be ready should it come.

It allows me to walk down the street now, without having to hear how the Yankees showed heart, and grit, and determination, in their miraculous 9th inning comebacks. As if they were somehow UNDERDOGS.

If another franchise had managed those 2 consecutive 9th inning comebacks, they'd have a right to crow about it, whether they won the series or not. Great accomplishment, after all. But when your team's entire persona, raison d'etre, etc., is based ENTIRELY on how many rings they've got... well, the irony is Yankee fans will be loathe to mention those 2 comebacks because ULTIMATELY, the Yankees lost. And that is simply unacceptable in the land of Monument Park.

Now, if you're a Red Sox fan, you can champion Fisk's homer as a moment of greatness, despite having dropped the `75 series to the Reds. Cuz Sox fans have learned, if nothing else, how to find value in baseball ASIDE from winning and losing. No Yankee fan can understand that idea. No Yankee fan can understand the sheer joy of being a true underdog, and fighting against enumerable odds to persevere.

After all, what kind of personal character does it take to root for an indomitable winner? Where is the ennobling and humbling forge of loss in their lives?

Yankee fans will never know the spiritual bliss of slaying a dragon. Because they cheer for the dragon.
and today, the dragon is dead.
and there shall be much rejoicing throughout the land.
and I feel sorry for those who don't understand it.

[metirish]

Excellent, it will always remain relevant.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

Thanks for this. An annual tradition on par with A Christmas Story and the Thanksgiving episode of "WKRP in Cincinnati."

[Chad ochoseis]

Not that there weren't enough reasons to look forward to the annual demise of the MFY's before, but this gives me another. Brilliant.

On the downside, it'll be many, many years before we have reason to repost LWFS's equally brilliant post about riding the 6 train on the day of the Yankees' victory parade.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

That's something for darker days.

Today? Wonderful, bright, cleansing rain.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Overall, my schafenfeude definitely preferred last year's surprise gut-punch to this year's white-flag session in a matter of taste. Clearly the disemboweling of Game 1 including the Jeter injury and Ibanez repeat was the highlight of this whole postseason.

[Centerfield]

To me, unless the Mets someday beat the Yankees in the World Series, no Yankee loss will top Arizona's 2001 rally against Rivera. Never ever. Everyone (including me) was sure it was going to end the same way the prior three years had ended. It came out of nowhere and just STUNNED Yankee fans.

The 2004 collapse against the Red Sox was a close second. I love the fact that every time one team takes a 3-0 lead in a best of seven, Yankee fans have to hear about it.

[Ceetar]

Centerfield wrote: To me, unless the Mets someday beat the Yankees in the World Series, no Yankee loss will top Arizona's 2001 rally against Rivera. Never ever. Everyone (including me) was sure it was going to end the same way the prior three years had ended. It came out of nowhere and just STUNNED Yankee fans.

I love responding to statements like "He may blow saves here and there, but in the biggest spots Mariano is money"

with

"Like game 7 of the World Series with a lead."

[metirish]

Centerfield wrote: To me, unless the Mets someday beat the Yankees in the World Series, no Yankee loss will top Arizona's 2001 rally against Rivera. Never ever. Everyone (including me) was sure it was going to end the same way the prior three years had ended. It came out of nowhere and just STUNNED Yankee fans. The 2004 collapse against the Red Sox was a close second. I love the fact that every time one team takes a 3-0 lead in a best of seven, Yankee fans have to hear about it.

Yeah, unless the Mets do it 2001 can't be topped.....add in the fact that we as New Yorkers were being implored to root for the MFY's as a sign of togetherness and to defeat the terrorists , ugh, being a Mets fan wasn't easy.I can still here my whiney co-workers voice asking in amazement why I was rooting for Arizona......"at a time like this".

Edited October 19, 2012 by Guest

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

If I'd had my druthers, I would have rather they'd found a way to take Game 4, then lost it at home in front of a half-full, booing YSIII crowd.

[Ceetar]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: If I'd had my druthers, I would have rather they'd found a way to take Game 4, then lost it at home in front of a half-full, booing YSIII crowd.

well, from people's recounts of 2004, game 7 was like attending a wake. And that was before they built the mausoleum.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

Ceetar wrote: LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: If I'd had my druthers, I would have rather they'd found a way to take Game 4, then lost it at home in front of a half-full, booing YSIII crowd. well, from people's recounts of 2004, game 7 was like attending a wake. And that was before they built the mausoleum.

To give credit where credit is due, Red Sox fans in attendance at the game said that Yankees fans offered congratulations and duerespect to the Red Sox. The douchebag frontrunners probably had left by the fourth inning leaving behind only the Yankees fans who actually appreciate baseball. I expect these non-douchebag Yankees fans have been priced-out of YSIII.

[Ceetar]

Well, depends on where you are I guess.

The Yankees are in for another 1000/game loss in attendance. I wonder if they'll be savvy enough to drop prices a bit to try to bring back in regular fans? They skated by by winning in the first year of the place, but just based on the stub hub volume it's pretty clear that there are a lot of scalpers with seats, and seeing the losses they were taking in the playoffs, I bet a ton of them don't renew.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Ranking the Recent-Era MFY Season Endings

2004 (ALCS): Blowing a 3-0 lead and all the crazy shit along the way will never be topped.
2001 (WS): Stunner for sure.
2002 (ALDS): 3-1 to Angels and rookie sensation Francisco Rodriguez. Remember being positively giddy about this.
2011 (ALDS): Convinced they'd crush a pitcher they'd never heard of (Doug Fister) in a Game 5 at home, they never recover from back-to-back 1st inning HRs and lose.
2010 (ALCS): Spanked by Rangers in 6 who score 5-7-8-10-2-6 runs.
2003 (WS): I don't like the Marlins but loved them then as they won in 6. Like this year, recrimination awaits goats (Wells)
2007 (ALDS): Lose 3-1 to the Indians and future ace CC Sabathia
2006 (ALDS): Win opener, lose 3 straight to the Tigers
2005 (ALDS) Lose 3-2 in Anaheim

[Frayed Knot]

Yeah, that's a pretty good list

2004 (ALCS): Blowing a 3-0 lead and all the crazy shit along the way will never be topped.
So much fuckin drama in that series, I remember we had a great and lengthy thread going to whole time.
And remember that the comeback started after a Game 3 MFY blowout

2001 (WS): Stunner for sure.
I had made a joke prior to the series even starting that the Yanx were going to get out-scored overall by a big margin but win anyway. It damn near came true.

2002 (ALDS): 3-1 to Angels and rookie sensation Francisco Rodriguez. Remember being positively giddy about this.
Losing this one made it tougher to write off the previous year as just a fluke. That era Angels team were the only ones to hold a winning record against the Torre-era Yanx so some fans weren't so surprised when this happened.

2010 (ALCS): Spanked by Rangers in 6 who score 5-7-8-10-2-6 runs.
Coming off the '09 WS many were convinced this one was in the bag because they never lost to the Rangers ... as if the results from ten years earlier somehow carried over as some kind of jinx.

2003 (WS): I don't like the Marlins but loved them then as they won in 6. Like this year, recrimination awaits goats (Wells)
Beckett in game 6


And then I might throw in the '97 ALCS and Sandy Jr's HR off Mariano

[G-Fafif]

Trying to rank one's favorite MFY postseason losses is like trying to rank one's favorite MFY postseason losses. They're all the best.

That said, the deliverance inherent in 2001 -- that, no, they don't always get what they want -- will always have a special place in my MFY-hating soul. And then being given back two rounds of postseason baseball when the Angels mugged them a year later made clear they were plenty vincible. And the Marlins made it a perfect trilogy, especially after the MFYs broke the Sox' hearts in seven games.

But how could anything be more perfect than what happened in 2004? Yet all the implosions that have followed have never tasted one less iota delicious just because nothing could top 2004?

Oh, it's all good.

Edited October 19, 2012 by Guest

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

I'm rather fond of the 2008 Yankees' finish. I'd like to see more like that.

[G-Fafif]

Mets � Willets Point wrote: I'm rather fond of the 2008 Yankees' finish. I'd like to see more like that.

Highly f'ing underrated year in that regard.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I guess I'd slot this one just above or below last year's Tigers loss. This wasn't much to look at as a series but because of the Arod nonsense, the Jeter injury, and her fact that'll probably be the MFYs last postseason for a decade or so, it might wind up being more memorable.

[Fman99]

Mongo happy

[Edgy MD]

What makes this especially wonderful to watch is that, despite ample personal evidence that coming from behind was possible, Yankee fans went into game three almost hopeless and game four utterly and completely hopeless. They lost before they lost, and then lost again, because they had lost themselves.

They weren't rooting for a comeback, and really, were almost rooting against a comeback, because they had already hopped off the bandwagon, afraid to lose, like utter losers do, and were actually throwing shit en masse at the bandwagon. The players had openly stated their relief at getting away from their own shitmongering fanbase.

So what if the Yankees had won the first two games in Detroit? The fans would have had to climb back on, sit in their own impacted shit bombs, and then probably lose anyway, while they all climbed over each other in a panic to bail off the wagon again before the loss was complete.

Watching this terrible fanbase demoralize their own overpaid and ridiculously stacked team and drive them to failure, as Detroit's fans act all human and lift their team to victory. Holy shit, that's satisfying.

I wanted to run outside and burn a police car in celebration.

[Edgy MD]

Remember how the Diamondbacks were made to almost apologize after winning, because they denied New Yorkers the storybook ending that they so deserved two months after the terrorist attack. This New Yorker already lost his story book ending a month earlier, and was more than happy for this paperback substitute.

[G-Fafif]

[youtube:3opacmqo]jzmAuKXfhP4[/youtube:3opacmqo]

[Fman99]

I just resubscribed to like 25 people on Facebook whom I had grown weary of during the Raul Ibanez hubbub and the Baltimore series. They're all strangely quieted now.

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: What makes this especially wonderful to watch is that, despite ample personal evidence that coming from behind was possible, Yankee fans went into game three almost hopeless and game four utterly and completely hopeless. They lost before they lost, and then lost again, because they had lost themselves.

They played that fourth game like the Marlins (and many other teams) play the last game of the year.

[stevejrogers]

Mets � Willets Point wrote: I'm rather fond of the 2008 Yankees' finish. I'd like to see more like that.

I'll take that. If only to hear local radio's THE BATTLE WITH BEANTOWN and ESPN/FOX slobber over themselves covering a weekend series between two teams battling it out for third in the AL East!

[MFS62]

Vic, thanks for re-posting that.
Later