Welcome to the Suck

In 24 hours, a lot can change. Ask Jack Bauer.

Alex Rodriguez, one of the best hitters in baseball and most assuredly the 2007 American League MVP.
-GONE.

The Colorado Rockies, battling valiantly to stave off elimination, to give us a potentially interesting World Series for the first time since 2003.
-ELIMINATED.

Don Mattingly, a tremendous bench coach the past few years, lauded for his player communication skills and integrative, hard working approach.
-LIKELY GONE AS WELL.

Joe Girardi, a managerial candidate with one year of managerial experience, and one year of broadcast experience.
-OFFERED THE JOB.

And of course, there's your 2007 World Series champion
-THE BOSTON RED SOX.

...and the very fact, by nature, that their largely ignorant and classless fanbase is
-HAPPY.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to the suck.

For the first time since the early 1990's, the New York Yankees are an organization at a crossroads. A true crossroads, not the "Mussina or Manny" crossroads. We find ourselves with a core of pitching prospects, and some decent hitters, but without our cleanup hitter, without a manager per se (Girardi has not made a decision on the job), and with an entire coaching staff, front office, and much of our major player personnel in turmoil.

The bottom line, is this day comes every so often for every organization, and how it is handled is arguably the single most important thing attributed to an organization. It happened in 2001 to the Mets. Suddenly, Robin Ventura was old, Edgardo Alfonzo went from one of the most underrated players in the game to one of the most overrated, and Mike Piazza started to fall apart. It happened in 2006 to the Braves. The pitching staff that was once the best in baseball had sprung leaks, and continuing the pipe-on-boat metaphor, wet paper towels (bad pitchers) were plugged into the holes in the pipe to try and stop the ship from taking on more water. It didn't work. It happened to Texas in 2000, when suddenly Rusty Greer and friends were no longer productive hitters, and Juan Gone really was Gone. It even happened to Cleveland in 2002, as the Roberto and Sandy Alomar / Jim Thome / Omar Vizquel core grew older. As Travis Fryman, Manny Ramirez, and Kenny Lofton worked their way out of the organization.

What matters most is recovery. The Yankees, Yankee fans, and the Yankee organization have got to stop living in the past.

The bottom line is Boston has won 2 of the last 4 World Series. Granted, all 4 of them were boring and awful (even this year, sorry Rockies...you guys are awesome but it just didn't make for a very exciting series - 1995 through 2003 were all great Series and that's as far back as I remember). The Yankees have won 0 of the last 7. So while it feels nice to gloat in 26 rings, the majority of us have been alive for 4. "26" is no longer a suitable fallback.

So Girardi will likely get and take the job as manager. And so begins a new era. The dynasty of the late 90's is gone. It's been gone since 2001, when Paul O'Neill and Tino Martinez left, and when the dynasty's last breath was a gasp of final effort, as Derek Jeter lunged for a Luis Gonzalez bloop. Since, as pieces of the puzzle slowly scattered, we held the appearance of remaining The Dynasty, but we weren't. Few of the players on last year's 2007 team were previous winners, and many of those that were hadn't done so with the Yankees. Sportswriters loved to give us the edge for "intangibles" come playoff prediction time, but the reality was they weren't there. Aside from Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, and Mariano Rivera, it was a new team.

However, history comes full circle. Just as the great Indians and Braves teams of the 90's were eventually dismantled, or how the Orioles changed completely. We find ourselves exactly where those teams were a few years back. And amazingly, all three responded differently to the crisis, and achieved different levels of success. The Indians went with youth, recovered, and won. The Braves couldn't quite make up their minds, but held their veteran talent, and stayed in contention for most of the year. The Orioles went partially with veterans and partially with youth, but poor scouting and poor signing, as well as a cheap fiscal policy, doomed them to several fourth place finish. They've never finished higher than third.

So as Maximus might say in Gladiator, what we do in life echoes in eternity. The moves and non-moves we make will be remembered forever as the start of a new dynasty, or that interim period of "what the hell were they doing?" It's not easy. New ownership, a new manager, a new coaching staff, and significant uncertainty as to whether 3 of the 4 players who WERE there for the last dynasty (Posada, Rivera, Andy Pettitte), will be there for what could be the next one. A gaping hole at third base, a lack of run production, and a couple big fat useless contracts weighting down our options (Jason Giambi and Carl Pavano). The time is now to initiate the rebuilding project that should have started after 2003, or else we will find ourselves in a Baltimore-esque existence, riddled with the Bronx apathy of the 1980's.