Wisdom

Hank Waddles reviews Game 7 of the ALCS from the Yankees view at Bronx Banter, and finds this wisdom from Paul O’Neill:

It will be difficult for the organization to get past this disappointment. Even though no one had expected the team to get to Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, most will remember the failure to get to the World Series, not the heroic effort to win the wild card game over Minnesota or the historic comeback to beat Cleveland in the divisional series.

This is the nature of sports; we remember our defeats. The trick, of course, is to turn those negative memories into something positive. Paul O’Neill spoke about the devastation he and his teammates felt after losing to Cleveland in the 1997 divisional series and admitted that he couldn’t bring himself to watch the World Series that year. But then he dropped this: “When we lost in 1997, it was such a disappointment that I don’t think we win in ’98, ’99, and 2000 without that disappointment.”

So this is the challenge for these young Yankees. Not to win the next three World Series, but to use this defeat to get better.

The Yankees are where the Astros were two years ago. They are young prime, and likely to get a little younger next season. This group may not produce a dynasty, but they are going to be fun to watch. This is the first Yankees team I can remember that let their non-serious side show.

from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2xXvzEz