Submitted by Mike, Sep 4, 2008 18:07

The analogy to the 1997 Baltimore team is a pretty weak one. They are one of the worst run organizations in baseball. The Yankee 2008 season this wear was essentially ruined by a 180 foot stretch of turf in Houston, where the coaching staff ought to have made clear to their American league pitchers "look, we don't care how close the game is, you take your time around the bases and none of us care if you get thrown out by 30 feet." Instead their ace pitcher tried to score from second with two out in the sixth inning of a game he was winning around 5-1 at the time. That alone has cost the team 5 wins difference, easy. And let's not forget the Red Sox have many of the same age issues. And does anyone think Tampa Bay is going to play better than maybe .500 ball next year? They have "one year wonder" written all over them. Many other franchises that were at the top in the late 1990s have declined steeply - Cleveland, Seattle, Oakland, Texas - piling up in many cases horrible records. In the regular season the Yankees have continued to win ... and win ... and win. Cashman has had a *huge* hand in that. The post-season is simply a "who's hot now" luck-fest, particularly in that first round best-of-five. The Yankees are simply too good a franchise to miss the playoffs regularly. Where they are in trouble in my opinion is getting hot in October - that's where the older players probably cost them.

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