r/NYYankees

Between 1978-1996 the Yankees went 17 years without a championship. In that stretch, George Steinbrenner fired 14 different managers.

He also, as we all know, tried to dig up dirt on his best player Dave Winfield, forcing him to be banned from Baseball.

The year before George was banned, the Yankees won 74 games. 74. It had be 4 years since they touched a 90 win season.

In the time that he was gone, Gene Michael, Bill Livesey, Brian Sabean and yes, later Brian Cashman, drafted, developed, and produced what we now know as the Yankees dynasty.

We also know that George tried to trade Derek Jeter the moment he returned, and Brian Cashman and Willie Randoloph had to practically throw themselves in front of a moving truck in order to stop him.

What most DONT know however, is that George fired Gene Michael, all of his scouts, and all of the architects of the 90s dynasty upon his return, and many within the organization said the dynasty died that day, before it even began. They all say that had George not been such an egomaniac, the Yankees could've gone on to dominate for much, much longer than they did - which is hard to imagine.

Since then, they have won one single championship in the past 25 years. They have not been able to recreate the genius of the architects who created what is now famously known as "The Yankee Way".

Hal has handed the reigns over to Brian Cashman, who back in the 90s - considered leaving the Yankees entirely or a UPS delivery job to hold him over while he went to law school, leaving baseball behind him.

His shouting matches with George, watching George force his way to close deals with players like Gary Sheffield screwing over a potential deal Cashman had in place for Vlad Guerrero, screaming arguments to protect prospects from being traded and so on, left Cashman scarred and allowed him to develop an arrogance in the wake of George's passing. Sustained excellence throughout the regular season has been coupled with a refusal to make trades that hurt but benefit the team in the immediate. That, along with a myriad of other mind bending decisions, has kept the Yankees from reaching the mountain top in this new era of NYY baseball.

At the end of the day, the Yankees won 20 championships before the Steinbrenner's took over.

Comparing eras is always relative - yes, the average fastball was 89 mph and Yogi Berra had side jobs working at Bowling Alleys, but that was the case for the rest of the league, and the Yankees found a way to win more than anyone else.

The Steinbrenner's have owned the team for 53 years. If you combine the title drought from '78-'96 and '09-'26 - that is 34 years combined of them overseeing championship droughts in NY.

Unacceptable.

Link to the full unlocked article after the latest in an increasingly long line of playoff losses where the Yankees beat themselves

Before Game 1, Boone said he always hears that Tampa Bay doesn’t beat itself in games.

“No, they’ll give you things,” Boone said of the Rays. “The pressure they put on you is that they have other teams beat themselves.”

But through two games, the Rays have given the Yankees nothing other than providing endless laughs from their rivals’ fanbases. Now the Yankees are on the brink, in danger of ending this season the same way they’ve done so for the past 16 — without a championship.

The series comes home tomorrow, and everyone that watches sports knows momentum swings can be huge! The team needs us fans now more than ever so don’t give up the faith and bring the house down Wednesday!!

Remember what happened with Trea Turner when the Phillies fans finally showed him some love, he actually played well!! We’ve got to give this team all our support!

This is where I miss the Torre-era lineups.

They weren't literally L-R-L-R every night, but they had balance: lefties, righties and switch hitters throughout the order. A pitcher had to keep changing his approach from batter to batter.

With Boone, stacking lefties against a RH starter may win the platoon matchup on paper, but it can also let a pitcher settle into the same plan for several hitters in a row.

It also makes bullpen management easier. With the 3-batter minimum, L-R-L creates a matchup problem. L-L-L can make the decision obvious.

The other issue is this lineup doesn't grind enough at-bats.

In Game 1, the Yankees made Rasmussen throw 51 pitches through three innings.

Then he needed just:

9, 9, 14, 11 and 7 pitches over the next five.

That's way too comfortable in a playoff game.

The Torre teams had guys who could foul pitches off, work counts and make pitchers earn outs. Even when they weren't hitting, they could wear a starter down and get into the bullpen.

After the Game 1 offensive disaster, Boone should have made real lineup changes. It's the playoffs. You can't just keep running the same formula out there because the matchup looks good analytically.

Mix the handedness. Grind at-bats. Make pitchers adjust. Make the manager actually have to think about bullpen usage.