Naked City: eight million ideas about the Yankees.

From 1958 through 1963 there was a TV crime show about New York called "Naked City".  At the conclusion the viewer would hear the narrator say: "There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them."

Today there are eight million ideas about the Yankees.  What went wrong.  What could have been done.  What to do for next season.  I'm already pretty sick of what I've heard and won't provide idea number eight million and one.

We behave oddly under pressure.  We fans succumb to tournament pressure as if someone were actually interested in how we react.  We panic.  We blame.  We look for scapegoats.  We look for conspiracies.  We look for treachery.  We interpret mistakes and imperfections as character flaws.  We turn on the players we had cheered all through the regular season.  We look for temporary replacements during the tournament and for permanent ones after.  It gets pretty ugly.

We New Yorkers think we're more knowledgeable than fans in other cities, more sophisticated, but we're not.  We're just as bad.  Remember that jerk in Chicago who was ridiculed for interfering with a Cub outfielder trying to catch a foul fly in a playoff game?  Since then I've seen Yankee fans at the Stadium do that and similarly stupid things that would hurt the Yankees.

The Yankees did not score much in the four game sweep against Detroit.  Here are generic explanations:
1. All batters failed to try enough.
2. All batters slumped.
3. All batters choked.
4. Detroit pitching was too good for them.

Being fairly rational, I'm going with the Detroit pitching being too good.  That seems far more plausible than any of the other possibilities.  As such, I'm not that upset with the Yankees.  I'm very disappointed and I was in a pretty good funk last night and into this morning but I'm pretty much over it and thinking pretty rationally now.  I'm not looking to get rid of many if not most of the players I rooted for during the 162 game regular season.

I realize that rosters change and that the team must try to improve but this group won 95 games, most in the American Conference, and the pitching was outstanding in the tournament so the team's main problem is that so many of the players are old and their performance will naturally deteriorate.

The natural inclination is to try to get younger and more athletic.  I'm all for that.  Bring in Mike Trout and Bryce Harper.  However, if the Yankees do not have players like that in the farm system then more difficult decisions need to be made.

I remember the 1962 and 1963 World Series.  In 1962 Mickey Mantle was in his prime but he hit very poorly against the San Francisco Giants; batting average (BA) .125, including 1 for 3 in game seven.  Through the first six games Mantle was 2 (single, double) for 22: .090.  Should Yankee manager Ralph Houk have benched The Mick in game seven?  Dropped him lower in the lineup?  Pinch hit for Mantle during the game?  Yanks won game seven 1-0.  Ralph Terry pitched a complete game.

How about 1963 when the Yankees lost four straight against the Los Angeles Dodgers, never having a lead?  As the series progressed should Houk have used subs Phil Linz, Harry Bright and Jack Reed?  The Dodgers used four pitchers; the one reliever retired only two batters, the three starters retired all the rest.

These seem like odd questions even now and would have seemed alien 49-50 years ago.  Generally, a manager needs to go with the players who got him there.  If the manager does not support his regular players or, worse shows panic, that manager is in danger of losing his clubhouse, if not immediately then in the following season.

These are the times that try men's souls.