The season is over. There will be no trip to the World Series for the New York Yankees in 2017 and that’s okay. I know that seems wrong for a Yankee fan to say because their motto is usually “Championship or bust” however, this season was such a pleasant surprise that making the American League Championship Series was an “I’m just happy to be nominated” moment. Would I have liked for the Yankees to beat the Astros and made it to the World Series to battle it out with the Dodgers? Of course, but that doesn’t mean that the ALCS was a colossal failure. It was just a big bummer.
This team wasn’t supposed to do this well, this soon. It exceeded expectations and made this one of the first fun regular seasons we’ve experienced in a while. We had rookies bashing mammoth home runs and shutting down teams. We had veterans experiencing a renaissance at the plate and on the rubber. And we watched as the team battled their way to the seventh game of the American League Championship Series.
The ending may have been a bad one but the ride to get there was a lot of fun and that’s where Yankee fans should focus their attention. Remember the good moments like crazy comeback against Baltimore in April or Matt Holliday’s home run of Craig Kimbrel which led to a 16th inning victory for the Yankees. Remember Aaron Judge murdering baseballs in the Home Run Derby in Miami and all regular season or Didi Gregorius setting the record for most home runs by a Yankees shortstop. Remember Luis Severino establishing himself as a front-end starter and Chad Green mowing down batters out of the bullpen.
2017 was fun and we didn’t want it to end but as L. Frank Baum said, “Everything has to come to an end, sometime.”
The good news is we have a lot to look forward to and that should really excite Yankee fans. The future is very bright and we got our first taste of that future this season.
Photo Credit: Troy Taormina / USA TODAY Sports