Perspectives: A Once Proud Franchise
- Paul Semendinger
- Dec 30, 2025
- 3 min read
by Paul Semendinger
December 30, 2025
***
There is absolutely no energy or excitement around the Yankees. None.
It is difficult to argue that the Yankees are going to go for it in 2026, when, for months, they have done nothing.
The offseason has been one where they sign fringe players and roster fillers. It's been a long boring slog.
This is the Yankees - once the proudest and most successful baseball team in the world.
There was a time when being a Yankees fan was filled with excitement and great energy. There was always news and hopes. There were years when the Hot Stove League was as exciting as the regular season.
No longer.
There is a certain arrogance around those who run the franchise today - as if they always know better than anyone else (in spite of the fact that they have not won a championship in a generation).
The Yankees used to be defined by championships. Now they celebrate playoff appearances as if that is something for the most valuable and once proudest franchise to cherish and celebrate. (It's not.)
In short, the Yankees have become boring. They play a boring brand of baseball on the field. Now their off-seasons mirror their regular seasons. There is nothing for most fans to care about regarding this club.
All a Yankees fan of today has are memories from long ago and the hope and anticipation that Aaron Judge has another great season ahead.
If the Yankees have a 2026 season similar to the most recent years, where they're good, but not great, and in a pennant race, the team will simply go on with the approach they've been following. I think it's fair to say that nothing will change in the Yankees' approach until they become a second division club.
But by then, Aaron Judge's great seasons will also be in the past. In large part, the success they have had in recent years falls primarily on Judge's shoulders.
It's not easy to build up a franchise once it crumbles. Just look to the New York Giants football team. That was also a once proud and very successful franchise. No longer. For years, they've been terrible. They can't get out of their own way.
NY GIANTS RECENT FOOTBALL SEASONS
2007: Super Bowl Champs
2008: 12-4
2009: 8-8
2010: 10-6
2011: Super Bowl Champs
2012: 9-7
2013: 7-9
2014: 6-10
2015: 6-10
2016: 11-5
2017: 3-13
2018: 5-11
2019: 4-12
2020: 6-10
2021: 4-13
2022: 9-7
2023: 6-11
2024: 3-14
2025: 3-13
When one looks at the direction the Yankees are heading, in part because the people running the team seem to be, at once, very arrogant in their approach while at the same time exuding very little energy, enthusiasm, or excitement, it seems more likely that the team is facing a future more like the Giants of today than their former glories of the past.
Once a team crashes and burns, it becomes very difficult to find the old magic. This is especially true when so much of the team's success is tied up with one great player. Once Aaron Judge becomes mortal, the Yankees will be in serious trouble.
And once a team loses the magic, especially after years of seeming to care very little for the fans base, it becomes even that much more challenging to bring the fans back.
This is the path, it can be reasonably argued, the Yankees are on. They've made the team boring, in every way. Once they start losing, and more and more it is looking like this could begin in 2026, why would any fans reinvest in this team?
It didn't have to be this way.
The Giants analogy is . . . highly selective. The Giants were in the NFL championship game six times in the eight years from 1956 to 1963, though the won that game only once. After that, they fell apart to the point where I remember in 1978 someone flew a small plane with a banner reading "15 Years of Lousy Football . . . We've Had Enough." In 1981, they made the playoffs for the first time since the glory years. From 1984-1990, they won two Super Bowls and made the playoffs three other times. From 1991 to 2006, they lost once in the Super Bowl, but also failed to make the playoffs in 10 of those 16 years.
And…
I love you perspective. Probably because they correlate with my own. I have been a Yankees fan my entire life. Watched games my entire life. Live though the up great years like late 70's and core fours. As well as the terrible late 80's early 90's. Since YES network and other cable and streaming has evolved I haven't missed a single pitch of a single game. In many years.
Now, the last 3 to 4 years I have grown so tired of the braintrust, I feel like watching the games is more like a chore or a job. I still support the players. Even the ones that I see no reason why they are part of the New York Y…
I saw an interview on the MLB network and Cashman was on the panel. To me he came off as a used car salesman. What a fraud. He kept saying how much he thought we had a very good team going into 2026 and of course the panel was very gentle with him not wanting to jeopardize their future access as journalists (a term I use here VERY loosely). I don't know what to say anymore. I join a chorus of deeply disappointed Yankee fans. Unless I'm way off base here, there will be no signings of note and no trades. Not even signing Bellinger who probably wants big money heading into his declining years. I think we're still o…
Common thread between Yankees and Giants: The sons of the men who brought most of the success to the teams are now in charge. We see this in business all the time. John Mara and Hal Steinbrenner should both move on with their lives. Neither is qualified to run a major league level team with any material level of success.
Remember when rooting for the Yankees was said to be like rooting for U.S.Steel?
Then steel manufacturing shifted off shore.
By January of 2025 U.S. Steel ranked lowest of domestic steel producers, operating at 76% capacity. In July of ‘25, a Japanese company bought them.