Perspectives: One Down, Five To Go

by Paul Semendinger

September 29, 2021

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The Yankees won again last night. This is great and good and wonderful and fun. They have their fate in their own hands. All they have to do (easy for me to say) is keep winning. With five games to play, they have a three game lead over the Blue Jays. It’s getting closer and closer to the Yankees being assured of being in the Wild Card game.

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The Red Sox lost. Amazing. The Orioles beat them. Amazing. As the Yankees soar, the Sox are starting to fold. The Yankees are getting a tiny bit of breathing room.

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The Yankees need better defense. They need more lefty bats. Gary Sanchez can’t field, Gleyber Torres shouldn’t play shortstop, Aaron Boone made a bad decision…blah, blah, blah… Whatever. Who Cares? Well, I do, of course, as we all do, but for now, as I see it, for now the time is to focus on this great finish, this fun race, and hopefully a long, long, long playoff run. This is where I’m going to focus my energies. There will be plenty of time this autumn and winter to look back and assess what went right, what went wrong, who should be replaced, and all of that. This finish is too compelling to discuss the tired old points. I’m just going to enjoy this.

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If Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge keep hitting homers, the Yankees will be in great shape.

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If Giancarlo Stanton keeps this pace up through the post season, he’s on his way to becoming an all-time Yankees legend.

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When Jameson Taillon went down and then Giancarlo Stanton swung and basically fell over I thought, “Oh no, here we go again.” Somehow, though, Stanton was alright. And the Yankees keep getting good news, or encouraging news, on the injury front.

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I never thought Luis Severino would come back and be this good. When I am wrong about something, I freely admit it. I never saw this coming. Never. He is back, he is pitching great, and he’s a huge weapon. I hope the Yankees don’t even consider starting him this year. Keep him in the bullpen as the valuable game changing pitcher that he is right now.

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If Jonathan Loaisiga comes back and pitches as he has, oh boy, the Yankees will be in great shape.

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Coming at 4:00 today should be a great article from Ethan (I haven’t read it yet) that demonstrates a clear path for Gerrit Cole to win the Cy Young Award.

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Coming at 7:00 tonight, the Yankees need Gerrit Cole to bury the Blue Jays once and for all tonight. Get. It. Done. With a win, the Yankees make their magic number vs. the Jays to one.

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One of my favorite baseball writers is Joe Posnanski. HIs giant new book on the 100 greatest baseball players of all-time was just published. I just got it today. I started reading it, of course, and it’s great. Some of his choices are, at least on the surface without reading it, controversial, to say the least, but that’s the fun of all of this.

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Spoiler Alert – Harold Baines didn’t make the cut.

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Disappointment Alert – (I knew he wouldn’t but…) Graig Nettles didn’t make it either.

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After quickly flipping through the book, the third basemen who made the cut include Brooks Robinson, Adrian Beltre, Ed Mathews, George Brett, and Mike Schmidt. I can’t argue that they are all better than Nettles.

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I won’t spoil the fun for readers, but there are more than a fair share of Yankees who made it including Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera among the Yankees’ greatest stars.

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Posnanski’s book in just under 900 pages long. It’s awesome. The way he writes, I wish it was 9,000 pages long. He’s great.

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Maybe he’ll do a follow-up, players #101 to 200. I bet Nettles will be in there!

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As so many know, but I want to keep the news out there…

There will be a FREE Book Launch Celebration at the Yogi Berra Museum in Little Falls, NJ on Sunday, October 10, 2021 from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.

This is to celebrate my new Yankees book The Least Among Them. I really would love to see so many of our readers there. It is all free.

This includes FREE Museum entrance.

All are invited!

Please register here:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/free-yankees-book-launch-special-event-the-least-among-them-tickets-167100178131

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Let’s Go Yankees!!!

#AaronBoone #AaronJudge #GiancarloStanton