The Yankees Are Now New York's Only Hope This Summer
After the Rangers were eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs on Saturday, the Bronx Bombers are all we have left in The Big Apple...
Want to know something that will absolutely blow your collective minds?
Although, if you are a New York sports fan, I’m inclined to warn you that the following isn’t for the faint hearted…
According to the Associated Press, the Yankees, Mets, Knicks, Nets, Jets, Giants, Rangers and Islanders have now combined for 100 seasons without winning a single championship.
Yep, you read that exactly right.
It is a sobering and jaw-dropping stat that hammers home just how bad we sports fans have had it in The Big Apple over the last decade or so.
You have to go all the way back to 2012 for the last time a team from one of the four major professional sports in New York won a championship, and that’s when the Giants beat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI.
And, to compound matters, the drought actually extends to a whopping 287 seasons if you add up each team’s drought:
Jets - 55 years without a championship
Knicks - 51 years
Nets - 47 years
Islanders - 41 years
Mets - 37 years
Rangers - 30 years
Yankees - 14 years
Giants - 12 years
Man, that is just painful to read as a hardcore New York sports fan myself.
Now, before we move on, let me be absolutely clear about one thing - I’m well aware that New York City FC won the MLS Title in 2021 but, for the strict purposes of this article, I’m only focusing on the four major professional sports.
Anyway, back to business.
The fact that New York City, the supposed sports mecca of America, and maybe even the world, hasn’t thrown a parade for one of its flagship franchises in over a decade is depressing. It also perfectly illustrates the sheer ineptitude that has befallen the majority of the pro teams in the area.
It is even more gut-wrenching when you consider that this summer once held so much promise.
Rewind a couple of months and hopes were high that there could be multiple parades being thrown to honor a new generation of sporting heroes.
The Knicks, despite being banged up and resembling an infirmary, were putting together a magical run before eventually running out of gas against the Indiana Pacers in the Second Round of the NBA Playoffs.
However, that hope still flickered over at Madison Square Garden thanks to the New York Rangers, who made it to the Eastern Conference Final and were primed to win the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1994. Instead, the core failed and disappointed again, with the Blueshirts being substantially outplayed and outclassed by the Florida Panthers in the ECF. Were it not for the heroics of Igor Shesterkin - who owned a .926 Save Percentage in the postseason despite facing 524 shots in 16 games. Were it not for the phenom goalie, then the Rangers would have been dumped out of the Playoffs a lot earlier.
And, just like that, what once promised to be a truly magical summer full of euphoric celebrations of the like we’ve never seen before, has been snatched away from us in a painful minute.
Instead, we’re now faced with months of debating what star the Knicks should pin their hopes on next and whether or not the Rangers should blow up the core and trade star power for toughness. Sure, that can be fun on some level, but not as fun as celebrating a Stanley Cup or a trip to the NBA Finals. Not even close.
And with the Mets inventing new levels of sheer ineptitude, and the Giants and the Jets not starting their respective seasons until September, there doesn’t appear to be a whole lot to get excited about on the sports front in the Big City this summer now (although, I will say that the Liberty, who have begun the new WNBA season 7-2, could make things interesting by going on another deep run).
But there is still one big white knight hanging out there, ready to save the summer for New York sports fans. Well, apart from the folk who follow the Mets…
The New York Yankees.
Now, I’ll preface what I’m about to dive into by saying that we’re still in June and there is a still a hell of a lot of baseball to be played. Plus, the Yankees have had great regular seasons before, only to collapse like a cheap pack of cards in the postseason.
It is what you do in October that truly matters the most.
However, all that being said, what the Yankees are doing right now is really something quite special, and it does stir up a lot of hope for the months ahead. These Bronx Bombers are playing at such an elite level that you can’t help but dream of a golden summer in the Bronx if you’re a Yanks fan.
The Yankees have established themselves as the best team in baseball through the first couple of months of the season. They boast the best run differential in the majors (+107.0), and they haven’t lost a series in a month. This team is truly on a heater and they appear to be only getting better.
That’s especially true when you consider that Gerrit Cole hasn’t even pitched this year yet. The ace is still recovering from right elbow inflammation, although he was scheduled to make a Minor League rehab start for Double-A Somerset on Tuesday. Barring any setbacks, Cole could make his Major League comeback at some point this month.
Cole is one of the best pitchers in baseball, and his return will only add to what has been an incredible strength of the ballclub. In Cole’s absence, the Yankees starting rotation has emerged as the best in baseball, pitching to a league-leading 2.78 ERA. Luis Gil has been the standout performer of an elite bunch, pitching to a stellar 1.99 ERA while going 7-1. The righty was named the AL Pitcher of the Month for May after going 6-0 with a 0.70 ERA, while allowing 14 hits with 12 walks, 44 strikeouts, a 0.67 WHIP and 10.24 strikeouts per 9.0 innings. He did not allow more than one run in all six of his starts in May, picking up the American League Rookie of the Month Award for his exploits too. Marcus Stroman has been pretty good in his first year in the Pinstripes, going 5-2 with a 2.73 ERA. Clarke Schmidt was also great before going on the IL, while Nestor Cortes and Carlos Rodón have been solid. The bullpen continues to consistently get the job done, posting a 2.40 ERA in May.
You add Cole back into that starting rotation and an already great team becomes even more formidable.
It also helps when you have a two-headed monster in the lineup. Juan Soto has changed the entire makeup of this team. In many ways, he has given the Bronx Bombers their swagger back. What Soto has done in a Yankees uniform so far has been nothing short of spectacular, and he’s going to become a $50 million a year player this offseason. You can take that to the bank right now. The three-time All-Star is hitting .322/.417/.614/.1.031 with 17 homers, 11 doubles, three triples, 40 walks and 53 RBIs. Furthermore, Soto was just named the American League Player of the Week after hitting .435 with three homers, nine RBIs, two triples, four walks, seven runs scored, a 1.000 slugging percentage and a .500 on-base percentage in six games this past week. He hit two homers as the Yankees beat the Giants on Sunday to complete the sweep and finish a hugely impressive West Coast road trip 7-2.
Soto has proved to be the missing piece for this New York lineup, and his wizardry at the plate should give the team a much-needed different dimension come Playoff time.
As for Aaron Judge, the superstar slugger is on an all-time tear. The five-time All-Star recovered from a slow start to absolutely go off in May, finishing a red-hot month with 14 homers, 12 doubles, 27 RBIs, 22 walks, 28 runs scored, a .371 average, a .928 slugging percentage and a .488 on-base percentage. His 90 total bases in May were the most by a Yankees player in a single calendar month since Don Mattingly in 1985. Furthermore, Judge became the first Yankee since Lou Gehrig in July 1930 to collect at least 12 doubles and 12 homers in a calendar month. Judge’s 24 extra-base hits in the month of May are also the most by a Yankees player since Joe DiMaggio had 31 in July 1937.
There’s arguably not a better offensive 1-2 punch in baseball than Soto and Judge. There sure isn’t a more entertaining one. The dynamic duo have lifted the Yankees to new, exhilarating heights, including winning 22 of their last 27 games. If you can’t have fun watching Soto and Judge mash the absolute hell out of teams this summer in the Bronx, then something is wrong.
That entire lineup seems a lot more balanced with Anthony Volpe and Alex Verdugo making big-time contributions offensively. Those two have also made their fair share of highlight-reel plays in the field, with the Yanks a much-improved team on defense too. Giancarlo Stanton also continues to mash, and this roster seems much better equipped to go on a deep run in the postseason.
All in all, this Yankees team as currently constituted seems capable of achieving something special come October. At the very least, they should continue to be the talk of baseball throughout the summer as long as they can avoid any prolonged slumps.
And, in turn, they now represent New York’s best chance of not only ending the city’s mammoth championship drought, but also of keeping sports fans in the Big Apple engaged and interested over the dog days of summer.
With every other team in the city falling short, the Yankees are now all New York has left.
They truly are the best show in town right now and the summer won’t be a complete bust as long as they can stay hot.
Whether or not these Yankees are truly good enough to deliver New York its first major championship since 2012 remains to be seen, however.
They better be, because they are all the city has right now until Aaron Rodgers and the Jets kick off their season in the fall.