Uncle George

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The Yankees were eliminated from the playoffs on Sunday night.

They haven’t been a participant in the World Series since pummeling the hapless Phillies in 2009.

That’s a long time in Yankees land and is made all the more disconcerting because if Uncle George were alive to see them get swept by the cheating Astros he would’ve gone off!

We didn’t hear much from the Yankees last night, other than this hurts.

We don’t know if their best player, Aaron Judge will be resigned.

We have no idea if they will solve the shortstop problem by adding a superstar one or handing the job to a rookie.

Aaron Boone?

George would’ve fired him long before last night.

Brian Cashman?

He would’ve been a true Cashman had Uncle George had 20 more years.

No way Harper, Machado, Schwarber, Correa or others would’ve signed elsewhere.

Now, George wasn’t perfect. 

The Yankees went a long time without a title from 1978 to 1996 and the ‘96 -‘00 teams were built when George was suspended.

He wanted to deal Mariano and was talked out of it. He didn’t want to start the ‘96 season with a rookie shortstop, but Jeter performed from day one.

He hired and fired Billy 4 times!

But Yankees fans could always count on Uncle George to go off! And then reload.

He had tears in his eyes when he said:

“I want the Yankees to win every day because Yankees fans have better days when the Yankees win.”

I took a lot of flak yesterday as people thought I’d be genuinely depressed over the loss.

I thought about it for about 5 minutes. There was no pain involved.

The Yankees had a good year and were a capable squad that could’ve won it all.

They didn’t.

A combination of bad luck and cold bats.

A couple of major injuries derailed them and they could never quite get their footing back.

I thought back to ‘01 when the Yankees lost Game 7 on a walk-off bloop hit.

Uncle George was livid that they didn’t 4-peat!

“I’m embarrassed for New York,” he said.

Imagine how he would’ve felt last night!

We need some of that fire back.

The Yankees will compete for the title again next year. I’m pretty confident of that…

…but Uncle George’s rage would’ve been a welcome thing after that sweep.

Ah well.

170 days to opening day.

Go Phillies!

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