New York Mets And Yankees Are Rolling In The Deep Of The Pennant Races
The New York Mets and New York Yankees have spent most of the 2016 season explaining and making excuses for why things went wrong. Finally though, the things we see and the quotes we read tell a different story about both teams as they continue their surge to the playoffs.
The New York Mets and New York Yankees have had the kind of year where they’ve saved the best for last. While the Mets had more than their share of injuries to deal with, the Yankees were in the midst of trying to decide the future of their organization.
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Neither team was never out of the hunt for a pennant, but they were never really in it either. They hovered around .500, struggled to win series, and couldn’t put together a run or winning streak that would catapult them into the race.
During that span which covered about two-thirds of the season for both the Mets and Yankees, Terry Collins and Joe Girardi were the frontmen who had to do all of those pre and post game TV interviews explaining the whys and hows of a disintegrating season.
At times, things got a little testy as you’ll recall in this video when Terry Collins took his team to task for worst thing a manager can say about his team’s “lack of effort “…….
But thankfully, that was then and this is now. The Mets and Yankees are rolling in the deep of the playoff competition, and almost unbelievably for the Yankees the pennant race itself.
Still, that leaves Collins and Girardi with a new problem now, albeit a good one though. Their problem now is to not let the high too high, just as their problem before was to keep things upbeat.
Indeed, the tone is a bit different nowadays from both managers. Here’s Girardi a couple of days ago, “I think a lot of times, the pressure a rookie feels comes from within, where you want to prove that you belong,” Girardi said. “But the expectations maybe weren’t quite as high on them because of where we were at in the standings, and that probably helped.”(Newsday)
Collins has preached the same thing since day one. Collins still insists, “I don’t care who is not here. There are no excuses here. They are major league baseball players,” said Collins. “I don’t care where they came from. I don’t care how they got here. The names on their back and on the front of their uniforms say they are a major league baseball player.” (metsmerizedonline)
Actually, Collins spoke those words more than a month ago. But they have a different meaning now. The same with Girardi’s take on using his Baby Bombers. It’s a lot easier to digest what he did after seeing the contributions they’ve been making.
As with most things, it’s always more about perception. Both Collins and Girardi are still the same managers they were back in June when their teams were flailing. Instead, it’s the Mets and Yankees who have changed by playing better and more highly charged baseball.
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Still, it remains the job of both managers to keep a steady hand on the barometer of their team. Pressure is good, pressing is not. That’s the challenge for both teams from here on in. So far, so good. Let’s keep it rolling in the deep.