As Spring Training nears, all baseball teams have made adjustments in the off-season. The reality for fans will start to sink in that some of their hero’s will only be seen by them wearing another uniform.
The Yankees were no different as there will be no more ‘Got Melk’ or ‘Thrilla For Godzilla’ cheers at the stadium in 2010. Unfortunately, for Brian Cashman the weight of success falls on his shoulders.
Also, for Cashman’s sake let’s hope that Yankee prospect Austin Jackson isn’t a natural in center field for the Detroit Tigers. Nothing will ignite fans fire more than watching another homegrown Yankee thrive on another team’s ball-club.
If the last decade baseball did learn lessons about winning. The first being the word ‘farm system’ became common lingo for fans, GM’s and the media chit-chat. The second is attitude means more than skills. For a team to win, it has to work.
The farm systems have been proven a key element for any MLB franchise’s success.
As a Yankee fan it is only natural to want to hate the team that proved everything that the Yankees did not do actually works. Even more annoying was that the team was the Boston Red Sox.
Boston’s 30-something GM, Theo Epstein truly believes team and the players that the Red Sox are grooming.
Think about it, the youngsters play Double-A and Triple-A ball for years together, learn together which makes it inevitable that they become familiar with each other.
Sometimes we tend to forget the baseball is a team sport. Play as a team and win as a team. It’s pretty simple.
With regard to the Yankees, paychecks and payrolls have nothing to do with camaraderie. It can attract big name players or aging superstars but that gives a team no guarantee for anything.
It takes so much to get through the long season overall. So to make the playoffs and to get to the World Series takes each part of a ball-club working. Not just showing-up everyday but going to extra mile whether it’s Skipper Joe Girardi, Arod, the bat-boy or the fans.
Each individual player needs to come together, while not relying on another picking up the slack for being lazy, but appreciating it when a player might be having an off day.