Baseball Fate

     I just have to take a moment to recognize a great moment in the storied history of the New York Yankees: a five game sweep of that other team from a northeastern city, a series reminiscent of the "Boston Massacre" of 1978:

More than 35,000 sad souls had shuffled out of Fenway Park by 5 p.m. on Monday. There were sea gulls circling the center-field bleachers then, but they might as well have been buzzards. In 75 punishing hours, the Yankees had pounded their rivals into little more than a carcass.

With relentless offense, stingy relief pitching and moxie, the Yankees swept the Boston Red Sox in a five-game series, taking the finale, 2-1, on Monday afternoon.

The Yankees, who trailed in the American League East by four games on the Fourth of July, now lead the Red Sox by six and a half games. It was the first five-game road sweep in the majors in 10 years.

    The historical references continue:

The Red Sox hadn't been swept in a five-game series since the Cleveland Indians did it in 1954. The Yankees swept Boston in five games in New York in 1951 and at Fenway in '43.

 In other words, it was one of the worst sustained defeats suffered by the Red Sox.  What are we to make of it?   That this is clearly the Yankees year, at least for winning the American League East title again?  Perhaps.  Though with 39 or so more games to go, the Yankees should not, and most certainly will not, rest on their laurels.

      A lot of good qi is working for the Yankees.  Fate, destiny - "Heaven" in the ancient Chinese conception - are all working for the Yankees.  Let's hope we can ride this thing all the way through the world series.

    And it seems that Joe Torre, the Yankee manager, knows how to stay on the right side of Heaven.  He allowed one of his pitchers to do the right thing:

[Yankee pitcher] Lidle was not even in Boston for the first three games. He watched on television in California, where he had flown for his grandmother’s funeral. Lidle threw to his brother, a former minor league catcher, to stay sharp, and re-joined the Yankees on Sunday.

 The man who won the last game today, Monday, had flown off to California to do the right filial thing for his grandmother and his family.  Torre, upholding Confucian standards of noble-minded, had allowed Lidle to be with his family at a crucial moment.

     And Heaven smiled on the Yankees.

     Go New York!

Comments

[China Law Blog]

This also explains the Mariners recent inability to win anything.