Okay, Listen Up

Marlon Byrd slides safe into home plate.

The last 2 days, being a Yankee fan went from being respectable to being in an awful situation. Why? Because the Rangers, carried by the bats of Marlon Byrd and Josh Hamilton and Ramon Vasquez and all sorts of guys. The Rangers have played pretty good defense, and their pitching has been iffy, but they've gotten through it. The Rangers offense has overwhelmed the Yankees pitching, and while the Yankees have hit at times, it hasn't been enough. It's been embarressing, how bad the Yankees have looked in the past 2 days. It's only two days, but they're two unencouraging days. It's not just because of the winning, however, that's got Yankee fans down in the dumps.

The Rays have won when the Yankees have lost. The Rays have won when the Yankees have won. The only time the Tampa Bay Rays have lost is when the Yankees have lost. It's the same with the Red Sox. When they lose, so do the Yankees. It's gotten to a point where it's extremely frustrating for Yankee fans to stick around. The Yankees are slowly, but surely, losing ground in the tough AL East and AL Wild Card standings. Slowly, but surely, the hopes of another postseason run, and subsequently, another World Series, is quieting down. The Yankees are now at a point where the thought of them winning the World Series in the last season of it's legendary ballpark is dieing down, and that's FAR from good.

Joba Chamberlain leaves the game with an injury.

But to top it all off, as though the first two reasons aren't reason enough to be under the weather, the Yankee fans have been hit by a short, yet extremely excruciating loss to their ballclub. 7 games out of first place in the AL East, the Yankees lost their ace of the future, Joba Chamberlain, to injury. He's been placed on the disabled list with an injury to the right shoulder. Chamberlain was the most dominating pitcher, stuff wise, in the Bombers rotation. The young righty may be out for the rest of the season, the Yankees have yet to report what the problem Joba has in his pitching shoulder. Initial reports say it's a stiff shoulder, it could be worse. After Chien-Ming Wang was confirmed to be out for the rest of the season until October. An acquirement of Jarrod Washburn or Paul Byrd is not nearly big enough to cover that huge scar that the losses of Chamberlain and Wang have left.

With that being said, all we have is hope. Hope. We need to hope; hope the offense can come back and become what it's supposed to be. Hope the pitching can keep us in ballgames and hold the opposing team down so the offense can rise up. We need to hope our bullpen becomes what it was before, a dominating force. Marte, Ramirez, Veras, Bruney, all these guys have the stuff to dominate and have dominated in this season. Let's face it, our chances are getting smaller. Every time the Red Sox or the Rays win, our chances of making the playoffs get smaller and smaller. But that's the beauty of the game. Last year, the Rockies kept winning and winning and never stopped winning and beat the Padres in a one-game playoff to make the postseason, and eventually make the World Series. The Phillies came back from a huge deficit made by the Mets to make the postseason. We just have to cheer our Yankees on until the end.

Though it gets tough sometimes,

Stay positive, Yankees fans.

-EJ/Kid From New York