Yankees need to leave the ghosts at the old Stadium

Newsday’s Jim Baumbach took an interesting stand today, regarding those ghosts at the old Yankee Stadium:

As the Yankees officially move across the street today into their brand-spanking new home for the rich and famous, the best thing fans can do is forget about the Yankee Stadium ghosts. Let them retire peacefully over at the old stadium, never to be bothered again. Trust me, it’s for the best.

I agree. Yankee Mystique and Aura, those two nightclub dancers, were retired by Curt Schilling and his bloody sock in the 2004 ALCS, when the Yanks were too worried about being classy to bunt on him.

Come to think of it, isn’t it funny how Joe Torre wrote in “The Yankee Years” about how Alex Rodriguez was too concerned about “how it looks” rather than “getting the job done”? What, then, was not bunting on Curt Schilling, other than being concerned about “how it looks” rather than “getting the job done”?

Baumbach notes that:

The notion of the Yankee ghosts grew to insane proportions over the past decade, eventually reaching the point that whenever something special happened in the Bronx the credit always went to those darned supernatural forces. It’s shocking there hasn’t been a Yankeeography on the stadium ghosts yet.

Yep. Another reason I want the Yanks to forget about the ghosts is that I’m convinced that belief in such supernatural stuff also contributed to the team’s lack of playoff success since Aaron Boone’s homer.

Too many players, including the captain himself, seemed to think that the ghosts would eventually show up, and that these ghosts would singlehandedly will the team to victory. And that led to laziness, and lethargy, and an inability for the team, to use a Torreism, “get the job done.”

For example, remember when the Yankees brought back Bucky Dent to throw out the first pitch at Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS? It was is if they were just expecting the Sox to get weak in the knees over Bucky F’ing Dent being in the ballpark. How insulting.

You know, for all the talk in the recent years about Yankee class, and the Yankee way, I think the notion of Yankee ghosts is more disrespectful to the opposition than Nick Swisher having fun pitching in a loss could ever be. And it’s counterproductive, too. Time to forget about the ghosts.

What do you think? Leave us a comment!