In the interest of full-disclosure, I acknowledge penning this article with the slant of prejudice. Since 1951, I’ve been an inflexible, unyielding and unabashed New York Yankees fan; never contemplating allegiance to another team.
Now, I’ve cleansed my conscience and can proceed with untainted integrity.
Regarding the recent St. Louis Cardinals World Series victory, my humble, and somewhat tongue in cheek, theory suggests the Texas Rangers lost; not from lack of talent, but because they don’t know how to win in the post-season. Moreover, the reason they don’t know how to win in the post-season; is because they lack experience playing in that venue, and the culprit is the tradition of the New York Yankees. Please, allow me to explain.
Since 1921, the Yankees have 40 American League pennant championship notches in their bats, along with 27 World Series championships. In contrast, in the National League, next in line are the St. Louis Cardinals with a meager 18 National League championships, and 11 World Championships. Likewise, in the American League, the Oakland Athletics trail the Yankees with a miniscule 14-league championship, and nine World Series trophies. Then, somewhere down the line come the Texas Rangers, with five American League Championships and zero World Series championships to their credit.
Therefore, how is it possible for the Texas Rangers to know how to win in the post-season, when they’re seldom there, because the Yankees dominate post-season appearances?
More specificity: Tradition rears a powerful, intangible force when a Yankee prospect signs a contract. He knows Yankee tradition expects the team to win in the post-season. In addition, ownership has post-season winning experience and demands management adhere to this winning attitude. Management propagates this post-season winning attitude to the players. Therefore, winning expectations permeate the organization, which leads to wins, thus a winning tradition.
Do the Yankees win every year? No, but statistics show they win more than twice as often as their nearest competitor.
In my opinion, an example of a non-winning attitude prevailed in the last two series games. In both games, when crunch-time came, the Texas Ranger pitcher did not exude winning confidence when he looked at the menacing Cardinals batter. The Rangers were an out away from winning the World Series, but when their pitcher looked at the catcher for a signal, his eyes seemed to say, “I hope I throw a good pitch and not a bad one,” instead of “one pitch is all I need; the batter is history.” The batter-hitter confrontations resulted in two run-scoring hits for the Cardinals, which accents my point. The Rangers have now lost two consecutive World Series, which seems to prove they do not have a winning post=season tradition.
You may think owner, management and roster changes alter winning expectations, and patterns, and occasionally they may. However, the Yankees post-season record heralds that a winning tradition yields championships. There may be slumps, but winning is the norm. Thus, I proclaim, that because of the winning tradition of the New York Yankees, neither any American nor any National League team is able to cultivate the aura of invincibility that surrounds the Yankees. Long live the New York Yankees.
World Series: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/worldseries