Dishing and Swishing: Yankees’ continuous losses in the postseason are a disappointment to the game of baseball

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This year’s MLB postseason has me outraged.

I am writing this column about eight hours before my beloved New York Yankees — led by manager and former USC Trojan Aaron Boone — face elimination in Game 4 of the American League Division Series against the Tampa Bay Rays. With a heavy heart, I write in complete honesty that even though I am hurt and disappointed, I am not sure if I can say that I am surprised.

The Yankees had a hot start to this shortened 60-game season, then went cold after almost all of their starters got hurt (including outfielders Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton and infielders Gleyber Torres and DJ LeMahieu, just to name a few). When they were fully healthy again, the team had some good momentum going into the Wild Card Series against the Cleveland Indians, and they took care of business there. So far, so good.

Now, in my opinion, had the Yankees not become injured and cold in the middle of the season, they would be the first — and best — team in the American League. But the pitching rotation is weak (righty Luis Severino and lefty James Paxton are both injured), except for the $324 million man, righty Gerrit Cole, and even he does not look nearly as spectacular as he did last year.

Then, I looked at the rest of the league.

As far as I’m concerned, the Houston Astros should not have been allowed under ANY circumstance to even contend for a postseason appearance. But of course, Rob Manfred, who is arguably the worst commissioner in the history of Major League Baseball, decided to expand the postseason format to allow three more teams to make it, which now includes the Astros. And of course, Houston is on its way to the American League Championship Series.

Oh, and the Rays beat the Toronto Blue Jays in a two-game sweep while  allowing only 3 runs in total. Not good.

Of course, I must acknowledge that most of the Daily Trojan’s readers are (likely) Los Angeles Dodgers fans. So, luckily for you all, they look like the championship-caliber team that everyone has hyped them up to be so far. Good for you.

But here’s where my frustration lies with the Yankees: They’ve been doing this every year since they last won the World Series in 2009. Here’s a quick rundown of their finishes since then:

  • 2010: Lost in the ALCS
  • 2011: Lost in the ALDS
  • 2012: Lost in the ALCS
  • 2013: Missed the postseason
  • 2014: Missed the postseason
  • 2015: Lost Wild Card Game
  • 2016: Missed the postseason
  • 2017: Lost in the ALCS to cheaters (Astros) who got away with cheating
  • 2018: Lost in the ALCDS to other cheaters (Red Sox) who also got away with cheating
  • 2019: Lost in the ALCS

Notice a pattern? That’s right! The Yankees are contenders almost every single year, for 162 games, and then they choke in the postseason. We continually believe they are one of the best teams in baseball only for them to disappoint.

It’s hard, tiring and exhausting. I was speaking to some friends recently about this frustration, and their response was a good one: “Shawn, why are you so upset about the Yankees but you root for the Knicks and Giants every year?”

The answer is simple: I go into every basketball and football season with the lowest expectations for my teams, so I’m rarely disappointed. The Yankees, on the other hand, make us believe that they genuinely can win it all. Every. Single. Year.

And so because this happens every year, the shock factor slowly vanishes. It is for this reason that I am no longer overly surprised.

Game 3, an 8-4 loss, was so hard to watch that I actually changed the channel to watch the vice presidential debate after the sixth inning. I chose to watch politics over my favorite team in a playoff game. Yes, it was that bad.

But hey, maybe I’ll see this column installment as an icy cold take if the Yankees win two games in a row and advance. I hope and pray to whatever higher powers there may be that this is the case — though by the time you read this, their fate may already be sealed. As of the time of this writing, though, the historic, famed and revered New York Yankees are a disappointment to the game of baseball.

Shawn Farhadian is a sophomore writing about sports. His column, “Dishing and Swishing,” runs every other Friday.