The top ten reasons the Yankees lost to the Astros according to Yankee fans
10. The moon was in the wrong phase when the two teams played.
9. The game started too late because of a weather delay
8. The game wasn’t delayed enough because of weather
7. The Astros cheated in our own stadium (if you watched the game, you may have noticed the Astros pitcher and catcher had trouble communicating their pitch selection. How could the Astros have stolen signals from the other team when they couldn’t even communicate their own signals?)
6. The Yankees didn’t have the protection they paid the commissioner for so that they could cheat in their own stadium.
5. The Yankee’s pitcher got hurt (going back to number seven. Lance McCullers once famously threw 24 consecutive curveballs after he hurt his arm. He knew that he didn’t have enough power behind his fastball, but his curveball was working so well that he didn’t want to come out of the game. If you’ve watched this pitcher for a few games, you would be able to tell that something definitely was wrong with him, as well as Nestor Cortes).
4. The Yankees didn’t have adequate information on the rookie shortstop, Jeremy Pena (after the two teams played nine games against each other during the regular season.
3. The Yankees are bums
2. Aaron Boone is a bum
1. The Yankees just aren’t as good as the Astros are.
d.: I made the above list with my tongue planted in my cheek. I was once a Yankees fan, when they still had players who would take responsibility for themselves and their actions. People like Reggie Jackson, Craig Nettles, Bucky Dent, et al. weren’t well liked by other teams ( or even some of their own teammates), because they would tell the truth and not make excuses.
I actually liked Aaron Boone when he was a player. Although he wasn’t immensely talented (compared to other major leaguers, anyway), he was a gutsy player who made the most of his talent. He seems to have changed his tune since he was hired as the Yankees manager. As I’ve been told my whole life, excuses are like, well, elbows. Everyone has at least one. Boone seems to have an unlimited supply of them.
When I was involved in endurance sports, the first thing I was taught was that Murphy’s Law would always apply. No matter how hard one works, trains, and plans, something will always go wrong. The trick is to be prepared for all situations and know how to overcome any difficulties.
That is the main reason I encouraged my sons to play sports. Sports are a microcosm of real life. They teach the players how to deal with problems and overcome them. Even Michal Jordan missed last-second shots. He actually missed a lot of them. Many years ago, Jordan did a commercial for Nike stating how many times he had been asked to make the game-winning shot- and missed. Truth to tell, Jordan had no idea what that number was. He was reading from a script. One reliable source put the G.O.A. T.’s made percentage at 48% when he was asked to make the game-winning shot, a virtual coin flip. However, the reason M.J. didn’t know how many times he had missed that shot was the last-second shot was that he didn’t dwell on those misses. He knew that, when it counted most, his teammates depended on him to come through. Michael Jordan is now a billionaire. Mental toughness is a key ingredient in success.
Cal.E. and I work at a place where excuses abound. People who land themselves in the Human Kennel often (make that usually) blame other people, the circumstances, or some other thing that has little if any relevance to their situation for being in The Kennel.
I’m now watching a docuseries on one of the most brilliant men who ever lived. If Leonardo da Vinci had decided to blame his circumstances (being an illegitimate child of a church clerk who was left in an orphanage at the age of ten), he would never have accomplished all the things he succeeded in doing. He was imprisoned many times and almost hung for murder. His most famous painting, by his own admission, wasn’t his best work. That was destroyed by the person he painted the picture for, the one who almost cost him his life.
da Vince not only painted the Mona Lisa, he also was responsible for painting the Sistine Chapel and was responsible for the design for the helicopter. He also was able to reason that land did exist west of Europe by studying the contour of the western border of the planet. This was before Columbus made his voyages to the new world.
Not everyone has the IQ of a Leonardo Da Vinci, the talent of a Michael Jordan, or the mentality to do something as difficult as completing an Ironman distance triathlon. Everyone, though, is given something that will allow him or her to succeed. Figuring out what that is, and using that talent to the best of one’s abilities is what makes someone a success, no matter how much fame or money that talent may make that person.
This has been d.c. scot, with one man’s opinion. Please join me tomorrow, when my co host and I will bring you another episode of Cal.E.’s Corner.
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