The Cursed Yanks?

I spoke to my barber, Franco and he told me that young David Wright had read our piece on Tuesday. Wright hit up the shop, talked some sports, had a few laughs and $17 later he was not only back as the Mr. Wright we have all grown to love, but he had also found himself a new barber for life.

This my friends is the power of the blogosphere and more importantly, how things have gone for the Mets since the start of last year: in one word, opportune.

Save last year's NLCS, I can't think of much that has gone wrong for the New Mets. Say what you will about Pedro and El Duque going down last fall, but it was their injuries that led to John Maine and Oliver Perez. Again, not ideal, but still, things worked out.

This never used to be the case for the Mets. Something bad would happen and it wouldn't correct itself. These were the Old Mets and that is why I have grown in to such a pessimist.

However, this was always the case for the Yankees. Things always just worked for them. Be it the game winning hits from the Jose Vizcainos or Miguel Cairos of the world to the miracle call-up of Aaron Small right when the team was really starting to tumble, things always went right for the Yankees and I never was surprised.

Until this year, or really since this blog began. Y2K: Promote the Curse.

Tuesday night was so atypical of the Yankees dynasty that I almost didn't believe it. There we were, 7 innings in to his Phil Hughes' second start. I watched his first one and was impressed. While watching his second one, I was in awe.

The kid was dominant. He was unhittable. He had the command of a veteran and the stuff of a phenom. He was the savior to the Yankees' pitching woes.

I kind of snickered throughout the course of the game: "Of course," I would think to myself. While Mike Pelfrey authors weekly walkathons at Shea Stadium the Yankees' stud kid pitcher really is the truth. And the Yankees will use him to catapult their resurgence.

Then a funny thing happened. Maybe it's that steroids are no longer allowed or maybe it is the baseball gods finally having a laugh. But mid way thru the 7th inning after going 6.1 innings of no-hit ball, Hughes completed a pitch and then grimaced. And so went his hamstring.

The hamstring to a pitcher is the high ankle sprain to the NFL WR. It's an injury that takes time to fix and when it's fixed, it still takes more time.

Yeah it's not a shoulder or an elbow, but this is bad for Hughes. Doctors are saying 4-6 weeks. I wouldn't be surprised if he's not back until after the All-Star break.

But this is all just kind of comical.

The Yankees' million dollar baby, the kid they swore they wouldn't rush was rushed. No way Joe Torre can pull him 80 pitches into a no-hitter, even though they certainly would if he was pitching in the minors. Not this time. Noooo! The Yankees needed a win and the bullpen needed a rest.

You can't fault Torre, but you can fault the organization. Well, at least in hindsight.

Injuries kill pitchers. One injury leads to another injury and boom, Phil Hughes is Rich Harden.

These are the new Yankees. A team of desperation. A team in last place. A team that has bad things happen to it.

This used to be the Mets. But slowly the pendulum has shifted (or whatever it is that pendulums, pendula, do).

Why not?

VCD,

SIP

(Pics courtesy of mlblogs.com, sportsnetwork.com, riverablues.com)