The "Curse of Nomar"....

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Posted By: warshawlaw

Although as an ardent Yankees fan, I am thrilled with how things are going so far.

I don't believe in jinxes or luck except as far as they affect the attitudes of the players. Then, I believe in them very much. You can psych yourself into performing badly (as all us men know...), which is what I think the Botox, er, Bosox do when they meet the Yankees, esp. in Yankee Stadium.

I do want to take issue with one thing: "When great players in a franchise lived and died with the same uniform on their backs." That was not a golden era of baseball. Remember, from 1949-1964, the Yankees (14), Giants (3) and Dodgers (7) won 24 of the 30 pennants. The Yankees of the Torre era haven't achieved even half the success of that dynasty; if they win the pennant this year it is #7 since 1996. Crappy teams stayed crappy, teams that were close to the top never quite made it for lack of that impact player, and top teams held on for years without serious challenge because their superstars were locked into place. I think the pennant races of the free agency era have been among the most open ever precisely because a team can sign a top-flight player or two to vault to the next level. I'm not saying I want the NFL's parity, but the pennant races are really exciting when 90% of the teams are not automatic dead meat after April.