Goodbye Yellow Brick Road | Gets_By_Buckner_86's Blog

Another year of being counted out, another playoff berth, another first-round elimination. This scenario has become uncomfortably familiar for Yankees fans in recent Octobers. On this occasion, however, it all seems to have a different tone in the background, an ominous tone of finality that's getting louder like a rapidly approaching locomotive. It seems like the dynasty has come to an end.

I'm not a card-carrying Yankees fan, but I am a native New Yorker and, like many other NYC families, have blood relatives whom I love dearly but just happen to have been born with the chemical imbalance that caused them to choose the American League New York team. So, I sympathize with the fans, family or not, especially in light of the trauma suffered by me and my fellow fans of the orange & blue in Queens.

Even still, one need not have those family ties to appreciate the game of baseball. In that light, let's acknowledge that it was, indeed, a tremendous run. Whether you loved them or hated them in the last 12 seasons, the Yankees made for great baseball, great rivalries, and some of the most memorable moments in modern baseball history.

Mind you, the Yankees aren't going anywhere, but it seems like drastic change is inevitable, beginning with Joe Torre and surely some players to follow. Change, however, isn't all bad. There may very well be a new dynasty on the horizon... or the new 80's have arrived in all their pastel glory. Either way, change will and needs to happen. After all, when Tony Kornheiser is on PTI calling the Yankees the new Atlanta Braves, you know there's a problem.

So, Yankees fans, go ahead and take heart in knowing that you were part of something fantastic. But, as Bono said at the end of U2's last show of the 1989 tour, "We have to go away and dream it all up again". Does that mean the Yankees will come back with the baseball equivalent of the masterpiece, Achtung Baby? Probably not... but I've had lots of coffee and that was one hell of an album!

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October 9, 2007 05:23 PM ET

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he he he...great last light!

While I do think Kornheiser's line is interesting enough, I think the big difference is the Yankees are on the rise. They wouldn't have had enough to put it together this season anyway, but there's enough young talent on that team to think they can compete again in the coming years. They'll just have to find a way to do it the way the best Yankees teams did; with everyone pitching in, and no Triple Crown candidate or 50+ HR guy. Solid starting pitching, a lights-out bullpen and nine guys who have 12 home runs. The 1998 Yankees could not have been beaten by any team that has come out since then, and that team did not have statistical monsters like A-Rod.