Is the Yankees Mystique Over?

I hated the Yankees nearly as much for their fans as for the team that beat my Orioles to a pulp during the 14-year Dark Period. The native New Yorkers and local turncoats outnumbered O’s fans in Camden Yards for so long that the Orioles/Yankees games became no fun to attend. It left this terrible circular effect: I hated being there, as it was likely that I’d witness 9 innings of embarrassment in my own stadium. But I hated the fact that not enough Orioles fans showed up, so I hated not being there.

We’ve talked at length on the podcast about the Cal Ripken statue night, and its place as a turning point in the balance of power between the franchises. It also marked a change in Birdland. After that night, we drew the line.

Our friends over at Eutaw Street Report posted an article last week about that night, from a pretty good vantage point. Wherever you were that night – in the stands, on the couch, in a bar – that game made it OK to head back to Yankees games.

And with that, I wonder if the mystique of beating the New York Yankees has diminished. On Monday night, when the Orioles dropped the series opener, after having lost the previous series to the Blue Jays, I was bummed for all the reasons other than the Yankees.

My heart panged at getting shut down by Andrew Miller, whose late-season appearance for the 2014 AL East Division Champion Orioles was so significant. I hated losing two games in a row to AL East opponents. I hated that the O’s were under .500 for the first time since April of 2014.  But not once did I think “I just don’to want to lose to them.”

And that’s the way it was during the Dark Period. In those years, I knew the team was good for 90 losses or so, and if the wins were going to be few and far between, I wanted them to count. Sure, the Orioles were going to be irrelevant again this year, but if we could just avoid getting beat by them, we would have been happy.

The Orioles won the series against the Yankees this week. And just as I didn’t get too low after a loss, I didn’t get too high over the win. The O’s took care of business against one division foe, and I was looking forward to them taking on the next, Friday in Boston.

The idea of a rivalry between the Orioles and Yankees was laughable for so long because of the one-sided nature of the contests. Now that the Orioles are on the upswing, and the Yankees are on their way down, the “rivalry” doesn’t seem any more real. I don’t savor every victory over the team and fanbase that tormented me for so long. No, the best revenge is not to treat them as vaunted adversaries. The best revenge for the Dark Period Yankees is to take them for what they are.

Put simply, they’re mortals again – one of the five teams in a pretty decent division.

The Yankees are not what they once were. You can tell because the Yankees’ fans cries of “27 rings” is getting louder, in the absence of recent accomplishment. It’s been three years since they made the playoffs. Their last World Series appearance is six years in the rear view window. Their roster is filled with diminishing returns on astronomical contracts. One day they will rise again, but for now, they don’t bother me.

The Yankee Mistique is over.