{"id":45404,"date":"2017-10-12T10:17:59","date_gmt":"2017-10-12T14:17:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=45404"},"modified":"2020-08-04T10:18:07","modified_gmt":"2020-08-04T14:18:07","slug":"being-right-vs-the-yankees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=45404","title":{"rendered":"Being right vs. the Yankees"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

Ever since the Braves decided that they would suck again<\/a>, I\u2019ve often been forced to gravitate to other teams to try and derive some enjoyment out of the game.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t hidden my temporary allegiances to teams like the Royals and the Marlins, and I\u2019ve been capable of finding some horse to root for while the Braves not-so deliberately tanked in order to clear payroll and improve draft positioning.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prior to the start of the 2017 season, I remember seeing news about former Brave, Brian McCann getting traded<\/a> to the Houston Astros from the New York Yankees.\u00a0 This was a move that seemed inevitable, due to the rise of now-starting catcher Gary Sanchez, and it wasn\u2019t so much a question of if, but when it was going to happen, and to whom it was going to be to.\u00a0 My initial reactions were that Houston was kind of a non-contender (despite the fact that they had just made the playoffs), but also the irony of McCann being reunited with another former Brave teammate, Evan Gattis, yet another guy that put his job in jeopardy on a previous club.<\/span><\/p>\n

And then not long afterward, the Astros announced that they had signed Carlos Beltran<\/a> to a one-year deal.\u00a0 Returning to the team where his career took off, the prodigal son had returned.\u00a0 This is a guy that went off on the Braves and Cardinals in the playoffs in 2004 years before hitting free agency and bounced around the rest of the league making money.\u00a0 However, the elusive championship remained a pipedream for him, as he was on the Giants on an odd-numbered year<\/a>, and his closest call ended in 2013 ended with defeat in the World Series.<\/span><\/p>\n

Regardless, I looked at the acquisition of Carlos Beltran as a perfect piece for a team like the Astros who were brimming with young talent, many of whom were Latino, and would probably benefit greatly from an accomplished Latino veteran like him.<\/span><\/p>\n

Needless to say, I picked the Astros as my World Series favorites prior to start of the season, because I felt like the veteran leadership added with guys like Carlos Beltran and Brian McCann were the components that could really push the Astros over the top, because their pitching was already solid and practically unchanged from the years prior when they were already knocking on the door.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

And throughout the season, I often took a sense of satisfaction at seeing the Astros on top of the AL West standings, as well as being the top team in the American League for most of the year, until the Cleveland Indians went on their insane run to surpass them.<\/span><\/p>\n

But little good their 102 wins did them, because they just got bounced from the playoffs \u2013 by the Yankees.<\/span><\/p>\n

The same Yankees that the mythical gf is a fan of, and with the Astros dispatching of the Boston Red Sox on their side of the ALDS, we\u2019ve reached an ALCS featuring the Astros versus the Yankees.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Houston Astros I picked to win the whole shebang, versus the New York Yankees.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Houston Astros that would validate my sports acumen versus the New York Yankees that my girlfriend roots for and really wants me to root for them as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

Being right versus appeasing the gf.<\/span><\/p>\n

Seeing as how few relationships I\u2019ve ever had, this hasn\u2019t happened before, but I guess it should be no surprise that if it ever were to happen, of course it would involve a team like the Yankees as the upstart alternative.<\/span><\/p>\n

Frankly, I don\u2019t have a problem with the Yankees either.\u00a0 I\u2019m not one of those baseball fans that automatically sees the Yankees and either loves or hates them to an extreme level, but I\u2019m also not going to be super hyped to see them win as much as I\u2019m fairly ambivalent whenever they lose.\u00a0 Derek Jeter has always been respectable, I\u2019ve always been a fan of Mike Mussina, and I hold Mariano Rivera to the highest regard as a human being and a baseball player.<\/span><\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not often where I can make such a bold pre-season prediction, and be this close to it actually coming true.\u00a0 And when it comes down to it, being right about something is always a great feeling, and whether people admit to it or not, what\u2019s better than the feeling of being right about something??<\/span><\/p>\n

Ultimately, when the day is over, it doesn\u2019t really matter who wins or not.\u00a0 It\u2019s wholly not that important to me, as much as it is a topic for me to write about in the present, but as glad as I would be to see the Astros win the pennant and hopefully the World Series, I really couldn\u2019t care less if the Yankees continue on their Cinderella story and make it to the World Series instead.\u00a0 They\u2019re a far cry from the old Yankees with a $250M payroll, and they\u2019re stocked with young talent that aren\u2019t smarmy veteran douche players all full of themselves, and I\u2019d have no problem seeing them succeed.<\/span><\/p>\n

But if I\u2019m being honest, I\u2019d rather see the Astros win, because I anointed them the team of destiny, and I\u2019d much rather see my long-term prediction actually come true, because being right about something is awesome.<\/span><\/p>\n

Better get some \u2018house divided<\/a>\u2019 license plate covers.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ever since the Braves decided that they would suck again, I\u2019ve often been forced to gravitate to other teams to try and derive some enjoyment out of the game.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t hidden my temporary allegiances to teams like the Royals and the Marlins, and I\u2019ve been capable of finding some horse to root for while … Continue reading Being right vs. the Yankees<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[62,177],"class_list":["post-45404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-baseball","tag-mythical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45404"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45406,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45404\/revisions\/45406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}