Chansky’s Notebook: The Joy of Losing

It is fun rooting against the Yankees again.

Remember those seasons when your team wasn’t good enough to win a championship and the arch rival was favored to do so?

My first recollection of that was just out of college when NC State had David Thompson and Tom Burleson on a team that just about could not be beaten.

Sure, the Tar Heels tried to beat them and almost did several times despite losing 9 in a row to the Wolfpack. Since those were the days when only the ACC champion went to the NCAA Tournament, all of our chips were in for whoever was playing State in the Big Dance.

Heck, mighty UCLA with Bill Walton couldn’t do it in the 1974 semifinals at the highly partisan Greensboro Coliseum as the Pack went on to win its first national title in school history. That didn’t last long, but it sure wasn’t fun while it lasted.

Later came those glory days for Duke when the Blue Devils went to 7 Final Fours in 9 years and won back-to-back national championships.

Carolina fans, who were used to having the best team, can only look back with glee on the times the Dukies lost in the tournament when they seemingly had games won.

It has been a long time since the New York Yankees have had that kind of dominance, and they are still a long way from proving they’re back to that level. But the Bronx Bombers have won 64 games at the All-Star break and lead the American League East by 13 games.

Their last World Series championship was in 2009, 14 years ago. To the casual baseball fan, that seems almost impossible.

Just like the Duke hype machine has most casual fans thinking the Devils went to the Final Four every year, when in fact during the Roy Williams era the Tar Heels earned more national titles and Final Fours than Coach K’s teams.

These days, my favorite baseball team seems to have a dwindling chance of even making the playoffs, and the Yankees are having literally a blast with their best team in more than a decade .

The Bombers not only have bombs, they have a dangerous lineup from 1 to 9, a very good starting rotation and a loaded bullpen with an all-star closer.

While the race is still open, I’ll be cheering for my team to eke out a wildcard berth. Whatever happens, I can always look forward to rooting against the Yanks.

Featured image via New York Yankees

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