On Fora and Fawning

If you support the Yankees, are under-35, and have unfettered access to the internet, it is extremely likely that you'll have come across the uninspiredly named "NYY Fans Forum". Some of you may even post to the site, having registered under a clever moniker like "Jeter4eva" and selected a flashy avatar that combines anime imagery with an A-Rod bobblehead.

Lest we sound too arrogant, let it be known that we too have acted on the urge to post, empowered by a unbelievably available username that alludes to our favorite member of Murderer's Row. What really bothers us, though, is that our beloved community of fans -- and we don't use the word "beloved" ironically -- seems to have convinced itself that the team's current struggles, not to mention every playoff and World Series defeat since 2000, can be attributed to a failure to compete. Or, to use an even more vexing term, a failure to "execute".

We think Girardi addressed this point best in a recent post-game interview. Asked about Ian Kennedy's struggle to throw a first pitch strike, a telltale sign of "execution", Girardi curtly replied "it's not like he isn't trying to get ahead of hitters."

In equating a failure to "execute" with a failure to "compete", one necessarily makes the assumption that the players aren't trying hard enough. Or, even more curiously, that they've "forgotten" how to compete, as if competitive instinct were a trig formula or a set of keys. Every time a pitcher walks a batter on four pitches, or a hitter fails to bring home a runner on third with less than two outs, we are told that our players, by not performing these fundamentals, are not competing. It's not about playing well; it's about effort.

This actually makes us pine for the days when Yankee fora were little more than collections of fawning love notes to O'Neill, Bernie, and Jeter. Are we Yankee fans really as bad at losing as we are at winning?