It was the late Dale Earnhardt who popularized the term that “second place is the first loser,” and there’s a lot of folks in our midst who have been feeling that for the past 10 days or so.
By just about any measure, the Yankees had a successful season this year. You can’t qualify for the World Series and not feel that way. For one thing, for eternity, the Yankees can rightly refer to themselves as champions twice over — of the American League and also of the AL East. That’s not everything, no, but it’s not nothing.
But there aren’t a lot of Yankees fans who’ll acknowledge that right now, and it’s not just because Yankees fans are drilled from the cradle to accept nothing less than a World Series championship as the measure of a successful season. The truth is, losing the championship round is almost always a devastating pill to swallow, for any team. You get that close, it’s hard to feel anything other than disappointment when you fall shy.
Interestingly, only Jets fans have been spared having to confront that issue through the years, since they are 1-for-1 in Super Bowl appearances. Everyone else has been a bridesmaid at least once (the Islanders, 1984) and as many as 14 times (the Yankees, and honestly the fact they’ve lost 14 World Series is just one more astonishing number in a history that includes almost nothing but astonishing numbers).
How many of those “first losers” resonate as genuinely happy memories all these years later? Well, that’s a completely subjective question of course, but if I’m going to throw out a list of candidates I’d probably include these:
2014 Rangers: Twenty years after ’94 there was a vibe at the Garden and a hope surrounding that team that wasn’t even stilled by that overtime loss in Game 5 to the Kings. One of the more beloved teams by its own fans in recent memory.
2002 Nets: That first year of Jason Kidd remains the greatest basketball show the New York area has witnessed since the ’70s-era Knicks. Losing to the Shaq-and-Kobe Lakers, even in a sweep, was no disgrace.
2000 Giants: Most Giants fans I know remember first Well Mara’s triumphant speech after the 41-0 rout of the Vikings in the last huge game at the old Giants Stadium far more than the Ravens buzzkill to follow. Another finale loss that probably didn’t cost much sleep.
1999 Knicks: There was no way any reasonable Knicks fan could have believed — as Allan Houston’s floater left his hand in round one Game 5 against the Heat — that they’d wind up extending the season to five NBA Finals games. Maybe Patrick Ewing’s injury mutes the fondness, but even with him they would have been hard-pressed to match up with the Spurs. By June it felt like every citizen of New York was caught up in the feel-good.
1984 Islanders: Sure, it was disappointing to see the Drive for Five run into a brick wall built by Gretzky & Messier, but a) four in a row is a dynasty in anyone’s book, and b) it took another dynasty to finally end their streak of — and this is not a typo — nineteen straight playoff series wins.
1976 Yankees: After 12 years of wandering the wilderness, that team’s return to the World Series was a feel-good story that still seems warm in the memory of fans old enough to remember it. Plus, the Reds were inarguably the better team and proved it, so there’s no lingering whiff of what-if. The last of that era’s Yankees team whose members were universally beloved and remembered on a first-name basis — Thurm, Sparky, Catfish, Billy, Mickey …
1958 Football Giants: Hear me out on this one. Not only did the Giants need a Pat Summerall kick in the snow to beat Cleveland in Week 12, they followed that up by holding Jim Brown to 8 yards on seven carries in the play-in game the next week. And look, the Championship Game was a heartbreaker, but being a part of the consensus “Best Game Ever Played” has to count for something, right?
1951 Baseball Giants: That year’s six-game World Series loss to the Yankees may have been the ultimate house-money situation after they 1) overcame a 13 ¹/₂-game deficit to the detested Dodgers in August, and 2) won the pennant, won the pennant, on Bobby Thomson’s Shot Heard Round the World.
Vac’s Whacks
Those of us who grew up obsessively following — and later playing — Long Island Catholic League hoops always assumed we were watching the center of the basketball universe. Monday, when the Bulls host the Cavaliers and St. Agnes’ Billy Donovan coaches against St. Anthony’s Ken Atkinson (10-0 before meeting his old friends from Brooklyn Saturday), we’ll be reminded once again: We were right.
Here’s hoping “Yellowstone” has the kind of bell lap a show that good really deserves.
Phil Delgado, the Felician University women’s softball coach, hopes to extend the legacy of Shannon Forde, the late Mets PR exec. The Golden Falcons use Shannon Dalton Forde Field in Little Ferry, N.J., for its home games, and Delgado says, “We want to renovate the field so one day we can host an NCAA tournament game there. Shannon’s story is one of inspiration, and that would enable us to spread that story to different parts of the country.”
Godspeed to Brendan McCann, son of Brooklyn and an ex-Knick and a St. Bonaventure Hall of Famer who brought grace and dignity to all three.
Whack Back at Vac
Chris Salogub: In fairness, I think to label Bob Lemon a “ham-and-egger who guided them to the finish” severely undermines the job he did in 1978, restoring calm to the team in the aftermath of Billy Martin’s departure.
Vac: When you’re right, you’re right. That wasn’t entirely fair to Lem, by most accounts. I’ll call a two-shot penalty on myself.
George Corchia: The NFL sent the 2-7 Giants and the 2-7 Panthers to Munich. Some
might view that as an international act of aggression.
Vac: It does seem like an unfair trade after Germany lent us the last few years of Franz Beckenbauer’s prime.
@stoptwittweets: I hate to say it but the Giants are a poorly coached team.
@MikeVacc: There have been some concerns. At the top I thought the way Brian Daboll managed the clock late last week against Washington was borderline malpractice.
Dick Cavanaugh: Jeez, even “Dat” Freddie Fitzsimmons and “Bono” Newsome covered first! Pay 36 million to a guy that does not want to be a Yankee at this point?
Vac: Hard to argue with that one, right?
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