Yearly Yankees eulogy ramble: The Yankees hired Aaron Boone in 2017 after Joe Girardi went to Game 7 of the ALCS with a young upstart roster, and Aaron Boone has lead the Yankees to seven , gutwrenching failures of playoff runs, one complete miss of the playoffs, and a World Series appearance that required adding Juan Soto, which ended in a symphony of errors. All nine of these Aaron Boone seasons, despite the approach, despite the roster, despite the result, end in the rest of the league pointing and laughing as the once Big Bad Yankees piss down their leg again. I just don't know how many consecutive seasons a team can have the same structure, underperform in the same way, give the same excuses, and expect the fans to bring the same energy come spring training. This happens every single season. Look like shit all summer, surge going into September, look great for 1-2 postseason series, then get embarassed by a better team. The Rays are undoubtedly a better team with a fractional payroll by comparrasion. They do everything right, the Yankees do almost everything wrong. The Yankees wont fire Boone, becasue they have no reason to. They will avoid doing it now because of a looming lockout. They will say they don't want to put a new manager in the hole by hiring them going into a lockout. Then if there is a 2027 shortened season, they wont fire Boone because it's not fair to judge him on the results of a lockout impacted season. Then in 2028 they wont fire him because its a bounce back from a shortened or locked out sesason and they gotta shake out the cobwebs. I wouldn't be shocked AT ALL if Cashman and Boone are still running the Yankees in 2029. By the way that timeline would put Aaron Judge in his 37 year old turning season still on a team getting managed by Aaron Boone. I watched this team religiously as a child. Loved Derek Jeter like he was family. Went to my first game at the Old Stadium with my dad in 2005. Been lucky to go to dozens of games together since. Watched them win the World Series in 2009 and went to the ticker tape parade with my mom. Went to a playoff game in 2010 Grew away from being a 162er in my teens but always stayed extremely on top of what was going on. Then in college I locked back in, got my heart ripped out by Dallas Keuchel in 2015, watched the Astros cheat us out of a ring in 2017, and then got lucky enough to join the Short Porch Podcast at Barstool in 2019, and became a 162er again, and watched as year after year the exact same thing happened. The last 3 years I've distanced myself from the emotional toll that watching every single game has, because my eyes on the game don't do anything. This team has been exactly the same, hold for one year where they added Juan Soto only to lose in laugable fashion in th World Series, for a long long LONG time. Every other fan base has this internal idea of what the Yankees are, a perenial World Series favorite that spends the money and thus will always be in the title conversation, but what should lead the rest of the league to think that? They don't have the highest payroll like they used to (not even the highest payroll in the city they play in). They don't win the championships they used to (They have the same number of World Series wins in the last 25 years as the Los Angeles Angels, who last made the playoffs in 2014). They dont even dominate the Division they play in like they used to. They have THREE (3) AL East titles since 2013!!!! I grew up on stories and highlights of the Yankees dragging their nuts across the rest of the leagues faces, and doing a money spread when people complained. The Yankees in 2026 are so far gone from that and I really don't know how they can possibly get back there. To me it so obviously requires overhalling the front office and firing Boone, I just don't think anyone has the balls or interest to do that, so they will just live with ALDS and ALCS appearances forever. And I'll buy in on them being different every August because I care about this team more than I do any team in any other sport and I have since I was a little kid. So idk what to do. Sorry for rambling. Go Yankees hope there's a season to watch next year.