Solace for the beleaguered Yankee fan

It has been a strange season. I found myself not particularly juiced about the weekend's series with the Metropolitans (note to self: they are a very good team) or even with the Bosox who come in tonight to play three. By that I mean I don't feel any more excitement -- or, really, nervousness -- when the Yankees play their famed rivals than I would were they playing the Kansas City Royals tonight.

Every. Game. Matters. Now.

Yes, the next three nights give the Yankees a chance to at least get back to single digits in the loss column behind the mighty Sawx (and the alternative scenario is ugly), but the truth of the matter is if they don't start winning games -- against anyone -- very soon they are going to not only be too far out to make a run for the division, they are going to be too far in the hole behind Detroit or Cleveland or maybe even the ChiSox to snatch the Wild Card.

And that would be a very bad thing.

But...quietly, two of the stalwarts of The Dynasty are reeling off remarkable seasons. Derek Jeter has hit in 73 of his last 76 games over the course of this season and last, a truly DiMaggioan feat.

But there's a lot more to what Jeter is doing that already separates him from those four and puts him in a place right below DiMaggio in the modern age of baseball. When, on May 4, Jeter had his 20-game hitting streak for this season snapped, he had previously hit safely in 59 of 61 games dating back to last August. Excluding DiMaggio (who hit safely in his next 17 games after having his record 56-game streak snapped in 1941), the last player to have only two hitless games within a streak of 56 or more was Hall of Famer Ed Delahanty, who hit safely in 61 of 63 games in 1899. This research was compiled by Trent McCotter in the most recent Society of American Baseball Research journal. In other words, without any fanfare, Jeter has already accomplished something not done by anyone other than Joe D in this century. After yesterday, Jeter's streak was 73 of 76 games. According to McCotter, there have been 12 such streaks of more than 56 in which players have had only three hitless games, the most recent being Johnny Damon, who hit in 57 of 60 games from June 10-Aug. 20, 2005. But, again, Jeter's surpasses the previous longest - George Sisler's 67 of 70 in 1917.

And Posada? Not only is my favorite jug-eared backstop hitting an astounding .382/.441/.618 -- leading the league -- (and yes folks, that's an OPS of 1.059) he's doing so while having had to shepherd 11 different starting pitchers this year, seven of whom were brought in from the minor leagues fpr emergency starts. That's a lot of intense intellectual labor he has to produce each day, figuring out the best sequence of pitches by pitchers he barely knows. And he's forced to play every single day since Wil Nieves, his backup, simply cannot hit and the Yankees can't afford a sure out if it's not named Doug Mnkwtz.

Posada is having such a great year I'm beginning to think he may have a chance to overcome how the Yankees handled him when he came up. The Yankees refused to give him the starting role for way too long, Torre trusting the veteran Girardi over the switch-hitting youngster. I've thought for a long time, the two or three years that they cheated Posada out of probably killed his chances to get into the Hall. But if his hitting continues on at this pace, all bets are off. And why he's not being talked about as the league MVP, early as it is, amazes me.

He'll be a free agent at the end of the year.

In addition to those two, there's Andy Pettite, who's no doubt thinking that if he wanted to lose 3-2 every five days he could have stayed in Houston. Nevertheless, Pettite, Posada, and Jeter at least allow us to think back to the days when they were the youngster core of some great teams.

Ah, solace.