The year was 1995. Many of you probably approached March Madness with a smile on your face. The reason? Duke was finishing a dreadful 13-18 season (2-14 in the conference! Cherokee Parks!) and was nowhere to be found. If you want to talk about hated teams — rational or not — Duke is near the top of many people’s list. Right next to them (again, rational or not)? The New York Yankees. And that spring of 1995, the Yankees were about to embark on an amazing run that would see them make the playoffs every year through 2007. They would win the World Series four times in five years from 1996-2000, then go on to waste $80 million of their obscene payroll every year thereafter trying to sustain the magic. They won. They spent. People hated. And now: is it over?

A Yankees loss today (currently 2-0 Boston in the sixth, though despite our non-jinxing hopes the Yankees now have two on and no out as of writing) and they will be 8 games behind the Red Sox in the Wild Card chase with 29 to play. Update: They did not, in fact, lose. They won 3-2. So that’s 6 games back with 29 to play. We jinxed it. That’s not “magic number of zero” dead, but it’s still pretty close to finished for practical purposes. Sure, maybe it felt like the Yankees were a non-factor the past three years because they lost in the ALDS each time, but we’re talking no Yankees in the postseason. What would that feel like, and how would it rank up there with the other cathartic moments (healthy or not) you have experienced via the failure of other teams?

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