This is an odd time for the Yankees and their fans.
Every spring you sense a certain bluster, a confidence, a yearly hubris that only comes with accomplishment, if not entitlement. As if the sport were invented simply as a case study in pinstriped dominance.
Not so much anymore. If the Yankees have an ancestral grip on the World Series, you don’t get that sense from the natives. There’s a much more muted take on the team. Fans speak with grudging optimism, as though they have a chance of winning, not the ritualistic certainty.
And, as we hear every year, the sport pivots on the truism that pitching wins world championships.