Well, It's Been Nice...

Two of the most depressing days in Yankee history (short of the 2004 ALCS, which we won't discuss) are concluded now, and there's little to say except that a team whose most memorable offensive play this postseason has been the strikeout needs to mount a serious rejuvenation starting Wednesday night. Against Justin Verlander.

Uh-huh.

I hope I can eat my words, but right now, it's looking like 2013 will be a whole new year. An outfield of Brett Gardner, Curtis "Swing and a Miss" Granderson and... somebody, a rotation of CC, Phil "That's Hit Deep to Right" Hughes, Ivan Nova, maybe Andy Pettitte (at 41) and... somebody (Michael Pineda?)..., an infield with a clearly depleted Mr. Rod, a Captain on a whole new left ankle, Robinson "Best Hitter Except in October" Cano and Teixiera on a hopefully healthy pair of legs.

And maybe Mariano will grace us with one more season. At 42. But with him, age doesn't count.

Hopefully, Raul Ibanez will come back at 41 to drive balls into the right field stands in streaks of dramatic at-bats and then take a seat on the bench for a while when the streaks end. Some of the best games of the year have been Ibanez games. Go figure.

Catcher? Russell Martin's contract is up. Do they want the guy who hit .300 in September, or the guy who hit .190-something the rest of the year? Hard to say.

Now, it's possible the bats will wake up and the starting pitching will remain outstanding and this postseason won't be over. But it doesn't seem likely. Especially after Jeter's injury, the life was out of this Yankee team, and we've seen them look like this for too many stretches this year to assume it will all end against maybe the best pitcher in baseball, and then three more times in the next five games.

I hope I'm wrong. But I don't think I am. So. 2013. There are a lot of questions to be answered.

Oh, and the fans who got all over Swisher after his years here, on probably his last home game for them? Not cool. Yeah, he's been lousy in the postseason. Show me two other guys in the lineup who haven't. Not cool.

Booing Mr. Rod? I get that. He's never been a favorite of this fan base, he's always been somehow a plastic figure, an automaton of a player, not someone the Yankee fan can warm up to, and he's been conspicuously atrocious this postseason, striking out so many times it's really impressive. Besides, he gets booed wherever he goes. I wouldn't do it myself, but I understand it.

Booing Granderson? The man hit 43 home runs and drove in over 100 this year, and I still cringe when I see him come up in a crucial situation. It's 0-2 before you can blink, and everybody in the park knows the slider going away from him is going to be strike three. There are times I think I could strike him out, and believe me, I can't strike anybody out. It's like he strikes himself out, and the pitcher is simply there for decoration.

But booing Swisher? The fun guy? The fan favorite out in right field? The guy who saluted the Bleacher Creatures each and every home game?

Not cool.