My favorite part of clinching celebrations during the Yankees dynasty years was waiting for the first player amid the flowing champagne to offer a “No one believed in us.”
That would allow me to retort, “Yep, no one believed in the team with the highest payroll, most stars and all this championship history.”
I get that it has become embedded in the modern sports lexicon to play this card no matter the size of the overdog saying it. All winners are going to talk about overcoming adversity like they climbed the Matterhorn in flip-flops while ignoring that every team in every sport and, thus, every playoff team and champion has to overcome the injury, underperformance and internal strifes endemic to a season.
I am only pointing this out because I think the Yankees of Gerrit Cole, Aaron Judge and a $300 million-plus payroll are about to try to play the “us versus the naysayers” mantra. To this, Marcus Stroman, whose two-year. $37 million deal with the Yankees became official Wednesday, is ideal. Because when it comes to chips on the shoulder and voicing the “no one believed in me” script, there is no one quite like this first-round draft pick out of Duke.
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nypost.com]
