Yankee Injuries = Ortiz Curse?

In the days following the excavation of the "cursed" Ortiz jersey from the fresh concrete at "Yankee Stadium--The Sequel" we've seen Jorge Posada go on the DL for the first time in his long career, and ARod join him for the first time since donning pinstripes.

A plague of flies on Joba Chamberlain in last year's playoffs, the attack on poor Alexa Rodriguez at Fenway earlier this season by a maniacal hawk--is there a biblical curse on the Yankees, or is the natural world merely rebelling against the pollution-spewing NYC denizens? All I know is that I'm going to check the weather report very carefully the next time there's a rainout in New York, to see if it's real precipitation and not frogs or blood . . .

But in all seriousness, this does point to two disturbing trends. First, the slow crumbling of the Yankee dynasty. Of course, it's far too early for dire prognostications of AL East doom, but with the resurgence of low-rent teams like the Rays (did the "Devil" in their name gravitate to the Yankees? Is Steinbrenner's pact with the devil losing steam as his health declines?) and the continuing strength of the BoSox, the loss of these two players is going to be hard to overcome.

ARod is being replaced by Morgan Ensberg, an adequate gloveman but to call him a light hitter is a slap in the face to light hitters. He might show the sort of Pinstripe Surge often showed by new Yanks like Aaron Boone, but he's a stopgap at best. And losing Posada means not only losing his bat, it means someone new is going to have to learn the Yankees pitching staff and opposing batters. That means Jose Molina and the fresh-faced Chris Stewart will shoulder the load, not a confidence-inducing duo. They've got Girardi, Yankee backstop extraordinaire, as their manager to help them along, but these two injuries will deal a serious blow to the Yankees' chances to contend. They were struggling even with Jorge and ARod in the lineup, and the latest estimate has Posada out for a month, and ARod probably returning slowly when his 15 days are served.

The second trend this points to is the increase in injuries to the elder statesman of the league. Posada joins Tom Glavine as first-timers on the DL, while Glavine's teammate (and fellow MLB senior citizen) John Smoltz may be out for far longer than the projected 15 days. Gary Sheffield is slowly regaining his bat-whipping form, and Pedro managed all of one week of the season before losing two months to a hammy. Some of this could be injuries and age coming to roost: that Posada has avoided the DL for the past 12 seasons while playing the most physically punishing position on the field is simply remarkable. Other injuries could be simple age or numbers: Glavine's DL avoidance is similarly spectacular, and ARod's injury was likely compounded by his earlier hamstring pull. 

But it does make one wonder if, in the new squeaky-clean era of baseball, where steroids, HGH, and other illegal substances can no longer help players recover or avoid injury, this is the way baseball will look. Has the game returned to the province of the young once more? Perhaps--or perhaps it's just Ortiz's jersey striking from beyond the eBay grave to which it was consigned. It may sound strange, but it's no weirder than a curse bestowed by a jilted goat or a traded rotund home-run king.