The Yankees thing

 The New York Yankees advanced to their 19th ALCS last night with a 3-1 win over Kansas City, and, well, that's a damn shame. The Royals were a better story -- reaching the division series a year after losing 106 games, how's that for rags-to-riches? -- and they're one of those small-market clubs you're sort of obligated to cheer for, and ... and ...

Oh, hell. Let's be honest here. The Blob just doesn't like the Yankees.

It's not so much that they throw coinage around like Frisbees, buying their Giancarlo Stantons and Juan Sotos with their filthy big-boy money. Other swanky clubs do that, too. And it's not even that they have any particularly disagreeable personages to despise.

I mean, Aaron Judge seems like a dude. And Gerrit Cole was a Pirate until he got too good for their cheapo ownership to pay. And frankly, outside of those two, Soto, Stanton and Anthony Rizzo, I know next to zero about most of the other pinstripes.

Alex Verdugo? Jon Berti? Anthony Volpe? That Torres guy with the weird first name (Gleyber)?

Sorry. Got nothin'. 

Heck, even the way the Yankees won this series should be a plus. They didn't do it with neon and glitz. They ground it out with defense, pitching and just enough offense. No one personified that as much as Cole, who missed the first 2 1/2 months of the season with elbow trouble but slapped a padlock on the Royals' bat rack last night, scattering six hits and just one run across seven solid innings.

Still. 

Still, I have just one request of either Cleveland or Detroit in the ALCS: Beat these dopes.

Why?

Because George Steinbrenner was a jerk, and Billy Martin was a jerk, and Reggie Jackson was a jerk. That's why.

"Well, that's just stupid, Mr. Blob," you're saying now. "George and Billy are long dead. Reggie hasn't played in almost 40 years. And it's been nearly half a century since they were the ringmasters of that '70s Yankee circus everyone outside the five boroughs despised."

Yeah, I know. And you're right, it's stupid. It's also kind of pathetic if you think about it.

Nonetheless.

Go, you Guardians. Or, go, you Tigers.

Either one. Doesn't matter. Just do it.