by Karla Hailer

Created on: December 16, 2006   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

Sox fans understand curses. They understand when your team brings heartbreaking loss to a new art form. Yankees fans are only just starting to learn.

Before the wild card slot opened up the field, Steinbrenner's philosophy of buying the best talent possible worked and worked well. There was no need to factor in chemistry or, as the musical refers to it as - heart. All that talent could overpower your competitor easily.

Now, after the greatest choke in history in 2004, Brian Cashman is only now being able to convince his boss that there's more to winning than the largest payroll in major league ball. It takes patience, development and teamwork.

The 2006 season started to show why Cashman's philosophy was working. With the loss of several major players early on in the season, the Yankees hung in there and came back strong the last half when the players on the Sox started dropping like flies due to illness and injury. While they still fell to a heavily stoked and very young Detroit team in the divisional series, the seeds for the future were certainly starting to sprout.

But before New York can come back they need to remember a few things. The first is, it's not just about beating Boston. Let's face it, if the Devil Rays were in any other division, they'd be serious contenders. They have handed crushing blows to Boston and New York pretty constently. The Blue Jays have been carefully building and positioning themselves to go long and strong.

Then there is the Boston factor. With the front office bringing in "Manny insurance" in the form of Wily Mo Pena and strong bats to minimize pitch arounds in the heart of the order, they are certainly a team to break a sweat about. The new (to Boston) attention to pitching makes them a stronger all around team coming into 2007.

The signing of Matsuzaka and Okajima as well as the announcement of a team of Pacific rim scouts signals that Boston is not afraid to look globally to find the talent they believe they need to continue their winning ways. It won't be long before other organizations are either doing the same thing or producing similar deals.

And that's just on the East Coast. The Central and West divisions - with the exception of the poor KC Royals who seem to be everyone's stepping stone - have joined in this multi-player strategy that makes Go look like a child's game.

For the Yankees to win again, they need stop resting on the "26 rings" laurel. That's old news which is quickly fading to ancient history. There are no more "dominators" in baseball, and the sooner New York learns that, the sooner they have a shot at number 27.

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