The Fall Of The Yankee Dynasty

[Keyser Soze]

But of all the teams that scuffled through April, none is more fascinating than the Yankees ? who wound up the month four games under .500 and 6½ games behind the first-place Orioles. Here are the ominous facts that apply strictly to them:

No Yankees team had been that far out of first after April since 1984. That team finished third, 17 games behind the Tigers.

No Yankees team has ever entered May that many games out and then come back to finish first.

And George Steinbrenner will really enjoy hearing that the 1979 Pirates are the only team since 1935, according to the Newark Star Ledger's Ed Price, to stumble out of April more than three games under .500 and still survive to win a World Series.