New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge looks back after striking out during the sixth inning of Game 6 of baseball’s American League Championship Series against the Houston Astros Friday, Oct. 20, 2017, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

By: Amauri Pi Gonzalez

Yes, the New York Yankees are still the #1 professional sports franchise in Major League Baseball, worth about $4 billion together with the Dallas Cowboys of the NFL also worth around $4billion the most valuable sports franchises in America. The Yankees have won 40 pennants and 27 World Series and they still have the history and the prestige that is far ahead anybody else in the game.

However, 2017 was not a year that the New York Yankees were supposed to be contenders. This is the biggest surprise this year in baseball without a doubt.

In 2016 the Yankees finished in fourth place with a record of 84-78. This season the Yankees finished second in their division with 91-71, AND 2 games behind the division champion Boston Red Sox.

Eliminating the Houston Astros would be another stunning event and advancing and winning the World Series would be an ever more incredible feat this year for Joe Girardi’s ballclub. They would have been the only team to date to advance and go all the way, and on the way there, beating three teams that won over 100 games. Cleveland 102 victories, Houston 101 and Los Angeles Dodgers 104.

The success of the New York Yankees is the best example of the unpredictably of baseball, unlike other sports like football and basketball, where it is easier to predict a team performance or an individual performance on any given moment. Enrique “Kike”Hernandez, is a very good utility man for the Los Angeles Dodgers, who played 7 different positions this year and ended hitting just .215. Yet, Hernandez became the 10th player ever in a postseason game to hit 3 home runs and established a new runs batted record, during a postseason with his 7 RBI during game 5 of the NLCS.The Puertorican-born player found his name with Reggie Jackson and Babe Ruth, he could not believe it when he learned about his incredible performance helping the Dodgers clinch the 2017 National League pennant.

FOX Sports will again have the World Series this year. First game at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles will begin at 5:09PM(West Coast).

For FOX the dream World Series will obviously be Yankees vs Dodgers. It will have one team from the East and one from the West, two heralded franchises. two top TV markets. This would provide a plethora of stories for print and electronic media. The Dodgers prior to moving to Los Angeles in 1958 where one of three Major League teams in New York. The other two, well…the Yankees and the New York Giants. A Houston vs Los Angeles World Series would definitely be a very interesting affair, but not the “pipe dream”for FOX network, although it would showcase the two best teams in the West. That would never make a bigger and more attractive story than the Dodgers vs Yanks. The two best bullpens in the game, the two sluggers Rookies of the Year, among other nuggets.

But whatever happens, even if the New York Yankees do not advance to the World Series, they are the most unacceptable story this season in baseball.