After our unexpectedly pathetic team got themselves officially eliminated last week, I started asking myself the question we've all been pondering in the back of our minds for much of the season: WHY can't they just WIN?!

During the season, I was able to rationalize with the old "they'll get it together - they always do!", innocently dream that once some injuries had been resolved the team would really perk up, and assume that Cano and Melky would heat up. Once it became clear that those things simply were not going to happen, I started my hunt for a scapegoat.

I'm having a hard time believing that the team didn't have the TALENT to hack it. No team with A-Rod, Jeter, Giambi, Mariano, Moose, and Pettitte should be counted out due to lack of skill. No... it had to be something else. Was it the injuries? Did we put too much stock in Hughsie and IPK? Would things have been different if we had had less faith in those aforementioned losers and did whatever we could to grab Santanamania? Or maybe it was because we lost the magic touch of Torre!?

According to you delightful readers (the ones of you who haven't stopped checking this bloggity, maintaining the faith that I will at some point post updates*), the answer is ALL OF THE ABOVE. 2008 provided the perfect storm of FAIL. Most people who voted in the poll couldn't even decide who to blame - 32% said they couldn't pick just one person/thing on which to peg the blame. For those who, like me, prefer to focus their disappointment on one entity, it was the Injury Gods who received the most votes: 25%. Next on the list was the always-popular decision to just blame the entire roster; 19% of people felt that way.

Interestingly, not many people thought that having Santanamania on the mound would have made much difference (4%) and Hughsie and IPK were also essentially exonerated (4%). Robby Cano Dontcha Know was the LEAST blamed dude, with only 2% of you thinking his suckage was what sunk the team.

My vote was for the injuries. I sincerely believe that having Matsui's and Jorge's bats in the lineup would have made a HUGE difference - that's 40 homers right there! - and Wang would have won three times as many games as all of his replacements combined. Not to mention the fact that A-Rod missed a couple weeks himself, as did Jobamania. Who knows what could have been if the DL Resort and Casino wasn't so booked??

* About that: I am wholeheartedly sorry for my failure to give this bloggity its deserved attention over the past couple months... the many of you who have attempted to juggle full time work AND school can understand that my free time adds up to approximately 78 minutes per week - barely enough time to watch RAW on the DVR, much less write about the poor dilapidated New York team (not you, Mets... although that tag applies to you as well). However! I assure you that I am still committed to the team AND the blog and I will be making a concerted effort to spend a few of those precious minutes ranting and possibly raving (goooo Moose!) here on YC. I swear.