Yankees have chance to do what Knicks couldn’t in their title chase

The team struggled for so much of the season, even though “struggled” was sort of in the eye of the beholder. They won their share of games, and in some of them they actually looked damned impressive. But those good times were fleeting, and soon, as the final month of the season approached, there was an odd sense of doom infiltrating some precincts.

It didn’t help that the feisty young team setting the pace in their half of the league kept winning, sometimes improbably, and didn’t seem in the least bit intimidated by their big, bad rivals lagging south of them in the standings. It didn’t help that the rival team from Boston had a helpful infusion off the injured list just at the start of the bell lap.

And besides: Even if they could wind their way out of their own middling half of the bracket, there would be monsters awaiting them in the final stage.

Champions? This team? Whatever scoffing sounds like, you heard a lot of that.