Courtesy New York Daily News

(September 5, 2008) It stands to reason - business reason, that is - the suits at the Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network would try to keep hope alive.

The pinstriped fortress is under siege. YES is holding down the fort with commercials like the one that aired before this week's Yankees-Rays series:

"It's make or break time for the Yankees as they start a huge series with the Rays. A-Rod is set to launch the Bombers up in the standings."

As the Yankees travel down an unfamiliar road to Dark October, the only thing left for Al Yankzeera honchos to sell (with the exception of closeups of fans stealing anything not bolted down in the Stadium's final days) is hope. Who can blame them for engaging in wishful thinking?

As the Yankees travel down an unfamiliar road to Dark October, the only thing left for Al Yankzeera honchos to sell (with the exception of closeups of fans stealing anything not bolted down in the Stadium's final days) is hope. Who can blame them for engaging in wishful thinking?

Make no mistake, if the Yankees don't make the playoffs, this train of thought will continue. The brainiacs running YES have absolutely no say in how the team is run or how the Bombers will be constructed in 2009.

Yet, the Yankee high command realizes what losing, with an underperforming cast of millionaires, will do not only to YES' business, but the overall value of the network, which ultimately will be sold to the highest bidder.

There is serious linkage here. This ain't 1981. When the Yankees appeared in the '81 World Series, losing to the Dodgers, then roamed baseball's desert until a man named Torre arrived on the scene, they did not own a TV network. It was strictly a baseball business.

YES' sales pitch to advertisers is all about associating their products with a championship-caliber team - the most successful franchise in professional sports. There's something magical about that. Sponsors want to be around a winner, not a third- or fourth-place club. The Yankees' mantra is always the same. This is not the Mets, who operate on a slogan-to-slogan basis.

How can YES sell that championship experience if the Yankees finish a ho-hum third? How can it sell the fact that the 2008 season was some kind of aberration if the Yankees don't harvest their share of cream-of-the-crop free agents in the offseason?

See, Brian Cashman, or whoever is the Yankees GM in '09, is dealing with a different kind of business model - and a whole lot of pressure. His personnel decisions don't just affect the baseball operation, they also affect YES, ticket sales at the new Stadium and the Yankees' goal of spreading the brand globally.

The pressure of fueling these enterprises, keeping them all profitable, is far greater than any heat George Steinbrenner could ever deliver. Especially if the Yankees are coming off a year when, for the first time in 13 seasons, under new and highly touted manager Joe Girardi, they don't make the playoffs.

With all these business interests at stake, there's this media notion that the Yankees are bulletproof, that it's impossible for the team to go into a prolonged slide because the organization will spend as much as it takes to win. This is the popular assumption: The Yankees will win because all these businesses must grow and prosper.

Nonetheless, it has been proven - over and over again - that shaking the money tree does not always work. Going down another path does not guarantee success, either. Since Steinbrenner's health began to decline, Cashman assumed control and was able to implement his strategy and philosophy. Rather than going on a spending spree, Cashman apparently centers on constructing a team through trades and player development.

Cashman has already publicly taken the fall for what could be an October of watching other teams compete to gain entrance into the World Series. If this does happen, it will mark the first time in YES' brief history the Yankees have not made the playoffs. In the short term it will cost YES any advertising revenue generated from those extended postgame playoff shows.

The long term? Advertisers are still going to buy baseball. For YES it will be a different sales climate. The marketplace will be tighter. The sell more challenging.

Those 2000 World Series rings have gathered a lot of dust. Any winter guarantee (especially if it is made by Hankenstein, the Official Gasbag of the New York Yankees) of a return to the postseason in 2009 will be met with scepticism.

Can YES continue selling the past, that championship feeling, for a team that hasn't brought home the bacon since 2000 and may not even get a sniff of the frying pan in 2008? And what exactly will be the "Yankees Classic" fans will be clamoring to watch from this season?

All, however, is not lost. There's still that new Yankee Stadium to sell. If only it could talk. Or pitch shutout baseball.

Only on YES.