Can The Yankees End New York's Championship Drought? Game 1 Win Over Indians Offered Hope

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The Yankees can win their Wild Card series Wednesday, putting them one step closer to a championship.

But in a city known for sports titles, a team finding recent glory has been elusive, CBS2's Steve Overmyer reported.

Can you remember the last time a ticker-tape parade was held for a New York City-area team? It was when Eli Manning led the Giants to a Super Bowl win eight years ago. Since that day New York's nine major sports teams have played a combined 72 seasons, with no championships.

The Mets came close in the 2015 World Series, but that ended in heartbreak. A year earlier, the Rangers were on the doorstep of a Stanley Cup, only to watch Los Angeles take it away. New York's last basketball title was actually the Nets, who won the ABA crown in 1976, three years after the Knicks' last title.

And don't expect a Canyon of Heroes parade car to come out of storage for the Jets or Giants any time soon, as they are a combined 0-6 this season with little hope in sight.

Year after year, season after season, high hopes have brought teams to the brink only to be dashed by near misses. The 2020 Yankees have a chance to end New York's longest championship drought in a century. They started the postseason by bashing the AL's expected Cy Young Award winner, Shane Bieber, on their way to a 12-3 victory on Tuesday night.

"We just decided to turn the page and go out there and play our game from the get-go," said Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge, who started the barrage with a first-inning two-run homer. "So it doesn't matter the situation. Whether we're underdogs or the top dogs, it's about showing up in the pressure situations."

This team carried the championship pedigree of the Yankees' past into the playoffs unlike any other. The Bombers have been streaky this season and appear to have picked the right time to get going again.

"This is a really good way to start out a series against a really good team," said manager Aaron Boone. "But we've got to go do it again now and got to turn the page."

Over the past eight years New York sports fans have agonized as much as they've cheered. The latest hope falls to team that's the gold standard for success.

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