Patrick O’Keefe

But not everyone who fails when we expect them to succeed is a choker. In fact, most of them aren’t. The Yankees are the latest team to have the tag slapped on them unfairly, a result of their unprecedented collapse against the Boston Red Sox in the ALCS. There are any number of words that accurately describe the Yanks’ failure — “humiliating” comes to mind — but “choking” is not one of them. A choker is a player or team who loses because the pressure of the moment adversely affects their performance. There is no way that could logically be said of the Yankees. They have thrived under pressure so often that it’s absurd to think that they suddenly crumbled because of the magnitude of the moment.

Yankee closer Mariano Rivera, nearly infallible in the postseason for close to a decade now, didn’t blow two saves against the Sox because he suddenly turned weak in the knees. Teammates like Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, and Jorge Posada should likewise be immune from accusations of choking. They’ve succeeded in the clutch so many times that when they fail, it makes no sense to suggest that they suddenly developed a case of nerves.