The cry goes up both far and near for Underdog

TAMPA, Fla.

In a story for Sunday's paper I wrote that "underdog" and "Yankees" belong in the same sentence the way  “Brooklyn Decker” and “homely” do. But, looking at the current rosters of the Yankees and Red Sox, it's hard to dispute Boston would have to be considered the favorite.

“It’s a lot of fun because we’re the underdogs this year, I love it,” Mark Teixeira said Saturday. “No one’s picking us right now and everyone in here should be looking forward to winning a championship. You put on the pinstripes, that’s exactly what your goal should be every year, and I think everyone understands that. Just because the public might not be picking us doesn’t mean we don’t believe it in here.”

General manager Brian Cashman earned some headlines a few weeks ago when he said the Red Sox should be considered the favorites and he didn’t back off that Saturday.

“I have more work to get accomplished,” he said, a reference to the rotation. “They’ve accomplished all their roster goals. I have yet to accomplish all of our roster goals. So with that, I think everybody who’s being objective would say, on paper, if this was a horse race, they would have the inside lane as the race starts. But that doesn’t mean you win the race.”

But...“How many years have we been picked first by Vegas and we didn’t cross the finish line? Some years you do, most you don’t. There’s 29 other teams you have to do battle with. And you saw last year, and in many years, it’s not just about Yankees-Red Sox.”