This week I reveal something deep and fundamental about myself: I am a New York Yankees fan.  I imagine about half of you now have a lesser opinion of me – but that’s all right, I’m used to the assaults that come with Yankee fan-dom.  How I reconcile my baseball allegiances with my Taoist sensibilities (a Taoist Yankee fan?) is a story for another day.  Today, the question I put to the oracle today is: will the Yankees win the American League East race this year (which would be a good first step in overcoming last year’s unusual outcome in the ALCS)?

     And the answer is: yes, though with some of the usual I Ching qualifications and conditions.

     When I threw the three pennies, the oracle came back with hexagram 33, "Retreat," with a pure yang in the sixth position, thus moving in the direction of hexagram 31, "Influence."

    "Retreat" describes the current situation the lads from the Bronx face:

Conditions are such that the hostile forces favored by the time are advancing.  In this case retreat is the right course, and it is through retreat that success is achieved.

     We all know who the "hostile forces favored by the time" are.  And they have advanced in recent days (yesterday’s Boston 16-5 defeat of Texas was quite a statement after the Yankee’s 2-1 loss to Chicago in 10 innings).  But it’s OK.  The I Ching is telling us to pull back.  Don’t get overwrought by the current situation.  Simply persevere in the small, simple things – the fundamentals – and the time will turn in our favor again.  It is especially important not to get drawn into the media storm and any baiting the Red Sox might start:

Thus the superior man keeps the inferior man at a distance, not angrily but with reserve.

     Someone needs to tell Sheffield to keep cool.  We need to keep them at a distance with reserve.  Indeed, the nine in the sixth place suggests that the Yankees should maintain a cheery disposition toward the momentary Boston ascendance:

Cheerful Retreat.  Everything serves to further.

     With this sort of attitude will allow us to see a way forward and "such a clear path ahead always leads to the good."

    The tendency toward "Influence" appears to be good as well.  It is a bit awkward, since this hexagram deals with courtship between a man and a woman (would I dare suggest that the Yankees are romancing the pennant….nah…).   But there is some emphasis here on attitude and personality:

…the mind should be kept humble and free, so that it may remain receptive to good advice.

      "Humble" is not a term often associated with the Yankees by those outside the tradition.  But think of Bernie, and Jeter, and Mattingly, and Willie Randolf and…all the way back to Gehrig, and you will remember that there has always been a calm, cool, reserved presence on the team.  It is that strain of Yankee tradition that needs to come to the fore right now (not the raise-hell, Bronx Zoo strain that is also always there).  And if that element of Yankee-ness takes the lead right now, then:

Retreat.  Success.

  Influence.  Success.
  Perseverance Furthers.