That gritty determination, combined with an endless supply of money poured down the sinkhole, can yield results in just nine years! KIDDING.

As you may have imagined, I have spent the last several days in a variety of email-borne feuds with the legions of Yankee haters I call friends and colleagues. Some of them — after arguing for days that neither Pettitte nor Sabathia could ultimately perform on short rest and Hamels would give the ball to a rejuvenated Cliff Lee in the 3rd inning of Game 7 to deliver a second consecutive WS victory to Philadelphia — have fallen back on the argument that the Yankees looked rote and perfunctory last night as they celebrated their 27th title. There was no music in their souls, these psychic observers intone, nawt like when Brawnson Arroyeh leaped inteh Varitek’s ahhhms!

Now, it’s clear what’s going on here, and it’s very savvy. Unable to deprive the Yankees of the ring on the baseball diamond, they’re aiming a shot at the legitimacy of the Yankee victory. The outsized payroll, the frequency of success, the sad-eyed and subdued celebrations revealing that the Yankee superstars really just yearn for the boyish luvva-the-game that only comes from a small-market franchise — all of this is meant to say that the Yankees have merely a Pyrrhic victory. It’s a tried and true insurgent strategy, and one that attracts bandwagoning from observers who don’t actively sympathize with the insurgents. Hamid Karzai is experiencing something much like it in Afghanistan right now, particularly as Abdullah Abdullah denounces him. And it’s superficially attractive. But here’s why it ultimately breaks down.

The legitimacy issue is crucial only when a reconcilable audience is in evidence. If Karzai, for instance, was running for president in a climate of either fervent support or implacable hostility, then it wouldn’t matter if he stole an election. Since he’s actively bidding for greater support within a political climate where getting such support is achievable, his legitimacy, as determined by that cohort, is a precious commodity. Lose it and it doesn’t matter so much if he’s president, because it ensures that his presidency will essentially become a vessel for foreign assistance or a time-killer before he’s hung from a lamppost. (Not that there are that many lampposts in Kabul.) Gain it and the election will become an unfortunate footnote.

There is no one who follows baseball with even casual intensity who is neutral on the Yankees. There are no persuadables, no undecides, no reconcilables. There is love and hate. The only middle ground is grudging respect, and even that is tenuous. That is why the insurgents will lose. The Yankees’ objective strengths, combined with the unshakable support of their fans, make a campaign waged along legitimacy lines ultimately a category error. Perhaps it’s necessary to add that the Yankees are only an irredentist empire in the sense of treating the rest of Major League Baseball as a farm system — that is, they’re not seeking, Red Sox-like, at converting people around the country into Yankee fans. The way the Yankees maintain their current allegiances are through tradition and performance. These are very adherent properties. Unlike their haters, the Yankees win the only game they seek to play. And that is why the Evil Empire is as durable as it is powerful.