So here's a question.  Have I stayed away from the blog this year to avoid jinxing the season?  What do you think?  I started writing this thing (with a little help from my friends) because my boy Sean asked me to back in early 2005.  He worked for mlb.com at the time, and they had started a new blog forum called mlblogs.  They needed bloggers, he asked me to do it, so I did it.  I'm a pretty lazy cat most of the time, as I've made pretty clear over the years.  But I found it somewhat therapeutic, as I realized that it was a good way to get stuff off my chest about a particular game without waking my wife up and explaining to her why Jorge Posada needed to take a pitch in his at-bat in the seventh, and why Torre shouldn't have pinch run for Giambi a run down in the sixth.  It also made me realize what a jack*ss fan I really was.  But hey, like Sammy Davis Jr. once said, I gotta be me.  So in 2005, the Yankees lost in the first round of the playoffs.  2006, first round again.  2007, another first round exit.  And then they finished third in 2008.  Third.  So yes, this year I wasn't taking any chances.  For the good of the team and Yankeedom everywhere, I was keeping the keyboard covered.  So here I am.

            A couple of notes about this playoff run:

            Is there anybody out there who didn't feel even the slightest bit good for Alex Rodriguez?  I'm sure there are, of course, but man, what a monkey that guy had on his back.  After all the meltdowns, the demotion to 8^th in the order, the boos...  After all that, have you ever seen anything so clutch in your life?  Considering there are only 11 wins in a successful postseason, the fact that the guy tied two games when the Yankees were losing in the ninth or later with bombs is ridiculous.  And he tied another in the seventh.  That's three games out of 11 that he pulled out of the fire with clutch bombs.  And then he got a two-out, ninth-inning double to put the Yankees ahead in what was probably the key game of the WS, game four.   I don't ever remember anyone having that kind of a clutch post-season.  If there had been a playoff MVP, rather than just an LCS and WS MVP, you'd pull your hair out trying to decide between Al and Mo, but my vote goes to Al.  It truly was vindication for a guy who had earned a month like that.  The big fly lit up again, just when we needed it most.

            Jimmy Rollins.  Poor Jimmy Rollins.  Jimmy, shooting your mouth off is fine in the National League.  You can talk smack to the Rockies, and the Dodgers, and the Brewers, and whatever other silly teams you had to go through the past two years, but now you're way out of your league, dude.  You may have slapped around the Mets, but now you've got to deal with Big Brother.  And you got what was coming.  Go play the Pirates next time, dude...  Save yourself the embarrassment....

            I had been saying since '96 that I didn't like Jeter leading off.  To me, he was such a classic two-hole hitter.  I always felt the Yankees were at their best when Jeter hit behind a classic lead-off guy like Knoblauch or even Damon.  Soriano wasn't really a classic leadoff guy, but you get the idea.  But Torre would often throw Jeter in the leadoff spot in big games, especially in the post-season.  So now, after 14 seasons, I finally get it.  What better guy to send up there to set the tone for a game, what better guy for your team to watch stepping in to the batter's box, especially when they might be up against the wall, or have butterflies...  What better guy to stare all that in the face than Derek Jeter?  I finally get it.  When Derek Jeter hit the bomb to tie the first game of the playoffs against the Twins, Big Angelo and I both commented that he's hit a disproportionate amount of bombs in the post-season.  Not to mention clutch hits, clutch plays, and everything in between.  So yes, I finally get it.  Derek Jeter leading off.  Genius. 

            Speaking of Jeter, I was introduced to a new term this post-season.  Apparently Jeter, Mo, Pettitte, and Posada are now the "Core Four."  Okay.  Michael Kay used to call them the "Lords of the Rings."  A bit too dramatic for popular consumption, perhaps.  Whatever you want to call them, you can see why they've had so much success.  Cool under fire.  All of them.  Jeter and Posada collected clutch hits all October (and beyond, thanks Mr. Selig...), and Mo and Pettitte battled like pros, always keeping themselves and their team in the game.  It's funny as you watch guys who have big numbers, and even some past post-season success - Lidge, Hamels, Nathan, Fuentes, etc, melt down like something out of "The Real World Las Vegas."  But not those guys.  The core four.  Five Yankee rings each.  Five.  Remarkable.

            There's been a lot of talk about the umpiring.  As many of you know, I've always been a proponent of making the whole thing automated.  Everything from balls and strikes to calls in the field.  One ump for weird outlier calls that need a decision.  The qualifier would be that you would need the technology to make the calls without having to review every play with replay.  It has to be automated.  We're not there yet, I know.  Particularly with calls in the field.  Balls and strikes can already be called electronically with 99% accuracy.  And you can see on TV how erratic the umpires are with their strike zones.  Eliminate the subjectivity, I say.  I understand I'm pretty much alone in that, but that's cool.  One man's opinion.  Speaking of the umpiring, one thing jumped out at me this post-season.  In game two of the ALCS, which I attended with Big Joe and the missus, Erick Aybar didn't touch second while turning a double play, and the runner was called safe by virtue of the "neighborhood play."  Everyone - the announcers, the Angels, the media - was up in arms.  Tim McCarver almost had a stroke.  "You NEVER see that play called!!" he crowed.  "Now you're going to call it?  In the playoffs??"  Mike Scoscia was beside himself out on the field, arguing his fat face off.  So, a word to the irresponsible mainstream media.  Never see it called?  How about game five of the Division Series in 2005?  Ringing a bell, Mike Scoscia?  Robbie Cano was called for the exact same neighborhood play, contributing to the Yankees losing to Mike Scoscia's very same Angels in the deciding game of that series in Anaheim.  What goes around comes around.  Do your homework, guys.  Somebody.

            Speaking of the late 70's, I've heard a few talking heads saying that this Yankee team more closely resembled the Yanks of the late 70's than the late 90's.  Sounds about right to me.  The late 70's bunch was a bit shaggier, had all of the payroll allegations, had a blend of home-grown and imported talent.  They were also a bit less buttoned-up-corporate.  The mustaches and the afros were a bit more pronounced.  They strike me as a bit more likely to smash pies into each other's faces...

            There are a couple of guys you feel good for in a year like this, because they seem extra psyched to have stepped into a championship.  Guys like Nick Swisher and Jerry Hairston.  Especially Hairston.  Here was a guy who was toiling in Cincinnati for most of the year, a journeyman in every sense of the word.  He was probably just hoping to hang on for a few more years of usefulness somewhere.  Anywhere.  Then his agent tells him he's going to the best team in baseball.  And then he makes a solid contribution, scoring the winning run in game 2 of the LCS, starting game 2 of the WS and coming up with some key hits, and finally, standing in left field when Tex squeezed the last out to win the World Series.  His story and his game reminded me a lot of Jose Vizcaino in 2000.  Good for you, Jerry Hairston.  I'm glad you're getting that World Series ring.  You earned it.     

            This is why we got Johnny Damon.  It took a few years and some heartbreak, and I'm sure he felt weird watching some of his old teammates celebrating in '07, but when his time came, he came through in spades.  Two words.  Game four.

            I sent a text message to Tony Sherry the day after the Yanks won the World Series.  It said this, "I don't know if I've ever felt happier for anybody than I feel right now for the Ferocious Lion, Hideki Matsui."  There was a great article in the Wall Street Journal a few days afterwards, with an even better headline - "Japanese Baseball's Best Day Ever."  Man that made me feel good.  Good for MLB.  They got this one right.  They could have given the MVP to Mo.  They've done it before, and he's deserved it.  And you could make a real case for him again.  But the Ferocious Lion was just as deserving, and MLB recognized that they had a golden opportunity to set off a blinding crush of energy for the sport of baseball on the Asian continent.  Amazing, considering that Japan has now won two consecutive World Baseball Classic trophies and Ichiro Suzuki has won an AL MVP on his journey to the Hall of Fame.  Amazing that everyone agreed that this was Japanese Baseball's Best Day Ever.  The only guy as excited as the Japanese mobbing the streets of Tokyo at lunchtime on that Thursday afternoon?  The Lion's biggest fan, of course.  Tony Sherry....

            Speaking of the Ferocious Lion, everyone seems to think he's not coming back to the Yanks.  Here's why I say he is.  Take a look at the ads on the right field wall at Yankee Stadium.  Sony.  Komatsu.  Something else written entirely in Japanese.  I have no idea what that's for.  Point is, Matsui pays for himself.  The Wall Street Journal estimated that the Yankees bring in $20 million a year from Japanese advertising, merchandising, and broadcast rights.  The Yankees will argue that's because they have a big Japanese fan base and not necessarily all because of Matsui.  Right.  And now that he's the reigning World Series MVP, imagine the payday looming for the Yankees.  I don't care what kind of roster flexibility you're looking for.  I need somebody to explain to me why you wouldn't want a guy who gives you that kind of production, against lefties, righties, whatever, even if he's only a DH, who pays for himself and then some...

            This is apropos of nothing, but I'll say it because I haven't heard anybody else say it.  The amount of tickertape this year at the parade was p*ss-poor.  I understand that these days the windows are often sealed shut in favor of year-round climate control, but this isn't that hard.  I understand the City gave recycled paper to all of the buildings, but they didn't give enough.  You didn't see the usual shots of the blizzard of paper raining down on the paraders this year.  No good.  More tickertape. 

            So there was one thing that came out of this World Championship run that I didn't expect.  The retribution.  During the run in the late 90's, the Yankees won every World Series they were in.  They weren't avenging anything.  When this post-season started, the Yankees last 8 years had gone like this:  Heartbreak in the ninth inning of the World Series against Arizona, out in the first round against Anaheim, losing a World Series they should have swept to a Marlins team that was far inferior, '04 (nuff said), then the three first round exits I detailed earlier.  I wasn't expecting that, with this run, all of that would somehow be okay.  I wouldn't trade this championship to get any of those back.  Even with all of those sour moments of the last eight years, you couldn't be in a better spot than you're in right now.  World Champions.

            Speaking of which, I was at game six with Big Ange and Acc's dad.  Yup, Bert Acc...  Had a great time, too.  They were good company.  The texts came pouring in all game.  I had sent Mikey D a text in game 2 (which he attended), telling him to bring one home for us.  He sent me one before game 6, telling me the same.  "I'm giving it everything I got," I texted him back around the fourth inning...  An hour after the game ended, I was still standing there, in the Stadium that had started me off so sour this season (I'm still not happy about the Pepsi...), singing along with Ol' Blue Eyes, all by myself.  Big Joe called.  "I'm still standing here," I told him.  "You're still at the Stadium?" he asked incredulously, laughing out loud.  "Yup.  Still here..."  Where was I going to go?  What a night...        

            Speaking of the last few years, I've gotten better at understanding that you need to enjoy the journey.  I understand you can't win every year.  There will always be some heartbreaking moments.  It only makes it sweeter when they win.  I can go through my laundry list of great baseball memories.  Where I was, who I was with.  Going to games when I was a kid, watching the '81 World Series in my parents' room with my sister, going bananas when Butch Wynegar hit a two-out bomb to keep the Yankees season alive in '85, Donnie Baseball tying the record for home runs in consecutive games, being at the Jim Leyritz walk-off game against Seattle in '95.  Chanting with 15 guys at Acc and Mike Sherry's house in Long Beach in '95 and '96 when the Yanks were just getting warmed up.  Being on the Upper East Side after the clincher in '96 (which was pandemonium, by the way) when all of the Yankees showed up at Cronies to celebrate.  Watching game 1 against the Mets at the Stadium with Ruddy, watching with Sean in the bleachers when Scott Brosius pulled off Miracle, Part II in 2001.  Singing with Mikey Dantone when Aaron Boone catapulted us into the World Series.  Taking my baby boy to the old Stadium last year, just so he could say he was there.  Christening the new Stadium with a World Championship last week.   I remember them all.  That's why I'm a fan.  That's why I show up.  I understand it seems silly, investing so much in something I have so little control over.  It is silly.  But you can't put that much emotion into your memories just BS-ing with your boys at a bar.  Sometimes moments like these make perfect bookmarks on the story of your life.   

            And then there was perhaps my best baseball memory.  The day after Thanksgiving, 1996, far from the grand baseball stadiums of New York and long after baseball had boarded itself up tight for the winter.  There had been, in the weeks following the World Series, all kinds of souvenirs and knick-knacks that popped up on the carts of the street vendors in the city.  Anything to commemorate what was at the time the 23^rd Championship for the Yankees.  One thing had caught my eye, and I had it with me that day as I trudged through a late November wind across grass that had just suffered its first frost way out on the east end of Long Island. 

            My dad didn't make it to see the Yankees fulfill the promise of that button that he had given me some 18 years before.  He wasn't a big baseball fan, or a big sports fan.  He liked the Mets, as he had grown up a Manhattan kid rooting for the New York baseball Giants.  He didn't root against the Yankees, as he always said he was a New York fan first.  And he knew that his boy liked the Yanks, so he always made time for them.  So that day back in late November '96, amongst the many flowers, American flags, and the occasional early Christmas wreath, I placed something that must have seemed curious to the caretakers at Calverton National Cemetery.  A small button (by this time they were primarily made to pin on knapsacks and the like) that said - "New York Yankees - World Champions."  What was not printed but understood, as far as I was concerned, was "Again."

            It may have taken 18 years that time, and it may have taken 9 years this time, but the Yankees delivered on their promise.  The world has turned right side up again.  The Yankees are Champions of the World.

            And now, like then, it was worth the wait.             

            This was a mighty fine stretch of exciting finishing for Yankee fans, I must say.  The last few years it seemed we were on the losing end of these things far more than the reverse.  So I'll take what transpired this last weekend with the Twins, whose last few seasons at Yankee Stadium have been the baseball version of Jennifer Aniston's love life.  Plucky, interesting, but ultimately sad.  For them.  Not for me.  Walking-off is no way to go through the season, of course, because the fact that you can't close the deal and need to keep relying on your last at-bat tells you that you've got things that need to be fixed.  Friday night was highway robbery.  A two-run deficit against Joe Nathan in the ninth inning, and then a run down with two outs, well, what can you say.  That was funkadelic.  Saturday's game should have been closed out before any extra-inning nonsense ever happened.  Joba put you in the driver's seat, and Phil Coke and Edwar Ramirez puked it right up.  You need to close that out.  And today's game was a great come-from-behind win, and the Yankees did a lot of things right, but the Ferocious Lion swung at ball four and ball five with the bases loaded in the eighth inning, taking a run and a lead off the board with two ill-advised swings.  And that crazy play in the ninth should have put Robbie Cano in the batter's box with one out and the fastest man in America on third.  In fact, I was scratching my head when, after Swisher walked and Gardner went in to pinch run, Melky bunted him over to third.  Why are you bunting there?  Just steal the base.  You've got a better-than-average chance he makes it, so why don't you just give it a whirl.  You left it up to Ramiro Pena/Francisco Cervelli with a runner on second and one out?  Didn't love that play.  Point is, the Yankees should have won that game before the dramatic Johnny Delicious swing.

            There were actually three defining plays in today's game for me.  Obviously one was the walk-off bomb.  The second was the crazy play in the ninth.  So let's go back to that crazy play for a second.  Was Gardner too aggressive?  Yes.  Do I have a big problem with it?  No.  I want the other team back on their heels.  I want them nervous that he's going to do something off-the-wall like that.  Fielders who are concerned about stuff like that will often rush things and find themselves butter-balling things.  I'll take it.  The hero of that play, obviously, was Joe Mauer.  It might have been the best play I've ever seen a catcher make.  The reason wasn't so much the athleticism (world-class) but the thought.  There was an out to be had at first.  He would have gotten Cervelli, and it would have been the second out, seemingly exactly what you would have wanted.  Watching the play live, I was surprised he didn't throw it.  After having a minute to drink the whole thing in, you realize why.  If he had thrown it, they never would have gotten Gardner coming around third.  Never.  And Gardner expected him to throw it, which is why he never broke stride.  Clever.  Mauer pump-faked it.  More clever.  Then he turned and won the foot race back to the plate.  Brilliant.  Other-worldly.  The other pivotal play was the Ferocious Lion tagging from third on Melky's pop-up to tie the game in the seventh.  That was a therapeutic moment for me, if I can be unnecessarily dramatic for a second.  I can't say it long enough or loud enough.  You have to go there.  Make them make a play.  If you play it safe and don't tag up in that spot, you're again relying on Ramiro Pena with two outs, and only a base hit gets it done.  This was an opportunity to force the issue.  The only thing the runner has to do in this case is not leave early and run as fast as he can.  The fielder has to catch it cleanly, transfer it cleanly to the throwing hand, make a strong throw that will beat the runner, throw it accurately enough to beat the runner, the catcher has to catch it cleanly and apply the tag cleanly and quickly enough to beat the runner.  Granted, if all of those things had happened the Ferocious Lion was a dead duck.  The ball wasn't that deep.  But when you look at what had to go right for the defenders, it was check, check, check, whoops.  Run scores.  This is how Mike Scoscia has been eating the Yankees' lunch for what seems like a century.  Kudos to Rob Thomson the third base coach.  I love the work he's doing down there.  That was the game, if you ask me.  That run doesn't score, and I'm probably still huddled in a corner shivering and muttering to myself about the Ferocious Lion swinging at balls four and five in the eighth.    

            The New York media has decided that Allie's return is the reason Tex has busted out.  Maybe, maybe not.  I tend to think that a guy whose average is hovering 100 points below his career number is going to turn it around at some point.  Might as well be now.  It is getting towards late May...  And although Allie clearly doesn't have his timing all the way back, you can't argue the difference he makes in a game.  Big-moment bombs on Saturday and Sunday.  Plain and simple, you didn't have anybody to hit those bombs for the first six weeks of the season.  Is Allie the reason they're 6-2 since he's come back?  Who knows.  But he hasn't hurt things...

            I hope they ride this wave a while.  It's nice to be back within striking distance.  And three days of walk-off wins is not a bad way to spend a weekend...       

             So let's begin where we left off.  The Red Sox ran out of pixie dust.  As I watched game 6 with Big Joe, the Red Sox still peacocking all of their magic down in Tampa, I relayed to him something Acc told me years ago, when the Yanks were in the middle of all of their glory.  "Someday," he said, "This is going to end.  It can't go on forever."  And further to that, I said to Big Joe, when it ends, it tends to come crashing down.  I can't say it crashed down as badly for the Red Sox as it did for the Yankees in 2001, but hey - the bigger you are, the harder you fall.  I'll repeat what I said last week.  As a dynasty, the Red Sox were always going to be a fraud.  That's not what they were, for a thousand reasons.  But man, they knew how to dig in their heels. 

            So a few thoughts on the new Stadium.  My opinion hasn't changed from when they first announced this whole thing.  Do they need it?  No.  Do I have an issue with them putting up a new Stadium?  No.  Does it thrill me?  No.  Does it kill me that they're moving the field where Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Reggie Jackson, Don Mattingly, and Bernie Williams played?  It crushes me.  That totally devastates me.  Why would you do that?  The field is the thing.  Not the building.  It's the field.  I hate that they're moving the field.  My thought is, if you're going to move the field, then you might as well pack the whole thing up and move it to Manhattan.  The building is the building, and the Bronx is the Bronx, but the field is the key.  So I get that things change, and I'm not against putting up a new building with an opportunity to make millions upon millions more.  Honestly, I'm okay with that.  But back in '74, you realized it was better to find temporary accommodations than to lose the one thing that matters.  The field.  That's the one thing that bothers me.  That they didn't want to take a bit of a financial step backward for 2 years (if that?!) to keep the one thing that has always made Yankee Stadium Yankee Stadium.  The field.

            I promised Big Joe and his buddy Charlie that I would do a bit on the Mets, so here goes.  The Mets.  Man.  What can you say.  Two years of devastating meltdowns.  I was listening to some of the banter on talk radio in the days following, and I was a bit confused by what I heard.  Met fans, specifically and particularly the talking head radio and TV personalities, seemed to be coming out in favor of keeping Jerry Manuel on as Mets manager.  So let me get this straight.  There was one constant in the coaching ranks for two of the most colossal collapses in baseball history.  Jerry Manuel.  It was cool to blame Willie for a while, and it still is, but who was his bench coach?  If you're going to argue that Manuel didn't have any accountability for '07 just because he was bench coach, then why do you have a bench coach?  If he's useless and not accountable, why are you paying him in the first place?  I was listening to Joe Benigno (who I love) and Evan Roberts (can go either way) on WFAN as I was driving around on Columbus Day, and anytime a caller would suggest the Mets should get a new manager, they would immediately jump down his throat.  "Who?!" they would bark at him.  One guy suggested Buck Showalter.  "What has he ever won?!" they screamed.  But here's where that falls down.  You're not going to get a new manager because there isn't anyone available who has a history of winning consistently?  That's completely idiotic.  How many of those are there?  Four?  If that?  What did Joe Torre win before he got to the Bronx?  What did Terry Francona win before he got to Boston?  What had Scoscia won before he started with Anaheim?  Or Joe Maddon?  Find someone you believe in and take a shot.  That's what winning teams do.  Jerry Manuel needs to go, and the Mets need to start fresh.  I think they have the right core of players.  They need more depth at pitching and they need more consistency from their bats.  They shouldn't, because they have lots of marquee names in that lineup, but they do.  David Wright is getting killed in New York for failing to come up clutch.  They're calling him D-Rod.  Yikes.  But for my money, the guy who needs to go is Jose Reyes.  Jose Reyes is bad for a baseball team.  I always marvel that Mets fans trip over themselves making excuses for him.  He acts like a total *ss, and the fans turn a blind eye.  The day before the Mets collapsed again, when Johan Santana came out and threw a gem, there was Jose Reyes, running out to do his ridiculous dancing out on the field when somebody hits a home run.  Dude, everybody else in the league knows to keep it in the dugout.  Especially when your season is hanging on by a thread.  What is your problem?  And for the second year in a row, he's disappeared down the stretch.  I know he's a scary player with a ton of weapons, but guys who carry that kind of bad karma generally don't win.  (See: Bonds, Rodriguez...okay, Manny is clearly an exception).  The good news is that the collapse, in a strange way, doesn't seem as monumental after you watch the Phillies do what they've done.  It was tougher to swallow last year when the Phillies mugged the Mets and then got swept in the first round.   

            So let's get to an annual favorite: the smartest and dumbest things I said this year.  As usual, the dumb thing was way dumber than the smart thing was clever.  And believe it or not, my insistence that the Rays weren't for real wasn't the dumbest thing (although it was plenty dumb, obviously).  The dumbest thing I said this year was this, on April 3rd:

"The fact is the Yankees are playing in their second game of the season and the best they have to throw out there is Mike Mussina.  I know there are a lot of guys out there who love the Moose, and have for years.  People get on me immediately when we kill him in the BPS.  But guys - he is a number five starter.  Number five.  Is there anybody out there who thinks Moose has a better chance to throw a killer game than Phil Hughes?  Somebody explain that to me....  Or Ian Kennedy, for that matter....  "      

Yup.  That's me, with the razor-sharp insight that Moose was a dumber choice to start a game in 2008 than Ian Kennedy.  Further proof that I haven't the slightest idea what I'm talking about.  I owe Sean a beer just on principle.

            On to the smartest thing, posted on April 15:

"You've seen [Francona] many times over the last few years take risks in order to "write the story."  Dice K is a great example.  At least three times last year against the Yankees, and this year's game makes four, Francona stayed far too long with an ineffective and mightily struggling Dice K to try and get him a win."

         This wasn't the first time I've talked about this.  The implication, of course, is that one day this was coming to come back and bite Francona.  And bite him it did.  Only it wasn't Dice K.  It was Beckett.  If he yanks him when he should have yanked him in game 2, the Sox probably win that game and take 2-0 back to Boston.  And in one of the few times I've ever felt Francona was being disingenuous, he said after the game, "I felt he was the right guy for that spot."  I'm not Terry Francona, but his track record betrays him here.  He was trying to get him a win.  Period.  And he got burned.

            Last thing.  My heart sank when I read yesterday that Mike Cameron was "high on the Yankees priority list."  As I said to Acc today on the phone, if that's true, the Yankees are already out of contention for 2009.  Not that Cameron himself is the reason (although he would be an awful, awful pick-up), but it would be clear that the Yankees are headed in the wrong direction.  I think Mike F had a great tidbit in his comment the other day about Girardi saying that the Yankees "needed to swing early" against the better pitchers.  Big Joe confirmed that he heard it also.  If that's his attitude, fire him right now.  I'm not kidding.  That's exactly what you don't do.  What you can't do.  And that's just it.  Mike Cameron isn't the type of player that is going to help you.  I have to say, I'm really having trouble with that one.  Who exactly in the Yankees front-office was the guy saying, "Cameron might be available?!  Get him!!"  What sense does that make?  He's hit .242 the last two years with low 20's in home runs and a million - a million - strikeouts.  He is exactly what was wrong with the Yankees last year.  If that's the type of guy they're going to go after, and the type of team they're going to be, they've already lost.  I will note, though, that the Yankees did not confirm the report.

            Maybe I'll stop back in after the World Series.  I hope this isn't going to be a long off-season....

            With that as background, this is probably the right time to point out that there are three people you generally can't afford full credibility to when they are opining on the Yankees, Red Sox, or Mets, and that's Yankees fans, Red Sox fans, and Met fans.  All of them have a stake in all of the others' situations.  Met fans and Red Sox fans ( in general - doesn't apply to every case, of course) might tell you that they're agnostic on the fortunes of the other, but scratch the surface, and they will all probably admit that they like to see the other succeed just because it might p*ss off Yankee fans.  My point is, I'm a Yankee fan, so feel free to stop reading here if you feel my allegiance will "Lupica" my credibility in this debate.

            As a "dynasty," the Red Sox were always going to be a fraud.  You can argue that it all hinges on what your definition of dynasty is, and you can certainly throw a number at it and say that, say, three, championships in five years or so constitutes a dynasty.  Tough to argue.  For me, a dynasty is a team that goes out and beats you because they're the best team every day, every year.  The Red Sox have not been that.  And I understand that Red Sox fans would want to use the word.  It's a big word; there aren't too many opportunities to use it in sports.  It's a marquee term.  But frankly, to use that term with this Red Sox team would be missing the point of this team.  What they aren't is the team that goes out and beats you day in and day out.  In thirteen years, this team has won its division exactly once.  One time.  And if not for a four-run April comeback in the ninth inning against Mo Rivera, they don't even finish first that one time.  They always say that the season is a marathon, not a sprint.  And in this marathon, Boston has just once in thirteen years been able to beat out just four other teams to win their division.  Fifty years ago, they never would have made the playoffs. 

So what are they.  Well, they are simply the most brilliantly, fantastically, spectacularly resilient team I have ever seen in professional sports.  I can't think of a close second, or even a distance second.  They own it, entirely.  Let's start from the beginning.  In 2003, the year they came of age, the Yankees had run away with the division and the Sox were fighting for a Wild Card.  And as the season wore on, I remember laughing with a couple of the boys that the Red Sox just seemed to be able to yank a game out of their butt whenever they absolutely needed it.  You could almost predict it.  You could look at the standings and the games that were in progress on any given night, and if the Red Sox were going to take a significant ding with a loss, you would see them start some crazy three-run rally in the bottom of the ninth.  It was automatic.  I always used to say they had a pocketful of miracles.  So they ride their miracles into the playoffs, and they find themselves down 0-2 to the A's and in extra innings.  Eric Byrnes should have crossed the plate with the winning run, but the umps ruled (correctly) that he never touched the plate and was called out as Varitek chased him halfway to the dugout to apply the tag.  The Red Sox survived and eventually won the game, then followed it with two wins to take the series.  Then they face the Yankees, who took a 3-2 lead back to Yankee Stadium.  With a Yankee lead in the 8^th inning in game six, they got a routine fly ball that got caught in the wind by Nomar, and then a go-ahead shot that sparked a multi-run inning to steal game six.  Game seven in 2003 was the one and only time in this decade that their luck abandoned them.  Fast forward to 2004.  Goes without saying.  Then '05 and '06 were a bust.  Then '07.  Down 3-1 to the Indians, they pulled off the ALCS win.  So at that point they had pulled off, in their two Championships, the greatest and the second greatest series comebacks in the history of baseball.  Now 2008.  Again down 3-1, but this time losing 7-0 with two outs and a man on in the seventh inning.  Guys, say what you want.  I know '04 was a 3-0 deficit, and I know it was against the Yankees.  For a Red Sox fan, I can understand if that was their favorite.  But if they pull this off in '08, and I would not be the slightest bit surprised if they do, this beats them all.  Down 3 games to 1, and losing by seven runs in the seventh inning with two outs, having to not just win, but go back on the road and win two more.  I have not seen a more unbelievable feat in my entire lifetime by one team, in any sport.  That would absolutely beat them all.  And then you would be looking at a team that came back from 3-0, 3-1, and 3-1 down 7 runs with 7 outs to go, resulting in 3 Championships.  There is no precedent for that anywhere in professional sports, as far as I know.  And I challenge anybody to find me something even close.  I know you might think I'm getting ahead of myself here, but am I?  Is Tampa really going to snap back from this?  Particularly since Big HGH and JD Drew seem to have survived their slumps and gotten their strokes back?  Really?  I don't see it.  And I certainly don't have any faith in the National League.  Now I'll admit, I've been dogging the Rays all year.  I openly admit it.  But for the last few days I've been telling everybody - Let's just see them close it out.  Let's see if they really are immune to the Red Sox magic.  And wow.  Wow, wow, wow.              

So why not a dynasty?  Because that's not them.  This win tonight made them 12-2 in their last 14 playoff elimination games.  Just drink that in for a minute.  Fourteen elimination games, and they've won twelve.  Astounding.  And to get it done this year it would be fourteen out of sixteen (at least), including their last ten in a row.  So what was the Yankees record in elimination games in their run from 1996-2000?  One and one.  And that's the point.  They just didn't find themselves in elimination games.  They pretty much just buzz-sawed through everybody.  If you're asking me, that's a dynasty.  But that doesn't take away from what the Red Sox are.  Frankly, there have been lots of dynasties in sports.  I don't know if you'll ever see another team like this crazy Red Sox team.  They are almost beyond explanation.

            I know, I know.  I'm already giving them 6 wins in their next nine games.  Getting ahead of myself.  Fine.  Is anybody out there betting against them?

            So how do we analyze the 2008 season?  Was it the injuries?  A lack of clutch-hitting, mismanagement, front-office savvy?  Was this team just not as good?  After spitting and bleeding thorough six months of Yankee baseball, I'm kind of surprised that after all is said and done, I'm still sitting here wondering what just happened...

            First things first.  The Tampa Bay Rays.  Guys, I'll stand and take my flogging now.  I promise I won't squawk.  Yup, I was the guy.  No revisionist history here.  I'm not going to say that I hedged on this one bit.  I came out many times this year breathing fire that they weren't for real.  That they were the fortunate beneficiaries of a soft, home-friendly schedule in the first half.  The end would see the cream rise to the crop.  I could go on and on.  Bottom line; they got it done.  Kudos to them, shame on me for being a non-believer.

            It's not like the Yankees couldn't beat the good teams.  Putting aside the kryptonite-in-their-pocket Angels of Anaheim, who are always a Vincent Price movie for the boys from the Bronx, the Yankees didn't have a losing record against any of the other playoff teams, including both Minnesota and Chicago.  In fact, only Boston was even able to eke out a season series tie in extra innings on the last day of the season.  It was a lot of stumbling around with teams like Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and Kansas City that cost the Yankees this season.  The Red Sox again settled comfortably into their familiar second place cubby, although this year with a new Queen Bee to serve at the top.  Not sure how they'll fare in the post-season, but at least they know who they are.  The Yankees ended up in first place all these years because they were the best team.  The Red Sox snuck into the playoffs all these years because they're never dead until you kill them.  The chips have fallen the last twelve years or so such that the Yankees can't beat the Angels, the Angels can't beat the Red Sox, and the Red Sox can't beat the Yankees.  The Red Sox got their one exception; let's see if the Angels can get theirs.  Funny.

            So let's start at the top.  The last deal on the table for Johan Santana was Hughes, Kennedy, and Melky for Santana.  Just about no one in Yankee-land wanted this to happen.  Way too much, considering the promise shown by those three guys, who by season's end in 2007 were all starters.  Well, you know what they say about hindsight boys.  Melky is not a major league baseball player and Ian Kennedy is not a major league baseball player.  Phil Hughes, it seems, has a long way to go.  You live and learn.  That was a colossal mistake.  Speaking of Kennedy and Hughes; zero, that's zero wins between them for the season.  Wow.  Kennedy was not only awful, he was delusional, thinking he "pitched well" after getting pounded by the Angels.  Dude, when you're wearing the Yankee pinstripes, the only way you pitch well is when you end up with a "w" next to your name.  Hughes, when he finally got healthy, was subject to his old bugaboo.  He can't put people away.  Gets two strikes pretty easily, and then hitters start to battle him.  Even if he gets them, his pitch count goes sky high and he can't be effective.  It's one of the key reasons the guy had no wins.  Even when he pitched well in a game the Yanks would eventually win, like he did in the final two weeks, he didn't get the win because his pitch count was blown long before he was out of the fifth.  Not good.  Not sure what kind of major leaguer he turns out to be.

            So we know about the injuries.  Posada, the Ferocious Lion.  Alex Rodriguez was out and/or hurting for about six weeks early on.  Wang was lost early on.  Definitely a key theme for the collapse, without a doubt.  But I can't say that I'm qualified to say how or why the end came.  If I had to pick one thing, I would probably say the general approach to hitting.  The Yankees just weren't tough outs in 2008.  Cano, Melky, Molina, Alex, and sadly, Derek Jeter swung far too early in the count at far too many pitches.  That's the key thing for me.  It wasn't just the futility; it was the quick outs and the quick innings.  There were too many mediocre pitchers that turned into Preacher Roe facing the Yankees.  It would always drive me nuts to hear guys like John Sterling saying, "Boy, you better go up there swinging against a guy like Roy Halladay, because he's going to throw strikes."  And that's just what the Yankees did.  The problem is that's just what you don't do against a guy like Roy Halladay.  Okay, he throws strikes.  But opponents hit what?  Low two-hundreds against him?  If that?  Bottom line is, you don't swing against Roy Halladay.  Because the odds are great that you're not going to get a hit.  Of course I don't mean you never swing, but you don't want to go out there and try to shell Roy Halladay.  It's not going to happen.  You do what the Yankees of the past few years were legendary for doing.  You wait him out and get to the bullpen.  He's not going to throw three straight strikes to everybody.  Make him work for it.  I know it sounds counterintuitive, but against a guy like Halladay, you'd rather make out after an 8-pitch at-bat than get a base hit on the first pitch with two outs and nobody on.  If the next guy also swings at the first pitch and gets out, you're no closer on the scoreboard but you're six pitches behind in terms of getting into the bullpen.  The current Red Sox, watching the Yankees all those years, are great at this.  I was in section 24 for the last Red Sox/Yanks series at the Stadium, and I distinctly remember at one point (I forget which inning) there was a man on first, one out, and the count was 2-1 on the batter.  And the Red Sox had swung at exactly one pitch in the inning.  One.  Brilliant.  The Yankees need more tough outs in their lineup.    

            Not done yet, boys.  I'll be back with a few more thoughts.  What changes need to be made, what can be done better, the old Stadium, the new Stadium, the Mets (ugh, the Mets), etc...  See you then.

            So let's go over a few themes from this game.  Nothing we haven't seen before.  A.J. Burnett was spectacular.  Fine.  He was awesome and he deserved to win.  Cito Gaston took a gamble leaving him in with 110 pitches through seven, and it paid off in every possible way.  He got a quick inning, he finished the eighth, and he got the win.  Perfect.

            Alex Rodriguez and Jason Giambi struck out seven times between them.  Seven.  And Abreu had a phenomenal game, so twice when they went down, Bobby Abreu was standing on second base.  Seven times.  Alex was particularly useless.  It seemed like each time he was a dead duck before he ever got up there.  Perfect.

            We got the perfect defensive miscue at the perfect time.  The last I heard, and it's been a while, I'll admit, the Yankees had the fewest errors in the AL.  But yet they always seem to find the perfect time.  Johnny Damon, who was anointed the starting center fielder today (after I've been screaming for it for two months), just flat out drops not one, but two fly balls.  Unbelievable.  Plain, simple, drops.  Not sure I've ever seen someone do that twice in one game before.  And in purely devastating fashion.  Drops the third out with the go-ahead run on the bases in the eighth inning.  Wow.  Perfect.

            We wasted a great pitching performance of our own.  Darrell Rasner, who has gone out and gotten knocked around many times this year, was awesome.  One bad pitch and they hit it out to tie.  Not a hit with a runner in scoring position, mind you.  They were 0-3 in those spots.  They got two runs without getting a hit with a runner in scoring position.  Perfect.

            The futility.  This is what I mean when I keep saying that I find that "batting average with runners in scoring position" stat maddening.  Maddening.  Last Friday and Saturday the Yankees were what, 3-18 with RISP, pr something like that.  But it was so much worse.  First of all, one of the hits on Friday night was Alex Rodriguez hitting an infield single that didn't score a run.  And they hit into something like four double plays in those spots as well.  So 3-18 was really more like 2-23.  And to make matters worse, they go out and torch the overworked and under-talented Kansas City bullpen on Sunday (although they couldn't even touch those guys on Friday and Saturday).  So when you look at their "batting-average-with-runners-in-scoring-position" totals for the weekend, they were actually quite good.  And if you look at their BA W/ RISP numbers over the last five or so games, they also look really good, as all of the numbers are skewed by that one game.  But the real story was that they were 2-3 in those five games, with the only other win coming in a 13 inning affair that should have been an easy seven-or-so run victory in 9 innings.  And the story was that they were stunningly impotent with runners in scoring position.  Perfect.

            A.J. Burnett is a nice pitcher.  Always more talented than his record.  But he's not spectacular.  His numbers don't knock you over by any means.  Why is he so automatic against the Yankees?  I don't get it.  He never misses against them.  Always career performances.  A million strikeouts, manageable pitch counts, guys looking ridiculous swinging at balls all over the place.  He wins every which way.  And on top of everything else, he got a win because Johnny Damon just happened to drop his second ball of the game at the perfect time.  Perfect.

            Seven strikeouts from Alex Rodriguez and Jason Giambi.  Whoops.  Did I say that one already....  And flailing at balls way out of the strike zone.  Seven.

            A perfect - perfect - play from Lyle Overbay to nail Alex at second base leading off the ninth.  I don't blame him for going.  You have to go.  That was absolutely a fluky double all the way.  Every single thing broke perfectly for Overbay in making that play.  Give him credit.  But does is seem like the fiftieth time this year that somebody made the play of their career to save/win a game against the Yankees?  Maybe it's me.  Perfect.

            Perfect.

            I know, I know.  Tampa keeps winning.  Hey, if they pull this off, I will gladly serve as the foiled Gargamel in their Smurf village...  To the victors go the spoils.

            A couple of quick things on the Olympics.  The Opening Ceremonies are probably my least favorite "sporting" event.  Somebody tell me if this is wrong, but it always seems to me to be about an hour of watching the countries walk in and about three hours of interpretive dance.  Thanks.  I'm good.

            That 4x100 relay might have been one of the most exciting sporting events I have ever seen in my life.  Speaking of perfect, that was pure Hollywood.  And with the French serving as villains with their condescending, snarling, boasts!  Who does that?  And the French!  And then to watch the historically underperforming Jason Lezak come from out of nowhere to turn in the race of his life when it counted most.  And to save the eighth gold for Phelps?  Hollywood, dude.  Wow.       

            Here is my issue with the NBC coverage.  It could very well be me, but why does NBC think I care when the host Chinese win a medal?  They're the hosts.  I get it.  You don't need to cut away from something interesting to show me another Chinese opportunity to win a medal.  Call me a bad guy.  There are a million American Olympians competing in events I don't see.  And with the results long since determined earlier in the day, why did NBC show an hour and a half in the key primetime slot, 8:30- 9:50pm, of diving.  Diving.  The American guy came in sixth.  But the Chinese won gold and bronze!  How exciting!  And everyone had to wait until 11:30 to watch the marquee event, the women's gymnastics.

            So let's get to the gymnastics for a second.  This is why it's difficult to root for the Chinese.  First of all, they are cheating.  And not cheating.  Preposterously, brazenly cheating.  These girls are quite clearly between 12 and 14 years old, and have been busted by multiple sources.  Now I have to say.  Here in the States, the media would never stand for this.  People would be tearing their hometowns and official records apart to try and bust them, American or no American.  There would be a race to break the story.  So where is the outrage in China?  I get it.  You want to win medals.  But wow.  This is insane.  Apparently the only check is a passport, which the Chinese girls all dutifully supplied.  The New York Times dug up Chinese newspapers that reported the girls ages as 12, 13, and 14 in the last few months, which means that this was no oversight (the Chinese news websites that held this information were promptly taken down when the Times reported the inconsistency).  Official stuff.  The Chinese government had to issue these girls bogus passports.  So they falsified some documents and records.  You know.  No biggie.

            And while we're at it, the whole thing smells.  You think I'm a conspiracy theorist in baseball?  When it comes to the judged sports, gymnastics, figure skating, and even boxing, I am Oliver Stone.  I loved when the French judge got busted for trading favors with the Russian judge in the 2002 Winter Olympics to quid pro quo an ice dancing medal for a pair's figure skating medal.  I think that stuff goes on all the time.  And some of this 2008 gymnastics judging smelled rotten, like when the Chinese girl landed a vault on her knees, but somehow won a vaulting bronze medal.

            Do or die time for the Yankees.  Do or die.       

            These days my stomach gets tight before I ever turn on the TV.  I suppose a trip out to Anaheim will do that to you.  This is about the time of the year when I start griping that MLB, always acting in the best interests of the bottom line, sticks the Yankees with ten games against the Angels every year.  The Angels are the only team on the schedule outside of the division that you can mark down for ten games every single year.  In fact, they are the only team outside the division that the Yankees face ten times ever.  I've said this a million times.  This is no coincidence, guys.  MLB understands that these are marquee teams, and in the salad days of the Yankees the last few years, the Angels were just what the doctor ordered - a team that owned every pinstripe on the Yankees' backs.  So you can be sure that Texas was only going to get 7 games against the Yanks but the Angels were going to get 10.  So now that my gripe is out of the way, let's look at what happened.

            The futility with runners in scoring position is getting to the point of otherworldly.  And as I've said, the only measure we've got is the pathetic batting average with RISP.  But it's so wildly lacking in telling the whole story.  The awful Melky Cabrera (I'm going to come back to him) comes up with runners on first and third with one out tonight.  He swings at the first pitch (shocking) and hits into a double play.  That counts as 0-1 with RISP, but it was a bone crushing two outs recorded with one swing, and even worse, the first swing.  And the Yankees are legendary for it.  They will have a pitcher on the ropes at 70 pitches in the third inning, and will swing at the first pitch and give him two outs.  This bails him out of two jams - the one where he's got a runner on third with less than two out and the one where his pitch count is out of control and he's staring at a fifth inning shower.  Yup.  That's where we are.  The Yankees are so bad at something, there isn't a stat that's descriptive enough to capture it.  And there's one other useless stat.  Ken Singleton on Sunday afternoon put a number to the recent suffering of Yankee fans.  "The Yankees are less than 60% in getting the runner in from third with less than two out," he said.  What?!  Less than 60%?  If you're dumb enough to watch every Yankee game, like I am, you wouldn't have signed up for that number being any higher than 15%.  Where the h*ll is he getting "less than 60%?"  And then you realize what comprises that useless stat.  That includes all of the garbage time blowouts when the Yankees actually do put a ton of runs on the board.  Like the 7 run outburst against LA at the Stadium last week.  Yes, it's true.  They got lots of runs home from 3^rd with less than two outs.  And it was all window dressing.  Nothing that did us any good.  But it pads the stats and makes a dumb number even dumber.  Show me how many times they've gotten it done when it counted.

            I'm going to say something stupid.  I honestly don't remember the last time the Yankees hit a sac fly.  And I'm not trying to be funny, or to exaggerate.  I honestly do not remember.  It really is something.

            I have to tell you.  Joe Girardi is not impressing me as a playoff-run manager.  In fairness, Joe Torre never impressed me in that regard either, but Girardi is making me sick.  Kudos to Michael Kay on the YES broadcast tonight asking why Girardi, so adamant in the pre-game that "every game is crucial right now," goes out tonight and sits Johnny Damon and Jason Giambi down.  Giambi is an easy one.  I said when the Yankees got Sexon that my one fear with getting Sexon is that they're going to play him.  And by that I didn't mean that I didn't like the move, believe it or not.  I meant that you need to recognize him for what he is.  He is a pinch hitter to face a lefty specialist.  And a late-inning defensive replacement.  That's it.  I meant that you cannot start platooning him with Giambi.  You can't sit Giambi down.  He's too important to the lineup, as even when he's making out, it's a tough out.  He takes a lot of pitches, and on this free-swinging team, you can't afford to sacrifice that.  When Giambi isn't in the line-up, pitchers go deep in games against the Yankees.  Count on it.  So what does Girardi do?  Ughh.

                Here is the crux of my problem.  The Yankees are in the last leg of a grueling stretch of 20 games that will decide whether or not they will have a shot at making up the distance to a playoff spot.  Knowing this, Girardi unnecessarily pencils three outs into the lineup last night, and he pencils three outs into the lineup tonight.  And he pencils in one or two almost every night.  First, yesterday.  Sexon, Justin Christian, Molina.  We've talked about Sexon.  Justin Christian is not a major league hitter.  He cannot be in the lineup.  He's a pinch runner.  And why was Pudge not playing?  Is he still hurt?  I didn't see anything to that effect in the news.  The Yankees got Pudge not because they were afraid Molina couldn't hold up to the rigors of being the starter.  They got Pudge because he's hitting .293, and Molina's hitting .220.  So why was Girardi putting Molina out there on Sunday?  So tonight Girardi gets a little smarter and sits Molina.  But he still played Sexon, Christian, and Melky.  And what was the result of those combined three spots in the order for those two games?  How about 1-17 with 6 strikeouts and 8 men left on base?  How does that sound?  Good?

            So here's my next question?  Is Johnny Damon hurt?  I get that he can't throw the ball very hard.  What else is new.  But us he legitimately hurt?  Because if not, he needs to be in the lineup and in center field every single day, period.  I don't care that he can't throw.  He's leading AL in hitting, guys.  Why is he sitting?  Nady plays left, Damon plays center, and Abreu plays right.  Every day.  Pudge catches every day that Moose doesn't pitch.  And Giambi plays first base every day.  If you want to DH Giambi and use Sexon at first against a lefty, fine.  But you can't sit Giambi.  In that line-up, Sexon becomes your eight or nine hitter.  Where he belongs.  Certainly not sixth or something outrageous like that.  You want to use Betemit on the other days, fine.  Melky is not a major league hitter.  He needs to go.  Brett Gardiner is a better option as a pinch runner and defensive replacement, because that's all Melky gives you.

            I said this last week, and I'll reiterate it now.  I'm not inside Melky's head, but I'll tell you what it looks like from my perspective.  Melky Cabrera does not share the same goals as his teammates.  Melky is desperately trying to save his hanging-on-by-a-thread career, and to do that he needs to get his batting average up at all costs.  And when the Yankees need him to be selective, take a pitch, let a pitcher walk him, move a runner over, etc, he can't afford to do it.  He needs to get hits to bring his average up.  And the best pitches to do that are often early in the count.  So he's going to be up there swinging.  Every single time.  And that's not going to help the team.  You're better off bringing up Brett Gardiner as a pinch runner and defensive specialist, because Melky is a rally cancer right now, and probably will be for the rest of the season.   

            I have so much more, but I'm going to give it a rest. 

            Seannie!! Your boy!!