Am I Scared of the AL East Champion Yankees?

Not with the way they played today, I'm not.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Meanwhile, A-Rod struck out 3 times today, including once with the bases loaded. That oughta endear him to the Yankee faithful.

Speaking of the Yankee faithful, remember how Sip listed the signs at Yankee Stadium as one of the lowlights from Tuesday's ALDS Game 1? How they were all terrible?

I gotta hand it to the Shea fans, one in particular. Whoever came up with the sign "Pitching Smitching" is a genius. They don't make them like that in the Bronx.

You know what though? This isn't about the Yankees for me. Not yet anyway.

There's much more important business at hand, Game 2 for starters. Let's none of us get too confident here; lose tonight and the Mets are in the same hole the Yankees are in, bigger, perhaps, given that our Game 3 starter ain't exactly Randy Johnson (although looking at Randy's stats just now, maybe that's exactly who Trachsel is).

I'm not going to say much about the game yesterday as Sip has already done that, but I will say this. The Dodgers messed up royally by carrying only one lefty in their bullpen. Simple as that. I'd throw the Hound, a crafty southpaw in his own right, out there against the Mets if I were an opposing manager.

Not trying to contradict what Sip wrote earlier, nor am I doing so. But if I'm a Dodgers fan, I'm second-guessing the shit out of Grady Little right now.

That or I'm really, really pissed that Joe Beimel cut his hand on a broken glass in the middle of the night. Not that that doesn't happen all the time or anything.

The truth is, I don't even know if the Dodgers had any lefties eligible for the playoff roster, but one way or another, this is clearly a weakness of theirs facing the Mets.

But back to the import of the game at hand. Let me ask you, readers, to settle a little debate Sip and I were having.

See, he was gracious enough to offer me a ticket to tonight's game that one of his cousins had available. Sip and I have gone to many a game together. Never once have we taken the LIRR. I didn't even know that was possible, frankly (although lord knows I shouldn't be surprised).

In any event, yesterday was no different. We stopped by my house. Pounded a brewski. Took the 2 down Times Square and hopped on the 7 train.

Like we'd done a thousand times prior.

And the Mets won.

And it was perfect.

Now here we are facing a pivotal Game 2 after a glorious Game 1 and Sip wants to switch everything up and take the LIRR. Not on my watch, pal.

You're better than that.

But back to the Mets. It was a huge win yesterday. With all the negative mental baggage we carried into the game, a victory was just what the team (and, perhaps to a greater extent, the fanbase) needed.

Now we need another one just like it to keep home field advantage intact and put the NLCS one win away.

Shea's gonna be rocking. Y2K will most definitely be in the building.

Life's a gas.

- A.F.O.M.G.