Torre a Dodger?

Joe Torre a Dodger? Not smart.

3 years, 14.5 mil for Torre to go to the Dodgers.

Unless this guy needs money or is simply addicted to baseball than this is a very bad move.

Today, Joe Torre is still viewed as a god. A hall of fame manager considered as responsible for the Yankee Dynasty over the last 12 seasons as Yankee greats Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera.

If he quit today he would not be John Elway. He would not march off into the sunset at the very top of the game. But he would remain pretty damn close.

But in LA, everything might be lost.

He hoes to what is now the best division in the National League. A division of youthful teams on the rise- the dbacks and rockies- the Padres, the best pitching team in the league, and the Giants, who have perhaps the best young rotation in the game.

There is no reason why the Dodgers couldn't finish last in the division and that's not even because the Dodgers are bad. They are a good team but in a very tough division.

As good of a guy as Joe Torre is supposed to be, people liked him cause his teams won. If the Yankees were a 70 win team, no one would care if Joe Torre was nice.

If Torre goes to Los Angeles and does anything but win the division, then all of a sudden it was Jeter and Rivera and not Torre that won those 12 divisions for the Yankees.

Managers routinely get too much praise when their team wins and too much blame when their team loses. Torre was able to overcome a terrible managerial career by winning in New York.

Why would he want to do anything to tarnish this reputation. Especially a reputation that any person with a brain realizes is vastly overrated?

Anything short of 1st place and Joe Torre is not a great manager. Only now, he is going to a team that doesn't have the insanely superior talent to guarantee this success.

What happens Joe when the Dodgers come in third next year? What is Hank Steinbrenner going to say then?

Vaya,
Sip

Five Thoughts on A-Rod

Don't have time to make this a full-fledged post, but I've been thinking a lot about A-Rod lately and have to say a few words. No flowery introduction, let's jump right in.

1. I find the idea of moving either David Wright or Jose Reyes extremely unpalatable.

For one thing, these guys are the cornerstones of the franchise. Bringing in A-Rod would change that somewhat, but only to a degree. Reyes and Wright will pre-date and outlast A-Rod. They're two of the most exciting players in the game, and they're both damn good at their positions (true, Wright's throwing leaves something to be desired).

Neither Wright nor Reyes is as pedigreed as Jeter was when A-Rod agreed to move for him, but I think some respect should be shown to the two guys who are the main attraction on this team.

2. Switch positions? Works every time!

Not just that, but I'm also a Mets fan, and it's impossible to have any optimism about position movement if you're a Mets fan. I mean, what comes to mind when you think of Hundley in left or Piazza at first or Reyes at second or Cameron in right? Mistake, mistake, mistake, mistake? Thought so.

It's not just that their defense suffered, these guys don't like moving positions, and I hardly blame them. They're professionals, they're trained in a certain discipline. Shortstop wasn't that different from second when you were playing ball in high school, but guys become major leaguers by being expert at particular positions.

Every now and then you have a Craig Biggio who can move seemlessly, but more often than not the guy who can move seemlessly is Joe McEwing (RIP).

3. In fairness, he was a Mets fan growing up.

It's stunning how little Mets fans care about this. Any other player -- any. other. player. -- that said they were a Met fan growing up, we would instantly fall in love with and desperately want him on the Mets. Hell, that's one of the things we love about David Wright.

We don't care because, seemingly, he doesn't care. Or he didn't care, we were told, in 2000, when it wasn't enough for him to play for his favorite team, he needed the private jet, and the private box, and the private marketing booth.

Ask your random fan what it would take for he or she to play for their favorite team and most would happily take the league minimum. Not A-Rod. A-Rod needed the league maximum. For my money, that's as important a piece of why fans can't understand him as weird press conferences about sleepovers he used to have with Jeter.

4. Bottom line, the Mets are playoff contenders, for now and for the rest of his contract, if they sign A-Rod.

Think about the mix with A-Rod in it. Between A-Rod, Wright, Reyes, and Beltran, you're locked in at four positions for at least the next four years, at which point Beltran comes off the books and A-Rod may start to decline (though by no means necessarily). Of course, that's exactly the same time when Wright and Reyes will theoretically be entering their primes, so that works out well.

5. Fuck the Reyes haters.

Trade Reyes? Are you people nuts?

Honestly, we would regret this one the rest of our lives. Let's never talk about it again.

- A.F.O.M.G.

So Long, Good Bye.

(AFOMG drops some knowledge underneath but Sip had to drop a few lines about our favorite true Ex-Yankee)

I'm not here to talk about the Sox. They won. Sweet!

I'm here to talk A-Rod. The opt-out. Could this actually be?

Hank Steinbrenner claims this to be true. Apparently Hank is trying to single-handedly run the Yankees into the ground.Two weeks and he has maliciously sent off Joe Torre, his manager/hero and now A-Rod the best player in the game.

Steinbrenner Jr. claims that by opting out of his contract, A-Rod didn't show his commitment to wearing pinstripes.




Got Hypocrisy? You just threw Joe Torre, the perfect embodiment of "The Yankee Way" to the curb. And by the way, A-Rod just showed his commitment to money, is that not the true "Yankee way?"



This is incredible.

The question remains, are the Yankees really not going after A-Rod? Are they crazy? Who do they replace him with, Wilson Betemit?

Either way, the legs have been kicked out from under the table. With Torre out of the picture and apparently A-Rod as well, this could be it. Posada, Rivera, Clemens. Gone, gone, gone. A big time knock on wood.

More to come on Wednesday. Just thought we could all unite in celebration over this one.

Vaya,
Sip

(Pic courtesy of Wordpress.com)

Offseason on Fire

As I write this, the offseason is not yet upon us. Boston leads Colorado 2-0 in the seventh. Anything is possible, but I'm betting the season ends today. And if it doesn't, I'll bet it ends some time in the next week.

For the Mets of course, the offseason came sooner than any of us expected. In the immediate aftermath of our September collapse, there was frustration, anger, sadness, all the usual emotions.

But there was one very unusual emotion some of us felt as well: relief.

Look, we all wanted the Mets to make the playoffs. Forget what's happened from April to September, once you're in, you have a chance.

But there was something peculiarly unloveable about this Mets team. I can't remember the last time I felt less personal fondness for a Mets team. This was particularly strange because the 2007 team was essentially a carbon copy of the 2006 team, at least in terms of roster composition, and I loved that 2006 team.

Through the hopefulness of the Next Year is Now Mets of 2005 and the The Team. The Time. Mets of 2006, there was an ebullience, a fire that was palpable.

This year was different. The Your Season Has Gone Mets of 2007 never had that fire, or if they did have it at one point early on, it was certainly extinguished by June 1.

Like others, I think somehow these Mets felt a sense of entitlement. Maybe it all started with the end of 2006. A dominating 97-win season ended with an unlikely home run by an unlikely player on an unlikely, middling team.

These Mets in 2007 played the regular season as if it were some drawn-out test of patience that that had to be endured before the real business could begin in the postseason. They played as if they were entitled to return to October. It was as if they felt they had nothing to prove in the regular season, and in the end that's exactly what they proved: nothing.

But this is baseball, and in baseball there is never any end. The Mets will be back in 2008, and, I'm quite confident, so too will the fire.

I think these guys know how badly they fucked things up. I think they feel genuine embarrassment about it. I think next season we'll see a side of them we hardly ever saw in 2007. I think we'll see passion. I think we'll see a genuine respect for the regular season. All that entitlement bullshit? I think that'll be gone.

So I'm writing it up now. There's going be something new at Shea in 2008, the old ballpark's final season. There's going to be a completely different energy out there. "Your Season has Come"? Fuck that. "Season on Fire". That's more like it.

On the first day of the offseason, I'm more excited about Mets baseball than I have been at any point, maybe, since a cold, drizzly night at Shea in October 2006.

Hot Stove starts tomorrow. Offseason on Fire, Omar. It's your move.

- A.F.O.M.G.

Welcome to Soctober

Mini-Rant No. 1

What is it about television that turns people into idiots?

It could be ESPN's Erin Andrews, wearing a hooded poncho while before the high-definition cameras under monsoon conditions in Blacksburg, Va., during the B.C.-Virginia Tech football game Thursday evening, telling her viewers, "It's really coming down here." Our cable fees pay her salary, mind you.

It could be Fox's Joe Buck, during an interlude about Jason Varitek's favorite music, cracking wise about the Bare Naked Ladies [sic, naturally]. "That's a band," Buck deadpanned, while Tim McCarver started giggling like a dyslexic schoolgirl. Fantastic stuff.

It could be Rob Stone, during a highly anticipated monologue preceding Game 1 of the MLS Eastern Conference Semifinals on ESPN, declaring that the 10th month of the year no longer belonged solely to baseball. Major League Soccer was the world's game, and all that. Then, the coup de grace. "Welcome," Stone said, "to Soctober."

Look, I'm a huge soccer fan. As I type this sentence in my living room, I'm looking at a massive banner for Arsenal, the pride of North London and my favorite soccer team. I'm wearing a pair of soccer shorts. Watching my TiVoed English Premier League highlights on Monday evening is the highlight of my television-watching week, and there are at least four soccer Web sites in my regular rotation.

So, it's with no innate prejudice or predestined hatred that I say that if someone said "Welcome to Soctober" to me in a bar, they'd get bust in the mouth. And then called an idiot.

Yet this cutesy, plucky, pun-ny, and otherwise completely objectionable shit is par for the course on sports television broadcasts. I'm beginning to think that the red light that comes on when the tape is rolling gives off some weird radiation. Either that, or the producers off-camera are secretly some of the most venal, tasteless citizens of the republic. Possibly both of these things are true.

Either way, we need an investigation into the matter. This is clearly as case for E:60.

[An exception to the TV rule -- the New York Giants' Osi Umenyiora. Asked on YES' weekly football show why the Jints' defense had been playing so well recently after giving up 80 points in the first two weeks of the season, Osi didn't flinch. "Well, I barely played the first week," he said. "Only like three plays. And then the second week, at Green Bay, I was just getting back." Atta boy -- if you're the key to an NFL team's success, say so!]

Update: FOX's Chris Myers, to some Taco Bell corporate stooge during an "interview" in the sixth inning: "Thanks for thinking outside the bun." That's it. I quit.

Mini-Rant No. 2

Not to pick on Denver Dave's boys, who clearly need all the help they can get at this point. But at this point, the pendulum has swung way too far back in the other direction. The landmark story about the Rockies' religious, ahem, leanings came out last summer, and since then, Colorado has seemingly convinced everyone that the story was overblown; that they weren't a team full of soldiers for Christ who just happened to play baseball together. Needless to say, their denials have rung rather hollow here at Y2K. We know a coven of believers when we see one.

But other people, including the liberal acolytes of the Times' sports section, are apparently far more credulous.

Now, [Jason] Hirsh said not once during the season had he felt uncomfortable with the place Christianity occupies within the organization.

“There are guys who are religious, sure, but they don’t impress it upon anybody,” Hirsh said. “It’s not like they hung a cross in my locker or anything. They’ve accepted me for who I am and what I believe in.”

So, this is the standard now, eh? As long as they're not actively rifling through your undergarments, all is forgiven? You're a cheap date, Hirsh.

Me, I remember what Mark Sweeney said last summer. "You wonder if some people are going along with it just to keep their jobs. Look, I pray every day. I have faith. It's always been part of my life. But I don't want something forced on me. Do they really have to check to see whether I have a Playboy in my locker?" And I'm keeping one eye on the guy at the next locker, whether he's at Bible study or not.

Esquire's decidedly non-Christian Scott Raab sums up the issues here:

Eh. I can't get manage to get myself worked up enough to root for the Rockies or the Sox. A bunch of Bible-thumping goyim playing in a park named to honor the worst beer ever brewed in America by crypto-Nazis, versus a club with every advantage enjoyed by the Yankees -- except for playing in a great city. Are they lovable? Sure -- but only if compared to John Kerry and Mike Dukakis. As for the baseball itself, I actually heard Steve Phillips on ESPN say that the Rox have the offensive edge going into the Series because they have more 100-RBI guys than the Sox do. I guess Manny didn't make the cut because he only had 88 during the regular season and he's obviously not in any kind of groove these days.

Amen. And the television bashing! That's synergy for you.

Another good rule of thumb -- find out who Chuck Colson is rooting for, and go the other way. This hasn't failed me yet.

A World Series Preview Sans Predictions

Mets vs. Indians- That didn't work out.

Jake Peavy for NL Cy Young- Not bat Sip

Rich Harden for AL Cy Young- Yikes

Grady Sizemore and Jose Reyes MVPS- Maybe if MVP stood for most valuable P...



My point here is that I'm not that great with predictions.

This World Series could go either way and I wouldn't be surprised.

The Red Sox getting 2 games out of Beckett is huge. But you guys have no idea what a home field advantage is until you go to Corrs Field.

Ortiz, Manny, Lowell vs. Holliday, Helton, Atkins.

Pedroia/Youkilis v Taveras/Matsui (BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!)

The difference in this series is clearly the rotations. After Jeff Francis the Rockies throw 3 pitchers that would not make any other playoff team in baseball. These pitchers snuck by the Phils and were able to overmatch a very NL DBacks lineup. But this time its the Boston Red Sox. 1-9 they are going to hit and its hard to see Josh Fogg and Ubaldo Jimenez getting through these lineups.

The Red Sox are the better team in this series. But the Rockies have lost 1 game in the last month.

Game 1 is as important a Game 1 as I can remember. Are the Rockies invincible or were they simply invincible a week ago against inferior teams. Is Josh Beckett really this good in the post season? We're talking about a Mariano Rivera level that no other pitcher in our lifetime has touched.



What happens when you put a pitcher that can't lose vs. a team that can't lose?

You get theater at its best.

Ok. So you want my prediction. I'll give you my prediction: Mets in 6

Enjoy Game 1.

Vaya,
Sip

(Pics courtesy of shraps.net, boston.com)

The Sawx and Hal

(Note: y2k coming at you Monday-Wednesday-Friday during our offseason. Take Tuesdays and Thursdays to catch up with some lighter reading, like the Times or the Journal)

Sip here. Can't get AFOMG's eyes off of his recently purchased 60 inch plasma. Can you blame him?

Any who.

The Sox. As many of you know, the Tribe have always had a place in my heart. But when the Sox win, the Yankees lose, so I am happy. Like the rest of you I am a little sick of the whole Red Sox Nation thing and the sense of entitlement etc. that has become the city of Boston, but at the end of the day the Sox winning is good for those of us who dislike the Yankees. So I'll take it.

Even sported my Red Sox Carl Everett t-shirt jersey to pay my respects to the former Met-great. Definitely had a tooth pick in my mouth the entire time as well.



So Yankee nation is down. Not many people earning their pinstripes of late. I thought Cheddar wrote a very nice piece on Friday about the state of the Yankees. And now here comes young Hal Steinbrenner, big mouth in tote(right word?), not yet sure how exactly to act with "class," also known as the Yankee way.

For those of you who spent the weekend thinking up blog ideas or soaking in the late October sun you missed Hal Steinbrenner's torching of Joe Torre.

"Where was Joe's career in '95 when my dad hired him?" Hal said.

It's really funny. The Yankees could have handled this in so many ways. This was Joe Torre, their leader and hero. A man that will get his uniform number retired and earn a shrine in monument park. For 12 years he was a king. He could do no wrong. And we all know he was a bum before he came to the Yankees. But wasn't that all supposed to be swept under the rug. Wasn't he now considered a hall of fame manager and not the fastest man to 1,000 loses.

And yet it took 48 hours after the Yankees insulting contract offer for Jimmy Dolan's second coming to take a pretty heavy shot at the now former Yankees skip.



Not only is Joe Torre no longer the manager of the Yankees, but now he is going out on bad terms. Really? Can this be? This does not sound like the Yankee way.

The first leg has come out from under the table. Torre is out and it didn't exactly go down peacefully. Now lets see if A-Rod can sack up.

For 3 seasons A-Rod has acted with the class of a "True Yankee." Wouldn't it be a nice little bit of poetic justice if he left, and then just said fuck you to the organization that was never satisfied. A pay back for Joe Torre, the villain.

I'd love it.

Either way, all is pretty good in Y2k land. This is going to be a really awesome world series. For the first time in recent memory the two best teams are representing their respective leagues. Right now its really hard to see the Rockies losing and its really hard to see Josh Beckett losing.

Game 1 on Wednesday.

May I advise that all of you buy up Rockies tickets and put them straight up on Ebay. You should be able to make about 500% on them.

Sip does business, take 1.

Vaya,
SM

(Pics courtesy of nypost.com, foxsports.com)

That Didn't Take Long

Ian O'Connor, the sportswriting equivalent of a Dodge Stratus with a peeing Calvin decal stuck on the back windshield, gets the feeding frenzy started in earnest.

Torre can't be blamed for being upset over the byline on that Steinbrenner piece. For 12 years, he was nothing but professional, accessible and kind to me. I've never enjoyed covering a sports figure more than I've enjoyed covering him.

Mark my words. The Yankees are toast.

UPDATE: Oh, Phil Rogers, do you have something to add?

UPDATE 2: FJM is horrified.

Thar She Blows

A respected voice, owned by a famed man known far and wide for his wit and wisdom, spoke for an entire, grieving nation Thursday evening.

"The Yankee ship," intoned Tim McCarver, "has lost its rudder."

Amen, Mr. McCarver. Amen. The rudder, the rock, the bestest buddy and big toe ... you name it, Joe Torre was it for the American League's New York franchise. And now, just like that, he's dead.

Wait, no. Not dead. Just sleeping.

Or is that just the Yankees' chances of winning anything at all next year? Far be it from me to speculate (heck, no!), but how about a list of things this development would seem to indicate?

1) The Yankees, as we have known all along, lack even the faintest semblance of class

Good god, if a man as stupid as Tom Verducci can see it, you know it's got to be obvious. Honestly, the question asks itself - how you gonna play Joe Torre like that? How on Earth are you going to hand him an insulting-ass, pay-cutting offer sheet with a World Series win as a prerequisite for a vesting option? That's like handing him a pink t-shirt that reads "George's Bitch" across the chest.

Say what you will about Joe Torre, and Y2K has over the years. The man handles young pitchers just about as well as Phil Spector handles rejection. His overreliance on crappy defensive first basemen and other assorted utility clowns (Enrique Wilson et al) has been a an unfunny joke for a while, and his decision to hit his best player in the No. 8 hole during the 2006 playoffs was one of the nastiest backstabs in recent memory. His legendary command of the locker room was always overblown, and had certainly diminished in recent years.

That said, when Torre is eligible, he will be immediately voted into the Hall of Fame. His record in pinstripes was 1173-767, good for a historic .605 winning percentage. As you may have heard, he won a couple of World Serieseses, managed one of the most dominant teams in history, and swapped the steady drumbeat of disappointment for the rhythm of consistent winning in the Bronx. These are the facts.

If I can admit all this, how much stronger must be the obligation and gratitude of those who don't, you know, truly and deeply hate the Yankees and all they represent? How deep must their loyalties lie? And if so, how on Earth couldn't you not manage to let this guy leave on his own terms?

But nope. Despite George's advanced senility, or perhaps because of it, or maybe in rank imitation of times past, the Yankees brass saw the need to "win" even this one. And so it has to be Joe who rejected the "offer," who's technically at fault, who's walking away from $5 million dollars. Imagine how it must have troubled Randy Levine and Co., coming up with the proper number, i.e. the dollar figure just high enough to look invitingly fat, but clearly low enough to ensure that Torre couldn't accept. They must have spent a couple of Tampa days and nights on that one.

Here's the asshat-in-chief, in his own words:

"Under this offer, he would continue to be the highest-paid manager in major league baseball," Levine said. "We thought that we need to go to a performance-based model, having nothing to do with Joe Torre's character, integrity or ability. We just think it's important to motivate people."

To which Joe Torre gave the only proper reply -- "Fuck off." I mean, two-faced shenanigans couched in doublespeak ... hey hey, it's the Yankee Way. As the Dalai McCarver put it, "They made him an offer he could refuse."

(McCarver then added, completely unnecessarily, "And did." Good to have you around, Tim.)

So say "Sayonara" to Hideki and so forth, Joe. In the end, you were too good for these guys. I'll say this -- considering your position and resume, I hated you just about as little as could have been hoped. That's a compliment, I think.

2) The Yankees are fucked

There goes Posada, arguably the most desirable free agent on the market, to points elsewhere. This will absolutely gut the Yankees' lineup, given that there are no good replacements in the farm system or on the market. If the Mets are smart, they'll throw their entire bankroll his way. Gotham's other catcher will end up being someone like Jason Kendall. Nice.

There goes Mariano, off to the Cubs or Rangers or Phillies, setting off a glorious chain of events wherefore Joba is kept in the bullpen to become a top-notch closer rather than top-flight starter, and opens up another hole in the Yankees rotation. More Chase Wright is all right. More Kyle Lohse is even better. Hey, Cashman's got to spend his money somewheres.

There goes the last check on Captain Clutch's total ownership of the Yankee mantle, ensuring that the next would-be hero to look at Jeter's herp the wrong way gets subtly thrown under the media bus all the quicker.

There go the gates on the Bronx Zoo. For accomplishments past, the press couldn't really ever go after Torre the way they would any other Yankees manager. For discretion's sake, and because he was actually a good guy and was widely liked, they've gone easier on the Yanks during the past seven years than they otherwise would have.

No more. The long knives are going to be out for the Bombers, and soon.

3) Scott Boras just made a bunch of money

There goes A-Rod. Naturally.

4) Don Mattingly must have a bag of pixie stashed under the dugout bench

He'd better have something special up his sleeve. This has the potential to get real ugly -- like Danny Tartabull ugly -- real fast. As ludicrous as they seem to me at the moment, it doesn't seem quite possible that the Yanks brass would stiff-arm their man without having a backup plan in place. We'll see soon enough what that is. If it's Donnie Baseball, well ... godspeed, fella.

But then again, we could get lucky. The Steinbrenners have three bona fide sticks of managerial dynamite sitting around at the moment, utter and complete bombs all, and we could wind up with a real delightful situation where "Larry Bowa -- Manager of the New York Yankees" business cards are printed up at some point. Substituting either "Tony Pena" or "Joe Girardi" on the printing press would be almost as good.

And, for all the aforementioned reasons ....

5) Hating the Yankees just got great again

Lunacy, arrogance, fecklessness, oversized egos and senses of entitlement, the casting aside of their few good and decent elements ... that's like a Y2K sundae. Say mmm as we watch where this goes together.

Sip Does Denver and He Gets Angry

(Note: Y2k will be coming to you Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays during the NY baseball off season)

Denver, the sunshine state. Gorgeous.

What a town. Great bar life, restaurants, friendly people. Cool, crisp rocky mountain air flowing through the sky, blonde girls in North Face's walking their black labs down quiet streets and Coors light flowing out of bar taps like George Gervin floating through the lane getting ready to finger role from the free throw line.

And better.

I meet a dashing coed, beautiful, elegant, a true American. She talked to me about former Chiefs great Marc Boerigter, my favorite obscure athlete who she once rooted for as a die-hard Chiefs fan.



I was immediately taken. And then she told me she tivoed 90210 reruns on the Soap Network and I almost got down on one knee.

I try to paint this pretty picture for you guys of Denver cause I like making people happy.

But truth is. Denver was misery.

Yeah, the pneumonia that I certainly got from Sunday night's Game 3 monsoon stunk. The Rockies dismantling my beloved Dbacks was tough to swallow, too. But I understood the baseball aspect of all this. The Rockies are just a special team. This type of team doesn't come around often in baseball let alone professional sports. If not for the 8-day layoff I would say that the Rockies would sweep whoever they saw in the World Series. But enough of that.

My point is that it wasn't the baseball or the weather or the typhoid fever that brought me true misery.

It was a man and the town that seems to him embrace him like he were Johnny Utah himself:

Kaz Matsui.



Kazuo fucking Matsui.

They love Kaz Matsui.

Let me repeat that. Denveronians love Kaz Matsui.

I haven't booed a player in 5 years. That vacation ended this week in Denver, because this man needed to hear it.

This man was supposed to be our sparkplug. Fresh off the Yankees discovery of Hideki Matsui, we had found the faster-leadoff version. A fixture at the top of our order and an all-star.

He went deep on his first at-bat as a Met and we all rejoiced. The best $21 million dollars we had ever spent. And then there was the rest :two years of hell.

This guy was so terrible. He did nothing right. He couldn't hit and he couldn't field. He wasn't charismatic like Tsuyoshii Shinjo, he couldn't mow down lefties like Takashi Kashiwada, he couldn't throw big postseason innings like Masato Yoshii, hell he couldn't even draw a crowd like Hideo Nomo.

This was the worst asian import ever to hit Queens.

He delayed Jose Reye's growth, grounded out when we needed hit, was caught stealing when we needed an extra base and even looked like a little panzi.

And yet here he is now, Denver's hero.

They love this guy and he is playing well. To be in a stadiumm of 50,000 people loving Kaz Matsui may be the hardest feeling I have ever had to endure in sports. It was wrong on so many levels and yet there was no one who could truly understand my pain.

Which is why there is you. My audience, my brothers and my sisters. And of course, the future Mrs. Coop Momo.

I needed to let you guys know my pain. This is my therapy. And for that I am thankful.

Now someone get me about 7 gallons of nyquil to rid myself of this Whooping Cough that my suddenly soft desert body was left with after 3 cold days tapping the Rockies.


Vaya to all, except Kaz.

Sip

(Pics courtest of viewimages.com, pe.com)

The Offseason

Ok guys.

A little change in the Y2k Schedule.

During our off season we are going to go to a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule.

We want to try to keep material as fresh as possible as we gear up for another exciting season of NY Baseball.

Vaya,
Sip

The Win-Win Postseason

I was saying it to the Hound earlier. Mets fans like us, do we or do we not know EXACTLY how Red Sox fans feel every time Eric Gagne enters the game? That soul-crushing, faith-decimating feeling that it is the certainty that the opposition is about to score a run?

All teams probably have those types of relievers, but this year's Mets had like five. Certainly Guillermo and Schoeneweis fell into that category. Aaron Sele, By the end it didn't matter who was out there, you knew they were going to get hit.

So anyway, Red Sox fans, I feel for you.

I didn't catch last night's epic Indians-Red Sox game, but in a way I didn't have to. That's because what happens in the playoffs from here on out doesn't really matter all that much to me. In the Indians, Red Sox, Diamondbacks, and Rockies, I've got four teams that I can feel good about winning the whole thing.

The Indians are my most preferred team. I've got family out in Cleveland who really pull for the Tribe and I was raised on Major League, so they're my number one.

But if the Red Sox win it I'll feel good because it'll throw salt in the Yankees' wounds.

And if the New Rox win Denver Dave will probably cry like a little bitch but he'll be happy, and I'd be happy for him.

And then of course there's Sip's D-Backs. Only want the best for the Sip so we cool.

But at the end of the day, I really can't lose, which is nice for me after spending the final two weeks of the regular season being unable to win.

Fine, you want a prediction? I'm predicting Red Sox-Indians goes 7 and the Sox prevail. I think Boston's the better team ultimately, but hell, at 1-1 it could really go either way.

As for D-Backs-Rox, with Colorado up 2-0 (I write this with Game 3 tied 1-1 in the 6th) you've gotta give them the edge. Also, they probably can't remember losing, so that helps. Also, Torrealba just hit a 3-run home run, and that helps a lot too. 4-1 game.

Really amazing to think they could end up representing the National League in the World Series. What a game.

Meanwhile, how nice are Rockies fans? Can you IMAGINE the reception Eric Byrnes would've received at Shea if he'd made those comments about the Mets? Sure he got booed by the fans in Colorado, but he wouldn't have heard the end of it in New York.

Anyway, that's all I got. B.O.A.F.O.M.G.'s bachelor party was last night and I've been hungover all day and I've gotta turn in. Hell of a time last night.

- A.F.O.M.G.

2007 Yankees Final Report Card, Part 1

We've been at it for two years today here at Y2K. Why? Well, there's a great example of why later in the column, but the bottom line is that it's too fun not to. New York sports fans have a lot of venues in which to follow their teams, and most of them won't give it to you straight.

Not so here. Say what you will about Sip, A.F.O.M.G., and Cheddar, but you're getting an unvarnished take every time. A little bit here, a little bit there, and pretty soon, you're talking about a whole new way of looking at sports. And as long as you all keep reading it, we'll keep putting it out there.

Tough but fair, that's my motto. Let's to it.

Catcher

Well, Georgie had the best season for a plus-35 catcher ever, hitting a Bill Dickey-esque .338/.426/.543 and playing probably the best defense of his career. Funnily, as he's gotten better, Posada has irritated me less and less. Not sure why that is. I was going to penalize the position two grades for having the ugly Wil Nieves and his even uglier .161 average on the team, but the Cash Man fixed that mid-season by bringing in Jose Molina. A league-best showing, easily. Tough to hate on this.

Grade: A

First Base

No such luck here, Bombers. What a fucking train wreck. You've got your IP leader in Minky, who hit like a beast the last month of the season and still ended up with a mediocre season line. You've got Andy Phillips, who's never going to be mistaken for a Major League first baseman by anyone other than Suzyn Waldman. You've got the Craig Wilson Special in a quarter-season of work by Josh Phelps -- crappy for New York, money for Pittsburgh (.351 with 5 HR in 77 ABs, didn'tcha know?). And then there's Miguel Cairo, who actually lost a couple of games for the Yanks with his awful defense. Ironic, yes.

We'll even save the Giambino for the DH slot. Absolutely indefensible stuff here.

Grade: D

Second Base

Robbie actually got quite a bit more patient this year, drawing almost 40 walks, which is scary. Pure hitter with power at age 24 ... it's the type of thing that can develop into a real problem. His defense is mediocre at best, and his slow starts to the season are actually comical, but as much as I wished he'd flame out into a Hector Luna type, it just ain't happening. Dang.

Grade: B+

Shortstop

The reason Y2K exists -- Derek Jeter, probably the worst defensive shortstop in the American League, is the odds-on favorite to win the Gold Glove. No kidding. At least most of the country got to see how awful he is during the playoffs, when a hobbled Captain America was the secret ingredient to Chien-Ming Wang's No Good Very Bad Series. I know he's hurt, but the guy couldn't get to grounders two steps off his position; this isn't anything new.

The hitting slumped from "MVP" levels back to his career norms, which are still great for a shortstop. He's an excellent player, etc, etc, but the combination of awful defense/great bat earns guys like Ryan Braun nothing but constant questions about potential position changes. With Jeter, it earns you the right to push the actual Gold Glove SS to third base. Ahem.

Grade: B

Third Base

Hope you all enjoyed it while it was there. I hear Anaheim is lovely in April.

Ha!

Grade: A

Left Field

Matsui was an underrated part of the Yanks' second-half offensive surge, picking up from a rare injury to post a 128 OPS+ and turn his year around. His defense has atrophied, but he saw a lot of ABs at DH in the second half, and Damon can still play the field well enough. Postseason homers notwithstanding, though, he hits like a pansy -- .270/.351/.396 with the arm of a starfish isn't exactly a $16 million package.

This all looks good enough until you realize there's a reason Andruw Jones won't be in pinstripes after all. Even worse, the presence of these two clowns ensures than an even more fitting personage won't sign a 1-year deal.

Matsui, you've denied me the dual pleasure and pain of seeing Barry Bonds suit up in the Bronx. For shame.

Grade: C

Center Field

Melky's talented enough and young enough that everything looks more intriguing than it actually is. Bad play in the outfield to start his MLB career? The guy was rushed. Hot bat the next year? He's a sleeper. Great defensive effort in 2007? He's a lock to start for the next 5 years.

The truth, of course, is that Melky's defense is somewhere from middling to solid, and his bat resembles Damon's, only with less patience. At age 22, this is somewhat promising stuff -- again, if the combination of him and Damon sends Jones (who'd otherwise be a mortal lock for a Free Agent pickup) elsewhere, then what you've got in the end is nothing more than fool's gold.

Remember how much Damon makes. And he's only going to get worse.

Grade: C-

Right Field

After hitting like Rey Ordonez on a coke bender for the first two months of the season, Abreu turned into himself for the second half, all but ensuring that his $16 million option will be picked up. The guy had what ended up as a down year for him, and he still scored 123 runs. This is what happens when you get to hit in front of the presumptive Most Valuable Player.

On the other hand, as his production has slipped a little bit, I've started to loathe Bobby. Couldn't tell you why.

Grade: B+

Designated Hitter

Heh heh heh. Damon's going to drag this grade down some, but not as much as the Revolting Blob that is Jason Giambi, he of the .236 batting average (in 254 precious ABs) and 14 dingers. In return, at an actual price tag of $21 million and considering the Texas Rangers' role in the equation, he cost the Yanks more than A-Rod.

That's unbelievable. And considering there's no room for Bonds as a result, well ... you know what's coming.

Grade: F

Next time: Pitching. How much did Big Stein pay Roger Clemens per strikeout? Could the answer provide health care for an entire Bronx neighborhood? The answer may surprise you!

Is This the End of the Yankee Dynasty?

Could it actually be?

I never thought they day would come. With their superior resources, mystique, aura and that damn "Yankee Way" that everyone seemed to hold so high, it seemed like the Yankees would be on top forever.

But 7 failed post seasons and over $1 billion dollars in salary later, there is actually a chance that the end might be in site.

And everything falls on fate of two men: Alex Rodriguez and Joe Torre.

A-Rod



If A-Rod walks the obvious will take place. The Yankees will lose the best player in baseball, fresh off a spectacular season.

But replacing A-Rod's production would not be as easy as it might be in years past. The Yankees would have the money to overpay but only have openings at 1b or 3b.

They are set in the outfield (Matsui, Damon, Cabrera). If they choose to let Abreu go they won't find a better bat on the market.

They are set at SS and 2b (Jeter and Cano).

They have a DH, Jason Giambi, unless they are willing to pay him $20 mill to sit on the bench (hasn't stopped them in the past).

So replacing A-Rod with a bat in the middle of the lineup would mean bringing in a 1b or 3b from free agency. And unfortunately for those Yankee die hards out there, the list is very thin:

First basemen
Sean Casey (34)
Tony Clark (36)
Adam Dunn (28) - $13MM club option for '08
Darin Erstad (34) - $3.5MM club option for '08
Scott Hatteberg (38) - $1.85MM club option for '08
Ryan Klesko (37)
Mike Lamb (33)
Doug Mientkiewicz (34)

Third basemen
Pedro Feliz (33)
Mike Lamb (32)
Mike Lowell (34)

Assuming Dunn's option is picked up, the Yankees are looking at Tony Clark or Mike Lowell. You have to imagine that if A-Rod leaves and doesn't go to Boston, that the Sox will not Lowell go to the Yankees. Not after the season he's had.

Which means that there is really not a lot out there. Tony Clark has been surprisingly dependable this season. But he likes it in the dessert. And why wouldn't he, Sip's here. Plus he has a pretty sweet car shop to look after.

Scott Hatteberg or Darren Erstad? Yikes! Can't see those guys earning their pinstripes.

Which means if A-Rod leaves, the Yankees lineup really gets crushed.

That would be nice.


Joe Torre



Here's my take on the Torre situation.

The Yankees will not make a decision on Torre until after A-Rod decides what to do. If they fire Torre, then A-Rod will have his excuse for leaving. He would leave because he loved playing for Torre so much that donning the pinstripes would never feel right again.

And the only thing worse for the Yankees than losing A-Rod's bat, would be losing it without being able to completely vilify him in the process.

They couldn't call him greedy or a loser. The media could spin this all back to Steinbrenner's unfair playoff declaration.

So the Yankees will wait on Torre.

If A-Rod resigns then the Yankees can afford to let Torre go. Players like Rivera and Pettite, who claim that they might leave if Torre isn't back, will see A-Rod back on the team and know that staying in Pinstripes means another guaranteed trip to October. And of course a giant wod of cash.

But if A-Rod leaves.

Then other Yankees will feel like it is ok to leave, too. Why not, right? A-Rod did it. Players would fear the shame of losing with the Yankees.

And this would be the ultimate in Yankees irony.

For years the Yankee organization has portrayed itself as the definition of class. That they do things the right way and are better than the rest of us common teams.

And every person with a brain thought that this was crap. The Yankees didn't do it the right way, they did it the green way. Money bought them the playoffs every season, not the class of the franchise.

Which makes it great that the Yankees dynasty might blow up because they were proven to handle things the "wrong way." Calling out the manager, who they have built up to be the Messiah, in the middle of a post season series that they trailed 2-0. The pressure was wrong and now the Yankees could pay for it.

The smartest thing that the Yankees could do is to re-sign Joe Torre today. A-Rod will feel too much pressure to stay if Joe did and then the rest of the pieces would stay in tact.

The big question is whether Steinbrenner's ego will let this happen. He vowed to fire Torre if the Yankees didn't beat the Tribe. Can he actually go back on his words?



God knows Brian Cashman is begging him too. That little fella has been hiding behind the Yankees lofty payroll for too long and he knows that a Yankees demise would mean that he was the obvious next choice to be thrown to the wolves.

This will come down to the "actual right way" vs the "wrong way," also known as "the Steinbrenner way."

This whole situation will be very interesting to monitor.

So if you are looking for a slightly biased opinion, stick with the Sip all off season long.


Go Dbacks!

Vaya,
Sip

(Pics courtesy of Allposters.com, art.com, newsday.com)

Regards

Apologies for the delay.

We here at Y2k needed to truly soak in the joy that was Monday night. And with Cheddar still mourning the Bills puking up MNF, AFOMG saving Wall Street and the Sip gearing up for NLCS baseball, we've all had a lot on our plate.

Back in the morn.

Vaya con dios,
Sip

The Curse Remains

And the curse lives on.

Yankee fans say making the playoffs never gets old. Well as a Yankee hater, watching the Yankees lose in the post season ain't getting old anytime soon either.

So many great things.

There was the lower tier of Yankee stadium that appeared to be 80% full entering the 9th inning. Thousands of Yankee "diehards" jumping in the their car services looking to beat the traffic back home. They had pleased their clients enough with their tickets, it was time to get home and iron tomorrow's blue oxford. That was pretty embarrassing.

There was the first player TBS showed after the game, Johnny Damon, baseball's biggest turncoat and the embodiment of what makes the Yankees cursed spitting out wods of dip. Classy, Johnny. The Yankee way is what I believe they call it.




There was the unlikely goat, Derek Jeter, who looked more like his good pal A-Rod for the entire series than the Mr. November that once had the women of Manhattan shaking in their uggs.

There was Roger Clemens, the $28 million dollar man, whose 6 wins this season trailed Jorge Sosa's win total by a measly three. He came back to the Yankees to win another ring (and a little bit of cash too). I'll never forgive him for throwing that splintered bat at Mike Piazza in Game 2 of the 2000 World Series. It is nice that this is how his career will end.

There was Joba. As AFOMG said, this guy was just getting a little too much love for a late season call up. Looks like the name Mr. Joctober isn't getting going anytime soon.

And then there is Joe Torre. Let me say this about Joe Torre. As great of an ego massager as he apparently is, he seems to make a ton of bad baseball decisions. Nothing he did this series worked, notably throwing Wang on short rest. But Torre also managed to cash a bullpen in a short series. That's hard to do.



But I think Steinbrenner's handling of Torre was inexcusable. As much as I have hated Torre over the years, I do sympathize with him a little bit with this one. This is baseball George. The Yankees failures in the new millennium are as much attirbutable to the pressure Steinbrenner has placed on this organization to "win now" as anything else.

Which bring us to A-Rod. Was this his last game as a Bomber? Who knows? What I do know is that A-Rod must have wanted to do something special in the 9th inning of this game more than any player ever has wanted to do so. And fortunately for us, he failed.

Yankee fans will scratch their heads tonight, go to Starbucks in the morning, and then prepare for their inevitable 11 month vacation until next September. Only this time, there are a ton of reasons why the Yankees might not be right back where they always are..

This is going to be a fascinating offseason surrounding Yankee baseball. Next season's team could actually be mediocre. Take A-Rod, Posada and Abreu out of this lineup and all of a sudden it is relatively unimposing. No Clemens, Pettite or Rivera and a washed up Mussina and the pitching staff is all of a sudden pretty pedestrian as well.

But more on the Yankees off season to come. Lets all soak in the joy that is losing Yankee baseball. I look forward to "anonymous" postings from angry Yankee fans talking about how the Mets didn't even get there and whatever else. In advance, let me tell you guys this:

It's not your fault.


Vaya con dios my brethren.

The curse remains.

Sip

(Pics courtesy of msn.com, usatoday.com)

If You Have Some Spare Hatred in Your Heart ....

.... left over from this, direct it here, or more precisely, here.

The Cowboys-Yankees parallels are many, and should be obvious to the good readers of Y2K. I'm leaving for the game now, set to scream bloody murder, and encourage all of you to do the same. Within reason.

The Week After

As I write this, the Yanks are up 8-3 in the bottom of the 6th. It's looking like they may avoid the sweep. As for the Mets, they had an off-day today.

Generally speaking, the past week has gone about as well as you could have hoped, baseball-wise. That was nice given that the preceding two weeks were just about as bad as two weeks of baseball are ever going to get (god willing).

Honestly, the thought of the Phillies winning the World Series made me physically ill, so their three-game sweep at the hands of the New Rox was easily the highlight of my week.

As for the other series', I feel for the poor Cubbies, but how could I seriously root against Sip's New D-Backs? This one was a win-win for me; I wish the Cubs had made a series of it, but I can't get too bent out of shape about it.

Like many Mets fans, the Red Sox are one of my horses in the American League, so cheers to them. I'd be in a real bind if we saw a Red Sox-Indians ALCS, but I think I'd have to root for the Tribe.

The point is I'm actually watching the postseason this year, and I actually kind of care. I probably don't care as much as Dane Cook does, but I care more than I have in other Mets-less postseasons that I can recall.

It hasn't all been gravy though. There are some things that have been bugging me, like...

The Commercials

Honestly, some of these commercials are even pretty good, I just can't stand them anymore. Those Frank TV adds had me laughing out loud (LOLing, if you will) the first time or two, by this point though I don't think I can take it. It's like, you do a beast of a George Bush impressions -- I GET IT!

That Avis commercial with that song they played in Old School? Same thing. One too many times.

And christ almighty, by this point I would kill a man for an Ambien, I shit you not.

Meanwhile, Kaz Matsui is the first image they show in their promos for the NLCS. Did NOT see that one coming.

There's Something (Seriously Fucking Annoying) About Joba

Don't get me wrong, a significant portion of this is rooted in a seething jealousy, but I am so sick of hearing about Joba Chamberlain.

Joba rules! Cute!

The guy's nasty, he's fun to watch, he'll devastate me time and again over the next 20 years, -- I accept all that. But the "Joba rules" thing stopped being funny at least two months ago. I want to think Yankee fans know that on some level, but I really don't know for sure.

My House Cleaner Threw Out My Playoff Clinching Keepsake

One bottle of Korbel, now floating around a dump heap aimlessly. I hope at least that it got recycled.

The Mets Are At Home

And they never had a chance.

* * * * *

Just looked over my shoulder at the muted television screen. Ambien commercial. So it goes.

- A.F.O.M.G.

Dead Man Talking

So, the Boss hasn't kicked the bucket after all. Kudos to Bergen Record for the massive scoop -- every paper in town has been looking to talk to Big Stein all season long, and he's shut them all down. Leading to, in at least one case, positively painful amounts of whining from entitled columnists. Chass, you suck.

(No surprise that the Post didn't land the story. Howard Bryant's ESPN feature on A-Rod revealed that Post beat writer George King has been stonewalled by Rodriguez all year for ... well, it doesn't really specify, but it really could have been any number of things.)

Considering the bluster, one has to be a) displeased with the Boss' seeming desire to re-sign A-Rod b) emboldened by his senseless threats to Torre (if he's good enough to keep his job a week ago, losing a playoff series and c) even more thrilled than before about the good bugs of the Greater Lake Erie region.

In the wake of that Game 2 defeat, Steinbrenner said the Yankees had complained to baseball commissioner Bud Selig about the decision to play on. "[Selig] just said, 'That's in the umpires' hands,' " Steinbrenner said. "But Jesus Christ, it was terrible. It messed up the whole team, Jeter, all of them."

Boo fucking hoo. Even from the owner, the Jeter cocksucking! One would have thought the insects would be unable to bite Saint Derek, or would have been turned to holy water or some such.

The sweep begins at 6 p.m. If Clemens lasts 4 innings, I'll be stunned.

Notes on Day One

Faced a choice at work yesterday. With A.F.O.M.G.'s handy MLB.tv subscription suddenly lapsed, should Cheddar shell out $14.95 for the right to listen to 2007's playoff games on his work computer? Well, I'm a sucker for distractions while at the office, so I bit, and listened to 8 of a possible 9 hours of baseball yesterday. (Yes, that means I was at work until midnight ... and you wonder why this site seems slow these days.)

• Maybe they have the microphones right next to the rowdy sections, and maybe not, but Philly sounded like the loudest crowd in history yesterday. Every single ball, they absolutely roared; every base hit was like Bikini Atoll. They did start booing by the end of the game, true, but that was to be expected.

• On the other hand, the poor D-Backs radio announcers were forced to go into a lengthy preamble about how relatively little Cubbie blue there was to be seen in the crowd (far less than usual, was their point, and shouldn't the Phoenix fans be proud of that) and how there was "much more red in the crowd." Well, it is a home playoff game, fellas. Turned out to be a pre-emptive justification of why my headphones buzzed with cheering every time Zambrano struck somebody out.

• Hate him on ESPN, but Dave O'Brien does a nice job with these Sox broadcasts; he and Joe Castiglione actually make a solid combination, even getting the old-young dynamic going for the historical references and such. Although it would have been nice to hear Jerry Trupiano's "WAY BACK!" on Youkilis' first-inning bomb. if not anything else the Trooper had to say.

• The Phils seemed surprised by Jeff Francis' willingness to throw offspeed stuff in hitters' counts; he apparently hadn't been doing that in previous matchups, and it clearly worked on Wednesday. It makes intuitive sense when you're pitching in Citizens' Bank Park; when it's possible to jam a guy with your fastball and still see him hit it out, maybe you want to make him do the hard work. In any case, Francis had his control, and against a lefty-laden lineup like Philly, he's rather tough. No wonder Clint Hurdle is going to run another young lefty (Franklin Morales) out there today.

• I obviously didn't see it, but Big Papi's homer was apparently another 280-foot Fenway special. So clutch!

• Not only did Beckett strike out 8 Angels (including the cycloptic Garret Anderson twice), he also got 12 groundball outs -- a really good total for him, and great in a park where, as seen, some pretty shady shit can happen.

• More later in the day if I've got time. Go New Rox!
  

P.S. Does anyone else think it weird that "C.C. Sabathia" and Derek "Captain Clutch" Jeter have the same initials? I mean, isn't that the weirdest coincidence in the world? Someone at one of the New York papers should write an article about that ...

Sadness in the Fan base

I stood in the electric Chase Field. I watched pre game intros and chills raced thru my body. Hearing the crowd go nuts as Orlando Hudson and Eric Byrnes were introduced had my blood flowing. When the loud speaker started blasting my favorite song " Where the Streets Have No Name" and the Dbacks took the field I had to jump up and down just to truly soak in the adrenaline rush. This was postseason baseball and it was awesome. I looked around and saw a sea of sedona red with some Cub blue sprinkled in. And then I got depressed.

I thought about Shea.




My dad emailed me a couple of day ago talking to me about an article in my baby, the New York Post (shame on you Cheddar ben)by my main man Mike Vaccarro. The question the article raised, who cares more, the Mets or their fans

At first I shook my dad off. "How the fuck should I know" I responded. I'm a bad son, I guess.

But over the last couple of days, when my biggest decision was regular or diet, I thought a bit more about what my pops asked. And I came to a pretty quick conclusion.

The fans care more.

Most of us have been Mets fans for 20 years or more. We have sweat thru hundreds of games per season. I did the math. A good Mets fan spends about 20 full days a year watching Mets baseball. 20 full days.

And I'm not even talking about practice.

To be a real Met fan is to embrace this team as your own. You take the hits and you enjoy the success, but with everything you watch and see, you internalize.

That is the difference between being a fan of baseball and a fan of any other sport. Being a baseball fan takes soul. Anyone can watch football for 3 hours every sunday. Anyone can watch 3 basketball games a week. But to sit there and watch a team play 9 days out of 10 for 6 months, that takes a real commitment.

So we've been "Mets" for years.

Moises Alou has been a Met for 6 months.



Here in lies the problem with professional sports. Few players identify with one team. Carlos Beltran is a Met, but is he really? Did he just go where the $119 million dollars took him. You can't fault him for that, no.

But how many players on this team can we truly identify as Mets? I'm talking Mets the way I look at AFOMG and see orange and blue bleeding out of that Rockeresque frame?

The answer is 2 maybe 3. That is if you're including Aaron Heilman. (Yikes) But beyond David Wright and Jose Reyes, the kids we developed, which guys on this team do we really consider our own.

And that is the problem. There are so few. You can't fault the Mets. They are a product of baseball and playing in New York City. But all this made me realize where the real heart and soul of this team is. But is Billy Wagner really a Met? What about El Duque? How bout Paul Lo Duca? Even Pedro.

We love these guys, but are they really ours. I don't know the answer.

But when I go back to the upper west side I'll see AFOMG and Sepa and Cheddar. Guys that are Mets without question.

Which is why it is the true Mets fans that make the Mets who they are. In 5 years we aren't going anywhere. But you can't say the same for 90% of our roster.

Vaya,
Sip



(Pics courtesy of allposters.com, cnn.com)

Oh, come on ...

... now I have to go to the trouble of putting another bounty on Kevin Kernan's head, and I just don't have time for this nonsense.

In no particular order, the joke is on Rupert Murdoch, who's paying Kernan a columnist's wages to come up with this recycled tripe; Post readers, who pay anywhere from the opportunity cost of wasting time on this bullshit to 50 cents to take in said columnist; and me, for wasting time with a response. Everyone loses!

Even though Jeter wears No. 2 on his back, he will always be No. 1 in the hearts of Yankee fans. Alex Rodriguez is the American League MVP, the best player in the game, no question, but Jeter is Captain Clutch and always will be because of his singular winning approach.

Get it? The two numbers are close, which is funny because ... I don't know. Also, if you're a writer and resorting to the "No. 2 in your program but No. 1 in your hearts" line, go ahead and do us all a favor by quitting. Now.

If you listen closely to what A-Rod is saying this season, he has learned from Jeter and always talks about winning. The night the Yankees clinched a playoff berth, they were trailing the Devil Rays until Jeter blasted a solo home run to lead off the fourth inning.

Little-known fact - A-Rod hated winning while a Mariner and Ranger. Wait, what am I saying? Everyone knows this to be true.

“It feels good, we're in the playoffs, but you know we have a lot of work left," he says. “This is the starting point. We haven't accomplished anything yet."

That is so Jeter.

You write like a 12-year-old girl. Next week in the Post: Kernan on why "High School Musical 2" is the clear MVP of the TV movie season.

Jeter's greatest strength cannot be measured by numbers. He has the look and feel of a winner.

"Clickety-clank, clickety-clank, the money goes in-to, my pig-gy bank ..."

For Jeter, that's what baseball is all about: Getting the job done no matter what.

If you have a sore shoulder like Jeter did earlier in the year, it doesn't matter. Get the job done. If you have an aching knee like Jeter did down the stretch, it doesn't matter. Get the job done.

In Derek's World, there are no excuses and no individual statistics. You give your all and you either get the job done or you don't. There is a simple brilliance to that.

In Derek's World, there is no second-guessing because everything is in plain sight. Jeter is the ultimate baseball realist. When the Yankees were eight games under .500 and the rest of the baseball world thought they would not make the playoffs for the first time in Jeter's career, he kept the faith. There is no mystical reason why he never strayed off course.

[Strangling self with belt.]

Thoughts

It's Tuesday and it still hurts.

I'm not sure this one is going anywhere for a while. So many things stink. They choked. They lost to the Phillies, a team that they only had to beat once in seven games to win the division. They did all of this on our home field.

I think Gary summed it up nicely. This is the first time since 1988 that the Mets were supposed to win and didn't. We were finally the favorite. This never used to be the case back when we were the Muts. It was always the Braves.



Everyone is sitting here talking about what went wrong or whose fault it was or what we should do for next year. Unfortunately, there's no correct answer.

What we just witnessed was freakish. It was the meltdown of all meltdowns and truth is, there is no real explanation for it.

But that's not good enough for us over-analytical New Yorkers. We need answers and we need blood.

We blame Willie for not being tough enough. We blame Jose reyes for not being serious enough. We blame Beltran for not being emotional enough. We blame Wagner for not keeping his mouth shut. We blame the pitching staff for not pitching. We blame the lineup for not hitting. We blame Minaya for trading (giving) away Matt Lindstrom, Heath Bell and Brian Bannister.



When things are bad we New Yorkers over-analyze.

When things are good we New Yorkers over-analyze.

Which is why the joy and the pain are always greater in the city that never sleeps.

Mike and the Mad Dog are calling for a major make over. I'm sure Kevin Kernan is saying something really dumb too. But the truth is, if you were to play this season 100 times, the Mets would win the division 95 times. They were the best team. They simply choked.

Going into next season, we don't need a hell of a lot. Put this same team on the field in '08 and I think they win the division. But there is no chance that that will happen. The greater force that is New York won't let it.

Which is why I think the Mets will fire Willie Randolph.




New Yorkers need something now to stop the bleeding. A public apology/excuse for went wrong. To let Glavine go at this point when the rotation is already thin and the free agent prospects are even thinner would be plain foolish. Sure, he had a bad couple of starts, but he's a dependable 13-15 win starter and those aren't exactly floating around baseball.

The only real option is Willie. Blame Willie. Who knows if its the right answer or the wrong answer. But its an answer.

And if Willie is fired then New Yorkers can look back on this season and have someone to blame. And we need that. It's not rational and not necessarily right. But it is just the way we tick. Cause it's not our fault as the fans. We spend our time and a ton of money to support this team. We are there through the think and thin. And we won't take what we just saw.

As Tyler Durden said: Do not fuck with us.

Vaya,
Sip

(Pics courtesy of sny.com, cnn.com, usatoday.com)