2009 World Series: Yankees Win, THE YANKEES WIN

For all of us who sighed, “The Yankees just bought themselves a championship!” last winter after signing C.C. Sabathia, A.J Burnett and Mark Teixeira for more millions than the GNP of half the countries in the world, we can sure feel like prophets now that the Yankees convincingly put away the Philadelphia Phillies, the defending champions, to win the 2009 World Series. Hidecki Matsui, the Japanese power hitter, whose RBI’s clinched the win tonight but contributed to other wins as well, was named series MVP. This goes with three championships from his career in Japan.

Besides Matsui’s fireworks, the 2009 World Series will be remembered for Alex Rodriguez’s controversial “television camera” homerun, Johnny Damon steeling 2nd and dashing off to an unguarded third base, and the dominant pitching from Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera, two veterans of the great run of championships, four out five from 1996-2000. Naturally, Derek Jeter, the team’s captain, was right in the middle of much of the good stuff going on while Jorge Posada is another member of the team remaining from the championship run. Also noteworthy is this postseason provides Alex Rodriguez his first World Series Ring.

Clearly every measure shows the Yankees as the best team in baseball and they won the games they needed to that proved so en route to yet another title this time in their new home across the street from the hallowed grounds where Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle, Reggie, and even Derek Jeter racked up more championships that any other franchise could imagine.

After a rough start, once Alex Rodriguez joined the team in late May, the Yankees made short work of all competition leading to a tough fought battle against a very good Phillies’ team, but clearly the Yanks were a notch better.

Despite their triumph, it’s hard to imagine the Yankees will not be active in this winter’s wheeling and dealing looking for some upgrades in the outfield and bullpen. Surely, if there’s a first class starting pitcher available, he’ll go in the Yankee’s shopping cart too.

From Boston to Los Angeles to every baseball city in between, there must be a chilling sense of futility when they compare their resources to the mighty Yankees. While small market teams like Minnesota can make the post season from time to time, nobody can secure their fortunes like the Yankees. As tough as the Angels were in 2009, they will struggle to keep their best players on their roster while trying to upgrade in select places.

Once again, in Yankee fashion, history repeated itself. In 1923, the original Yankee stadium opened across the streets. The Yankees won the championship. In 2009, different address, same results, the Yankees win the championship in their new home.

Congratulations, New York. You paid for it. You got it.

MLB: World Series, 2009: Game Four -- Closing the Deal

The Buzz…

If the Yankees win the World Series and who realistically thinks they won’t, almost certainly the most memorable play, the event that will be associated in history with the 2009 “Fall Classic” will be what transpired when Johnny Damon stole 2nd base with two out in the 9th inning and Mark Texeira batting. Carlos Ruiz, the catcher’s throw was off target with a one hop throw. Viewing no one was covering third base, Damon dashed off to third. Now with a runner on third and the right side of the infield opened up, Brad Lidge, who had a miserable regular season but seemed to restore his composure in the post season hit Texeira with the pitch allowing Alex Rodriguez to step up to bat with runners at first and third.

Obvious to television viewers, Lidge appeared rattled and served up a line drive double deep to left field corner scoring Damon with the go ahead run. Jorge Posada followed with a two run single adding two security runs.

Mariano Rivera took care of the Phillies in quick order in the bottom of the ninth leaving the Philadelphia Phillies hanging on by faint hope to retain their championship status.

Such a cruel game, that the Phillies had tied the game in the bottom of the eighth with the last at bat coming up came ever so close to having the chance to tie the series at two games each, but despite having the Yankees down to their last out in the 9th, they couldn’t close the deal giving New York the win.

While there’s no such thing as an easy post season loss, Philadelphia’s loss in game four seemed especially painful and decisive for those hoping for the Phillies repeating as champs for 2009.

MLB: World Series, 2009, Game 4: The Yankees Are Just Plain Better

We thought the Yankees would win in five games and things are set up well for that to happen. The Philadelphia Phillies are playing good baseball. It's not like they're getting murdered by their mistakes. The truth is, the Yankees, the best team that money can buy, has its intense depth working for them. C.C. Sabathia has not even won a game but look where the Yanks stand. Almost all of the Yankees first line hitters have pitched in but the real show stopper is their stopper. Get the lead and give it to Mariano Rivera, ball game over... Yankees win, THE Yankees win.

It's not impossible. Philadelphia could win three straight. Look at what the Red Sox did to the Yankees in the championship series just a few years ago. This is a deeper, more balanced Yankees team. For the Phils to win, they must knock out the starter earlier and hope to pound the Yankees' middle relief that has not looked good recently.

For Philadelphia, they've got to win tomorrow. They can do it. then they could take it back to New York. Still, they need three wins, the Yankees need one. Cliff Lee is their magic man who starts for Philadelphia tomorrow night.

Still, it looks like the victory meal is a New York Strip not a Phily cheese steak.

MLB: World Series, 2009: Game 2

Who’s your daddy?!?

The New York Yankees drew even with a 3-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in game two of the World Series. Yankees starter A.J. Burnett gave up the first and only run in the second inning off a Matt Stairs base hit. In a classic pitchers’ duel, Pedro Martinez gave up two earned runs in six innings but in a cause just good enough to lose as the Yankees brought in Mariano Rivera in the 8th inning to pitch a two inning save.

It’s on to Philadelphia Saturday night for Halloween where Andy Pettitte will take on Cole Hamel for game three.

It’s perhaps too soon to make anything of this, but Alex Rodriguez who was so brilliant with the bat in the playoffs is hitless so far in the World Series.

MLB: World Series, 2009: Game 1

Game one was all about Cliff Lee's brilliant pitching. Pitch after pitch, batter after batter, his command was dead on keeping the powerful Yankee attack speechless. Only one ball was hit soundly to the outfield. Were it not for some sloppy fielding, Lee would have earned the complete game shutout. The secondary story is the Yankees middle relief letting the game get away. Phil Hughes was a valuable "bridge" pitcher who has not pitched well in post season.

Tonight puts Pedro Martinez for Philadelphia verus A.J. Burnett for the Yankees. Pedro has a reputation in New York after the infamous brawl when he was pitching for Boston in the Championship series and threw aged coach Don Zimmer to the ground in a classic meltdown. Back then, getting to Pedro with the bats was miraculous. He's not that pitcher any longer waiting on the sidelines until Philadelphia signed him mid-season. How much does the old veteran have left in him and can he rise to the big game situation? Meanwhile, A.J. Burnett is superb when he's on but is a player who struggles with inconsistency. He must be on top of his throwing tonight or the Yankees will face the daunting task of realistically needing to sweep their games in Philadelphia to win the series. Tonight's game has a higher sense of urgency for the Yankees.

The World Series Starts Tonight

Weather at game time, 50^ and cloudy.

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The Yankees host the Philadelphia Phillies to start the 2009 World Series promising two of the most exciting teams coming face to face that baseball has had to offer. For those who were hoping for an all Los Angeles World Series, get over it! If you wanted to see Joe Torre get a shot of redemption against the Yankees, the team that let him drift away after all he had accomplished for them, forget about it! You got the two big bad north east cities with the big attitudes to match. You got a problem with that?

Hey, if you can’t appreciate a Philly cheese steak or a New York strip steak, there’s something wrong with yah! It’s that kind of series, big, beefy, and full of attitude.

Look no further than the starters for game one, just two seasons ago, they were buddies on the Cleveland Indians. CC Sabathia starts for the Bronx Bombers while Cliff Lee takes the mound for the Phils. They represent the team with the most World Series appearances and victories against the team that’s the defending champ from 2008. New York and Philadelphia were major cities before Felipe de Neve first put LA-LA land on the map.

Who’s on first? Try Mark Texeira for the Yankees or Ryan Howard for the Phillies. They had 84 homers combined during the regular season, Texeira 39 and Howard 45. At second, the Yanks field Robinson Cano versus Chase Utley for the Phils. These guys are stable, dependable double trouble.

The Yankees start Derek Jeter at shortstop. His accomplishments in post season are legendary. Surely, the Phillies can’t offer much except their shortstop is Jimmy Rollins who hit 43 doubles and 21 homers with 31 stolen bases en route to scoring 100 runs.

At third base, doesn’t it seem weird that this will be Alex Rodriguez’s first World Series? For a fellow who has been snake-bitten in past post season appearances with the Yankees, he’s sure turned that around in 2009. Pedro Felix might find his work cut out for him to measure up to the well-known Yanks star.

The Yankees staff the outfield with Johnny Damon, Melky Cabrera, and Nick Swisher, all better than average hitters though Swisher has struggled so far in this post season and Damon struggles in the field. The Phillies counter with Raul Ibanez, Shane Victorino, and Jayson Werth. Victorino’s the Phils second best hitter for average with above average speed allowing him to stretch out 39 doubles with 25 stolen bases. Werth hits for power with 36 homers while Ibanez hit 34. If the Phils have a clear edge on offense, it’s from their outfield.

Behind the plate, the Yankees deploy Jorge Posada, their regular catcher since 1998 returning to career form after missing much of 2008 with injuries. Carlos Ruiz is a dependable stopper for Philadelphia.

Games played in the Bronx will feature DH’s with Hideki Matsui, still a major power threat ready to hit. The Phillies have a fine bench of hitters ready to add a 9th hitter to the lineup. Ben Francisco will be the likely Philadelphia DH unless he starts in left field and Raul Ibanez serves as a batter only.

A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettitte are likely game two and three starters for New York with Pedro Martinez, perhaps looking for post-season redemption from his last encounter with the Yankees and Cole Hamels who has not lived up to his 2008 performance countering for Philadelphia.

The Yankees would appear to have the deeper and more versatile bench. The Yankees would also appear to have the superior bullpen though the Phillies pen has been very effective in the post season so far.

Sum it all up, this writer would rather have a steak dinner than a steak sandwich, so it looks like the New York Yankees should win the 2009 World Series. They won ten more regular season games than their National League counterparts in a tougher division. While Philadelphia did beat the Yankees 2-1 games in interleague play, the Yankees were still getting their 2009 act pulled together before becoming the beast of the east during the long stretch of the season.

One sad note for Philadelphia, last year the aged wonder, Jaime Moyer, at 46 years old played a major roll in their 2009 championship. He started 12-10 for the Phils this year before suffering a career ending groin injury. For all the aging population, who would not have loved to have seen Moyer possibly take on the Bronx Boys at age 47. No one will be surprised, though, if he reports ready to play for Spring Training in 2010.

Play ball, and see who might be Mr. November when the series is over.

The 2009 World Series: The Bronx Cheer versus the Fans Who Booed Santa Claus

Two teams separated by 100 miles and New Jersey, the Philadelphia Phillies play the New York Yankees for the 2009 World Series, the 105th playing of the great fall classic. This will be the New York Yankees 40th appearance in the World Series while the Phillies, last year’s champs, return for their 7th attempt. The American League has won 61 of the 104 series so far with the Yankees accounting for 26 of those wins, one out of four World Series! Their closest rival is the St. Louis Cardinals with 17 appearances and 10 wins. The Dodgers have 18 appearances but only six wins. It’s pretty nasty on the other side. Eight teams have never won a World Series and three have never made the trip at all.

The 2009 World Series should be an exciting event with two teams having relentless offensive power and tough starting pitching. We’ll highlight how the two teams compare later, but at first blush, the Yankees would appear to have a decided advantage even though the Phils beat the Yanks 2-1 in Interleague play earlier this year.

Look for the standout player to get the nickname “Mr. November!”

World Series Aftermath

Bad ideas, tinkering, media-mania....

A few years back, Major League Baseball decided to make the All Star gamae mean something. Home field advantage for the World Series would be granted to the team whose league won the All Star Game that year.

Let's be honest, has that made the All Star Game more intense? Hardly, it all depends on the play on the field and how seriously the managers for eaach league take the game. Get the right managers squaring off, we get a ballgame; otherwise, we get a beauty contest for media gawkers.

If alternating between leagues each year isn't the best approach, then home team advantage should go to the team that has the best winning record still standing when the series begins. Keep it simple. Through the playoffs, the best records host -- none of this garbage where teams from the same division can't face each other in the first round. When it gets to the World Series, the team with the best overall record at that point, hosts.

It would be nice to see the first round extended to seven games. The problem is that would extend the season at least three days deeper into November. Starting the season earlier would not be a good idea either. Still, for the regular season, the scheduling gods could do a better job trying to get early April games scheduled for warmer climates and indoor stadiums.

Here's the big one, the sports media is hot with suggestions that the World Series should be played in a warm weather neutral site rather than the home cities of the two contenders. Buster Olney, Skip Bayless, and Peter Gammons have all weighed in on this option being desirable.

FORGET IT!!! Why should the hometown fans who have supported the team for an entire seaon not have the joy of celebrating the World Series in their city? It works for the NFL as the Super Bowl is a one game gala. However, for starters, playing seven games in a distant stadium would be a logistics nightmare. Suppose the World Series were held in Houston. Would the Houston fans with visitors from the contending teams be able to fill the stadium for up to seven games? What about the hotel space, the travel, and other considerations? A number of the warm weather cities don't have a record for great ticket sales to begin with.

Would these media geeks think that fans from cities like St. Louis, Philadelphia, Detroit, or Cleveland, as examples, could just take the time off work and spend thousands of dollars for such an extravaganza?

Truthfully, the only people who truly benefit from this idea are the media itself. The media elite don't want to travel to the smaller market cities with fewer elegant hotels, exotic restaurants, and gawdy nightlife. No, they'd prefer playing in the resort cities or big media centers that cater to their tastes.

Besides that, do they honestly think that baseball fans would stand for (new) Yankee Stadium or Fenway Park being left vacant when the championship is being determined.

Granted baseball is a much more climate sensitive sport than Football, but if fans will bundle up and pack stadia with 60-70,000 screaming fans for playoff action in January in much colder weather, what's with a few games in late October and November when real cold weather is a fluke to begin with. In most northern markets, the weather at the end of October is not that different than early April.

God is the 10th man when the players take the field, afterall. Weather is one more element that comes into play as what will happen with the game. Since there is no location in the United States that faces monsoons, rain can be dealt with. The problem isn't the rain but how the authorities deal with it. Game five should have been stopped sooner. The problem is the prospects of making up rules on the fly if the game were stopped with Philadelphia ahead. It wouldn't look good for the Phillies getting the win after the game becomes official after 4 1/2 innings. While it is understandable to make provisions for making a shortened game count during the regular season as rainouts and suspended games put enough strain on rescheduling as it is now, but the post season is a little different. What's important is that the policy be clearly understood ahead of time, and that was not true this year.

Make the ruling that all post season games must be complete nine innings games and be done with it. This isn't a complicated matter, but the authorities and media have done miracles to make a simple game unbelievably complex.

Yes, even for the World Series, it's root, root, root for the home team....

Philadelphia Phillies Beat Weather, Politics, and the Rays to Win World Series!

Congratulations to the Philadelphia Phillies for winning their first World Series since 1980. In between, the Phillies went to the World Series to be crushed by the Baltimore Orioles in a series where many of their veterans were pretty much playing for their last hoorah. The Phillies had few homegrown talents other than Mike Schmidt, but guys like Steve Carlton, Pete Rose, and Joe Morgan were nearing the end, as was Jim Palmer whose victory as relief pitcher gave him the distinction of being the only pitcher to post wins in three different decades. Philadelphia returned to the World Series in 1993 with one of the wildest cast of characters ever to be assembled: John Kruk, Lenny Dykstra, and Darren Daulton. They might have looked more like the company softball team, but were a very fun team to watch with a young Curt Schilling as their ace. All that pleasure was shot down in the Skydome by a game winning walk-off homerun creating the memorable image of Joe Carter leaping for joy as he rounded the bases for the home team.

This year’s Phillies like last year’s team didn’t look like a for certain playoff team as in both seasons, the New York Mets were supposed to win the National League East both years. Lead by perhaps the most dominant homerun slugger in baseball, Ryan Howard, clutch starting pitching from Cole Hamel with even old-timer, Jaime Moyer pitching to a 16-7 record at 46 years old, and an absolute fail-safe stopper, Brad Lidge who pitched to a stellar 1.95 ERA converting 41 out of 41 save opportunities. His mark combined with excellent setup work from the bullpen gave the Phillies virtually automatic victories when leading in the late innings. Their success was also bolstered by the New York Mets collapse though not quite as dramatic in 2008 as 2007. While they got blown out in the first round of the playoffs in 2007, they clobbered the Milwaukee Brewers and Los Angeles Dodgers en route to facing one of the greatest Cinderella teams in the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays.

Despite the Rays amazing transformation from being the division doormat since they entered the league in 1998, the prospect of watching post season baseball in Tropicana Field which looks like a dreary old warehouse even on a small conventional television was not inviting. Nevertheless, the Rays obliterated the White Sox in the first round of the playoffs and immediately took charge of the Red Sox before the Beaners fought to even up the series forcing a dramatic 7th game that belonged to the Florida boys.

Thus two seemingly unlikely teams to be title contenders in April fought for the trophy in October. The guys from the City of Brotherly Love and Cheesesteaks went right to work winning game one in the Florida warehouse, lost the second game, setting the stage for three games in their ballpark which in just four seasons has established itself as perhaps the most homerun crazy ballpark in all the offspring of Orioles Park at Camden Yards. While the games were pretty tame games on offense in Florida, the third game in Philadelphia tipped off what could be in store. Game four turned into a homerun hitting contest that the Phillies lead by Ryan Howard hitting back-to-back homeruns dominated setting the stage for the highly controversial 4th game.

Game 4 of the 2008 World Series began in cold, damp conditions with the threat of heavy rain and wind setting in later. Hopes were there would be enough time to get the game in before Mother Nature took over. Such would not be the case as by the fourth inning, the rainfall was heavy while the temperature dropped and wind increased. The Phils stepped out to a two run lead in their first at bat while Tampa scored a run in top of the 4th just as the wild weather was kicking into high gear. Quickly, the infield dirt and pitchers’ mound became messy and water started to puddle up. Pitchers had trouble keeping their cleats clean and maintain sure footing on the mound. Why the game was being continued seemed crazier with each at bat; however, if play were suspended, once the home team got its at bat in the top of the 4th with a lead, it would be an official game and Philadelphia would have won the game and the whole series at that point.

The farce played out before the baseball audience tuned in around the world. The game continued with an uneasy air of impending disaster as some horrible miscue or player injury seemed inevitable. Yet play continued into the top of the 6th when it seemed like the Commissioner’s dream came true when shortstop Sonny Rollins could not execute what would have been a routine play allowing Tampa to score. The instant Tampa posted the last out, the tarps were hauled out on the field and the game was suspended as baseball fans wondered how the “commish” would respond. The game would be resumed in Philadelphia when weather condition were acceptable even if it took until “Thanksgiving.” Tuesday’s weather was equally dreadful delaying play yet another day when game six, if needed was scheduled to be played in St. Petersburg.

Despite the cold and a brisk breeze, the Phillies picked up play in the bottom of the sixth promptly scoring a run en route to a 4-3. This game was delayed 30 minutes by a much more ominous and threatening storm, 30 minutes of Barack Obama, buying network time to celebrate his extreme vanity and further flaunt his enormous ego as “The One” is important enough to bump the World Series. One can only imagine how much cussing and fuming there was at many sports bars if that charade was broadcast for the bar patrons to see.

Thankfully, despite the delays, the Phillies took care of business on their home field winning four out of five games making the return trip to Florida.

Let the hot stove season begin!