STANTON THE SLUGGER BESTS MICKEY MANTLE!

No, you didn't misread the headline. I'm over talking about Aaron Judge, so while some continue to focus on him I am turning the page and focusing on Giancarlo Stanton instead.

And it is definitely deserved! Stanton has an amazing accomplishment he should be proud of, he just beat Mickey Mantle and that's mind blowing. Stanton is now the ONLY player in MLB history to hit a home run in six straight games against the Red Sox. I like making history against our biggest rival and now he's at the top of that list now with Mantle, Jim Thome and Ken Griffey Jr at five consecutive home runs against Boston. It's nice to be at the top.

But that's not all. Stanton is also the first player in Yankees history to hit home runs in each of the first two games of the regular season two different times. We just watched him do during Opening Weekend, but he also did it in the first two games of the 2020 pandemic shortened season. There's only one other baseball great who has done this named Lou Gehrig.

That's some great company to have. It's just nice to see Stanton clicking on all cylinders. The Yankees need to embrace a healthy Stanton and continue to give him reps in the outfield. It helps keep the mind sharp and let's face it Aaron Hicks and Aaron Judge have an injury history. I think we have seen the Stanton has more in the tank than we think assuming he can stay healthy.

I like the dominance we are seeing over the Red Sox and I hope it expands. A healthy Red Sox dominance is nice, but an AL East and league wide dominance is even better....and so is a championship. It goes without saying, but I am trying to manifest destiny here.

--Jeana Bellezza-Ochoa

BYB Senior Managing Editor

Twitter: @nyprincessj

GREAT PICKS FOR THE HALL OF FAME!

I love this Hall of Fame class!

There will be some great players named to the Hall of Fame this year, and these guys deserve it! Honestly.

The Associated Press simply writes the following:

Photo: Tim Umphrey 

"Chipper Jones, Vladimir Guerrero, Jim Thome and Trevor Hoffman elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame."

Now, I am not lucky enough to vote for the actual Hall of Fame. But myself and the BYB writers are members of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America, and we do vote every year for who we think should be in the Hall of Fame.  Here is my ballot:

It also should be noted that Vladimir Guerrero and Edgar Martinez had already been honored in previous IBWAA elections, which is why you don’t see their names listed here. 

And if I was thinking clearly at the time, I would have marked Vlad on my ballot.  That's my bad.  It's good to see that I was in line with the baseball writers on the others.

Photo: CBS Sports

And yeah, I voted for guys like Matsui and Huff in my picks.  Those were guys I respected as players, maybe they don't necessarily deserve the honor right now, but still, it's my vote, I can do what I want with it.

Anyway... congrats to the winners this year.  It's pretty damn exciting.

I STILL BELIEVE

There are few subjects in the Baseball World that I am more passionate about than the vote for The Hall of Fame.  I cannot get past the fact that a player’s fate remains in the hands of Sports writers.  I firmly believe a change NEEDS to happen and fast.  TAKE THE VOTE AWAY from the “writers” and do it NOW.

Recently I had a brief back and forth with ESPN’s Buster Olney on Twitter.  I answered a tweet and made clear that the Baseball writers make their vote personal and therefore shouldn’t have that vote.  Mr. Olney took exception.

@Buster_ESPN Nope. And Sports writers shouldn't have a vote. Have a select HOF committee. You guys make the vote personal too often. Period.

— Mike O'Hara (@mikeyoh21) November 15, 2015

@Buster_ESPN sorry that it doesn't compute, Buster. Sports writers deciding who is worthy and who is not is ridiculous. I enjoy your...

— Mike O'Hara (@mikeyoh21) November 15, 2015

@Buster_ESPN coverage of the game, but don't feel any of "you guys" should hold sway on a player's road to Cooperstown. Just my opinion.

— Mike O'Hara (@mikeyoh21) November 15, 2015

@Buster_ESPN and if you are convinced that there are baseball writers that don't vote with personal bias...well, agree to disagree. Thanks.

— Mike O'Hara (@mikeyoh21) November 15, 2015

He didn’t like being lumped in with all writers.  I was wrong to make a sweeping statement.  Maybe Buster is completely on the level.  Maybe he is truly an exception to what I STRONGLY feel is becoming the rule.  I can’t know for sure.  When he challenged me to pick one of the votes he cast for personal reasons, I couldn’t…but is that to say he never has had a bias in who he believes is Cooperstown worthy?

You don’t have to look hard to see the “US vs. THEM” feeling in the player/writer dynamic.  More and more writers seek their own sad, celebrity status.  They seem to have desperate need to rival the players in terms of notoriety.  They aren’t writers any longer they are “Insiders” or “Experts”.  And as ALL KNOWING MASTERS OF THE BASEBALL UNIVERSE they get to decide who is celebrated and who is not.  With all do respect to those who still cover and love the game, it’s time to knock these guys down a few pegs.  Take away the Hall vote.

I feel that the best way to protect the Hall of Fame and the induction process is to select a committee comprised of former managers, Hall of Fame players and even distinguished umpires.  (Example: Joe Torre, Mike Schmidt, Rod Carew and Jim Joyce).  Only players, managers and umps KNOW the game and all it’s aspects. We need those who truly see the numbers, the clutch performances as well as the intangibles.

Take a player like Jim Thome.  In my opinion he is a class act and a 1st ballot Hall of Famer.  He hit 600 dingers (clean), played the game the right way and respected his teammates and opponents alike.  THAT is who should be in Cooperstown.  However, Baseball writers will find every reason under the sun to hold Jim back a few times.  Is it for the right reasons?  NO WAY IN HELL if you ask me.

Think about Greg Maddux.  There are actually writers out there that will not vote for him.  GREG MADDUX!! Jeter and Mariano also will fall short of 100%.  Why?  Because the writers will say Mo only closed out 1 or 2 innings.  That isn’t as hard as it was for the guys who closed 3 to 4 innings…which is nonsense in the grand scheme. 

And Jeter…well, there are actually grown men that won’t vote for him because he was a lousy sound bite or simply because they still live in a “High School World”.  Derek is the popular jock that dates the prom queen…of course they’ll find some number that they say proves he wasn’t that good.  It’s total Bovine waste.

Once again, I fully admit that tossing Buster in the bind with every writer was a mistake.  I was wrong and often am (See my Plate of Crow with a side of Humble Pie on Tex’s season).  But to think that writers don’t bring all sorts of personal baggage to their vote is silly.  Some look down on the players as idiotic thugs below their educated minds.  Others see a big ol’ Texas fireballer, who hunts and prays and see them through socio-political glasses.  And still others are self-righteous, and believe they drive on the “High Road”.  If there is a hint of a player being near the Juiced up days of the late 1990’s they are out of the running.  It doesn’t matter if there is solid proof…like in Mike Piazza’s case.

I’m not the Commissioner.  I have no way of fixing the problems I see.  All I can do is write down my opinion…and it is just that, an opinion.  I root for players.  Their stories and the work they put in to play the game at the highest possible level.  The sacrifices they, and their families, made to get where they are.  Baseball is a living thing.  By that I mean it cannot be taken on numbers alone.  Yes, a player MUST put up great stats to be a candidate for the Hall, but there is more to it than that.  Players understand that…writers don’t.  For them the Hall of Fame Vote is pretentious Country Club.  For a growing number of Baseball writers the vote is not about the game or the men who play it, it’s about them.  It’s about grabbing a headline or a bit of spotlight.  They abuse the PRIVILEGE and it’s time to take it away and do it differently…in my opinion.


** My buddy Frank Turner.  I STILL BELIEVE **




 

--Mike O'Hara Senior "Features" Writer
Twitter: @mikeyoh21















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I ALMOST RUINED JIM ABBOTT'S NO HITTER!

“Hey Dad, it’s the fifth inning and he still hasn’t given up a….”  I said before I was stopped short.

“Are you crazy??? You’re going to jinx him!” my Dad shot back.

It was a month after my ninth birthday. What the heck did I know? You can jinx a pitcher throwing a no-hitter by talking about it? I didn’t know that on September 4, 1993, but I learned that day you absolutely do not talk about it!

At the time my Dad lived in West Haven, CT and we would take the trip down I-95 to I-87 to go to Yankee Stadium rather frequently. Back in those days, tickets, parking, a hot dog and soda didn’t cost a week’s pay.  As always, I was excited to go see the Yankees play. We would listen to WFAN 660 along the way. My Pops always listened to sports radio. He would call me a Goober because I would sing the jingle “Sports radio 66, THE FAN! W-F-A-N, New York!” You guys know what I’m talking about! Anyway...

We were heading to the game that day, without tickets, to see the Yankees take on the Cleveland Indians. It was an afternoon game and "the one-handed pitcher", Jim Abbott, was starting for the hometown Yanks. He was to face a tough lineup that included guys like  Kenny Lofton, Carlos Baerga, Albert Belle, Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome and Sandy Alomar Jr.

To be honest, I never realized how stacked that lineup was. That makes that day that much more special.

The day was, as Abbott put it, “… a cloudy day. A day game, the kind of game I like to throw.”  If he liked cloudy day games, he proved it that day.

Yankee Stadium to me is like a grown man’s Cinderella’s Castle. It's magical. From the big NY behind the plate, to the organ, to the vendors yelling "Get your hot dogs here!" to the sticky ground from split soda and beer mixed with peanut shells.

We arrived at the Stadium and had to find some tickets. If my memory serves me right, we bought some tickets off a scalper outside the stadium and he told us we had great seats. Lower level on the third base line. He showed us a seating chart and that sealed the deal. Awesome. Good price, good seats, right?

It turns out we were alittle misled. We were actually out by the left field foul pole...welcome to the Bronx... right?

My Dad wasn't happy, but have no fear though; he was always the master at making his way to better seats! We ended up sitting behind the third base dugout in the lower level under the overhang. They ended up being almost perfect!  I remember being nervous because we were pretty close... I was afraid of a foul ball nailing us.  My Pops told me not to worry.

Early in the game, Paul O’Neill sliced a foul ball that just missed the protective net and screamed over our heads! But we were alright. No harm, no foul. But if I was nervous before, I was scared as hell right then!

I remember my childhood hero, Don Mattingly manning first base that afternoon. He went 1-3. Donnie Baseball was always my favorite. Still is to this day. I was the bat boy for a youth team my Dad coached when I was about four years old and I wanted to be number 23. My Dad and his friend thought it would be funny, since I was a little guy, to make me number 2/3. Still to this day, people from my hometown of Windsor, CT will occasionally remember me as the bat boy and call me ‘two-thirds”. I’m 30 years old and about once a year someone will bring it up. As goofy as it is, I still enjoy it.

In terms of specifics about the game, I don't remember all that much. Randy Velarde hit a home run and I remember looking at the scoreboard in the fifth and nearly ruining the no-hitter. I recall a great diving play at third base by Wade Boggs to rob the Indians of a hit. Most importantly, I definitely remember the final out.

The whole stadium was on our feet, screaming and cheering for that one final out, as we had done for the final three innings. It was a ground ball off the bat of Baerga, a curve ball down and away. Baerga slapped it to short where Velarde fielded it cleanly and flipped it over to Donnie for the final out. Mattingly then raised his hands in the air as the team rushed to the mound to congratulate Jim Abbott. As Scooter would say, “How do you like that?!”

My Pops and I at Yankee Stadium is always a great day. But the added benefit of seeing Mattingly, a Yankees win and an incredible pitching performance by a man who was born with one hand, well, it was even more incredible. Jim Abbott never made an excuse for why he couldn’t do it. He just went out and did it. It will forever be one of my greatest, special moments of my childhood.

The former first round pick, who made his MLB debut without ever pitching in the minors, had his greatest day on the biggest stage in baseball. With the exception of the five walks Abbott allowed, he was nothing short of spectacular that Saturday afternoon in 1993.

It is a day, I’ll never forget it. Thank you Jim for that day. It was just plain awesome!


 
Dan Lucia
BYB Writer
Twitter: @DManLucia



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EL DUQUE: MR. CLUTCH

There are moments when you see the value of a player, their true character and grit, that you never forget. It was in Game 4 of the 1998 ALCS that Orlando Hernandez – El Duque – became one of my favorite Yankees of all time. With 114 regular-season wins in their rear-view mirror, and having blown through the Texas Rangers in the ALDS, the Yankees had their hands full with the Cleveland Indians and their loaded lineup. They won the first game, but lost the second game famously when Chuck Knoblauch let the ball roll away. They landed in Cleveland, and Andy Pettitte got rocked. He didn't make it out of the fifth inning.

All of a sudden, the Yankees were behind for the first time since early April. The media was in a frenzy. They couldn't talk enough about the 1954 Cleveland Indians who won 111 games – the record the Yankees just broke – and ended up getting swept by the Giants in the World Series. El Duque had never pitched a post-season game before in the majors, and the Yankees were in danger of falling behind 3 games to 1. But when he took the mound at Jacobs field and was set for his first pitch, the camera got a shot of his face.

I saw the look in his eyes and thought this guy was ready for war. He pitched a hell of a game. The vaunted Indians lineup, which dominated the American League throughout the season, was unable to reach third base until the sixth inning when Omar Vizquel stole third. Jim Thome was at the plate at the time. He stuck him out to end the inning. It was the second time in the game he struck him out. He struck out Manny Ramirez three times. Except for Kenny Lofton and Omar Vizquel, he held the rest of the lineup hit-less through 7. By the time he left, the Yankees had a 3-0 lead, and door was slammed shut by Mike Stanton and Mariano Rivera.

Another example was the 2001 ALDS Game 4 against the Oakland Athletics. This was a bad season for El Duque, missing most of it due to an injured toe. He finished 4-7 with an ERA of 4.85, and was the biggest question mark in the rotation. Down two games to one, and facing a powerful Oakland lineup at the Coliseum, he was the man standing in the way of an Oakland romp. He started inauspiciously, loading the bases in the first. But he got things under control and got Jason Giambi to pop out and end the inning. The next threat was in the third, when Oakland scored twice, but the Yankees still had a 4-2 lead and Hernandez was keeping them in the game. He did not allow any home runs, and only walked one. He didn't have his best stuff, but somehow he knew how to pitch well enough to earn the Yankees a win in a critical game.

In big games, at crunch time, El Duque consistently delivered. His post-season record is proof of that. He finished his career with a post-season record of 9-3, an ERA of 2.55, and four rings out of five trips to the World Series. He pitched with great pitchers in his day, and perhaps his accomplishments don't get the recognition they deserve. But he was a joy to watch, with the wacky high leg-kick and the occasional eephus pitch. Most of all, when it mattered, he won.

--Ike Dimitriadis, BYB Writer
Twitter: @KingAgamemnon

My blog is: Shots from Murderer's Row

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CALLING IT QUITS: WHEN IS ENOUGH ENOUGH?

Earlier in the week BYB updated the status of Nick Johnson from active to retired. Read NICK JOHNSON GETS INJURED RETIRING.

This got me thinking, when is enough, enough?  When is it time to hang up the cleats and pick up a pair of Nikes to run to the next chapter?   Since there is no mandatory retirement age for Major League Baseball players, the answer is simply, "it depends."  Some guys, like our buddy Nick, listened to their bodies and knew when to say when. Yet others wait a little too long.

June 2, 1935.  A somewhat insignificant date at first glance to most, but if you ponder it for a bit, you may have a few guesses.  Interestingly enough, it is the date that Babe Ruth retired.  That’s right, in the middle of the season, ironically in Boston- not with the Red Sox, but with the Braves, Babe said good-bye.  He played 28 games that season with his last being May 30th.  He retired because he was done (read HERE), he was slowing down and his health was getting the best of him, so he left Nickerson Field (now on the campus of Boston University) and moved on to his next chapter in his short life- a coach for the Brooklyn Dodgers.  Babe said enough is enough and moved on, but others linger too long.

Again, it does not have to do anything with age necessarily.  Nick Johnson is only 34-years-old, the Bambino 40.  Even though Jamie Moyer was released by the Colorado Rockies and waived by Toronto last season, he says, even at 50, he is not retired.  But will he throw a pitch in 2013 at age 50?  Can he throw a pitch?  “I’m not retired, I’m not retired. I’m just kind of laying in the weeds and just trying to figure out what’s going on,” Moyer said. “I’m just going to step back after the season and assess what’s going on, and see how I feel and go from there,” said Moyer in an interview last season with NBC Sports’ Off the Bench, HERE.

If Jamie has the velocity to pitch, even at 50, someone should pick him up.  You can never have enough leaders, let alone pitchers.  And Jamie may have it but if he doesn’t, that’s okay, he will make a great coach, analyst, or some other kind of contribution to sports- maybe he will even make a second career in golf?

The movie “For the Love of the Game” stars an aging Detroit pitcher, Billy Chapel, who despite an injury to his pitching hand, battles back and pitches a no-hitter in yes, the greatest ballpark in the world, Yankee Stadium.  Although fiction, the story is not uncommon.  I think Mo has the possibility of having a great season.  Even at age 42, Mo is an athlete who listens to his body.  And after being “red shirted” or “sidelined” last season with a torn ACL, he wants one more shot, one more year.  He should get it and if all goes as planned, he will perform the way he is visualizing.

See, Mo, is a true competitor, and after this season, he will move on.  He will retire as a Yankee, the team that gave him his start.  There is no better way to say goodbye than to do it graciously.  I expect the same from Derek Jeter and I know that if he is not at his best this season, he will move to DH like many aging players do thankful for the American League position, graciously and eventually, retire, quietly because overstaying your welcome is no good for anyone.


As Cowboy Toby Keith so eloquently says in his ballad As Good As I Once Was:

"I ain't as good as I once was
My how the years have flown
But there was a time back in my prime
When I could really hold my own…"

So for all of the fans of  Jim Thome, Jason Giambi, Ichiro Suzuki, Derek Lowe and Omar Vizquel, I wish you and your players well this season and next, if it is realistic, but for some, just like Chipper Jones and our Great Bambino, let’s hope they bow out with dignity, and swallow their pride when their bodies say, enough is enough.

Like what you read? Comment.

--Suzie Pinstripe, BYB Opinion Columnist
Twitter: @suzieprof




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NEITHER IBANEZ NOR THOME THRILLED BYB READERS

So we ran a poll just a few days before Raul Ibanez packed up his stuff and traveled to Seattle to sign a one day contract with the Mariners, read HERE.  It later came out that Brian Cashman never made an offer to Raul after leading on Yankee fans on that the 2 parties were working toward a deal, read HERE. This, in turn made me angry, read HERE and it obviously resonated with most of you… you made it one of the most popular posts in Bleeding Yankee Blue history. I like when that happens.

But back to the poll and enough about me… The poll was simply asking, Who do you want as the Yankee Designated Hitter?  Let’s break it down.

I had suggested that Jim Thome, who is as old as Rumpelstiltskin … or… me, would be a fun and interesting fit in the Bronx.  A lefty with an old school mentality and just goes up to the plate and cranks out home runs. 

In Yankee stadium with that short right field porch, it could be fun, right? So I thought. It turns out that of the 67 that voted in this short poll, only 16 liked that idea.

More voted in favor of bringing back the Yankees playoff superstar Raul Ibanez, probably because it was fresh in our minds and probably because of the reports that the Yankees and he were working toward a deal.  Meanwhile, During the opened poll, Ibanez signed with Seattle, and the whole poll became relevant, kind of.  That being said, I wanted to at least write about it because something happened next that I didn’t expect, but I respect the poll, so here it goes…

31 of you believed that neither should be the 2013 Yankee Designated Hitter.  That was a surprise to me but it’s clear that that Yankee fans want “young” and have been craving it for a long time now.  Couple that with Raul signing with Seattle and that probably swayed a few people to vote that way because, well, the deal was done and the poll didn’t seem to matter anymore.

But, there you have it. My conclusion to this poll is simple… Yankee fans want neither, or younger, or a right handed DH, or someone else.  Anyway you slice it, on this day, January 6, 2013, the Yankees have no DH, righty or lefty. Raul’s gone and Thome is sitting on his couch waiting for the phone to ring.  That’s baseball in the off season and it’s definitely the way the Yankees operate lately… hurry up and wait… 

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WHO? JIM THOME OR RAUL IBANEZ?

Now I know what you're thinking and look, I hear you... Raul Ibanez is our 2012 playoff hero. You're wondering why in the world would I even consider bringing up a guy like Jim Thome in the same sentence, right? Well, I am, and for good reason. The Yankees have made no move to sign Raul quickly and Thome in Yankee stadium could be the biggest display of power that would give Yankee fans that extra excitement we haven't seen in years.

Yes, the Yanks expect to nail down Ibanez "soon", read HERE. But how long is this going to take?   I can tell you this, Ibanez wants to come back to New York. When we did our interview titled BYB EXCLUSIVE. IBANEZ TO SANDY VICTIMS: "I AM HERE TO HELP", he simply told BYB, "I can't wait to come back to the Yankees!". Simple enough, his hearts already in the Bronx. Then there was a lot of hurry up and wait. The Yanks moved around, looking for other players and Ibanez was patient. Almost too patient for my taste. I may have been alittle tougher with Yankee Brass. I guess Raul knows his services in baseball won't be needed as much at age 40 and he is happy to be patient and not cause waves. I guess I get that.

I'm going to be honest, not cruel; Raul Ibanez was everything we hoped he would be in 2012, but there is a tiny part of me that wants to see a shake-up. Yes, I have no problem re-signing Raul, but what if the Yankees decided to sign Jim Thome?  How would you feel?

Like Craig Robinson said in "Knocked up" to Leslie Mann, Thome is "old as fuck" (the 2:05 mark), but still has a ton of potential with that powerful bat.


If you couple that with the right field porch in Yankee stadium and a player who will come cheaper because of where he is in his career, and it almost seems like a no-brainer to me. One problem, if we sign Raul Ibanez, would we even need Jim Thome? And vice-versa by the way... The answer is, I doubt it.

Look, the good thing about the Raul Ibanez-Andruw Jones platoon was one hit from the left side and one hit from the right side. Both Thome and Ibanez hit lefty, so ultimately, while it "could" happen that the Yanks signed both, it's unlikely because that righty-lefty hitting platoon don't exist with them.

That being said, I've been around the Yankees long enough to know that if we see potential with a certain player, we do what they have to do to get them.

Back in 2011, I wrote a piece titled WHY THOME SHOULD BE A YANKEE.  In it, I thought Thome would be an interesting fit, writing: "...in my heart of hearts, I believe Jim Thome, a veteran home run hitter, should end his career in pinstripes. Why not? Yankee Stadium, which, for a brief time had a right field stands titled "Damon's Deck", should be called "Thome Town". The town where balls are deposited regularly by Jim Thome. Can you imagine how many home runs Thome can give us at Yankee Stadium? 30, 35? Yes, Thome is older, but he still knows his role and when you concentrate on something long enough, you get into a rhythm and just keep rolling. You don't believe me? Ask Josh Hamilton when he put on a clinic at the old Yankee Stadium during the Home Run Derby in 2008..."

I still think Thome would be fun in the Bronx, but I'll telll you, I just ain't sure the Yanks would ever go for it. I'm not sure Yankee fans will go for it, especially after Raul has done so much last season.

Raul Ibanez is a safe bet. He wants back and Cashman has been clear that the Yankees had priorities before Ibanez, but he's on the list. If he was around when they came around, it seems like they'd get a deal done. And that's where we're at. So now we wait.

But I'm asking and we'll put a poll up this morning supporting this question: If you had to choose, Jim Thome or Raul Ibanez for that role of Designated Hitter for the Yankees, who would you choose? Vote. And when the poll closes, we'll write about it, regardless of if the Yanks sign Raul by then. I'm curious how many people want a shake-up, or a "thank you" to Ibanez for doing so well in the playoffs.

In the meantime... I have some shopping to do for Christmas. Don't judge me, I have a lot going on.

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THE NEW YORK YANKEES ARE ALDS CHAMPS!

It's fate. If you win or if you lose, there's a reason why... really. If you played hard and lose, the other team played harder. If you win, most likely you played better than your opponent. The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat are 2 feelings to the extreme, because when you win, it's the greatest feeling at that moment. Losing never feels good, that's why it's called the agony of defeat. It hurts like hell.

The New York Yankees won today. But they didn't only win, they won their fans back...who, even though were loyal, we were very worried about how things would unfold.  CC Sabathia had a few setbacks this season and while he was clearly on his way back to being great, sometimes you just don't know how that big body is gonna bounce back.  Let's just say CC Monster was the greatest pitcher ever today!  He dominated the pesky Baltimore Orioles and only got into trouble 1 time, that coming in the 8th, but with the bases loaded, he locked and loaded and only ended up giving up only 1 run, an RBI single to Jim Thome.  Sabathia also went out for the 9th, got the complete game, the win and a huge applause by Yankee fans all over the world.  Sabathia went 9 innings, allowed 4 hits and 1 run, striking out 9.  CC improved to 4-0 in post season starts. He truly is a beast!

Raul Ibanez had an RBI single in the 5th scoring Mark Teixeira from second base.  Ibanez was the DH today and Eric Chavez played third leaving Alex Rodriguez to the bench.   Was it a tough call by Joe Girardi? Perhaps. Look, ARod is one of the greatest baseball players of the modern era.  It ain't easy to bench a star, but it's easier to bench them if even they can admit things aren't working out.  Now, do I think we'll see Alex in the ALCS? I do and not only  that, I believe they'll figure him out and he'll start hitting again.  How can I be so sure you ask? Well, I noticed something interesting when he took batting practice today.  He was loose and he was cranking them all over the place.  But if you look at him in the last 4 games he played, he looked tight in the batter's box. He looks like he's locked up. Therefore, when he swings, he was almost too late and sluggish coming to the ball, hence allowing him to strike out 9 times in the ALDS. Terrible.  That fortunately can be fixed and Kevin Long has some work to do...I believe he'll take care of business.

And speaking of taking care of business...Ichiro Suzuki knocked in Derek Jeter from first base in the game today too.  Suzuki had a double on that brought the game to 2-0 Yanks at that point. Also and who can forget Grandy... Curtis Granderson who also struck out 9 times in the ALDS before today's game finally came through and homered today.  He needed that and so did we. It was good to see.

And now, the Yankees move on. The road was long and sometimes painful to us Yankee fans but in the end, we played the Orioles, a team run by Buck Showalter. A team of young nobodies that believed. They believed they could run through a brick wall and they sure as hell believed they could win it all. For Buck though, the stage was set. Because sure, he wanted his young team to win a championship, but for Buck, it was about beating the Yankees, the team he felt like he got a raw deal from years back. He wanted revenge.

I understand revenge. People tell me to lighten up or "forget" about someone who treats me with disrespect. I say karma's a bitch and when disrespect comes my way, I write it on a mental post-it and when the time is right, I revisit it. Trust me, what comes around goes around and for Buck, it came around. He didn't like the way he was treated by the Yankees and he was in our house to settle the score. Don't be fooled by Buck's calm demeanor, he's loved every minute of this, getting under the Yankees skin, but time ran out and good for us Yankee fans, because I have to say, his Orioles were great competitors, they made me nervous.

In the end though, it's not about the Orioles or Buck Showalter. It's about our Yankees knowing they needed to win and we did.  Thank the good Lord.

Final Score: Yankees 3 - Orioles 1

 So now, I am filled with joy again, but there is no doubt the road just got tougher.

The Detroit Tigers are our new Angels, the team we always have trouble beating in the playoffs, and hopefully this year they'll be like the Angels of 2009 and we'll take the series from them!  Believe me, the Tigers are tough as nails, but if the Yankees do what they did tonight, we can do it.  If they don't and if they decide to play without scoring runs like we've been doing all season long, trust me, we're not winning this ALCS. If we decide to actually show up and knock in runs, we have a very good chance. It's not Justin Verlander I'm afraid of. He's great, but for the Yankees, he's beatable. I worry about the others, Doug Fister, Max Scherzer. I worry about their bats; Miguel Cabrera is a beast and Prince Fielder is a freaking over-sized superstar. They're lethal.

But I also worry about us. Our Yankees need a hero, we need a team of 25 heroes actually, playing like their life depended on it. If we don't, we don't have a shot because the Tigers will take advantage of mistakes.  So we need to be our best, that's the bottom line.

So farewell to the ALDS and hello ALCS! The Yankees have done it and life is good when that happens, but let's not think about the World Series just yet. Let's instead think about the next 4 games we need to win. Hell, after beating the Orioles, a weight has been lifted, but there is still going to be a tough hill to climb.  Truth be told though... I can't wait for tomorrow night.

Go Yankees!

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