Number 28

It is a numbers game, and not that idiotic thing about the Yankee payroll, buying a pennant.  This shows the power of the big lie.  Bud Selig's family owns a small market team.  I think he wanted to justify taking easy money from the Yankees and giving it to small market teams including his family's team.  So they invented this idiotic fiction about buying titles, because the highest paid players always win, or even usually win.  They taxed one team...the Yankees, took their money and gave it to other teams.

So then we watch nameless college stud one after the other come into Yankee Stadium and shut down the high priced Yankees, with our own eyes we watch the Yankees dynasty crumbled by a team, the Marlins, whose payroll equaled maybe three Yankees' players salaries.  They beat the stuffing out of the Yanks.  Watch a decade of 200 million payrolls produce NNNAAADDDDDAAA; and still this idiotic idea persists, well I guess there are people who will believe anything they are told.

This numbers game is about hitters and competition- count them-- there are some big RBI men available, any team that needs one can have one this year Mattt Holliday, Vlad, Chone Figgins, Jason bay, Nady, Damon, Matsui, and many more.  Baltimore...two hitters away from equaling the Red Sox as the best hitting team---here's Vlad Guererro and Adrian Beltre, see you in the playoffs, ...ohh-not quite, well add Randy Wolf, Rich Harden and you already have Guthrie and some good young arms.  Need relief ...the lefty Gonzalez, the closer Billy Wagner.  This is the case for every team this off season.  Even Boston cannot horde all the good hitters as they did last year with pitchers: Byrd, Smoltz, Penny,  when they already had Bucholtz, Lester, Matsusaka, Beckett, and the big eternal knuckle ball...anyway the point is there are a bunch of big hitters out there, and the Yankees wont be bidding on any of them, so the rest of the teams will have to do something besides complain about NY's payroll, and this year..they cannot help but get better, even those like Baltimore that seemed determined not to get better. Toronto should trade Roy Halladay for the ransom in prospects and become the Tampa Bay north...awash in splendid young talent.  This year the Yanks have won and have only a few maybe one opening on the starting lineup...a pitcher behind CC and AJ and a reliever...in front of Rivera.

Whatever happens in the free agent market this year, will probably not involve the Yankees.

twenty seven

my favorite number for many reasons now add yet another, Thank You Yankees for a memorable year, the end of a painful period for Yankee fans.  We watched as front office politics, right wing politics invaded baseball.  The owner of the team that was at the epicenter of steroids in baseball- Bush and the Texas Rangers, launches a crusade against steroids, and the fallout douses the Yankees, led by a partner in the Red Sox.  Then it turns out the Red Sox have steroids too, if you believe they help players perform, then the Red Sox won to titles aided by steroids.
So in this season two idiot dragons were slain, the Red Sox pretensions at winning, and the myth of Yankees somehow at the hub of steroids.  The Yankees seemed to lead the league in players whose trust and confidence in baseball was betrayed by political connivance or incompetence...you choose.  I am gald to see it dead and buried.
Next season is already beginning, and the Yankees will demonstrate the loyalty to their success by holding on to some players, show that they have learned by letting some go. No doubt making some more great moves and some later to be regrets too.  Matsui and Jeter, CC and Mo, Pettitte and ARod, even Damon and Melky these to me especially have given Yankee fans a great season, one to savor even while we relish the off-season race to the starting line.

Number 27

OK number 27, my favorite number, and one now of my favorite Championship Yankee teams.  Flawed and seemingly less than the sum of its talented parts, they somehow grew into champions by beating the baseball bullies at their own games- speed, power, pitching, even...team defense. This chameleon-esque team showed that being versatile is an asset in baseball, maybe the unique quality of the team.
This team had some all time Yankees at the heights of their games:
Jorge Posada, will be remembered as an offensive force from the catcher position;
Derek Jeter one of the great all-around players, a winner in every aspect of the game;
Alex Rodriguez (ARod)- enormous talents in a flimsy shell that this year seemed to grow into his potential, he may never hit 70 homers but he can again and again lead an offense to elite status;
Hideki Matsui- a true thoroughbred, champion character, like Jeter one of the players who will not lose, you have to beat them to the final strike, final out, a winner;
Mariano Rivera- simply the best at the most difficult job in baseball;
Andy Pettitte- a home grown winner, gets the most out of his strengths, a lot like Whitey Ford in the Fifties;
Johnny Damon- an underrated great player, has the mental toughness and smarts so many athletes lack in baseball;
Mark Teixera, A.J. Burnett and CC Sabbathia all paid dividends on investments, each was excellent and will be part of the core for a few years to come.
Next...the youngsters 20010, title # 28, and the future.