Everything you want in a team

For years the Met fan hated and dispised two things in this world, one being Steve Phillips and the second was the Braves. The whole Phillips hatred still lingers but the Braves have fallen out of the "hate" category a new hatred has been paced upon those damn Phillies. But is it really hate? Or is it jealousy?

Watching this World Series ande seeing the Phillies play the Mets over the past few years, 2 things become very clear. One is that the Phillies are really good and the other thing is that they are going to be really good for a long time. They have the good mix of excellent home grown talent ( Howard, Hamels, Utley) mixed in with a crafty General Manager that has brought in some excellent outside talent( Victorino, Werth, Lee, Ibanez) as well as having fun playing with each other while winning games.( And alot of them)

Also watching this team you get the sense that they have the confidence in each other, coupled with their grittyness, to never count themselves out of any game, both things that the Mets clearly lack. Compared to the Mets it looked like the Phillies were coming back and winning every game in the late innings while trailing, meanwhile the boys in Flushing were half way in the showers when they were down any amount of runs after the 5th inning. Add all that together and the fact that they got Mets fan favorite Dominican righty, Pedro Martinez, to throw harder then 90 MPH and get through more the 6 innings of work while still being effective, it makes me think that although i hate them, this Phillies team is everything that I wish the Mets could be.

A few words of advice for the Mets Organization....it is time to stop competing with George and the boys from Bronx for the cover of the back page and take a walk over to Broad Street to see how they do it in Philly.

Plaza

When will we learn?

Since George Steinbrenner bought the Yankees from CBS in 1973 there has been a very simple motto, "Win at all costs." And win they have. In the 36 years that ol' Georgie has been at the helm, the Yankees have won a total of 11 AL pennants and 6 World Series Championships, and they're one win away from their 7th. Just to put this in perspective, the law of averages says that, all things being equal, the Yankees should have won 1, maybe 2, World Series titles in that time. But that's the beauty of sports, all things are not equal, and Mr. Steinbrenner has taken full advantage of that fact.

And yet Yankees fans, sportswriters, baseball analysts and others still continue to second guess the decisions from "the boss." Namely, the decision to give Joba Chamberlain a position in the rotation with innings limits. Some believe he should be able to pitch without a limit, while most say he should have never left the 'pen. Don't get me wrong, I understand George didn't create the newest version of the "Joba Rules", but you also have to understand that he has always micromanaged, and if he didn't agree with what was going on, well, it wouldn't be going on at all. (Don't let the death-bed crap fool you, I'm quite certain he's still very much involved in the goings-on of his team. Do you really think he would let an idiot like Hank make the decisions?) While I don't disagree with many of the points that I've heard regarding the use of Joba, I think the average fan needs to be a bit more open minded.

First and foremost, the use (or misuse) of number 62 did not effect team success negatively in any tangible way. The Yankees still won the American League East by 8 games this year, and are well on their way to winning the World Series. So really, so long as no one is getting hurt, who the hell cares how they handle any of their players if they're hoisting that sweet trophy at the end of the year? Trust me, I wouldn't care if Jerry Manuel made David Wright wear a clown nose and Jose Reyes play with his pants on backwards if the Mets won. At this point, I guess it couldn't hurt to try that anyway, nothing else has worked for them. But I digress. Moving on...

To the guys who said Joba should have never left the bullpen, raise your hand if you have always dreamed of being a major league set up guy. I'll assume most of your hands are still firmly placed on crotch. Here's the thing, no one wants to be a set up guy, it's lame. Middle relief is for guys who don't have the stuff to be closers or the stamina to be starters. (I'm talking to you, Aaron Heilman). I'll agree that Joba's stuff is better suited for the bullpen with that mid-90's fastball and very nice, late breaking slider. But here's the thing, he wants to try his hand as a starter. So why not let him? It's not as if the Yankees have 5 better starters they could throw out there, and here you have a 24 year old kid that you plan on keeping around for a while, so why not keep him happy? Better to give him his way than have him bitching about being in the 'pen to the front office for the next few years until Mariano hangs 'em up.

And those who don't want him to have an innings limit as a starter, once again, here you have a 24 year old kid that you plan on keeping around for a while. He has yet to prove he can pitch 150-plus innings in a season at a major league level. More importantly, no matter how well he pitches as a starter, he is still the heir-apparent to Mo. No reason to blow a kids arm out for a few extra innings in a season with little need for him to do any more than he did. As I said before, the Yankees still won the AL East by a nice 8 game margin, so why push him to do more? I've heard countless fans use his age as a reason to let him pitch more innings, but they're not thinking long term. Why would you risk the health of your future closer for a few extra (meaningless) innings?*

The Yankees will still "win at all costs", and Mr. Steinbrenner would never allow anything to happen that he thinks might risk that in the present or for the future of his franchise. I guess the point I'm trying to make is, next time you think about critiquing Yankees player management decisions, think again. Of course, I'm not suggesting all Yankees fans should be mindless "yes men." I'm just saying you're almost forced to give the current ownership the benefit of the doubt. They've earned it.

Doc Anderson

By the way, I'm not one who is big on post scripts, but I just had to say I felt sick writing most of these praises about the Yankees, and you should not expect many more posts like this, if any at all. LETS GO METS!

*I'll ask just this once that you cut me a little slack if you find anything inherently incorrect about this post, as I try to avoid a large amount of Yankees related news, and I may not have all of the minute facts that an actual Yankees fan may learn on a day to day basis. Like I said, it was hard enough to write this post as it is, but I tried to be as factually accurate as possible. Please feel free to correct me (or just argue with

me) if necessary.

So it begins...

This blog is here to give the average fan something to read about, look at and be amused by. The commish's are from the New York area, so we will be biased but we will definitely give a view from all over the sports world.......so lets begin shall we.....

Manu Ginobili must have forgot what day it was, because he still thought last night was Halloween and he came as Batman


In case you missed it, a bat flew into the game last night between San Antonio and the Sacramento Queens, i mean Kings, and the Argentinian Prince, Manu swatted right out of the air

You have to feel bad for this bat, it had no idea it was about to fly right into the hand of Mr. Ginobili, but check out the guy that gets handed the bat from Ginobili, i mean how much is that guy getting paid right...You gotta pay me a little more then minimum wage to be holding onto a dead bat that Manu can add to his collection...Don't be surprised if those animal lovers, PETA, get involved....can anyone say Michael Vick.