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The Yankees are headed to the American League Championship Series for the first time since 2004—when they lost to the Red Sox—and now they are signing the praises of Alex Rodriguez. Manager Joe Girardi said, "Without Alex, we're probably not in this situation right now. We're probably still playing. He had a monster series, monster hits."
The Daily News broke down his stats a little: "In a three-game series sweep in which the Yanks batted just .225 as a team and had a .288 on-base percentage, Rodriguez hit .455 (5-for-11) with two homers and six RBI. He hit two game-tying homers, including a solo shot in Game 3 Sunday night with one out in the seventh inning." He's a "real Yankee" now all right! Of course, Jorge Posada is getting credit for his game-winning home run last night, as were Andy Pettittee, Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter (the Post's Joel Sherman calls them "The Dynasty Boys").
Also making things sweet was the Anaheim Angels' sweep of the Boston Red Sox. A fan told MLB.com, "I don't know what I'm happier about, the Sox getting swept, or us doing the sweeping [of the Twins]." However, that means the Angels, who have done a good job of confounding the Yankees, are headed to the Bronx on Friday—Johnny Damon said, "There is no quit in the Angels. We see that when we play them."
Still, the NY Times' William Rhoden is hoping for a Yankees-L.A. Dodgers matchup for the World Series: "Baseball needs a World Series for the ages, one that reinforces its roots and, yes, its relative purity. Granted, this is a lot to ask one World Series matchup to accomplish, but baseball needs an authentic fall classic. It needs Yankees-Dodgers, for the good of the game."
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The sad truth is, the Tampa Bay Rays LOSING the world series is ten times more meaningful and interesting than the Yankees winning it.
Spending $200+ million does not guarantee winning the world series. But if you spend that every year, it basically guarantees it will happen eventually. So when it does, it's just a statistical inevitability, nothing more.
Yeah, my husband (a Cardinals fan) noted that the Yankees' pitchers make more than the Twins' whole lineup.
and if you watched the series you know why ;)
ZING!
why do people get so upset about the Yankees' payroll? It is called supply and demand. Is it their fault they are the biggest money maker in the biggest market in the country? They already give a lot for revenue sharing. Other team owners are just not willing to spend like the Yanks.
from my perspective - its not so much about "buying talent to win" as much as it is outbidding every other team and making it nearly impossible to compete in the free agency market.
Then again, yankee fans seem to be ok with paying triple for their tickets than other baseball fans, twice as much for beer, being force fed sponsorships (tonight's fan picture of the day brought to you by Range Rover!), and having their tax money go towards building multi-billion dollar stadium just so that they can have a line up of All-Stars on their team.
in the cc photo, you can see Melky (I think) with a can. There were a bunch of them in the celebration last night. anyone know what that is, never seen it before.
looks like a can of coke.
it should be beer, in the other LAA celebration they had budweiser in predominately red cans. makes it look like a soda can.
I'm not a yankee fan but it's good seeing pettite smiling, happy and paling around with his teammates, even though he is a jesus freak.
Money didn't cause Nick Punto to ignore his third base coach and round third. Nor did it cause Carlos Gomez to round second and get tagged out before his teammate was able to cross home. The high payroll argument is as tired as complaining about hipsters at this point.
No, but money sure helped secure those game 1 and 2 starting pitching performances. And the walkoff HR that ended game 2. And the $27 million/year third baseman who hit two key homeruns in the three-game series. I'm a YANKEE fan since the days of Goose Gossage and Mickey Rivers and even I can see that.
If the Yanks win it all it will be nice but it won't be that nice. The simple fact is that other teams can't compete. What if the Twins had signed Teixeira in the off-season? Oh wait -- they couldn't have done that because his contract is worth almost as much as the entire franchise. The NFL structure is so much better. It's why Giants fans can get excited over beating the Vikings in a way that Yankees fans can't about beating the Twins.
it's incredibly refreshing to hear (see) that from a yankees fan. you hit the nail right on the head - specifically in the second paragraph.
yea but the NFL makes a helluva lot more money than baseball across the board. less teams, less games, higher prices.
The NFL has 32 teams; the MLB has 30. Besides, the NFL makes more across the board because it has a wider appeal to all of America. Even smaller market teams like Indianapolis can win Super Bowls.
The fact that there's a lot of money concentrated in a few, mostly coastal baseball teams may be good for teams like the Yankees, but it's what's turning baseball into a regional sport and not a national one.
"Even smaller market teams like Indianapolis can win Super Bowls."
Indianapolis: "the 14th largest city in the U.S., the third largest city in the Midwest (behind Chicago and Detroit), and the second most populous state capital (behind Phoenix, Arizona)."
"The population of the metropolitan statistical area is estimated at 1,715,459, making it the 33rd-largest in the U.S. The combined statistical area population of Indianapolis is 2,035,327, the 23rd-largest in the U.S."
Quoted from Wikipedia, but it is all true.
(Pittsburgh would have been a better example.)
Green Bay says it all. If you're a sports fan in Sheboygan you know every year that the Milwaukee Brewers have virtually no chance of making the playoffs. But the Packers compete on even footing with the rest of the NFL.
"you know every year that the Milwaukee Brewers have virtually no chance of making the playoffs."
Well... actually they did just last year. As any Mets fan will remember, the Brewers took the wild card as the Mets faded late.
"the Anaheim Angels"
The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
Yeah, it's ridicuouls. But they were only the Anaheim Angels for a few years, when Disney owned the team.
Any pics of Burnett and Posada hugging and supporting each other? lol
I just wanna see more kate hudson and kurt russell.
What happens if A-Rod dies out during the Angels series? I though he isn't a "true yankee" until they win the world series with him?
These photos look pretty gay to me.
i hate the yankees.
They're a mediocre team in a dying sport.
Great.
Yeah, stick with the Cubs which just went bankrupt. Oh well, what is it they say? "As long as the beer's flowing at Wrigley..?"
"They're a mediocre team in a dying sport."
You might be able to argue the latter point, but the former is unsupported by any facts.
That first argument, though, has to counter the fact that this season's total attendence was the 4th highest in MLB history.