I'm Well Rested This Morn.

Got a lot of sleep last night. Started early to bed and stayed there well past 7 AM. Thanks, Matsui!

Yanks win 7-3 and Matsui has 6 RBI? And Matsui, with just 13 plate appearances, becomes the Series MVP? God, I hate the designated hitter!

Seriously though, congratulations to Hideki Matsui on being selected as the MVP. He's been one of the few in the last couple of years who has gone out and done his job on the field and been a real professional off the field as well. And he's done this since June 15, 2005 on a pair of bad knees that keep him from playing in the outfield. Without the DH, he would have been forced out of the game. I still don't like that particular rule (the DH), but it has certainly preserved the careers of many pure hitters.

Talkin' Baseball

Tonight I sit back and watch at least the first six orr seven innings of THE game. Although, if Pedro and the Phillies fall more than three runs behind early on, I'll probably chug my beer and head for bed with a book in hand.

It's not that I'm a Phillies Phan, anything but. No, I'm a die hard anti-Yankees Fan. I thought Damn Yankees was a documentary. I discovered baseball fandom in 1962 when the Mets were born. Prior to that date, I didn't have a baseball team. Born in 1949, I could have been a Dodgers or Giants fan, but those teams had left NYC in 1957, about the time would have been getting into baseball. Living in northern New Jersey, the only team on radio or TV and in the newspapers day in and day out from 1958 through 1961 were those damn, insufferable, Yankees.

Oh, individual Yankee players were fine. I liked Yogi (really, who didn't!) and enjoyed the M & M boys (Maris and Mantle for those who need to ask) and their great year of 1961. Elston Howard, Whitey Ford, Boyer...each was an excellent player and had tremendous skills that were, well, admirable. It was the Yankee TEAM that I couldn't stand. Never did like bullies and that's what they seemed to be to me. They beat everyone!

They still do. What is it up to now? Forty (40) American League titles, 26 World Series Championships? Something like that. Pretty obscene for a team that came to NYC in 1903 as the Highlanders. (The name was changed to Yankees in 1913.) One hundred six years and they've got nearly 40% of the American League titles. Between 1949 and 1964 the freakin' Yankees were in the World Series 14 times! That's 14 times in 16 years! AND they won five in a row between 1949 and 1954.

It still gets my goat that so much was made of the Yankees return to the World Series after an absence of nine years. Cry me a freakin' river!

I still hate the Phillies. But for tonight--and hopefully tomorrow night, I'll be rooting for them like crazy.

Baseball

I was going to write a post about how the Mets have to stop getting 3 runs in the first inning. Every time they have done so this season, they seem to struggle to score any more and their starter gives up more than 3 in the first five innings of the game. Then the Metsies had to pull Friday night's game against Milwaukee out of a hat by coming back to tie the score at 4-4 on 40-year old Gary Sheffield's 500th career home run and then accepting a gift wrapped win 5-4.

(Today's game was a humdinger of a pitchers' duel that saw Johan Santana get his second win in a 1-0 thriller.)

Then there was the Yankee vs Cleveland game on Saturday. The Yankees scored 2 in the bottom of the first to jump out to a 2-0 lead. From then on is was Custer against the Souix. Cleveland scored 14 runs in the top of the second inning. The final? 22-4 Indians. Ouch!

55,000?

DrewM. at Ace of Spades, “ a lifelong fan of the other NY baseball team” postson a curious hobby of NY Yankee Hideki Matsui: Collecting pron. He has some 55,000 items in his collection. Must be one hell of a mattress.

DrewM.:

Dude!
Maybe it’s really just part of his training program. You need strong wrists to be a good hitter.

You’ve got to go take a look at the comments. They are a hoot. Plus there is a link there to the original story.