10 Reasons why the New York Yankees winning the 2011 World Series would be good for baseball

In the second of my series of Why Each Team's Potential World Championship Would Be Good For The Game, I decided to tackle the toughest one and get it out of the way.



Yup. The Yankees. The team that is so universally hated and such a short hand for being the bad guys in baseball that even the enemy little league team in The Bad New Bears was called The Yankees!



And yet the Yankees are the most popular team, get the highest ratings and, oh yes, play in the biggest media market in the country. So SOMEONE must like them!



So as painful as it may be for the Red Sox fan, I have found 10 reasons. Now excuse me as I hold my nose as I type this.

10 Reasons why the

New York Yankees

winning the 2011 World Series

would be good for baseball

1. It is IMPOSSIBLE to not like Curtis Granderson



Trust me, I've tried. I try to hate EVERYONE on the Yankees. But there is something about Granderson that is just appealing.



He is respectful of the past, good in the community, clever in interviews (and will be a terrific broadcaster) and plays the game all out.



If anyone understands the Yankee tradition and where being on a championship Yankee team would mean, it is Granderson.



It's tough to root for a Yankee... but it is easy to root for Granderson.

2. A 6th Ring for Derek Jeter... and its repercussions



There will soon be a big and ugly showdown over Derek Jeter's playing time in New York. And 6 rings for Jeter will make the Jorge Posada controversy look like two people having a friendly cup of coffee together.



Can you IMAGINE the refrains from Jeter's followers if he gets benched (as most shortstops in their late 30s do)?



"He has as many rings as Jordan!"

"He has led the Yankees to World Series titles in three different decades!"

"How can you sit him?"



It might be worth sitting through a Yankee World Series parade just to see that happen.





3. Watching Girardi and Posada interact in the World Series celebration



The second worst kept secret in baseball* is the tense relationship between manager Joe Girardi and one time catcher Jorge Posada.



Posada took Girardi's job as a player and Girardi is benching Posada as the manager. And Posada, a DH who can't hit, has no power nor speed, is peeved that he *GASP* isn't playing full time.



Posada probably would be reduced to "token pinch hitting role in a blow out" this post season. That is if Posada doesn't have ANOTHER hissy fit and quit on the team again.



Would they even nod to each other in a World Series celebration?



(*The worst kept secret in baseball is the whole Kevin Costner/Cal Ripken/Cal Ripken's wife thing.)





4. It will be interesting to see how A-Rod will come out badly in after a Yankees Championship



I am telling you... A-Rod could come back from his injuries, launch a few bombs down the stretch, get a walk off shot in the Division Series, win ALCS MVP and bat .500 in a Yankees World Series victory and there will STILL be someone writing about how much he sucks.



There will be SOMETHING he does... he won't use enough pine tar. He'll foul off one too many pitches. He won't look intense when the cameras cut away to him during the game. He will actually make an out. And THAT will be what people will focus on.



And he will respond to it stupidly in a press conference.



He will never win no matter how often he DOES win!





5. A ring for Eric Chavez



Of all of Oakland's stars in the 2000s, only one of them signed a contract extension to stick around the East Bay. That would be Chavez as Giambi, Tejada, Zito, Mulder, Hudson, Damon etc all left for more green, Chavez stuck around and WORE green.



He put in 12+ seasons in Oakland but broke down and signed as an afterthought with the Yankees. He has comeback and become a valuable left handed bat and substitute for the injured A-Rod. The 6 Time Gold Glove winner deserves some jewelry.







6. It will be interesting to see who could criticize Mariano Rivera after another title



He's going to be the all time saves leader. When he became a closer, Dennis Eckersley was still compiling saves and being among the league leaders. Eck is already in the Hall of Fame.



The only way to make an analogy of Mariano's greatness is with one of Eckersley's teammates, Rickey Henderson. When he passed Lou Brock in all stolen base categories and then kept going for another decade, it was clear that we were seeing the kind of player that we may never see again.



If Rivera clinches ANOTHER World Series? And continues to pile up the saves and the super human post season numbers? How could anyone criticize him?



(Oh there will be SOME moron who will.)





7. The aftermath of Multiple Rings for A. J. Burnett



Yankee fans tend to find a players worth the same way you determine the age of a tree: Count the rings!



Was Jeter better than A-Rod? Was DiMaggio better than Williams? Was Mantle better than Mays? The refrain from Yankee fans is always "Who won more rings?"



Well imagine this scenario... A. J. Burnett with two World Series rings and Don Mattingly with zero. Who was the better Yankee? I just counted the rings.



If Burnett wins another, he will have matched the combined total of Mattingly and Thurman Munson. Who was the better Yankee?



Do rings lie?





8. Cashman would leave right after a Yankee title and a bizarre chain reaction would begin



There have been rumblings that Cashman wants out of the Yankees front office. His bizarre press conference after the Rafael Soriano signing showed he wasn't 100% happy with the direction of the club. If the Yankees win again, he gets to leave on top.



And no doubt he would get a new gig to show he wasn't just the beneficiary of the deep Yankee pockets. That's when Brian Cashman will get a very rude awakening in the off season.



"What do you MEAN we can't sign Pujols, Heath Bell AND C. J. Wilson? Just sign them. It's only money!"



"Wait a second. What exactly is a salary dump? I have heard that term before but I never understood what it was."



"Wait, you actually expect your prospects to PLAY? They are just trade bait!"



Meanwhile whichever poor S.O.B. who takes over the Yankee GM job is in for the worst time of their life. Any bad decision they make would have the "Cashman wouldn't have done that label" and anything positive would just be chalked up to "Well they are the YANKEES. ANYONE could be GM."



If Cashman fails elsewhere, it would all but confirm that.

And before long Cashman will be hired back... and fired... then rehired... lather... rinse... repeat.





9. It would give Hal and Hank Steinbrenner some teeth.





Let's face it. Hal and Hank have been a big let down. Their dad was amazing and possibly insane and made hating the Yankees a real national obsession. So when he passed away (with his team the defending champs) the baton was passed to the calculating Hal and the passionate Hank.



It looked like Michael and Sonny were running the team.

Instead it is more like Carlo and Fredo. (If I have to explain any of those names, then I feel badly for you.)



What would make this dynamic work better? A championship of their own! And once Cashman is out (kind of like when Tessio got whacked) they can scream at each other for the direction of the team.



And the two of them could claim THEY were the reason the 2011 title was won and bicker for the next 30 years. The headlines that would create would be worth one Yankee title!





10. Sometimes the Empire needs to Strike Back!



OK enough Godfather references. I need to make some Star Wars analogies here.



What made the original Star Wars movies better than the new ones? Among all the reasons you can come up with, the best answer I would say is that the bad guys were really awesome in the original ones and COULD win.



The prequels had vague villains. Phantom Menaces. Scheming about tax routes. Robots who could all be shut down by one ship blowing up. I don't even KNOW what they were fighting about in Episode 2.



But in the original Star Wars movies? Right from the start when Vader's Star Destroyer dwarfed Leia's ship you saw the Empire meant business. And sometimes the Empire is going to win. Ask the folks on Alderaan. Ask the Rebels squashed by the walkers on Hoth. Ask the pilots flying the rebel cruisers around the new Death Star in Jedi.



The times when the Yankees have been bad or not really championship quality, interest in baseball dipped. The A's, Pirates, Braves and Blue Jays just don't make for compelling bad guys!



So yeah, just like watching Duke win in basketball, or the Lakers or the Cowboys winning a title, having the big bad bully win from time to time gets everyone pumped up to BEAT THEM NEXT YEAR!



And Yankee fans who might be offended by the Empire analogy, ask yourself. Who would you rather dress up as at Halloween? A Stormtrooper or a Rebel Pilot? Count all the Darth Vaders on October 31 and compare that tally to all the Luke Skywalkers.



It's cool to be the Empire.





I am not going to lie to you. That was tough to write. But I needed to get this one out of the way. And I also know that when I write the Red Sox one, people will say "I bet you would NEVER write one about the YANKEES!"



And I would be able to say "I wrote the Yankees one BEFORE the Red Sox one."

It is a preemptive strike against my critics.



If you liked this then go ahead and read the entries for the other teams.



CHICAGO WHITE SOX

My first EVER Mikie Mahtook post

I never heard of Mikie Mahtook before the other day. Evidently he is a very talented outfielder from LSU.

The Rays, who had back to back picks at 31 and 32 in the first round, chose Mahtook.

High School Rivals says he's a great value and has a real shot to be a big leaguer.

This was the pick that Brian Cashman didn't want to surrender for anyone other than Cliff Lee. And the Steinbrenner boys did an end around and got Rafael Soriano which resulted in one of the great awkward press conferences ever.

Soriano is 32 and on the disabled list again.
Who knows when he is coming back and when that 5.40 ERA will go down.

Cashman better hope this is my last post on Mahtook.
Or shall I say the Steinbrenner boys better hope he doesn't. Otherwise, Cashman will remind them every day for the rest of their lives that they went with Soriano.
(I can't help it... I want Mahtook to become an All Star!)

But what is up with the name Mikie?

Hank... you are no George

I never want to hear Hank Steinbrenner try to talk tough about the players ever again.
It's like hearing Julian Lennon. You kind of look like your dad and sound like him... but you aren't the real thing.

He tried to talk tough about Jeter and his contract and how they don't owe him anything.
And guess what? The Yankees caved.

Was ANYONE ELSE offering Jeter a contract remotely close to what he signed? Of course not.
Does the contract make sense in terms of his market value? Not a chance.
Was he already generously paid over a 10 year contract as an elite player? You bet.

But the Yankees, bidding against nobody and holding all sorts of contract leverage folded like a tent.

You think George in his hey day would have stood for this?

Hank is all bark.
Jeter knew this from the start and knew that he was going to get a sweetheart deal even if nobody else in baseball would offer him HALF of that contract.

Now the love fest will begin and Jeter is indeed a great Yankee... and like any great Yankee, he squeezed every last dime out of the franchise while people praised his loyalty.

The ghost of George visits Hank and Hal

(Hank and Hal Steinbrenner sit in their Tampa offices. The TV is on showing the Giants and Rangers playing in the World Series. Each are reading over details of Joe Girardi's contract offer. They both look up when they hear a strange rattling.)

HANK:
What the hell was that?

HAL:
Who's there?

(The ghost of their father, George M. Steinbrenner III, appears.)

GHOST:
I am thy father's spirit,
Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night.
But this eternal blazon must not be
To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O, list!
If thou didst ever thy dear father love--

HANK:
That doesn't sound like you, dad.

HAL:
You never spoke in iambic pentameter.

GHOST:
What? Your old man didn't have a flair for the dramatic?
I ought to fire you both.

HANK:
Now THAT'S dad.

HAL:
What are you doing here?

GHOST:
(Pointing to the TV.)
First of all, I want that turned off. There's no World Series being played
this year. Not as far as we are concerned. Now for the last few years my
body has slowed me down a little. But let me tell you... I am charged up
and ready to be the old George again.

(Ghost sees they are reviewing papers.)

GHOST:
What are you working on? I assume the apology to the fans of New York
for such a poor showing this October?

HAL:
Um... no dad. We're not issuing a statement like that.

GHOST:
Why not? What are you satisfied with this showing? Did you break camp
in April saying "Ooooo. I hope this rag tag bunch of misfits scrapes together 95 wins and gets the Wild Card?" You think New Yorkers want that? You see those "Wild Card" hats and shirts flying off the racks? We should donate the whole damn line to Goodwill. It's a disgrace. What are you working on?

HANK:
These are about Girardi.

GHOST:
Ah. Good work. Get him out of here.

HAL:
Actually it's a three year extension. We're bringing him back.

GHOST:
WHAT?

HANK:
We believe in Joe.

GHOST:
Oh I believe in him too... I believe he just cost us a trip to the World Series. Did you see how he managed that ALCS? He wouldn't bring in Mariano Rivera with the season on the line, but in every big spot out came David Robertson. I read the box scores and kept thinking "Why the hell are they listing his social security number?" Then I realized THAT WAS HIS PLAYOFF E.R.A.!

HAL:
The Rangers were tough.

GHOST:
Tough? We used to beat them and they'd score only one run all series. And those were the Rangers who were all on steroids. But it's easy to score runs I guess when you don't use your Hall of Famers and keep throwing the Robertsons and Mitres of the world. Where the hell was Sabathia when the season was on the line in Game 4?

HANK:
Joe didn't want to wear down his arm.

GHOST:
Wear down his arm? He threw 10 innings over 2 weeks. Billy Martin used to throw Sparky Lyle 10 innings every other day out of the bullpen. Does Sabathia look like a guy who is going to wither away? He's built like a brontosaurus. But I guess Joe got his wish. He'll be well rested for spring training!

HAL:
Burnett actually pitched well.

GHOST:
6 innings and 5 runs for the loss. That's a 7.50 ERA.
For $16 million I'd expect a little more than that.
Catfish Hunter could throw better than that and he's as dead as me!

HANK:
That's not fair, dad. Burnett pitched well for the first 5 innings.

GHOST:
Well unless they shortened the game to 5 innings since I've been gone,
those other 4 innings count too! And going into that game, every Yankee fan out there would ask a GENIE for 5 innings from Burnett... then 2 from Wood and 2 from Rivera. But Clueless Joe kept Burnett out there until his arm fell off. Which reminds me, when the hell did we start letting players wear tattoos on their arm?

HAL:
Molina hit a fluke homer right after the intentional walk.

GHOST:
That's another thing. Why was every other batter intentionally walked?
David Murphy was walked? Did David Murphy become Joe DiMaggio since
I went away? And what's he doing walking Josh Hamilton twice early in
Game 6?

HANK:
Well, best face Guerrero. He didn't do anything all series.

GHOST:
He got 4 hits in one of the games! What happened to going after the hitters?

HAL:
Joe likes to go "By the book."

GHOST:
Let me give you the Cliff Notes for that book. "I have the biggest payroll in baseball and I spit the bit 2 out of 3 seasons." I've read it. Let me spoil the ending for you. It ends with the words "You're fired."

HANK:
He has Cashman's vote of approval.

GHOST:
There's another one. This guy has Monopoly money to play with. He can just keep building Hotels on Park Place and Boardwalk... and we don't have a #4 starter? We don't have a decent pen? That poor shmuck Joba kept being shifted back and forth that Girardi tried to bring him into the game as a reliever but forgot he was starting. Get rid of Cashman.

HAL:
We can't do that!

GHOST:
Why not? There's good GMs floating around out there. Let's see how
they'd feel about working with blank checks. They might even put a Division
Winner on the field... something we've only done ONCE since 2006. And get a
manager in here with some guts.

HANK:
Like who?

GHOST:
Why not Bobby Valentine? I liked that whole "disguise" thing he pulled in
Queens. Very clever. Or hell, Joe Torre's available. Get the author back in here and have him write a sequel.

HAL:
Torre? We've already parted ways. There's too many bad feeling there.

GHOST:
Like Billy Martin and me were singing Kumbaya. I'd bring Billy back sometimes WHILE I was firing him. Let's go. Let's shake things up. I can only do so much from the other world.

HANK:
What should we do first?

GHOST:
Can you shake up the coaching staff?

HAL:
We already let Dave Eiland go.

GHOST:
That's my boy! And by the way. I saw my monument at the Stadium.
It's nice. Understated.

HANK:
Thanks dad.

GHOST:
Fare thee well at once!
The glow-worm shows the matin to be near,
And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire:
Adieu, adieu! Hank and Hal, remember me.

(Hank and Hal look confused.)

GHOST:
That's Billy Shakespeare. Good guy. Turns out he has a wicked curve ball.
Lived in the wrong century. I would have paid him Kei Igawa money.

(Exit Ghost. Hank and Hal exhale, look at Girardi's extension, and then search for Joe Torre's number.)

HANK:
(Into Phone)
Joe. It's Hank Steinbrenner. You won't BELIEVE why I am calling you.

Why this Red Sox fan thinks George Steinbrenner was good for baseball

George Steinbrenner, a unintentionally a showman to the end, died on the morning of the All Star Game. Nobody knows how sick he has been over the last few years as his public appearances have been more and more seldom and his sons Hal and Hank have been running the show.

But now the Boss is gone. And so is a baseball era.

I know I am a Red Sox fan and my blogpost title might have some people think I am going to write a snarky sarcastic piece... or that I am going to try and say something polite out of respect for the recently departed.

But I'm not. I am 100% sincere when I say that when George Steinbrenner took over the Yankees in the 1970s, it was a great moment for baseball in terms of popularity, passion and making the game more fun.

Think about it... for Yankee fans, the franchise turned around twice under his leadership. When he took over the team in 1973 from CBS, the Yankees were just another team. They were 9 years removed from their last pennant and they lagged far behind the Orioles, the Tigers and the mighty Oakland A's in the American League... and the great Yankee Stadium was crumbling.

By the time of his death, the Yankees once again were the gold standard of baseball, winning titles in the 70s, 90s and 2000s with superstars both homegrown and acquired.

Yeah, George had his bad qualities as an owner. His insane merry go round of managers in the 1980s, his gobbling up of free agents from Catfish Hunter to CC Sabathia, and his treatment of Billy Martin, Yogi Berra, Dave Winfield and Joe Torre inexcusable.

But wasn't that part of what made the Yankees of the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s fun?

And for the rest of us... it was made the Yankees fun to HATE!

For whatever reason, Yankee fans have never seemed to embrace that they are the bad guys in baseball... the villains. But do you know who DID?

George M. Steinbrenner.

He got it. He understood that role the Yankees play in baseball. As I wrote before, the resentment for the Yankees started long before Steinbrenner took over the team. There's no musical called "Damn Orioles."

But with Steinbrenner the Yankees assumed the role of the monolithic team that everyone wanted to see and beat.

First with the Bronx Zoo, then with the efficient Torre Years and now with the star studded Jeter/Rivera/A-Rod teams, people love to root AGAINST them.

Don't believe me? Check out the Yankees road attendance. Look at places like Oakland or Kansas City or Seattle or Cleveland when the Yankees come to town. There is always a spike in attendance. The teams charge more for tickets because they know that fans want to see their team beat the Yankees.

The Dodgers wouldn't sell single game tickets for the Yankee series... you also had to buy tickets for a less desirable match up.

Like any James Bond film, the better the bad guy, the more exciting it is. And Steinbrenner was always the one to absorb the blows as the Oil Can Harry figure of the team. Whether it was in his crazy press releases, hosting SNL or getting a kick out of being a character on Seinfeld, he understood his role.

It was tough to hate quiet professional stars like Jorge Posada, Andy Pettite, Mariano Rivera and Bernie Williams (although I found ways to)... but George was always a punching bag and he seemed to relish it.

The biggest dips in baseball's popularity were in the late 1960s and the early 1990s... and in both times the Yankees were lousy. Is that a coincidence?

It's tough to get worked up when the bad guy is the Oakland A's or the Baltimore Orioles.

As for the biggest complaint about him... the fact that he spends the most on free agents on payroll, let's not sidestep that.

Yeah, the payroll of the Yankees is obscenely high. Even more obscenely high than my beloved Red Sox who are as gluttonous as John Belushi circa 1981.

Let me ask you something though... do you think Steinbrenner is the richest owner in the game? For years that was Carl Pohlad of the Twins who let his players jump ship left and right and threatened to contract the team.

Who is a bigger disgrace to the game? George Steinbrenner for making every off season somewhat of a circus? Or the Pirates management pocketing revenue sharing and playing in a tax funded stadium while putting an unwatchable product on the field for nearly 2 decades?

And if you think that just playing in New York makes you a winner, then you should have some conversations with some Mets fans... or Knick fans... or Ranger fans... or Jet fans.... (Imagine if you were a Met/Knick/Ranger/Jet fan... Lord help you.)

As with most of the Yankee resentment, there comes a certain amount of jealousy. I know this as a Red Sox fan... I wanted the Yankee titles and all the Yankee stars to come to Boston. And when people started saying the Red Sox were evil like the Yankees I LOVED it.

Let's face it, Sox fans... Steinbrenner and the Yankees raised the interest level for the Red Sox as well.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Sox main rivals were the Toronto Blue Jays. Yeah those pennant races were fun (especially the wild down to the last Brunansky catch season of 1990) but they were a mere sparkler compared to the fireworks of the late 1990s and 2000s clash with the Yankees.

The Red Sox became a national brand and the passion went through the roof. Part of that was the new ownership who sold the team to the public better than the moronic Yawkeys ever could. But they also had the perfect bad guy for Red Sox Nation.

Would 2004 have been as sweet if the Red Sox came back from 0-3 against the Twins?

Now of course I am heaping a lot of praise on how Steinbrenner ran the team over the years when of course he made many mistakes and often times was the benefactor of other people's work that he disagreed with.

Lest we forget if he had his way Ron Guidry would have been traded to the Blue Jays.

Bernie Williams would have been dealt countless times.

Jeter was almost dealt for Bryan Harvey!

As I wrote before the Yankees of the 1980s were a comedy of insanely bad decisions.

And Yankee managers Dick Howser, Billy Martin, Lou Piniella, Buck Showalter and Joe Torre all led other teams to the post season after getting fired by George.

But that was one of the things that made George fun as well... pointing out the mistakes and the BAD signings. The Hideki Irabus and Ed Whitsons... the Randy Johnsons and Carl Pavanos.

It's going to be different now. With the Yankees as a conglomerate and most owners being anonymous, you aren't going to see a lightning rod owner like this for a long time.

Who knows how interested Hank and Hal will be in running the Yankees?

Who knows what kind of passion there will be in the front office in the Bronx?

The Boss is gone.

Whether you loved him or hated him... feared him or mocked him... he made the game more fun.

I know I am going to miss him.

I covered a lot of this when I compared Steinbrenner to the Weinstein Brothers a few years ago... it is still applicable.

I don't know if there is an afterlife or not. There may be... there may not be... but if there is, I hope someone up there is recording the George Steinbrenner-Billy Martin reunion.

It would be a sight to behold.

Rest in peace, Mr. Steinbrenner.

I know what I want for my birthday!

Joe Torre is writing a tell all book about his Yankee days?


Teammates referring to A-Rod as A-Fraud?
Revealing which members of the Yankees front office betrayed him?

Are you kidding me?

I want the book AND the book on CD.

Maybe he'll reveal why he put Jeff Weaver in a tied World Series game, why he didn't run off of Tim Wakefield in the '04 ALCS and why he didn't bunt off of Schilling when nobody was sure if his foot was attached.

The Steinbrenners can give one more F-You to Joe Torre...

Something occurred to me as I read about Joe Gordon's induction to the Hall of Fame.

The Steinbrenners are not above doing something petty and vindictive and they seem to loathe Joe Torre, who had the audacity of taking credit for his remarkable run as Yankees manager.

Sure leaving out any mention of him during the Yankee Stadium closing ceremonies was pretty shallow (they gave Jesse Barfield a bigger tribute!)

But think of this...
They can honor the newly minted Yankee Hall of Famer by retiring his number 6 in the new monument park.
Who was the last person to wear #6?

That would be Torre... and it was widely assumed that his 6 would eventually be retired.
How clever would that be?

They get to be petty all the while looking like they are honoring a long departed Yankee Hall of Famer.
Don't put it past them.

If it happens, remember your friend Sully called it!

As Hal takes over the Yankees, I can't help but think of that idiot Steve Swindal

Remember Steve Swindal?

Probably not.

He is the Carlo of the Steinbrenner family.
The Son in Law who could have had everything he wanted if only he wasn't so stupid.

For Carlo it was a position in the Corleone family... all he had to do was not hit Connie and then cheat on her and not cut a deal with Barzini handing over Sonny.

For Steve it was full control over the Yankees, especially in an off season where he'd have $80 million extra and a new stadium to play with... all he had to do was call a cab when he was drunk in Tampa.

Instead he drove drunk... was caught and his wife divorced him...
And suddenly he's just another drunk Yankee fan in Florida.

Now the keys of the kingdom have been handed to Hal, the Michael of the family, instead of Hank, the Steinbrenner answer to Sonny.



Nice job Steve.
Seriously, call a cab next time.

Because when it comes to the chance to take complete control of one of the powerhouse franchises in the sports world, God Knows there will be a next time!

Oh Hank you are making it easy to hate the Yankees again

On the heels of the good will and goosebumps of the Yankee Stadium finale, the Boss’s son makes everyone remember why the Yankees are the easiest team to hate.

So Little Hank Steinbrenner… who first tried to write off the bad Yankees season to injuries (because Heaven knows no other teams had any injuries this season, just the Yankees) but now tries to brush aside Joe Torre’s success with Los Angeles based solely on the weaker division they played in.



Oh I see… so because the NL West isn’t as good, the fact that Torre is doing his job and winning said Division isn’t as impressive as finishing in third place.

I don’t seem to recall this logic working the other way. When the Yankees stumbled into the 2000 playoffs, they had lost their last 7 games, 15 of their last 17 games.

Their record was worse than the Indians who went 90-72, but failed to make the playoffs.

Did I hear anyone downgrading that accomplishment?
Nope, especially not after the Yankees righted the ship and beat Oakland, Seattle and the Mets for the World Series.

(Their last one I might add.)

And this coming off the heels of the closing ceremonies where Torre was snubbed.

I love it that some poor schlub named Jason Zillo was forced into the role of explaining that Torre's lack of recognition, even on the Jumbo Tron, was not a snubbing.

"A lot of great Yankees weren't mentioned," he reasoned.
Ah, so he slipped through the cracks.

Jesse Barfield gets a highlight clip, but the man who put together the greatest Yankee dynasty since Casey Stengel slipped your mind.

It couldn't have been because he turned down the Yankees lousy offer and the fact that his team is in first and the Yankees are playing out the string, could it?

Nahhhh.

Oh but keep talking Hank.
You are making your dad seem profound by comparison.