When it gets to Game Six, I get too nervous to make predictions. It’s always dramatic when Pedro Martinez pitches at Yankee Stadium. I can’t even count how many big games I’ve watched Andy Pettitte pitch. Suffice to say that Pettitte has won more playoff games than anyone in history, and I’ve seen them all.
I feel good about being back home in the new Stad, with the DH. I like facing a right-handed pitcher, even if he is one of the best pitchers to have ever played the game. I don’t know who will win, but I have a feeling that this game will have new heroes. Robinson Cano seems to be coming out his slump and Nick Swisher’s swing looks a lot better. Ryan Howard and Mark Teixeira have to snap out of their slumps sometime, don’t they?
I’m just going to enjoy the game. But it won’t be easy to relax with so much on the line.
Update [2009-11-5 0:7:37 by BooMan]: Yanks win in six. Congratulations to the Phillies on a great season and a great Series. They are a great team and they’ll probably be back in the Fall Classic soon. It’s been nine years since I’ve been able to celebrate a Yankee championship. An interesting side note is that the Yankees won the World Series in 1923 in their first year in the original Yankee Stadium and they won in 2009 in their first year in the new Yankee Stadium. Also, congratulations to Hideki Matsui on winning the MVP. I hope this wins him a contract for next year. He’s a class act.
There is nothing ‘on the line’. Nothing. Sorry to be the one to break that news to you.
It is just a game. Historically it does not matter one bit who wins. None.
If the real world is an elephant, sports is the fly crawling around its anus.
nalbar
the Sun is gonna burn out dude. None of it matters.
I’ll bet there are lots of gamblers who would disagree with you.
And I’ll bet there are lots of Phillies and Yankee fans who don’t have money on it who would disagree with you. It’s just part of the American psyche, and you can say it doesn’t matter (which as BooMan says in the long term it doesn’t) or you can accept that there are people who are passionate about this sort of thing. Me, I always figure betting against human nature is a losing proposition.
AH!
It’s important because ……. people bet on it! I’m sure organized crime is proud.
nalbar
It’s important to them. Maybe not to you.
Yes it is “just a game” ……..
fortunately for this Yankees fan,
they are currently winning this game …..
FTFY.
FTFYUTWA.
That Is All.
It’s a fucking joke. Philly is phalling apart. Phirst, Martinez pitched terribly, errors by the Phillies, Matsue has just matched the record for RBIs in a single WS game.
So, CONGRATS YANKEES!! You won this one fair and square, although Philadelphia has done the best they can to give you the game.
He keeps going on about how lights-out Mariano Rivera always has been. He seems to be forgetting game 7 of the 2001 WS against the Diamondbacks . . .
and just as I type this Ibañez gets a double against Rivera. Probably still a lost cause, but as a longtime Mariner fan it’s nice to see Ibañez having a chance at the big game.
(Yeah, a lost cause.)
I’m still on track with my Yankees in six prediction…!
So where’s the bubbly, BooMan???
Nine … whole … years …
The agony …
The agony …
Yankees fans are, indeed, not exactly renowned for their self-perception.
I’m sure lots of franchises would love to have $200 million a year–two-thirds more than the second-richest team, and 2.5 times the MLB franchise median–to blow on walking barrels of HGH so that their fans could whine that it had been a whole nine years since their last title.
And explain to me why Bonds, McGwire and Sosa are pariahs while Rodriguez is allowed to blast honest teams all season and postseason with pharmaceutical dinger after pharmaceutical dinger?
The Yankees are a disgrace to American sports, and neither their fans nor the franchises following them down the cesspool (Mets, Cubs, Red Sox) are far behind.
hah!! who’s whining? It ain’t me.
Well, you did write that it had been nine years since you’d seen your team win a WS championship, as if that were some kind of deprivation. (Any guesses how many loyal fans out there would love to be able to say they’d seen their team win it once in the last ten years, or twenty years, or in their lifetime?)
That’s a standard Yankee fan lament, and yes, it’s pretty whiny.
It’s a factual statement. It has been nine years since I’ve been able to celebrate a Yankee championship. You can interpret that anyway you want.
Oh, please.
The “interpret what I said however you like” tack is the oldest, easiest, and most miserable rhetorical evasion there is.
You could also say, “It’s only been nine years since I last celebrated a Yankee championship!” Equivalent factual statement. Same propositional content. Rather different tone. And I don’t think that you just flipped a coin between the statement you produced and that one, or that, if the formulation I just put up were proposed to you, you’d find it equally adequate to expressing what you wanted to express.
Really, don’t be so pathetic. Enjoy your victory, be proud of your team, but don’t descend to such weak and amateurish stratagems when you’re legitimately called out on your Yankee-fan sense of privilege.
SYFPH. And stop your sobbing. You can’t call me on my sense of privilege when I expect my team to win every year. I own my sense of privilege. But I’m not the one rubbing it your face. I also expect the NY Giants to make the playoffs every year, and they have a salary cap. When the Knicks had Patrick Ewing I expected them to win every year, and they had a salary cap. NY fans expect success, every year. Cubs fans expect to lose every year. That’s not my problem.
The above comment shows either that the bubbly is really flowing right now at Boo’s place, or that one of my suspicions about sports fandom — that it not only is disproportionately dominated by stupid people (which is certainly true), but makes otherwise intelligent people stupider — is dead on the mark.
In any case, one can’t respond to inchoate spewing like this — except to say, I’m not “sobbing”. I’ve not been complaining about the Yankees, their payroll, or theyir victory. I’m not a Phillies fan, I really don’t care. I just suggested that it’s freaking hilarious that Yankee fans treat a nine-year “drought” (with multiple close chances) as some kind of exile in the desert. But you, Boo, are clearly in no state of mind now to be able to make discriminations: I criticize something you said, so it’s SYFPH and “stop your sobbing” and all the rest.
Really disappointing.
you criticized me for noting the length of time it has been since I last was able to celebrate. Think about it.
Please read this whole thread when you’re sober, not hungover, and in a judicious frame of mind.
right. Accuse me of drinking. That’s classy. Thanks for the well wishes. You’re a mensch.
Since when is that an accusation? Nothing wrong with it, especially on a big night like this. I believe you implicitly suggested as much with your posted picture of the Yanks spraying champagne, in response to Real History Lisa’s inquiry.
And frankly, your defensive and scattershot spewing was so far below your usual level that I charitably guessed that was the explanation.
Sorry if I was wrong. But really, you must look at this discussion on some day when the passions are cooler.
You like to read a lot into things. You do a bad job at it.
Wow, that was lame, uncalled-for, and oh yeah, untrue.
Of course not. Uncle George bought (and A-Rod’s pharmacist mixed) you another trophy. That’ll keep you satiated for a year or two.
Meanwhile, the twenty franchises that MLB’s broken economic system has rendered farm teams for the Yankees and their wannabes go on waiting.
Real sports have salary caps, rather than just handing titles to New York and its insufferably entitled fans.
i’m still hearing whining.
And I’m still responding to an asshole. Your “how awful it was to wait for nine whole years” is just disgusting.
You’d think ill of someone who exulted when Wal-Mart succeeded in busting its unions, I trust. Celebrating the victory of George’s millions is similarly ugly.
So, now I’m an asshole. STFU.
I don’t rain on other people’s parade when their sports teams win. Only sore losers do that. And assholes.
Half of this argument doesn’t make sense. A-rod was busted for using steroids back in 2004 or so. And at least one hundred other players on teams throughout the league were on the list of players who failed tests. I doubt there’s one team in the league who doesn’t have a player who has used PEDs.
You’re ire is better reserved for MLB executives and not the fans who root for their teams in good times and bad. The Steinbrenner’s simply take advantage of the rules and the fact that that they can splurge on their teams and make a profit at the same time. This is not the fault of fans who happen to live in big markets.
Note that the Twins and Marlins manage to stay competitive with great farm teams and good management.
Well said.
Although I would qualify your last statement. “Staying competitive with great farm teams and good management” is a little too simplistic. It depends on what you mean by “staying competitive,” but in a nutshell, the problem such teams, however well-run, face is this: As a low-budget team, you must rely on your farm system. The quality of your farm system depends much on the drafts you are able to make. The more successful you are, the lower you are in the drafting order. The lower you are in the drafting order, the weaker the talent you are able to draft. By winning, in short, you undermine your only prospects for success four or five years down the road.
So-called Moneyball was supposed to provide a way around this on the hope that there will always be undervalued types of ability which clever statistical analysis will reveal, and that the have-nots, if they’re clever enough, can identify and acquire those types of ability. That strikes me, now, as a feeble hope.
What’s feeble us your analysis. Take a look at this year’s payrolls. Other than Florida, whose payroll has plummeted, the numbers are fairly representative of the last fifteen years.
Florida, with the lowest payroll, came in a close second place this year. The Padres were second lowest, and they went to the WS in 1998 and have been in the playoffs since. Tampa ranks 25th, and they were there last year. Arizona and Colorado are in the lower half, and they’ve been successful. Milwaukee and Minnesota have had good years.
And the Cubs have the third highest payroll.
The system isn’t fair, but any team can put together a team that can win. The real disadvantage is that poor teams can’t keep their talent and become dynasties. But, the Reds are the only National League team to win back-to-back championships since the 1920s, so dynasties aren’t too common anyway.
And your hostility is unwarranted. I’m aware of all of the things you pointed out, and none of the things you pointed out in any way conflicts with what I wrote.
Just to try to keep it simple, the gist was this: as a low-budget team, you have a shot at having a strong team now and then for the short term, but your very success will undermine your chances for future success. And by “success” here I mean not what Yankee fans consider success — a WS championship — but a playoff berth or even a decent chance at one. That was put pretty clearly, I think, and doesn’t conflict with anything you said here.
And I never said that having a high payroll guarantees you success — so your point about the Cubs is perfectly off the mark. I KNOW teams with a lot of money often spend it very stupidly. I give credit to the successful teams (remember, all four of the LCS teams were in the top nine in payroll this year) for spending it, to varying degrees, intelligently. Some rich teams are smarter than other rich teams, and good for them. It doesn’t alter the fact that they have an enormous advantage over smart poor teams.
Finally, your talk about dynasties is peculiar. I wasn’t ever talking about dynasties (as in winning back-to-back or back-to-back-to-back championships), but about staying competitive year after year.
I really, really don’t see why you’re coming at me in such a hostile tone and with such irrelevant points. I never called you an asshole, never said they Yankees didn’t “deserve” their victory, etc. I just expressed the feelings of a lot of fans would surely have in response to your remark about having had to go nine years without a championship, which could also have been put this way: “I should have such problems.”
But I didn’t say, I ‘had to go nine years without a championship.’ I said it has been nine years since I’ve been able to celebrate like this. You read into that that I was complaining. Why would I be complaining when my team just won. It’s your petulance that caused my hostility. You might have said, ‘I’m happy for you.’ But, you didn’t. Instead, you called me pathetic.
I called you pathetic for a different reason — just look at the whole thread, some other time.
Or more precisely, I urged you not to be as pathetic as it seemed to me you were being then, at that moment. I would never call you pathetic simpliciter.
It wasn’t for a different reason at all. I said that I wasn’t complaining, just stating a fact. And you called me pathetic.
Look, I don’t care. I’m happy as hell right now. I’m watching highlights and interviews and enjoying seeing my favorite players smiling. And I feel badly for a lot of my friends who were rooting for a very good, classy Phillies team. I’m not looking to rub anyone’s noses in anything. But then I get these comments about how I’m an a-hole, and pathetic, and privileged, and whatever. I don’t take them as offered in good will. That’s all I’m saying.
I’d be happy with a salary cap. I want to see the Pirates be a great team again. I think the Yankees would still dominate because endorsement money and fame would still draw players just as it does in football and basketball. When the Giants win a superbowl I don’t have to listen to people argue that they just bought it. So, I’ll take a salary cap. In the meantime, I’m enjoying this victory.
For the last time —
enjoy the victory, and re-read the thread some other time. Please.
And that (along with the rest) IS offered in good will, however you take it.
Someone once photoshopped a picture for me of the “Seattle Mariners World Series/Division Championship Trophy Case” which was, of course, empty.
That despite having some pretty good teams between 1997 and 2001. (OK, the 1995 team had the Cinderella season against the Angels and Yanks, but to be honest that was all a matter of timing, on the Mariners’ part with some assists from the Angels.) Good, but not good enough to make it to the Series.
yeah, the Mariners definitely chose the wrong years to be really good. If they could have waited for the Yankee pitching staff to get old, they might have made it to a couple WS.
Yeah, the Yankees were just starting their rise from mediocrity in 1995. It was Don Mattingly’s last year with the club and Mariano Rivera’s first. The Mariners unwittingly contributed to that rise, trading Jeff Nelson to them (he eventually returned to Seattle for the 116-win season).
Very happy. Very happy.
Jimmy Rollins better make a piece of duct tape part of his every day gear for the rest of his gear. I don’t ever want to hear another thing out of his mouth again.
why? what’d he say?
He predicted the Phillies would win:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/sports/baseball/29rhoden.html
I don’t hold that against him. He’s a great player and a great guy. He probably shouldn’t have made that prediction, but I’ve got nothing against self-confidence.
I think back to when Mark Messier made his guarantee in 1994 and it just isn’t the same. Rollins, to my eyes, dissed the team unnecessarily. You could look at it perhaps the same as Joe Namath’s, but Namath’s was a one game deal.
Still, I’d rather not hear from him anymore, so pack the duct tape, J-Roll. LOL!
I hope to see the Phils again in a rematch next year. They’re a really good team with great personalities, and they play to win. I could get used to this rivalry.
In fairness, it was (for the first time in a few years) a good and competitive series between two teams that deserved to be there.
But I’m sure you could get used to it, Boo. You live within 100 miles or so of both teams. The team nearest to me that has ever been to a WS is 800+ miles away. The nearest team that has been to the playoffs at any point since 2002 or so is 1200+ miles away. And the city I live in last had a pro men’s team championship of any kind over 30 years ago. By a team that was just stolen by Oklahoma City, with the inexplicable connivance of the NBA.
Philly’s last championship was, um, 2008. New York’s previous one, was, um, also 2008. (At least those helped stop the insufferable run Boston was on.)
Share the wealth, dude.
One of the reasons I much prefer college football & basketball to the pro game is that buying the best college players is affordable enough that dynasties can spring up just about anywhere that there’s good coaching. The pro game? Not so much. The college games are a lot more popular (USC notwithstanding) once you’re outside the top markets. There’s a reason.
But all the kvetching, bitching, and complaining should be done in January. Right now, they played the better series, and rightly deserve their win.
I will revert to my normal attitude to the Yankees in January. Meanwhile, congrats to them.
Who has the most money?
Whoever it is, that’s who is are going to be at or near the top of the heap most of the time, and when they get bloated and lazy, why…they simply spend more money and hire a new crop of the best of the best and then repeat the cycle.
I am not exactly “complaining” here…just pointing out the obvious.
How much did the Steinbrenners pay Texeira and Sabathia again?
And Rodriguez?
Did they not outbid…and this isn’t counting the under-the-table stuff that you just know is going on…did they not outbid every other major league team to get those three players?
Why is Rivera still there again?
Yankee love?
And Jeter too?
I think not.
They are playing the capitalist game.
Very well.
As are the major politicians of this country.
.300+ batters and 20 game, low ERA winners all.
But here we are on this supposedly “left-wing” blog, root-root-rooting for the home team AS LONG AS IT IS THE SPORTS MANIFESTATION OF CAPITALISM but tearing the shit out of people like Obama or the Clintons for playing essentially the same game on another level and actually winning.
And y’all get mad at me for suggesting that you wake the fuck up.
You’d rather have…ohhh, say Kucinich?
He’s a utility player, and barely major league level at that. He’s got lots of theories about how to field a hard grounder, how to hit the slider, but his batting average hovers around .200 and he can’t go to his right in the field.
So it goes.
Keith Olbermann knows.
He went from being a sportscaster to the real big leagues.
Why?
More money.
As above], so below.
Except above pays better.
Bet on that as well.
Station WTFU signing off once again.
And now…back to THE YANKEES!!!
How ’bout them Yank$$$$!!!
Later…
S.