So, it’s great to see comments left by dodgers and detroit fans on yesterday’s posting.  Dodgers are looking GREAT right now, so you should be very confident in their ability to beat the Mets.  As for Detroit, you are going to get shut down tonight by the Big Unit.  He’s going to have one of those starts where he’s ragging on the mound, spitting all over himself and swearing, punching himself in the chest.  He might even kill a batter, who knows.  Yanks are winning this series, plain and simple.  I remember one time when they were down 0-2 to Oakland in Oakland, and still won.  And Oakland was a better team then than Detroit is now.  Besides, Detroit is a s**thole of a town that smells like urine and diesel.  I hate Detoit.  I hate Michigan.  I hate the Lions, Wolverines, Tigers, Red Wings, Pistons, etc.  I hate Pudge Rodriguez.  The guys was an obvious victim of the "I cleaned up my diet and lost 25lbs. in an off-season" syndrome and no one says anything.  I hate Magglio and his brillo pad afro hair poof.  Remember that female rapper Rage from the early 90′s?  "I rock rough and stuff with my afro puffs.  RAGE!!! Rock on with your bad self."  That’s Magglio’s theme song.  Eminem has turned into a pop sensation, with the worst songs in the world.  His last CD may have been the worst ever created.  Kid Rock is pure trash, and is number 9,030,009,231 on Pam’s "list."    Tigers are going NOWHERE!!!!!!!! 

Ok, before everyone is ready to panic because the Tigers won a game in the Bronx, let’s all remember that Velander is a stud who brings it, and the Yanks left 100 million runners on base.  Also, before everyone jumps on ARod for his bases loaded backward "K" Sheff left some runners on, so did our MVP, and Robbie Cano forgot how to hit.  Let’s all take a deep breath, we’re facing Kenny "I love cameramen" Rogers in Game 3.  In case you are unaware, Kenny doesn’t do so hot against the Yanks.  There is no way the Tigers are going to shut down this lineup for 3 games.  Take a deep breath, let’s shut down the engines while we recharge the batteries, stay focused, keep our eyes on the prize, and let’s close some ***.  Noted!

My goodness, if any of you back in NY got to go to that game last night, I am very jealous of you.  What I wouldn’t give to be in NY for an October game.  Anyway, what a game.

Wang looked good, as I knew he would be, and that’s why I have to wonder why Torre took him out when he did.  He looked like he was on cruise control, with ice in the blood.  I would have left him in, but that’s why Joe is the manager.  The bullpen got me sweating a little bit, mainly because Farnsworth needs to man up and throw that gas for strikes.  1 win down, 10 to go.  I am hoping tonight for Zumaya and Verlander to attempt and throw gas by Sheff, and watch him crush both of them. 

I hope everyone watching got a good look at Derek Jeter.  You know, the most overrated player in the majors.  5-5, 2 2b HR.  Not a bad night.  The Yankees are winning the series this year because Jeter will not let them do anything else.  The guy is a machine.  Everyone be thankful for the opportunity to watch Jeter play in October.  Bobby was a stud, Sheff is pumped up, looking like he wants to fight someone, and Arod is, well, Arod.  He did hit the ball hard a couple times that were outs.  Giambi looks like a drug dealer living in some trailer in the Las Vegas desert without A/C.  How can this guy sweat so much sitting on the bench?  Nevertheless, he delivered.  If they ever remake "The Outsiders" Giambi should play the part Dallas "Dally" Winston, originally played by Matt Dillon.  I can see Giambi now, "We’re gonna do it man, we’re gonna do it for Johnny!" 

Anyways, good game, I can’t wait for game 2.   10 to go!

It’s been a while since I’ve written in the blog, because the Yankees were on cruise control and I didn’t have much to say.  However, the big day has finally arrived, and I’m jacked up for this!  I just want to give a special "hello" to Tiger’s pitcher Nate "Gum Time" Robertson.  I left a little message for you on your blog, hope you read it before game time!  Anyway, I’m feeling it this year.  I wasn’t last year, but this year I’m feeling it.  Wang is starting game one, and his heart rate maybe up to 60 bpm instead of 50.  The guy is cool as ice, and I know he’s going to throw a great game.  Alot of so called "experts" are questioning having Sheff play first with Wang throwing groundball after groundball, but are you going to tell me Giambi is a better first baseman?  I don’t think so.  The lineup is sick, and will wear out a pitching staff quickly.  It’s game time kiddies, strap on your game faces and put on some pinstripes, it’s going to be an October to remember!

The Yanks magic number is down to 7, and could clinch this weekend against the Sox if all goes well.  How can that be you say?  Well, if you can’t follow, please read the following http://boogiedownbaseball.mlblogs.com/

Anyway, the Yanks are looking strong, Sheffield is taking BP, we are on the up & up.  We are rolling toward the playoffs like a team determined to win the World Series.  I hope and pray the Yanks win this year, and after they get their rings, Jeter can walk up to Ortiz and say, "Kiss the ring, b**ch!!"  The Captain continued his hit streak.  Boston lost, how sad, and David Ortiz had another great game, proving once and again he is the greatest baseball player of all time.  Funny thing, lately I haven’t heard much yapping from the Boston side of things.  Guess they realized their team wasn’t that great.  I am very happy to see Curt Schilling’s last season go down in flames.  Looks like they will be the most expensive team never to make the playoffs.  Who says money buys championships?

Something no one in baseball is talking about is Barry Bonds.  He’s quietly creeping his way toward Aaron, yet no one seems to care.  You know what?  I love it!  I love the fact that Bonds has been mashing lately and no one says a thing about it.  Thank you Ryan Howard, the Wild Card and Divisional races, MVP races, etc. for allowing Bonds to chase the most important record in sports and no one seems to notice.  Last night he hit 732, and now stands 24 from breaking the record.  Back in July I said Bonds wouldn’t finish the season, guess I was wrong.  We’ll see what happens next year.  He’ll be back.  There is no way he’s going to get this close to the HR record and not play another season. 

Get ready Yankee fans for a most glorious October!

Ok, as I had mentioned the other day, and now everyone knows, Big Papi is suffering from a bad case of Bonds/T.O.ism.  The one thing that I cannot understand, is why on BBTN and Sportscenter this is not a huge story.  It’s nothing to them.  Maybe you will see a 30 second blip about it, but that’s it.  If A-Rod came out and said something like this, my goodness it would be a frenzy.  Analysts would be all over him, people would be outraged demanding blood.  But because Big Papi, the warm-fuzzy teddy bear everyone loves said it, it’s no big deal.  This is another reason why I hate the Red Sox and Boston.  Why does everyone love this team?  Everyone hates the Yankees because they "buy their teams" and "win all the time."  Boston won in 2004, and that was a completely bought, purchased championship.  Schilling, Foulke, Manny, Ortiz, Pedro, Doug M, Cabrera, Mueller, Damon, etc. all brought in via trades/fa.  Yankees last won in 2000, with guys like Scott Brosius playing 3rd.  Yet, everyone turns a blind eye to that fact, and then everyone gets on the Yankees if they make a trade or sign someone.  Blah, Blah, Blah, it’s **** and I’m sick of this.  I can’t believe Ortiz hasn’t gotten ripped more for this.  Especially for bashing Jeter.  Jeter?  Jeter?  You are honestly going to bash Jeter?  Ortiz has had good numbers for what, 3 years?  How long as Jeter been producing?  I saw Ortiz play in K.C. in 2002, and nobody thought twice about it.  Now he thinks he’s Babe Ruth because you idiots all over the world have crowned him the "greatest clutch hitter of all-time."  Review your tapes, Jeter has come up pretty big for the Yankees too.  They may not be HR, but a hit in a tight situation is just as big as a HR.  Plus, Jeter has come up with big plays on DEFENSE too!  I’m not saying Jeter is the MVP, personally I think Jermaine Dye is, but Jeter is more valuable to Ortiz is to the Red Sox, particularly this year.  Manny is more of an MVP to Boston than Ortiz is.  If Jeter didn’t produce like he did this season, who knows where the Yanks would be.  Overrated?  Sure looks like it to me!  Give me a fat guy who hits bombs and doesn’t play "D" over Jeter.  Oh wait, the Yankees already have one of those, his name is Jason Giambi.  Plus, Ortiz basically bashed his own team saying, "Come hit in this lineup, see how you do."  But again, no one cares because in Boston it’s "Manny being Manny" and "Ortiz can do no wrong!"  Ridiculous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alright, I don’t know if everyone else has seen this or not, but apparently David Ortiz thinks he’s the man and should get the MVP, or I think he does.  I can’t tell.  In the article, Ortiz claims he’s "right there" as far as the numbers go, but he won’t get it it his team doesn’t make the playoffs.  He says A-Rod got it with Texas when Texas finished last place, "so now they can’t play that BS anymore, just because your team didn’t make it. They gave it to Alex that year because of his numbers." 

On Jeter, Ortiz says, "They’re talking about [Derek] Jeter a lot, right? He’s done a great job, he’s having a great season, but Jeter is not a 40-homer hitter or an RBI guy. It doesn’t matter how much you’ve done for your ball club, the bottom line is, the guy who hits 40 home runs and knocks in 100, that’s the guy you know helped your team win games."  He further says that Jeter gets to hit in a better lineup, saying, "Come hit in this lineup, see how good you can be."  Oh, diss on the Sox?  Who is this guy?  So apparently Ortiz says it’s the numbers that should matter, not whether or not a team makes the playoffs, right?  Oh wait, he has more to say.

When asked who he would vote for MVP, Ortiz says, "All depends on who makes the playoffs, Dye is having an unbelievable season, an incredible year. Konerko, too. Morneau, he’s having a great season, but in Minnesota, there’s no publicity. I bet you nobody knows who he is."

Well, I was always under the impression Ortiz was a team guy.  It’s not like the guy doesn’t get love from the media.  ESPN loves him to death, and would rather show clips of his fat *** hitting bombs than anything else.  But apparently Ortiz is a "me" guy too.  I had alot of respect for the guy, but now I think he should be called Big T.O. not Big Papi.  I can’t wait until he starts referring to himself as "David Ortiz" as in "David Ortiz is just one man, and David Ortiz can only control what David Ortiz does."

So I haven’t been keeping a daily tab on this anymore, mostly because the Yanks are rolling and the Sox are falling.  The Sox are sufferring from the Curse of Me, and looked to be doomed until I release my grip on them, which won’t happen anytime soon.  The Yanks are looking fantastic, and Matsui is just around the corner as the new DH.  I like our chances in the postseason, it looks to be a very enjoyable fall.

Also, college football has started as well, and that has stolen some of my attention because the AL East race has become, well, not a race.

But one thing that is very intriguing to me is the studly play of Ryan Howard.  This kid can mash!  He’s the NL MVP, singlehandly keeping the Phillies in the WC chase.  But the debate is starting to rumble in the depths of baseball with Howard’s recent HR production.  Right now he is on pace to hit 62, and if he does, would you consider him the single-season champ?

I would, and here are a few reasons why:

1) Mac, Sosa, Bonds juiced and everyone knows it.  I know steriod use does not equal HRs.  But, steroids increase muscle mass and strength, which then increases bat speed, which increases the torque and power of a swing.  That will increase the distance a ball will travel.  Some clown from the street on roids isn’t going to hit 73 homers, I know.  But if you give roids and HGH to an individual who has already been trained to hit with precision for years and years, obviously the added strength and power will affect how far a ball travels when they hit it.  When you hit a ball at the age of 13 vs. 18 or 20, did it go farther?  Yes, and if it didn’t, then I feel bad for you.  Strength has a direct correlation with how far a ball will travel.  Those dirty boys mentioned above helped improve their power by injecting drugs that are ILLEGAL in the US.  Their increased strength and stamina was a direct result of steroid use.  I know, everyone else was doing it to, so they were trying to maintain an even playing field.  Well guess what, that’s a poor excuse.  If they were clean, and McGwire, Sosa, and Bonds hit 500-400-600 career HR respectively, they would be treated like Mays, Kilebrew, Mantle, etc.  They got greedy, and now are treated like the girl you got down with after a night of heavy drinking and disrupted standards.  Anybody notice how McGwire’s body basically fell apart on him his last season and he retired?  Wonder why that happened?

2) Howard has been mashing since day 1!  Howard was mashing in the minors, mashed when he was called up last year, and continues his mashing ways this year.  He reminds me of a young Sosa, before he put on 35 lbs. and decided he was better than everyone else.  Howard enjoys the game, has always been a power threat, always has a smile on his face, and didn’t put on 20-30 pounds this past off-season.

3) MLB needs new faces of the game, and I know they need somebody like Howard to put up numbers like this now.  Bonds, McGwire, and Sosa are like the Mt. Rushmore of the Steroid Era in baseball.  They need new life and blood in the game, especially someone who has never been mentioned with any steroid mess. 

4) When a track star runs a World Record 100 and a hint of a steroid scandal surrounds that sprinter, all of his/her records, medals, everything can and are stripped.  Marion Jones can’t even be invited to participate in events because rumors swirl around her.  Why can’t we do the same?

5) Bonds, Mac, and Sosa juiced!!  If you honestly don’t believe that these three were juicers during the Steroid Era, then please write me back and tell me what never-neverland is like, if Santa Claus has me down as a good boy this year, and where I can go to get good pics of Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster.

After watching the Red Sox plunge to the depths of "what the h*ll is happening?" I can’t help but wonder if the Sox are doomed because they ran into me in Seattle.  Since I saw the Sox in the streets of Seattle wearing my Yankee hat proud, they were swept by the Mariners, are on the verge of being swept by the A’s, have now lost Manny, Ortiz, and Wily Mo’ to mysterious injuries for undetermined amounts of time, and are now shopping David Wells to the rest of MLB before Sept 1st.  Not to mention Josh Beckett finally threw a great game, and they still lost by a run to the run-starved A’s.  Is this the beginning of the next great curse for the Sox?  Are they suffering from the Curse of Me?

I’m home again after a most wonderful trip to Seattle to watch the Yankees lose 2-3 to the Mariners.  I guess it could be worse (wink RSN).  So the Mrs. and I left on Tuesday morning to fly to Seattle, and waiting to board the plane it looked like I was traveling on the Yankees team plane.  There were people wearing jerseys and hats, watches, shoes, etc.  Of course, many of them were discussing the Yankees, but had particular trouble knowing who all of the players were.  That, of course, makes me sick, but I didn’t have any gear on, so they didn’t talk to me. 

Once we arrived in Seattle, we put on our game gear and went to eat before we went to Safeco.  When entering the Cheesecake Factory, the hostess says, "One of the Yankees was just here, Mike Myers I think."  I thought this was a good sign, hoping that I would see players around town, not just at the field.  We had only been there an hour and someone had already bumped into a player, even though it was Myers.  We went early for BP of course, and the crowd was filled with kids screaming "A-ROD!" and "DEREK!"  Everyone else received mild receptions, because most people had no idea who everyone was.  Joe Torre came out to sign, but we had gotten there a few mins too late, and I couldn’t make it down to field level.  The game itself was great until the bottom of the 9th, when Villone gave up the walk-off to Beltre, when all he had to do was throw a breaking ball in the dirt to strike him out.  Abreau and A-Rod went deep, and A-Rod’s was a bomb.  Nevertheless, it was a 6-5 loss, no autographs.

Wednesday we got up late, and again, walking around everywhere downtown, people were saying "I just saw Jeter" or "Posada was here 10 mins ago."  I thought for sure we would see someone that day, but we didn’t of course, and made our way to the field.  We got to Safeco earlier, so we are actually at field level during BP.  Robby Cano, Jeter, and Melky were warming up right in front of us, and I yelled for Robby to throw me the ball, and sure enough he did.  About 10 mins later, I was also yelling at Sal Fasano, who looks like a mobster, for his ball he was warming up with.  He too gave it to me, because I was the only person in the entire stadium who knew who Sal Fasano was.  After I got the second one, some mom of a little kid screams, "Why don’t you give one to the kids!" to which I replied, "Are you gonna tell me your kid is a bigger Yankee fan than I am, when neither of you know who any players are?"  To which she replied with silence and a stunned look on her face.  We sat out in RF for game 2, 3 rows up.  There was a guy wearing a Soriano uni with "Soriano" on the back.  Disgraceful.  However, not as bad as the "Boone" uni a mariner’s fan was wearing the night before.  Nothing topped the Nomar Red Sox jersey I saw the next day.  At the end of the 9-2 Yankees spank of the M’s, some drunk fan behind us was being unpleasant, and claimed he was from "Portland, Oregon."  We got into a verbal spat, and his friends grabbed him and left because he looked about 140 lbs. and I would have destroyed him.  Game 2 was great, a Yankees win and 2 bp balls. 

On Thursday, we got up in search for Yankees on the street.  Yet again, it was "Mussina was in Macy’s ten mins. ago" and "Rivera just left Niketown" but we saw zero players yet again.  We again arrived early to the field, and the players were signing.  I got Bobby Abreau to sign my Jersey I brought with me, as well as Aaron Guiel.  Cano, Melky, and Posada also signed, but I didn’t get close enough to them.  Octavio Dotel threw me another ball, because again, I was the only person who knew who he was.  Karstens walked by and I said, "You’re in the show now, how about you come sign my jersey."  All he could do was laugh and walk by.  Another Yankee loss, but another ball received and two signatures received.  Also, while walking the streets of Seattle, a woman with her kids approached me to ask if I was a player on the team, which is one of the greatest things anyone has ever asked me.  I told her no, but in retrospect, should have said yes, and signed autographs and taken pictures with them. 

By that point, the Yankees were on their way to Anahiem, and we didn’t see any walking around.  When we arrived back at our hotel, I asked the guy at the front desk if he knew where they had stayed, and of course, they were right across the street!  At that point I became very sad, and as things would turn out, they would only get worse, or more comical, depending on your point of view.

As luck would have it, the wife and I were out walking around the next day burning time before out plane left.  We happened to sit at a starbucks across the street from our hotel, and a fancy bus pulls up.  I say to the wife, "I bet that is the bus the Sox are using to go to the field."  Well wouldn’t you know, about 5 mins. later I see Keith Foulke walking back to the hotel, the same hotel the Yankees were staying at.  Shortly after that, here comes Youk, Beckett, and Wells walking together, all three eyeing us because we still had our Yankees hats on.  There was a groupy hanging out too, I’m guessing it was Beckett’s because he was the only one I didn’t see come back out.  At the same time, Papelbon walked out of the hotel with a lady, by all the Sox fans wanting autographs and down the street.  Wells came back out and was talking to the bus driver when I said, "Hey, David Wells!"  He looked up and I just tapped my hat, he then waived at me as to say, "yeah, I know."  He hopped on the bus, as did Youk.  Well as I was talking to the wife about the humor of the situation, I noticed Papelbon was coming directly toward us from the other direction to avoid the Sox fans.  I just starred at him as he approached, and when he was within a couple feet, I said, "Well hello Mr. Papelbon, how are you doing today" with a grin on my face, wishing to make a some comment about the 5 game sweep but didn’t out of respect.  He replied, "I’m doing good bro, doing good."  I then took a picture of Papelbon carrying his man purse, and then he too got on the bus.  Well their bus left, rather empty, because the driver told me he had already taken most of the team to the field already.  I couldn’t get over our luck, seeing no Yankees in 3 days but seeing a handful of Sox in a few hours.  That’s the way it goes I guess.

It was a great time, and now the wife and I are struggling with Post-Baseball-Depression, having to come back to the reality of work and no pro teams in Idaho.  On the bright side, she loved it so much, she wants to go to spring training next year.  Sounds like a plan to me!