Thursday, November 05, 2009

...WITH A CHERRY ON TOP!

Trying hard not to gloat, here.
***THE GOOD***
So many heroes: Pettitte, without his good stuff (if he still has any), hanging in until the 6th. Derek Jeter, who seemed to go right to 1st base from the dugout without bothering to actually bat, Damon producing good at-bats, 'The Sandman' looking like all he had to do was throw his glove out on the mound (and the Phillies swinging and missing), A-Rod, scaring the Philly pitchers so much that they'd rather face Matsui (BIG mistake) and, of course, Hideki himself. Lets not forget Joba & Marte, who also produced when it counted.

Overall, the Yanks were just too deep, with the better pitching staff, for the Phillies. The Phils may have had an American League offense but they didn't have American League pitchers. Hats off to Cliff Lee, (a former AL Cy Young winner) who was the only Philly who didn't look nervous out there.

Finally, kudos to Brian Cashman, who put the right people together.

***THE BAD***
It's hard to pick on players unless they make mental mistakes, so that leaves one guy: Charlie Manuel. For all the grousing about the way Girardi handled his pitchers, Manuel was absolutely clueless. He is noted for guessing, going against the odds and just flat out playing hunches, but this wasn't the time. Not only did he give Pedro Martinez TWO STARTS, both times Pedro was sick. Where was J A Happ all this time? Waiting in the bullpen for that 'situational lefty' duty? He should have pulled Pedro as soon as Matsui hit the homer. His offense wasn't going to climb out of any hole; why let it get deeper? Sorry, Charlie.

***THE UGLY***
**Well, I think this is pretty obvious. Joe West, whose strike zone defies description. Fox Network was extremely kind to Joe, only using the overhead camera a few times to show how far off he was. A normally very placid Andy Pettitte was seen yelling a t Joe as he walked off the mound one inning and was pictured in conversation with him another time. Even the other umpires had to be embarrassed by him.
**Candidate 1A has to be Jimmy Rollins, who, I think, hasn't yet realized he lost. He was quoted as saying, "The better team lost." I might accept that if I thought he was talking about the Angels.
**Honorable mention to the Philadelphia Inquirer, who published a full page ad two days ago, congratulating the Phillies for winning their 2nd straight World Championship. Uh, you need to win more than two games for that, guys.

GO YANKS!

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