A Yankee fan's thoughts on the Mets-Dodgers series, and why Chase Utley is a monster and Don Mattingly a bad manager

I agree!

First of all, I'd like to congratulate Squawker Jon and my other Mets fan friends on their team having their first-ever postseason game at Citi Field last night -- and their first postseason victory in nine years!

Citi Field is a beautiful ballpark, and now it finally has a team worthy of it. The house was rocking last night, for sure! (I would have liked to have seen the pregame intros live -- and to have heard the boos Chase Utley received -- though. Here's a clip of the Utley boos.)

These are pretty funny. My fave one is
the Bababooey sign. (Photos courtesy of
New York Daily News.)

Anyhow, I watched most of the game, but it was on past my bedtime, So I went to bed before it was over. Was excited to see that ex-Yankee, and all-around good guy, Curtis Granderson got one of the game's big hits!

Speaking of a Yankee fan's perspective, John S., a fellow Yankee fan and longtime Squawkers reader, left an interesting comment on my Facebook page about the Chase Utley/Ruben Tejada contretemps, Don Mattingly's mismanagement, and Joe Torre's involvement:

"Don Mattingly wimped out. Instead of recognizing that the Dodgers were at a severe disadvantage not pitching one of their aces against the Mets ace, he should have started Utley defiantly, daring the Mets to start something. He may have still lost but the Dodgers would have been furious and united had Utley been drilled. Whereas Utley hits Harvey very well, Kendrick has done nothing at all over his career against the Dark Knight - so why play him? I suspect that Pope Joe made a deal with Donnie here - Utley can play pending appeal which won't be heard until next season (when he probably won't be a Dodger anyway) - just don't play him tonight. It fits very well with the same strategy of NOT bunting on a subpar Curt Schilling. Mattingly learned his lessons well............."

You know, I wish I had thought of this analysis! And yes, I do think Torre and Mattingly made some sort of gentleman's agreement here. (Also, if Utley retires after this year, they'll never have to deal with the appeal.)

But yeah, that bad-guy stance would have been the only thing for Donnie Baseball to do. I don't think very much of Mattingly as a manager, though. (I never wanted him to manage the Yankees.) So I'm not surprised.

And any chance I get to bash Joe Torre is one I will take!