Why are Yankee fans cheering when Hideki Matsui hits a home run against their team?

Not exactly the greatest of games last night - the Yankees looked really flat, and Phil Hughes didn't have it. But the thing that ticked me off the most about the loss was hearing Yankee fans cheer the opposition. When Hideki Matsui hit a homer off Chan Ho Park to put the game out of reach for the Bombers, all too many Yankee fans got excited over it. The worst was that female "fan" clad in Yankee gear holding up a sign for Matsui and cheering and bopping around like the Yankees won the World Series or something. Good grief.

This isn't the first time this has happened this year - Yankee fans did the same thing in an April Angels-Yankees game, when Matsui hit a homer to put Anaheim ahead. I don't get that at all. It's one thing to give an ex-Yankee like Matsui a round of cheers the first time his name is called out in the lineup. After all, even though Matsui and the Angels were in the Bronx in April, that doesn't mean everybody in the ballpark was there any of those games.

But it's an entirely different deal to cheer him every time, and to applaud him when he gets a homer, or even a hit, against your team. Matsui isn't a Yankee any more. I have no reason to cheer his home runs now, especially when they're against the Yanks.


Enough with the Matsui worship already. It's like when Billy Crystal wore a Switzerland hat when the Yankees played the Dodgers, because of Joe Torre. Please. To me, it's not a hard decision to root for the Yankees over former Yankees. My team comes first. Johnny Damon was one of my favorite Yankees ever, but if he hits a homer against the Bombers when he returns to the Bronx this summer, I will hold my applause.

Look, I'm not saying to boo Matsui. I'm just saying that the silly applause and cheers for his hitting feats against the Yankees need to end. It's annoying.

One other thing - didn't hear the game on the radio, so I don't know if John Sterling did the Thrilla by Godzilla call, the way he did this April. Does anybody know?

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Javier Vazquez -- There must be a pony in here somewhere

The New York Times was wrong. Everybody doesn't hate A-Rod -- they hate Javy! I think this afternoon was the most I've seen Yankee fans enraged this year, between Javier Vazquez's bad pitching, Joe Girardi's indecisiveness about intentionally walking Kendry Morales, Scott Kazmir getting away with hitting Robinson Cano, Marcus Thames' bad outfield play, and a whole bunch of other shenanigans I'm trying to forget right now. But mostly Javy.

As soon as I saw Morales' home run flying in the air, I turned off the TV in disgust and left the house.

And from the stricken look on Girardi's face, he looked like he had had enough as well. He did the whole "head in his hands" thing, kind of like what Squawker Jon did when Luis Castillo dropped the popup in the Subway Series last year.

Besides that Girardi/Marte debacle, fans were flipping out over Javier Vazquez turning in another bad performance. And because I wrote that it's a bad idea for fans to boo him, several of our readers squawked to me about Javy. One reader complained:

The most hated Yankee? Oh that is simple! Javy Vazquez for his sad-sack puppy dog eyes and inept pitching in the AL Major League....

Cheering for him is not going to make him pitch better. If he is booed, then maybe they will ship him off to Double A. Whether he is booed or not, the NY Media is going to really give it to him.

  Another reader griped:

So, Lisa what do you think of Havy now? He is what he was in 2004, lousy. He's good as a NL pitcher. No matter what the media or Cashman say, he can't cut it in the AL. He deserves to be booed, cuz he stinks! I disagree with you, just because he's I Yankee doesn't mean I can't boo him or have to like him. There are Family members I don't like and he ain't even family.

Heh -that family line is pretty funny!

So how bad are things today? I checked out ESPN NY columnist Wallace Matthews's take on the game for comic relief, and found myself nodding in agreement with a whole bunch of his points. Why did you pick this time to write a decent column, Wally? Thanks for nothing!
 
The only bright side is that Squawker Jon pitched Javy in two of his fantasy leagues. Snicker.

Anyhow, later on in the day, when I was channeling my inner A.J. Burnett, asking "why, why, why" Brian Cashman brought Javy back, I think I figured it out.

Cash watched pitchers like Jose Contreras and Jeff Weaver struggle under Joe Torre and Mel Stottlemyre, then leave New York and get rings for other teams.

Cashman has said that Vazquez struggled because of injury. But my theory, based on almost pure speculation, with a side order of hunches thrown in, is that Cashman also figured that the Joe/Mel brain trust held him back. And that now that Vazquez is healthy, and Joe Girardi and Dave Eiland would be working with him, that everything would be okey-dokey.

Two problems with Cashman's faith in Javy: I'm not exactly Joe's biggest fan, but he did ask Javy repeatedly in the second half of 2004 if he were injured, as did Mel. And Vazquez insisted he was A-OK, when he wasn't. As much as I'd like to blame Joe for that, I can't.

The second problem is that if Vazquez were too terrified/prideful/whatever to tell the truth the first time around, what made Cashman think that he could be trusted again, even with a new regime? Now the stakes are even higher for Vazquez. Is it beyond the realm of possibility that he might have some injury RIGHT NOW and be playing through it? Given his decreased velocity, the thought has crossed my mind.

I hope Javy turns it around, but yes, I'm getting a little concerned. This could all become a vicious cycle and turn very ugly at the Stadium this weekend.

I don't know what to think right now. Maybe I need to just give Squawker Jon a call and ask how his fantasy pitching stats went today!


What do you think? Tell us about it!

So what should we call this Yankees-Phillies World Series?

Here are the words I've wanted to say for six years: The Yankees are going to the World Series!

What a night. I stayed up very late rewatching all the coverage. How cool is it to have the Yankees finally going to the World Series? Hooray!

I was also trying to figure out what we call this series - the Turnpike Tumult? CC and the Cheesesteak? Ben Franklin vs. the Benjamins?  And will the Yankees run that "Rocky" clip against the Phillies?

Anyhow, here are a few of my other thoughts from last night's win:

* The Yankees exorcised a bunch of demons last night. They finally bested the Angels and their stupid rally monkey, and they also ended the 2004 worry/jinx/concern/whatever you want to call it. (And, yes, I know that Red Sox fans will say that their team still has the upper hand there. Why, exactly? The Yanks could have beaten Boston this year, but their team got swept by those same Angels. Sox fans, you can enjoy re-watching your 2004 "Faith Rewarded" DVD. The rest of us have 2009 World Series games to watch!)

* The Stadium was as loud as I've heard it on TV this year. Fans seemed ready to will the team to win.

* Maybe it is all about the hair. The new Swish-Hawk seemed to bring Nick Swisher some luck!

* When Johnny Damon was up with the bases loaded in the fourth, I was thinking "grand slam," but a two-run single to put the Yankees head was pretty cool as well.

* How about A-Rod with that clutch walk? I still think he should have gotten MVP, or at least shared the award with CC. Sabathia deserved the MVP, but A-Rod did too.

* And Bobby Abreu finally touches the wall! What's up with that?

* Andy Pettitte finally won a Game 6, after three previous losses - 2001 and twice in 2003. He looked like the Big-Game Andy of old. And Mariano Rivera did give up a run, but he still looked like good old Mo.

* The wheels really came off for the Angels in the bottom of the eighth, didn't they? Two bunts, and two terrible throws. Scott Kazmir's throw was particularly horrendous. Maybe Rick Peterson needs to fix him in 10 minutes!

* Very touching Yankee celebration. I'm not ashamed to admit that I got teary-eyed watching it, especially seeing Posada and Rivera hug, and Jeter, A-Rod, and Teixeira embrace. That's the good stuff.

* The bad stuff was the FOX camera work. They messed up with the Phillies-Dodgers series, and they messed up here. From the shaky camera to the bad angles, they did a lousy job of capturing much of the moments. There were a lot of touching scenes there - too bad they messed up the first time, although they did partially redeem themselves later on with some the other shots.

* The Fox voices were terrible, too. Joe Buck's "the Yankees win the pennant" call had about as much emotion to it as him saying "yes, I would like fresh pepper on my meal, please." And Ken Rosenthal channelled Jim Grey with his postgamequestions to Derek Jeter - right off the bat, he was super-negative, without even congratulating the captain. Jeter put him in his place but good, though!

* Hal Steinbrenner sounds like his father, but looks like Tucker Carlson. Quite a match.

* I'm sorry, I'm not digging the looks of the AL Championship hats and shirts. Like what they represent, of course, but I'm not crazy about the style.

* Was cool that they had a long celebration. I also liked how Jeter said they were going to savor this.

Anyhow, what are your observations? Tell us about it!

Getting ready for tonight's ALCS Yankee victory

Well, when I did my ALCS predictions, I did say the Yankees would win in six games. It's just that I didn't expect the two losses to be so gut-wrenching! But tonight, everything changes. Tonight, the Yankees are going to win and head to the World Series for the first time since 2003. And I think that Yankee fans are confident that tonight is the night.

How do I know this? Because it was pretty much impossible to find a ticket on StubHub today. All the tickets were sold out on Yankees.com. And the Craigslist ads today consisted either of people desperately seeking tickets, or of ticket brokers attempting to sell tickets at an exorbitant rate.

Compare and contrast to 2004, when I was able to buy Game 6 tickets from a Yankees fan for face value - the fan apparently had no faith the Yankees would win. At least that fan sold to a fellow Bomber rooter. On the other hand, A lot of Yankee fans who figured the Sox would win sold their tickets to Red Sox fans. I was also at Game 7 that year - I had bought my ticket as soon as they went on sale - and I unfortunately stayed until the bitter end. There were maybe 20,000 people left in the ballpark at the end -  and about 90% of them were Sox fans!

Anyhow, this is my roundabout way of saying that this isn't 2004 anymore - for one thing, Andy Pettitte and CC Sabathia sure beat Jon Lieber and Kevin Brown! And I think the team doesn't  feel fatalistic, the way they did in 2004.

So, I'll be watching at home - I had no luck getting a ticket - and in about five hours, I should be writing a victory post!

If you want to read my in-game squawks, feel free to friend me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter!

What do you think? Leave us a comment!

Yankees go up, up and away, and Met fans want to be like Balloon Boy

I woke up worn out after that long, exciting game. I'm glad I wasn't there, though - it was too nerve-wracking watching the game in my Snuggie. Imagine what it was like to be in the cold and the rain for five hours and ten minutes! And that was after a very nerve-wracking Texas-Oklahoma game. My nerves are shot, even though both my teams won. Sheesh.

All this might have been too much for Squawker Jon. I think he's either hiding in the attic, or he's gone out into that big balloon in the sky, after last night's epic Yankee win. Call him the Balloon Boy Blogger!

Anyhow, here are a few observations about the game:

* How many times has there been a long, epic walkoff win game when A.J. Burnett pitches? I counted these: Game 2 of the ALDS, the 15-inning Red Sox-Yankees classic, the Kyle Farnsworth win, the Robinson Cano walkoff hit against Toronto, and the third walkoff win in a row against the Minnesota Twins. And I could be missing some other game!

* Squawker Jon and I were waiting for the Joba fist pump/roar, and it showed up - bigtime - last night. Jon told me last night on the phone that he thinks that's why Joba would want to be a reliever again - just to get the opportunity to pump his fist like that!

* And, did you see how A.J. Burnett seemed to channel Joba right after that, doing his own fist pump and roar in the dugout? Very funny.

* I was hopeful going into the ninth inning that A-Rod would have a walkoff HR to win it. But once the Angels took the lead in the 11th, I didn't think that lightning would strike twice for him. It's funny - I told Squawker Jon on the phone that I had no fear when the Yanks were down 3-1 against the Twins that they would win the game, but I was afraid that the Angels would hold on to win last night. Not long after those words came out of my mouth, Alex did it again! Even this longtime A-Rod booster was shocked!

* It looked cold and wet miserable last night, and maybe the cold got to the writers, as well as the players. Ian O'Connor of the Bergen Record wrote:

Alex Rodriguez came out in short sleeves, again, showing an inner Butkus he’d kept caged in the past, and hit the ninth-inning homer that made it 3-3 and sent this wild and crazy game barreling into overtime.

Like the inner Butkus reference, but A-Rod hit the homer in the 11th, when the game was already in extra innings. Unless the cold got to me as well, and froze my mind!

* When Jerry Hairston Jr. scored the winning run, then ended up on the ground in the swarm of players, I was worried he passed out from excitement! Turns out Nick Swisher accidentally knocked him over. Speaking of Swish, he's closing in on a million Twitter followers! (Speaking of Twitter, follow us to see our in-game reactions, or follow me on Facebook!)

* MLB Network just showed clips of the Bug Game. I'm still bitter over that one. Oh, and not to toot my own horn or anything, but I was reminded yesterday about how everybody in the New York media - except for this Squawker - was sure that Don Mattingly, not Joe Girardi, would be Joe Torre's successor. How were so many so wrong? And why didn't they ever acknowledge their error? Of course, I did say that I'd rather have Carol Burnett than A.J. Burnett as a Yankee, which was Hall of Fame dumb!

* Derek Jeter hit a key homer - and made a key error - in the game. He is human, after all. But Squawker Jon and I had to laugh over the contortions Tim McCarver made to excuse Jeter's error. Unreal. I also laughed about McCarver's whining about the neighborhood play called against the Angels, when he had to admit the next inning that Erick Aybar had touched the bag all night - except for that play. Maybe they can mistake John Mayberry Sr. in the stands again. Good grief.

* Finally, what was up with Michael Kay's postgame hat?  He looked like Andy Capp on a bag of Hot Fries!

What do you think? Leave us a comment!

Yankee ticket info, and my predictions for the ALCS

It seems like forever since the Yankees have actually gotten to play October baseball, but they start up again tonight. There's been a whole to-do about how many tickets remain unsold at yankees.com for the game tonight, but the story is a bit overblown. As usual, some of the really expensive seats are unsold, which isn't exactly breaking news. The Yankees are also selling standing room tickets this time around, and those tickets have not yet been sold (while I knew about those cafe seats, I didn't even know they were selling regular standing room tickets until today.)

On the other hand, the prices in the secondary market are dropping - big time - for tonight's game, due to weather concern. If the prices get close to face value, I might be going to the game!

As for the game itself, I'm saying it will be Yankees in six. And that Alex Rodriguez will be the MVP.And that Bobby Abreu will win at least one game pretty much single-handedly for the Angels.

In other news, it looks like Ronan Tynan's mouth got him into trouble, and he won't be singing at tonight's game. Harsh!

Any predictions, readers? Tell us about it!

Shocker! Angels sweep Jonathan Papelbon and Red Sox!

I spent my afternoon watching the Angels-Red Sox game. What fun that was. While I was officially neutral on the Red Sox-Angels series (it would be like trying to decide to root for arsenic or cyanide!), I have to say, now that it's over, and I can't karmically jinx things, I really, really enjoyed seeing the Red Sox lose.

I also appreciated seeing Bobby Abreu being an Anaheim hero.And I especially cherished seeing Jonathan Papelbon (aka Cinco Dopo) give up three runs in the ninth, when he was literally one strike away from getting the win. So much for his 0.00 postseason ERA. So much for him being better than Mariano Rivera. His lousy outing reminded me of when Omir Santos and the Mets, in one of their few 2009 season highlights, destroyed Papelbon. Or when Baltimore beat up on him, in a game where they trailed by nine runs. Sox fans are already tired of Papelbon's mouth; wonder if they're going to be sick of him as a closer, as well.

Seeing Billy (Country Time) Wagner give up two runs was also fun as well. Wheeee!

I was very shocked Boston lost, but perhaps they have gotten a little too complacent, thanks to all their comeback wins in recent years. The Red Sox have done a 180 from their "OMG, something's going to go wrong!" attitude, to this "don't worry, we'll get 'em later" lethargy. And they didn't seem to take their opponent seriously, until it was too late. It didn't appear to occur to Boston that, much like the Sox were once sick of losing to the Yankees, that the Angels were sick of losing to the Red Sox. As friend of the Squawkers Bob Ekstrom put it last week, "When you punch an opponent in the mouth enough times, he’s eventually going to punch you back."

What also struck me is how quiet Fenway Park was throughout the game, even when the Sox were winning. It was not a raucous crowd at all. Where was the home field advantage?

Papelbon will get the blame for this loss, but he isn't the only one to blame for the sweep. The Sox's hitting was anemic - Jacoby Ellsbury had the most hits for the series, at three. David Ortiz hit .083!

Friend of the Squawkers Larry Milian asked me about this series on the radio the other day, and I told him what I've said before - ever since the 2006 Tigers killed the Yankees, I stopped trying to wish for one team as being a better matchup in the postseason. But now, that I can speak about the Angels, I will close with this prediction. Just like the Angels got the Red Sox monkey off their backs this year, the Yankees are going to finally get that Anaheim rally monkey off their own backs this year!

What do you think? Tell us about it!