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!

Gotta go to Mo's....spitball?

So what's the story? Did Mariano Rivera really throw a spitball in Monday's game. Check out my thoughts on it - I wrote a piece for The Faster Times on the issue.

I also talked to Met fans about their feelings about a possible Yankees-Phillies World Series. Read the piece to see who Squawker Jon is rooting for.

And finally, Squawker Jon took a look at whether teams can come back in the playoffs after a gut-wrenching lost like last night.

When are the Yankee bats going to wake up?

I focused most of my ire after yesterday's loss on Joe Girardi. I did mention the Yankee bats a little, but several Subway Squawkers commenters thought the Yankees' hitters deserved some more blame.

Symphony writes, "One day I'll get over this sleeping lineup long enough to focus on Girardi. Its more than a side-note."

And one anonymous commenter says: "...you can't rely on 3 guys (Alex, Jeter and Posada) to carry the team. Texiera is great with the glove, but if he and Cano and Melky don't start hitting doesn't start hitting, the Angels will pitch around Alex and take their chances with Matsui. Then it won't matter what Joe does with the bullpen."


Good points. And this is the irony. Ever since 2004, so much of the Yankee postseason focus has been on Alex Rodriguez: Will he ever hit in the playoffs, blah blah blah. Now here we have him with the postseason game for the ages. Superman has nothing on A-Rod this October. But, as our reader notes, it's unlikely he will ever get anything to hit again in this series if the Yankees don't wake up. (Well, that, and if Girardi ever pinch-runs for Matsui again!)

So that means people not named A-Rod or Jeter needs to get some hits. Mark Teixeira, Robinson Cano, Nick Swisher, and Melky Cabrera, I'm talking to you! Time to start hitting.

At any rate, I'm still peeved over last night's game, but I did derive enjoyment from one thing today - seeing Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports make the point that I've been making - that A-Rod is hitting better without Joe Torre breathing down his neck.

On the other hand, Sports Illustrated reporter Tom Verducci completely eviscerates Girardi today. I don't have a problem with a writer slamming Joe G - that's what he gets the big bucks for - but it's a bit much to see Verducci do it, given that Verducci has been quiet over how his co-author Joe Torre has done in the playoffs. Not a peep from Verducci, then other than to blame Jonathan Braxton for not being tough enough. And he can devote a whole page to Girardi? Sheesh.


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!

Shut up, haters! A-Rod silences his critics with two swings of the bat

What a game! I didn't get much sleep last night - too much adrenaline! - after the Yankees great, great victory over the Twins. And get this - I totally called Alex Rodriguez's homer last night, although it ended up being a game-tying, not a game-winning, one.

Here's what happened. Shortly after A-Rod had that game-tying hit in the sixth inning, I posted this on my Facebook status update at around 9 p.m. or so: "I'm calling it now - this game is going to end with a walkoff homer by A-Rod! Remember, I did call that A-Rod would hit the walkoff homer in the 15-inning Yankees-Red Sox game!"

By the time the ninth inning rolled around, Rodriguez was not in a position to hit a walkoff, of course (he was only the second batter of the inning, with the score 3-1 Twins.) Johnny, a Red Sox fan/Squawker reader, wrote "Not tonight, Lisa" in Facebook about my prediction. I responded: "As Yogi sez, it ain't over til it's over. Besides, the Yankees own Joe Nathan! A-Rod will do something good this inning."

And I was right! Of course, it was off  Nathan. The Yankees haven't owned a pitcher like that since the heyday of Arthur Rhodes. One example this year: if you may remember, Squawker Jon and I were at the Stadium on May 15, A-Rod's first night at the new Stadium (that was the Brett Gardner inside-the-park game, and the first great game at the new ballpark.) As Squawker Jon recounted then: "I told Lisa that I would think the Yankees were going to win if top closer Joe Nathan were not on the mound. But Lisa correctly predicted that the Yankees could get to Nathan."

And, as Red Sox fan Bob Ekstrom wrote in his guest Squawk the other day, "what can brighten the Bronx outlook more than thoughts of Joe Nathan trying to hold a one-run lead in the bottom of the ninth at Yankee Stadium?" (Incidentally, Bob also correctly predicted in that piece that the Angels would be much tougher for the Red Sox than expected.) 

So, when A-Rod came up to bat, Joe, another Sox fan/Squawker reader, wrote to me, "A-Rod's gonna tie it." And whaddaya know - A-Rod did tie it!

Of course, given Nathan's body langauge during that at-bat, it wasn't exactly a shock. He was practically hyperventilating out there (as was I, after A-Rod's homer!)

And I also got tears in my eyes over the home run. I was so finally that A-Rod gave all his haters a nice steaming cup of shut the heck up!

Longtime Squawker readers know what I've been defending A-Rod against the "he's not a true Yankee" brigade since the Subway Squawkers blog started. Has A-Rod been perfect? Of course not. He ticked me off with the opting out, and the way he seemed in his own world in the 2008 season. His Details photo shoot was really dumb, too. And of course he's been terrible in October since the 2004 ALCS. But the abuse and blame this guy has gotten has been completely out of proportion with reality.

Really, I am so sick of this portion of the fanbase thinking that they were so righteous in booing A-Rod. I am tired of the "why can't he hit when it counts" haters, as Jim Green of the Yankee Scrolls blog called them (as if A-Rod's eight Yankee walkoff hits didn't count.) I am so sick of these so-called fans who don't seem to realize that, jf it weren't for A-Rod's MVP seasons in 2005 and 2007, the Yanks would never have even made the playoffs those years. Not to mention the way this year's team slogged without A-Rod in the lineup. Oh, and it's a good thing the Yankees didn't listen to a New York tabloid columnist who wrote this spring that the Yankees should just cut A-Rod!

But guess what? The bandwagon is full. If you call yourself a Yankee fan, and you really couldn't deign to root for Alex before last night, fuggedaboudit. If you really think A-Rod became a so-called real Yankee last night, please, step off already and go crawl under a rock or something. And take that, haters!

I'm going to write more today on the rest of the game, including Mark Teixeira's epic walkoff, but I just had to get that A-Rod stuff off my chest! In the meantime, leave us a comment!

Momentum, schmomentum - Don't think the Twins will win because they had a sizzling September

I knew it. As soon as I saw the Twins beat the Tigers, in one of the most epic one-game playoff matchups ever, I was sure people would start talking about that discredited canard, about how the hottest team, not the best team, wins in the playoffs. (Didn't they read my Faster Times piece breaking down the numbers? Sheesh.)

Momentum, schomentum, I say. The Yankees are going to win the series. I'm not going to claim a sweep or decimation or anything like that - as Squawker reader Bob from Kiev pointed out; Orlando Cabrera and Joe Mauer are both Yankee killers. Come to think of it, so is Carl Pavano. But the Yankees are still going to win.

Yankees in four, I say. That's my prediction, and I'm sticking to it!


Yesterday's game was pretty phenomenal, though - it was the best one-game playoff I can remember in ages. Fun to watch, even if I had no rooting interest. But TBS is terrible. What's more annoying - Craig Sager's fashions, or Chip Caray's awful calls? (I wrote a piece breaking down how bad Caray was.)

I will probably be squawking on Twitter and Facebook during tonight'ts game , if you'd like to follow me.

One other note - the Poughkeepsie Journal had a good video breaking down the Yanks-Twins series. Check it out.

What are your own predictions for the series? Tell us about it!

Who I'm rooting for in the Twins-Tigers game

I'm settling in to watch today's one-game playoff between the Detroit Tigers and the Minnesota Twins. So who am I rooting for? Neither - I have no preference as to which team I want the Yankees to see in the playoffs. Ever since 2006, when I wanted to see the Yankees face the Tigers after the team staggered into the postseason, and Detroit killed the Yanks, I have been reluctant to say which team I want to see in October, for fear it will blow up in my face, and end up killing the Yankees.

What I will say is this - I am completely unsurprised that Minnesota is playing today.I wrote an article on them this Friday for The Faster Times, saying:

...the two teams tying - and playing a one-game playoff for the title - is a real possibility, especially given the buzz that will already be in the air at the Metrodome this weekend as the park hosts its last ever - for now, at least, Twins series.

There isn't much buzz for Detroit, unless it's Miguel Cabrera's incredible .26 blood alcohol level. Good grief.

So much for Peter Gammons' wanting another playoff round  because there was no drama this October.

No matter what happens today,  Joe Mauer deserves the AL MVP, as I lobbied for last month. The only real argument - that his Twins weren't in the playoff hunt - has been decimated by the way they stepped up this October.

While I'm not rooting for the Twins (or the Tigers), my guess is that Minnesota will be the team headed  to New York after the game. And the Tigers will make history by being the first team to cough up a lead they held since early May.

What do you think? Leave us a comment!

Guess what? Having a sizzling September doesn't mean you'll be hot in October

How many times have you heard that it's the hottest team, not the best team, that wins in the playoffs? Well, I took a look at all 72 playoff teams this decade, and discovered that this is a myth. Here's my piece for The Faster Times on the issue.

Newsday columnist Ken Davidoff wrote about my argument in his Baseball Insider blog. Very cool. Thanks, Ken!