Damn Yankees

Let me begin this with a disclaimer: this is not intended to be another in the "Shit on the Yankees" series. I mean this post to be for an objective discussion about baseball's most famous, most successful, and, yes, most hated (and loved, too, probably) team. Why one for the Yanks, and not the Padres, BoSox, or Braves? BECAUSE they're the Yankees.

1. John Kruk made a great observation tonight on Baseball Tonight. Wind it back to the 9th inning: Giambi singles with two outs, and Bellhorn is sent to pinch-run, with Sheff at the plate. On the first pitch, Bellhorn takes second. Then Sheff hits a high chopper to the outfield grass, where the Angels 3B fields it, but can't make a play. Bellhorn sticks at second. The next batter, Matsui, hits a bouncer to Erstad at first, who's playing a good 7 feet off the line. He has to go a bit to his right to get it, but nothing crazy. Flips to K-Rod, it's all over.

What Kruk pointed out was Bellhorn's running mistake. With two outs, he said, a runner should be going on contact. Kruk argued that Bellhorn should have been moving on Sheffield's chopper. Ok, easier to say after the fact, when we can see that Bellhorn would have made it to third safely. But let's assume Kruk's right, at least for now. Then, Kruk continued, if there'd been runners at the corners instead of at 1st and 2nd, Erstad would have had to hold the runner at first (who by then was Tony Womack, who can steal fairly well). If Erstad's holding Womack, no way he gets to Matsui's grounder. It skips into the outfield, Womack might get to third, Bellhorn scores, and it's 5-4, with the tying run 90 feet away, and the Yanks still alive.

The lessons: (1) I told you all how much Bellhorn sucks; (2) as MJ has often said, the Yankees of this decade are far less fundamentally sound that the teams that - perhaps not surprisingly - won four titles in the previous decade.

2. I said it before, I'll say it again: Alex Rodriguez will never win a championship. Winners don't bounce into double plays with the game on the line. Ok, I'll be fair - it happens to even the best and most championship-adorned players. But A-Rod was brought to the Bronx to get the Yankees to, and through, situations like tonight's. He came up short, and he'll once again watch a team full of players all less talented than he is celebrate a title in a few weeks.

3. Related to my earlier post: I hope Torre sticks around. I don't expect it, but I hope he doesn't get booted. The Yankees' disappointments are more about their personnel than Torre's managing. I think he did an awfully good job this year with a team that stumbled pretty hard at the get-go. More than that, he's a good guy, and we need more of those in sports. Joe, if Big George kicks you to the curb, we've got a really nice stadium here at 1060 W. Addison that you could call home...

4. Thank you, Bernabe Williams! Another true good guy, a great and clutch performer, and another reason why the Yanks were so hard to hate when they kept winning a few years back. How can anyone hate Bernie? I remember seeing him 12 or 13 years ago at Comiskey, before he made a name for himself. It'll be weird not seeing him patrolling center in Yankee Stadium next year. No Cooperstown, I don't think, but he'll make it into the Don Mattingly Wing of the Yankees Hall.

5. What's on tap for the hot stove league? Does Steinbrenner replace Bernie with the reviled Johnny Damon - who might be the best hitter in a weak market? Is AJ Burnett the latest to be added to the starters' stable? As always, the fun this offseason starts in the Bronx...