Jesus may be risen ...

... but Mike Lupica's intellect is not.

"And the guy who pitches the second game of the season against the A's in Japan - Jon Lester - would fit right in with some of the kids the Yankees get behind in their own rotation this season."

The Red Sox have a young pitcher who is pitching the second game of the season. The Yankees also have young pitchers.

Is this line of thought going anywhere?


"The Red Sox are still the team to beat, and not just because they have now won two World Series out of the last four."

I think the Red Sox are the best team in baseball. They won the WS and haven't adjusted their roster too much. But baseball is very unpredictable. To illuminate that observation, the very same Red Sox didn't even make the playoffs two seasons ago.

Lupica's line of reasoning is a bit tautological, don't you think? "The Red Sox are the best team in baseball, and not just because they are the best team in baseball."

Lupica could write five million words explaining other reasons that the Red Sox are the "team to beat." But none of these arguments can be more convincing than the fact that they won two of the last four World Series.


"They have spent better than the Yankees ... and have been run better."

As evidenced by the fact that they have won two of the last four World Series.


"The people who own the Red Sox now came in with the right attitude, which was this: You can't win the past from the Yankees, because the Yankees already won it. They wanted to start a new fight, a new fashioning of the rivalry, one that is now the closest to what the Dodgers and Giants had in New York once. And for now they are winning it."

As evidenced by the fact that they have won two of the last four World Series.


"And they are doing this in an era that was supposed to belong to the Yankees, especially since they made the trade for Alex Rodriguez in February of 2004.

Remember, the Yankees did that at the end of the baseball winter in which the Red Sox had tried to move heaven and Fenway Park to get Rodriguez to Fenway."

You, sir, are a liar and a phony.

I remember.

You said that the Rangers were better off with Soriano than the Yankees were with ARod. You said the Mets were the best team in New York. You said that ARod was going to move to centerfield or first base.


"And if somebody had told you his first day in New York that all this time later the Yankees would not only not have won a World Series in the years since but not even played in one, well, how hard would you have laughed?"

Not at all. Because I understand baseball. The Yankees had just lost Pettitte, Clemens, and Wells. They didn't even have Randy Johnson yet, or Chien-Mien Wang.

You really don't remember what it was like, do you?

The starting rotation was Kevin Brown (I had high hopes, to be fair), Javy Vazquez, Mussina, Lieber, and Contreras/El Duque/Loaiza.

I think most observers expected a lot of 12-11 losses and probably a second-place finish in the AL East.


"It has been stated before and can be stated again that Rodriguez has become the face of the Yankees now. Not Jeter, not Posada, not penitent Andy Pettitte, not the great Mo Rivera. It is Rodriguez, to whom the Yankees and their fortunes are now permanently tethered, for better or for worse."

1) "It has been stated" is a meaningless qualifier. It has been stated that the Earth is flat, that the value of Pi = 3.00, and that the light from the stars comes from pinholes in the firmament.

2) "... and can be stated again" is even more meaningless.

3) There is no such thing as "face of the Yankees."

4) The fortunes of the Yankees can not be "permanently" tethered to ARod, unless you misunderstand the meaning of a kindergarten-level vocabulary word.

5) You said Pettitte was "penitent." Screw you.

"So the real question, and it is a good one, becomes this for the Yankees, now and into the future:"

So many questions, I hardly know where to start:

1) Joba as a reliever.

2) Joba as a starter.

3) Hughes.

4) Kennedy.

5) Jeter's range as he gets older.

6) Can Damon rebound and stay healthy?

7) Can Abreu rebound and stay healthy?

8) Can Matsui rebound and stay healthy?

9) Is Mussina shot?

10) How long can Rivera continue his domination?

11) Will Girardi manage like he is in the National League?

12) Will George Steinbrenner die soon?

13) Lefties in the bullpen?

14) A first baseman who can hit?

15) The new Stadium?

So, Lupica, what have you got?

"Will Alex Rodriguez break the all-time home run record before he wins a World Series wearing a Yankee uniform?"

Screw you, Lupica.

That's the real question you've got for the 2008 Yankees?