1967 called and wanted their power numbers back.

Red Sox fetishist claims to be impressed with David Ortiz's 2009 power numbers:

"What kind of odds could you have gotten in Vegas in May that David Ortiz - who didn't hit his first home run until May 20 - would get to 30 home runs and 100 RBI this season?"

I don't know what kind of odds you'd get. 2:1? 3:1?

A 6' 6", 275-lb. DH playing half his games in Fenway Park? A guy who, just a few years ago, was pushing 50/150?

Is 30 HRs and 100 RBIs a lot?

I truly think if 4' 11" Brian Roberts batted in David Ortiz's place, Roberts would have had 100 RBIs this season.

If Ortiz has a good final week, he'll be almost as good as Nick Swisher or Jose Lopez?

No, I guess not, because Ortiz can't field and he can't run.

Talk to me when his slugging percentage is higher than Shin-Soo Choo's.


Oh, and by the way, Ortiz doesn't even have 30 HRs and 100 RBIs yet.

Which team is a cinch to win the World Series?

Picking a team to lose in the playoffs is easy. I pick all teams to lose. I will be correct 7 out of 8 times.

???

Curt Schilling on Alex Rodriguez:

"His problem has always been that he's a guy with holes and you can pitch to those holes," Schilling said. "For a guy that's as good as he is, he still strikes out a lot. Guys who strike out a lot tend to have a tough time in October."

Babe Ruth struck out a lot.

Reggie Jackson struck out a lot.

David Ortiz strikes out a lot.

#28.

Yankees win the World Series again, second time this year.

With Burnett on the mound, no less.

In terms of "messages," maybe beating the Angels helps Girardi's cred. We know Mr. Bigelow couldn't beat the Angels.

It's a nightmare for Tiger fans!

Verlander pitches like this while Sabathia pitches like this!

2009 ALDS, game two at Yankee Stadium, down 1-0, Burnett pitching like this, and Fernando Rodney is your closer. You know, Fernando Rodney: A 32-year-old with 7 2/3 postseason innings.

Which is why the Yankee fans need to be worried.

.378 with the bases empty.

.259 with runners on base.

.211 with runners in scoring position.

Let's not talk about the 1998 Yankees.

Another opinion that credits the 1998 Yankees for teamwork rather than immense talent.

I can't even get into a point-by-point argument because the premise isn't even worth discussing.

• Simply replacing Melky/Gardner in CF with Bernie Williams is probably worth 15 wins.
• The 1998 Yankees had a #5 starter who won 13 games.
• Every single game, the 1998 Yankees had the superior starting pitcher. Every single game out of 162. No, not really, but close.

You know, the Yankees won 100 games three years in a row from 2001 - 2003. Before you take on the 1998 titans, try the 2002 team. (Which is actually one of my favorite Yankee teams due to Karim Garcia Index.)

In other words, before you get to Paul O'Neill, start by comparing Nick Swisher to John Vander Wal.


I mean, even the idea that 2009 ARod is better than 1998 Brosius.

Brosius drove in 98 runs in 1998.

The 2009 Yankee third baseman is not Alex Rodriguez. The 2009 Yankee third baseman is ARod-Hairston-Pena-Ransom-Berroa. While ARod is clearly a more talented baseball player than Scott Brosius, the 2009 version of ARod-Hairston-Pena-Ransom-Berroa is simply not as talented as the 1998 version of Scott Brosius.


The 1998 Yankees are a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence where a bunch of great player all have career years at the same time.

It was great when it happened.

It was eleven years ago.

Stop talking about it.

Oh, gee, the Yankees could never beat the Red Sox.

It would be a miracle to get past Verlander and the Tigers. It will be nearly impossible to keep home-field advantage against MVP Morales, Figgins, and Scioscia.

So, no, I hadn't even considered the ALCS, because you've already convinced me that winning the ALDS will be too difficult:

"But now the batting order has organized around Martinez, and David Ortiz, after a bad start that was almost Biblical, still has a chance to finish with 30 home runs and 100 RBI. The Yankees are first in the league in hitting. But the Red Sox happen to be third. They are also third in pitching. The Yankees are sixth."

I like that: Sixth in "pitching."

As if there was a measurement called "pitching," and the Yankees ranked sixth.

"A month ago, it was the Red Sox who had more questions about pitching, and not just with their starters. Now the Yankees don't even know who pitches Game 2 of the division series. CC Sabathia may win the Cy Young - although Mo should - but the last time he had a big playoff game to pitch in the American League, Game 5 of the 2007 ALCS against the Red Sox, the Indians up three games to one, a chance to pitch the Indians into the World Series, the Red Sox took him apart"

1) Greinke should win the Cy Young.

2) It was you, not us, who predicted the end of Mariano's career in April. Remember the Jason Bay HR?

3) I totally forgot about Game 5 of the 2007 ALCS. How could I forget about Game 5 of the 2007 ALCS? Now I'm totally worried.


So, Lupica has now hyped up the Tigers, the Angels, and the Red Sox.

He forgot about Mauer and the Twins. I know there is a good chance that the Twins won't even make the playoffs, but Lupica should cover all his bases and scare Yankee fans as much as possible.

Love this guy.

ARod goes .300/40/120 every year, wins three MVPs, boosts attendance 33% at home and probably 300% on the road. Gives bad press conferences and is therefore considered a bust:

"Hampton can become a free agent after this season. He signed an eight-year, $121 million deal with Colorado after the 2000 season, and has gone 63-62 since then."

Yankees win the World Series.

Burnett is 11 - 9 and he isn't very good.

Career 98 - 85:

"More than perhaps any other Yankee, Burnett could undermine a 100-plus win team come the postseason."

You never know.

Hughes might blow a save, Melky might drop a fly ball, Damon might throw a ball into the stands because he thinks it's the third out, Teixeira might leave 15 men on base in one game.


"He is penciled in to start Oct. 9, Game 2 of the Division Series."

Is he?

I'd go with Pettitte.

Though the road/home splits suggest otherwise, I'd still go with the lefty at Yankee Sadium.



"And Yankees fans already have imagined the nightmare scenario: Justin Verlander outduels CC Sabathia in Game 1 and it is up to Burnett to keep the Yankees from heading to Motown down 0-2 in a best-of-five."

Yankee fans and their nightmare scenarios.

How unimaginative.

My personal nightmare scenario usually involves a fiery plan crash combined with Suzyn Waldman's head morphed onto a talking dog. Most of my nightmares involve transmogrified animals.

Oh, and Torre winning a World Series with the Dodgers.

So ...

1. Entire Yankee team injured in a fiery plane crash, forcing the Yankees to play the ALDS with the Scranton-Wilkes Barre team.
   
2. Suzyn Waldman's head on a talking dog.
   
3. Torre's Dodgers winning the World Series.

Losing game one of the ALDS seems quite tame in comparison.


"Burnett might just be a version of David Wells or Orlando Hernandez, needing the urgency of October to fully engage a flitting attention span. So you can imagine him dominating with his awesome stuff."

Awesome stuff, dude.

A.J. Burnett's curveball is, like, so pitted.



"In his first season as a Yankee, Burnett has shown the ability to be unhittable and awful, often in the same game."

Every pitcher is unhittable every game. Except for the times when the other team gets hits against them.

"Why is Burnett so susceptible to such destructive detours? Well, he has a lot of combustible qualities that do much to negate a fastball/curve combo that at times is overwhelming.

He is tied for the most walks in the majors and has unleashed three more wild pitches than anyone else. There have been 21 stolen bases with Burnett pitching, tied for fifth worst in the majors. And he already has allowed a career-worst 24 homers. Put those all together with a wandering focus and you have a guy who pitches below the quality of top-tier stuff."

Burnett is not very good.

Never has been.

I think he'll pitch well enough to get a win in the ALDS ... if the Yankees score a lot of runs.

Be afraid of the Angels.

Last week, it was the Tigers.

This week, it's the Angels.

Next week, it will be the Red Sox or the Rangers:

"The way A.J. Burnett is pitching, Mike Mussina may have to start Game 2 of the playoffs.

Seriously?

How can a team be on the kind of rip the have been for months, and have this many questions with its pitching staff?"

To answer your question, the offense is how a team can be on this kind of rip for months and have this many questions with its pitching staff.

Starting staff, to be precise. The bullpen has been quite good.


"Angels fans must look at Kendry Morales' stats and wonder why anybody from the Yankees is more of an MVP candidate than Morales is."

The Yankee players are not "more of" candidates.

Just because Mike Lupica didn't notice Kendry Morales until this morning, when Lupica decided to hype up the Angels, doesn't mean the rest of the baseball-viewing public is unaware of Morales's season.


"For everything the Yankees have done this season, they came out of yesterday a total of four games better than the Angels in the loss column."

Only four games? Is Lupica being serious? The best record in baseball, but it's only four games?


Flashback to April. Most people predicted a third-place AL East finish for the Yankees.

The Yankees finished in third place in the AL East the year before and, this year, they were going to be hampered by ARod's steroid confessions.

Right?


So now that the season has worked out so well, we're supposed to forget about it and worry about Justin Verlander, Kendry Morales, Josh Beckett, and Ian Kinsler.

It has been a very enjoyable and successful Yankee season.

You can ask anybody except for Mike Lupica.

I knew Babe Ruth. You're no Babe Ruth.

"In an eyeblink, the ball was past Chris Richard at first base, rolling on the outfield grass, and now Yankee Stadium -- the new one, the one Derek Jeter helped build every bit as much as Babe Ruth built the old place -- was a clamorous combination of Times Square on New Year's and the Garden for a U2 encore."

Let's say Jeter is the most popular Yankee ever. (Untrue.)

Let's say Jeter is the most popular baseball player ever. (Untrue.)

Let's even say Jeter was solely responsbile for the four Championships in the late '90s. (Untrue.)

Even if these exaggerations were true, Jeter's influence on the Yankees and Yankee Stadium is not nearly the same as Ruth's influence on the Yankees and Yankee Stadium.

Old Yankee Stadium was literally designed to help Babe Ruth hit homeruns and also to save baseball from the Black Sox scandal.


This is the endless problem with the Jeter discussion.

Jeter is one of the best shortstops to ever play baseball. It's a particular joy to watch him hustle and play fundamentally sound baseball, especially when the second baseman and the CFer can't run a whole ninety feet. I completely understand why he represents old-school hustle and team-first attitude and even a pre-steroids, pre-freak-show game. Jeter has merely one grand slam in his career, and this negative stat is a badge of honor in Jeter's small-ball throwback universe.

But ...

• Jeter isn't the best Yankee ever.
• Jeter isn't the best baseball player ever.
• Jeter isn't the 2009 AL MVP.

When you compare Jeter's accomplishments to Babe Ruth's or Lou Gehrig's, you really sound ignorant.

No, really.

If Lou Gehrig drove in 175 runs, he'd get a pay cut.

Modern baseball would probably cease to exist without Babe Ruth. It would be cricket.


"They had waited for this and wanted this, each of the 45,848 who sat through an otherwise tedious scrimmage, this 4-2 Yankees victory just another small acceleration in the passing lane as autumn beckons."

"Tedious scrimmage."

I thought it was one of the most exciting baseball games I've ever attended.

Fraud.

Manager intentionally walks two batters in a row to load the bases. Naturally, the pitcher then unintentionally walks in the winning run:

"Joe Torre chose to look on the bright side after the Los Angeles Dodgers walked in the winning run in a 4-3 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday night.

...

'I'm very positive about this series,' Torre said. 'This was a disappointment, this game. You'd like to win the ballgame, but you had your opportunities.'

...

Torre said he walked Drew and Upton to set up a force at home. He also hoped Troncoso could strike out Reynolds, who leads the majors with 190 strikeouts."

As if Joe Torre knows Reynolds or any of Reynolds's stats.

Completely insane.

It's somewhat refreshing to see this idiotic "pressure" argument being applied to somebody besides ARod, but this is jaw-dropping in its ignorance:

"Suddenly, the normally unflappable Derek Jeter is finding the rarified air where the Yankee deities reside can be suffocating."

Guy goes a whole eight at-bats without getting a hit.

Hit the ball hard, too.


"But while he may be starting to make a dent on the Yankee deities, they are still all what they are - in a separate class insofar as the greatest Yankees of all time. On that list, the best Jeter can be viewed right now is sixth - behind Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle and Yogi Berra. DiMaggio, Mantle and Berra all won three Most Valuable Player awards apiece to Jeter's none, while Ruth and Gehrig undoubtedly would have won their share of MVPs had most of their careers not occurred before 1931 when the award was incepted."

"Incepted"?

Bill Madden, how sure are you that "incepted" is a word?

It might be one of those modern made-up words -- I'm all for the malleability of the English language -- and it may be acceptable for Scrabble -- but, at best, it's an assault on the eardrums.

No matter: Wordsmithing is hardly the biggest problem with this article.

Wallace Matthews says something nice.

Praises Joe Girardi even:

"Mattingly would never do that. Hell, he wasn't even going to replace any of Torre's coaches, not even the ones who grumbled behind Torre's back that he spent too much time on the Racing Form and not enough on the lineup card.

As a Yankees employee told me, 'It had become a country club in there.'

Under Mattingly, Cashman suspected it was going to be business as usual, and that wasn't going to be good enough.

...

But Girardi has brought his own brand of tough love to this party, banishing candy, soda and junk food from the players' lounge but letting music and kids back into the clubhouse.

It's not exactly Parris Island in there, but it's not Torre's day spa, either."

I completely agree.

But is Girardi as good a baseball manager as Tom Coughlin?

I'd rather be Joe Girardi.

Since the Mets are 26 games behind the Yankees, Mike Lupica has to look elsewhere to find an imaginary "battle of New York":

"Maybe this all changes with the Yankees in October, and even into November, and Joe Girardi pays off on the No. 27 he wears on his back and the Yankees finally win it all"

Finally.

Nine whole years for the Yankees and two whole years for Girardi to finally win it all.

You sound like an arrogant jerk. The kind of ignorant Yankee fan who believes the Universe is out of order just because the Yankees aren't World series champs.


"You know if it happens like that there will be the perception in New York - but only in New York - that order has finally been restored to the universe."

Ignorant, arrogant jerks -- like you.


"Since the last time the Yankees won the World Series, in 2000, that Subway Series over the Mets, the only local team (outside of hockey) to have won it all is Coughlin's."

(outside of hockey.)


"The Yankees are covered like the company in a company town. Giants fans, and that includes young Giants fans, are just as passionate about their team. The Internet traffic about the Giants, in season and out, is a consistent wonder to those who monitor these things, on our Web site at the Daily News and everywhere else."

The NFL is 10 times more popular than baseball.

What does that have to do with Joe Girardi?

I'd rather be Joe Girardi than Tom Coughlin. For one thing, I like baseball more than I like football. Also, Joe Girardi is younger, better-looking, and is surrounded everyday by the angelic effervescence of Derek Jeter.


"Friday night was just one more night when I had to remind myself I was looking at a future Hall of Famer with Joba."

Ha ha. Good one.

As if you were actually watching a baseball game.


You know, Joba isn't tough to figure out. He walks too many people because the batters have learned to lay off the slider. If Joba can adjust, he'll be fine. If he doesn't, he'll be Andy Hawkins.

But nobody ever said Joba was a future Hall of Famer.

On the other hand, morons like Lupica specifically hyped up Wright/Reyes as MVP candidates. Odd how the ARod/Jeter comparisons have died down. I have to remind myself everytime I watch Mr. Met play third base that Eric Hinske has as many HRs in the 2009 season.

I guess Lupica is going to have to compare ARod to a player from another sport. ARod is better than Wright, but ARod is not as good as Mark Messier. The Girardi/Coughlin comparisons make no sense, so why not?

"You know what the real nightmare scenario is for the Yankees?

That Justin Verlander pitches Game 1 of the division series the way he pitched on Friday against the Rays."

Game one of the division series is at Yankee Stadium, right?

Verlander's road ERA is 4.14, right?

The Yankees have a better lineup than the Rays, right?

A right-handed power pitcher at Yankee Stadium, right?

I mean, you could say the same thing if the Yankees were playing the Blue Jays in the first round. If Halladay pitches like he did against the Yankees on Friday night.

Or the Royals, if Zack Grienke pitches like he did against the Angels on Saturday.

Or the Astros, if Wandy Rodriguez pitches like he did against the Phillies on Friday night.


The Yankees have the best team in the entire league, but the Yankees don't have every single good player in the entire league.

Besides, the Yankees will be sending out Sabathia in game one, right?

What, Sabathia is Oliver Perez, or something?

I miss the guy who hit .300.

Separated at birth.

I'd like to think I'd have thought of it eventually, but I must give credit to a coworker.

Yeah, I'm sure he wasn't the first ...

As long as the Yankees got a win.

"The ground ball didn't appear to take any sort of bad hop, no matter what the Yankee players were saying afterward. In truth it was the type that Jerry Hairston could field without a bobble 100 times out of 100 under ordinary circumstances."

Bad timing for an error, but baseball players make errors every day.

Obviously, Pettitte wasn't going to throw a shutout, much less a no-hitter, much less a perfect game.

"Baseball infamy." Right. Like Shoeless Joe Jackson or Pete Rose.


I also like the idea of "baseball immortality."

Does anybody remember hard-hittin' Mark Whiten's four-homerun game?

Does anybody remember Len Barker's perfect game? Mike Witt's?

I think John Sterling cheapened the English language with this term and it inexplicably caught on.