Hello Katie, it's me Alex

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Today on A-Rod, Alex is weighed down by his demons. Now that he has hit rock bottom he turns to the only person who can help... Katie Couric?

Yes, this is the never ending soap opera called the New York Yankees. If the YES Network were really intelligent (and they are not) they would cancel those stupid programs like Yankee Road Trip and just follow the endless story lines of their franchise's key players. Better yet you can make it like Running Man and just manipulate the truth and set everyone against each other. Or EDTV or whatever overlord of TV movie you like.

Now, Katie was doing this to set up the interview where he blatantly lied to us, saying he never took steroids. This is twice I've seen interviews where people lied to me. I could never forget President Clinton doing that, classic, NHL '95 classic.

Granted he was trying to avoid the whole interview, which could easily set off warning lights. Though we should be forgiving since he has apologized to Katie Couric... but not to the Sports Illustrated reporter who tried to contact him face-to-face when the test result was leaked.

Someday I hope we can go back to when guys just played the game the way it was supposed to... hungover, right Mickey?

ETC: I never would have imagined Katie Couric would have appeared on this site. Shouldn't she be in a Brooks Brother catalog with that new haircut?

A-Rod did steroids and Johnny Damon thinks it could have been worse.

The world of Major League Baseball is in shambles, proclaim the general media, because Alex Reodriguez used steroids. Somehow we were all transported into the world of 2003, where people were shocked that professional baseball players used enhancing drugs.

With A-Rod being the "latest and greatest to fall" (Sports Illustrated), the media believes we need every member of the New York Yankees to chime in. Derek Jeter spoke, as if the voice of God was coming down from heaven giving his opinion. Jeter, being the team captain and not trying to make clubhouse conflict, stated that the team was there to support Alex. Then Captain Derek tried to turn the attention away the Yankees.

Last night, Johnny Damon provided one of the best, unintentional humor, interviews of all time. When asked about his feelings towards A-Rod, Damon took a pro-team, pro-A-Rod stance. He then explained that there were other, more serious things Rodriguez could have done. This allowed a female reporter (they always seem to play a great set-up woman - see A.I.'s "practice" interview) to follow up asking, what things would he consider worse. Damon, straight faced, responds, he could have murdered someone. Thank you everyone and good night.


However, I'm still pretty sure Ray Lewis killed that dude in Atlanta.

Yankee Fans: I cannot feel your pain... ever!

After Marky Mark went from sunny California to the Big Apple where every at bat and every trip to the barber shop is examined, the Yankees proved once again that the only God in sports is the Almighty Dollar. This is a team assembled by a corporation set out on creating robots that are so uniform and sterile, you'd think they didn't have reproductive organs.

See, growing up in a family where most of our sports allegiances have suffered decades without a conference championship let alone a World Championship, I can never ever feel sorry for a group of fans who have waited only since 2000 for the hopes of a title.

Yankee fans are always believing that their wealth and the fact that they always recieve the best players is what makes them the best. Combine that with their desire to have the most boring looking lineup and rotation in baseball (called "The Yankee Way") makes them more intolerable than having your toe nails being pulled out.

This Yankee Way has been a thorn in my side. Groups of players known for their flair and color are not good enough to be Yankees or would be promptly told to change "their ways" for the "Yankee Way."

To me this is more of a group of historically rich fans to think of themselves as richer. For them winning the World Series is like Mr. Burns getting another ivory back scratcher. These titles are so plentiful some of them are really of no value and no signifigance to the fans. While easily any Phillies fan could treasure both of their teams Fall Classic triumphs. For someone like myself who grew up an Indians fan, the only recollection I have is failure through David Justice/Tom Glavine and Edgar Renteria.

While Yankee fans are down in the dumps since 2000 but are now riding an optomism that can only surpass how they felt since Joba became a starter (based on what again?), these fans will become unbearable. Major League Baseball, outside of the New York market has enjoyed success over the last several seasons as many teams unfamiliar to postseason play have become stars to it. Honestly who could have thought that ten years we would see Tampa, Colorado, Detroit, Chicago AL and Houston in World Series play, let alone two Red Sox World Series wins? I know I couldn't. Let the Yanks buy their players, it's gonna happen but don't ever let me think that people should pity their fans.

The Great Debate: Hall of Fame Class of '09

I love the Hall of Fame. It showcases the best of the game and the greatest achievements of not only the players but of the human spirit. Nothing is more American than the National Baseball Hall of Fame. However, I hate some aspects of the Hall.

First and foremost I hate the Veterans Committee. A bunch of old players who think no one was every good enough to be voted in... except themselves of course.

"This guy didn't hit enough homers."

"This guy didn't have a 20 win season."

"This guy was too... BLONDE!"

Arg! I hate that.

The second thing I hate is the fact that as soon as retirements starts happening after the World Series the Yankee fans, writers, supporters start coming out of the wood work and demand their players get in. It's like when people apply for pardons from the President. None of them deserve it because if they did, then they would be free or in the Hall already.

First on the list is Mike Mussina. Yes, he retired this year and he did almost throw to perfect games (not a legit reason to vote someone in). He did not win 300 games, he had a decent strikeout total and he was a solid pitcher for the era.

However, meeting that win total and being considered a dominant pitcher is what will drag him down. Though he did finish second every year he was up for the Cy Young, the fact he never won and never really had that break out year is what will leave him staying at his home and not in Cooperstown when he is eligible. I'm sorry, he couldn't even get the Yanks a World Series with the staffs they had in 2001, 2003 or even the pennant in 2004.

Roger Maris is a consistent pick to be considered for the Hall. Granted he may have hit 61* homers in 1961 and he had some hardware to go with it, but need less to say, he was nothing special. He never had a season where he hit .300. His totals were never that great from 1961 beyond. The Yankee fans who supported him where not there in '61 when they pretty much attacked him, wished him dead, etc. So why do you guys think he is worthy to be with Ruth, Mantle and Aaron? Those guys were great sluggers.

Now, since this man has been having poor health recently and turned over the franchise to his sons (or is that spawn?). George Steinbrenner has been getting this grass roots campaign to be elected. Frankly, this man is not a saint or a person who held the game to the highest standard.

Yes, he was one of the first owners to embrace free agency and yes he won plenty of world championships. However, George was constantly being punished by Major League Baseball for breaking rules and flat out not caring about the rules that applied to "other teams". My favorite vice was when Dave Winfield came to New York and had an agreement with George to doante money to Winfield's charity. The payment was never made and George went out to assualt Winfield's character and charity. This man is as much a saint as Marge Schott was a civil rights activist. No embrace from me.

In fact we really need to examine our thinking of who is a Hall of Fame player. The last few years we have voted in the greats of the game. The last twenty/thirty years have blessed us with legends of the diamond but I hope that we don't try to water down the hall with slightly less standards and "Maris" like players.

Sal Sez: " I was catcher for the Red Sox when Maris hit #61."

The New York Yankees 2008 Off-Season or How I learned to stop worrying because we have no soul

I love those references.... AH, it makes me feel so safe and warm.

I do not however feel safe and warm when the Yankees spend more money than God on two pitches;
one of which started the first half of last season losing more games than he lost all of last season and the second never really living quite up to expectations from when he left his previous team a few years earlier.

This is like a Yankee knee jerk reaction, when you lose in the regular season, make sure you spend money on players like a kid in a candy store who happen to find a twenty on the corner.

In fact in signing A.J. Burnett and C.C. they pretty much took a pile of cash and set it on fire. They did the same when they signed Jaret Wright (product if an overly productive contract year), Kevin Brown (same thing) and Carl Pavano (well, that was all potential there).

Now to add to the fact they spent large (three times the size of the Rays payroll) on two guys, the Yankees actually had the audacity to ask New York for more funds for their new stadium, "The Place that Taxpayers Might Have to Build".

Though the fact remains and this is one thing both of us at Sal's 401K believe is key to a championship team. Oh, that's right Yankee fans, your team has not won a single World Series since that dumb Subway Series that is barely a Series at all. Might I digress, Yankee teams are composed of mostly 33 year old plus players who were assembled by a dollar amount rather than a strategic purpose.

See, baseball teams much like other teams need to have chemistry and I just don't see the chemistry and of course key role players on the New York Yankees. The point I always make, and it angers Yankee fans is that in 2004 the Boston Red Sox traded Nomar Garciaparra. You may have remembered him, he was the franchise player. Well, they traded him and acquired Orlando Cabrera who was not as much as a power hitter as Nomar was. He didn't make the same wage as Nomar. But he was pretty flashy on the field with defense and his speed helped add some horsepower and stolen bases when they needed it. In fact their key stolen base was by Dave Roberts, some backup outfielder who doesn't hit 30 homers a year. Try finding that on the Yankees.

Fact remains that the New York Yankees get drunk with their check book everytime they lose. Though as usual they will probably unload most of the old guys when they realize they weren't worth it to begin with. Maybe they will unload their crappy young players... like Joba.

Sal Sez: "When I was with the Yankees they made me shave my mustache off. I killed a trainer at spring training when he tried to shave me."