Listen....as a Red Sox fan for 51 years I know the pain of the Cubbie Fans....You really don't want to win it all....there are so many good and unifying things about being the jinxed team....

We here in Boston had something really special before 2004....A rare thing really....A baseball team that was operating under an active, actual and scientifically verified (ok, so I'm lying a bit) curse....we had it all...we could NEVER win and we understood that role.....we had a fan base that was rabid....I mean people in other parts of the country cannot begin to understand the nature of this....for decades we had a cheap #### of an owner, we pissed literrally in troughs, we had horrible concessions, obstructed views, #### weather, lunatic players.....and the knowledge that somehow, some way our team would blow it....In our annual despair we united behind a team the way that no other baseball team has ever been supported....the fans were largely blue collar, they drank, sang, swore, threatened, booed and chanted in unison for more than 2 decades (there is a legitimate debate as to when this all started....'67 I was 10 and already a fan, by '75 I was 18 and suffered my first real Red Sox wound) clearly in 1967 the Red Sox began the long and steady climb to respectability and ultimately supremacy,,,,but the team really became relevant nationallly in the 1975 Series against Cincy's Big Red Machine (what a team that was by the way).....We knew Bucky Dent was coming...we knew that Yaz was not going to come through, Red Sox fans were cursing at Bob Stanley and we knew that when Dave Stapelton was left on the bench that John McNamara blew that game...it was a done deal...but the real pain was not in losing....remember that year?  The Mets were a team of the century...they had it all....every position was solid and they had a great pitching staff....what killed us was that we got ahead when we shouldn't have and THEN we blew it.....I remember that year thinking that Clemens was out of gas...it was Bruce Hurst who was our best pitcher in that series, what made that painful was that we weren't supposed to have a chance....we beat up on the Mets....and just when we started to believe that we had 'em.....John McNamara choked....and let's be clear....Bill Buckner made an error with a "defensive" replacement sitting on the bench.....We then struggled with an unprecedented collection of bad managers (yeah you, Kennedy, you stiff), terriblle ownership and horrible people as players...Mike Greenwell, Mo Vaughn, Jose Canseco, Carl Everrett and Jose Offerman to name just a few...How about Grady Littlle who is regarded by most Bostonians as mentally challenegd since his brilliant move to leave Pedro in the game....that was as painful as it got because even the nitwit announcers knew what was coming....half of the City of Boston went to bed and we stuffing their faces into the pillow before Grady got back to the dugout....it was over and every person I know as a true Red Sox fan knew that....we struggled but it was who we were....you people just don't understand....well you Cubs fans get it,,,,,and you know what....winning is such a relief but then what?

Blow the series...Cubs....Without you Chicago is just a cold assed city filled with corrupt politicians, that #### Oprah and some sort of bizarro world beliefs as to what to put on a hot dog....If the Cubs win sure you'll have a great time...you can write to your Yankee fan friends about how much they suck, you can finally wear a Cubs world series hat....talk radio for 3 weeks will be a love fest with everyone agreeing that it just doesn't matter anymore and then it will slowly begin to dawn on all of you....you were the lovable losers....you were tough beyond all understanding, you battled the odds....you HAD character and true grit....after you win...not so much....you are now no different than the Toronto Blue Jays fans....no character....no grit.....no nothing....other more important things will change too...

At Fenway Park these days they sell Legal Seafoods chowder, cuban sandwiches, pulled pork and gourmet popcorn;  they have club seating, they have "pavillions", they have bars everywhere, they will sell a sponsorship sign on you if you sit in one place for 2 hours,  the troughs are all gone, there are advertising plaques above each urinal, they have Dunkin Donuts, they have NAPKINS and RELISH (don't lie to me if you tink they had relish before you are a faker) Papa Ginos pizza....they get $40.00 to park, the bars in the area like the Baseball Tavern are now megasized entertainment destinations...and the fans are all carrying cameras and these ####s flood the entry and exit ways to get a shot of their fat ugly pink hatted wives standing in front of the now completely ad covered Green Monster....the announcer blares out....ads sponsoring everything including the seventh inning stretch, the Budweiser Pavillion, the Dunkin Donuts Corner, the Papa Ginos fan of the game etc etc..... and a ticket in the left field lower lodge is $85.00 per game......make no mistake about it....a seat along the left field line at Fenway is quite a seat.....but in the post '04 World the ####s who now have made Fenway "America's Favorite Ballpark" don't stay in their seats for an inning because none, not one of these peckerheads gives a rat's #### about the game....they are there to say that they were there....they would pay $500.00 for the seats and they are almost all wearing pink hats or hats that aren't formed like a baseball hat...you know those LL Bean loser hats with an off weathered white cotton and....in cooler weather they wear LL Bean...they only stay to hear Sweet Caroline and they all start looking around in gleeful surprise when the wave starts.  They ALL ask why people are booing when Kevin Youklis walks to the plate and then they smugly smile like those in the know when they are told by normal fans that the  "Boooooo" is really "Yoooouuuuuu########"....the most annoying thing about this new breed of fan is how they gasp and shreik when there is an in field pop up....THESE DIPSHITS SEE EVERY HIT BALL AS HAVING A CHANCE TO GO OUT....IF IT'S TOUCHED BY A BAT AND GOES INTO THE AIR THESE FOOLS JUMP UP AND SCREAM....My young son usually explains to the venture capital loser next to us..."You should watch the ball and the outfielder to see if it has a chance"....Then the enterprising ownership will convince these dopes that for $75.00 they too can become a member of Cub Nation....you even get a real membership card and a window sticker so that you and the other 3,000,000 of you can be unique.....in short my Cubbie Brethren....baseball as you know it will die when the Cubs do win.... I hope that you understand that baseball in Boston just isn''t the same...What has softened our descent into anoynmity is the fact that the Yankees REALLY suck and they have that piece of #### at 3rd....that plus we are all enjoying Derek Jeters slippagge into the dust bin of history......hey when you guys do win this year can we borrow Bartman or the goat....I'll even take the black cat from '69....we need more help now than we did in '86.....

The take.....

Since 2001 NO city, I mean NO city has Come Close To this City's Teams.....

THERE CAN BE NO LEGITIMATE DEBATE ABOUT IT....BOSTON IS TITLETOWN.....

Let's give Detroit it's due...the Red Wings and Pistons are awesome teams....but let's be clear....Detroit has NO claim to being title town....Hockey Town ----probably but that's it....the Tigers suck, the Lions are worse and the Pistons won only one as that team is presently configured....

How about New York....the Giants deservedly won their Superbowl but beyond that let's see....the Yankees are a good team with an aging but still powerful lineup and NO pitching staff. The Spanks have not recovered from the single most humiliating defeat in organized professional sports history....you may remember that 2004 ALCS....I know all of you suddenly quiet Yankee fans remember it don't you?...how about those Knickerbockers.....they may well be the worst franchise in organized team sports given their money and the absolutely horrible teams they have paraded onto the Garden floor...oh wait...how can the Knicks be the worst franchise ever when they play in the same market as those Mets....the second highest payroll in baseball and they lay all of the blame for their '07 colllapse on a manager and not the dipstiick who overpayed Pedro, Santana, Glavine (we know he's gone but he took a lot of $ while he was there and didn't do ####), Beltran, Delgado and that ace Wagner....wanna fire someone who IS to blame....schedule a 3:00 a.m. meeting with Omar while you still have a fan or two left....and then there are the Rangers and who really cares...

How about L.A.?  Well the Lakers had a nice run until they played a complete team and they promptly crapped out....I remember just two short weeks ago a lively interview with Kobe and Stephen A. Smith where Steven A. pressed Kobe as to why it wasn't fair to compare Kobe to MJ and at the time I wrote it off as a good reporter just asking the questions because many many people had started to believe that Bryant deserved such a lofty comparison....and maybe Kobe will still someday be able to be compared to Michael...just not at this time....Kobe was so outplayed by the Celtics trio of Pierce, Allen and Posey that he was barely the best offensive player on his own team....he was clearly out played, out hustled and outschemed by tthe Boston Celtics to the point where his legacy has been tarnished to a great degree..Michael Jordan would have carried his team to a win over Boston this year, there is NO question about that...but back to my point...LA is never really eligible to be Title Town without a real baseball team and without an NFL franchise....Christ even Charlotte and Jacksonville have teams.... what? you say that the Dodgers are a real baseball team because they signed Joe Torre?  To that I say, grow up...as good a manager as there is in the game does not make the Dodgers are real team.  Fans don't care, teams NEVER win (Kirk Gibson ain't coming through that door kids) and did I mention that people in LA have NO passion for sports....How many titles have the Dodgers won?  Nah, LA is not close to a candidate for Title Town USA....and what did Shaq say...."Kobecouldn't do it without me...."  Love it, LA blows.

How about Chicago....although the Blackhawks such #### and the Bulls are a disgrace, and the Bears are moving backwards again.  They do have the White Sox who have won a World Series and the Bulls of Michael and Scottie were all world....but what have done for me lately....you KNOW the Cubs will screw up somehow and someway and while Ozzie will probably get the Southsiders a legitimate playoff shot...even if they win they really don't matter...even in Chicago...what's that old line...."there's nothing lonlier that being a southsider in a city of northsiders"....so The ChiSox are not given any credit here until their own city backs em just a bit....so Nyet to Chicago...and Philly, Saint Louis, Dallas, San Antonio (one team sports towns just don't count), Saint Louis, Baltimore, Tampa Bay, Miami, Cleveland, Cincy, Oakland, KC, New Orleans, Houston or Seattle....nope not one of these cities can say that they have won world champioships in Football (3) Baseballl (2) and Basketball (1) since 2001....only one place on the planet can say that and that's Boston.

Oliver Wendall Holmes once called Boston the "Hub of The Universe" because the city is the eductaional center of the Country with no fewer than 100 colleges in the city and its thriving suburbs....and those colleges include Harvard, MIT, Boston University, Northeastern, Emerson and Boston College to name just a few.  Add to that an extremely low crime rate, a bevy of world class hospitals, four gorgeous seasons and the birthplace of our democracy and you have a city that is truly the best place to live on the East Coast. 

It is almost unfair that the Red Sox are by far the best team in baseballl over the last 5 years, that the Patriots are still the best team in football and that the Celtics have now resumed theiir rightful place atop the NBA and won their 17TH title....a feat that no other team has ever topped....to put that in perspective.....that is 17 more titles than Cleveland, Denver, Charlotte, New Orleans, Dallas,  Utah, LA Clippers and New Jersey Nets have combined to win....

Then there are the Red Sox....again in first place, again with the best rotation in the game, again with out any hole in their entire lineup, great manager, great closer, sold out EVERY game for decades.... wealthy and committed owners and a fan base that dwarfs the Yankees...if you doubt that for one minute try to buy a single game ticket for next season from the Red Sox ticket office....it will take an act of Congress and a great bit of luck.  Then go to Baltimore (AKA Boston South) and see how the BoSox fans outnumber O's fans  ...they have utterly destroyed the Yankees who simply will never recover from the beat down they took in '04....manager's gone, owner's feeble and his nit wit replacement is managing the team, they hired a manager who is so obnoxious that he got himself fired in the same year as he was named Manager of the Year in the NL and then there's the GM who must bear reposnibility for Kevin Brown, Carl Pavano, ElDugue, Alphonso Soriano, Roger Clemons third comeback tour and the whole notion that Ian Kennedy and Phil Hughes were legitimate major leaguers....what you ask have the Red Sox done with young talent????  Jonathan Papelbon, Dustin Pedroia, John Lester, Jacoby Elsbury, Jed Lowrie, Clay Buckholtz, Justin Masterson, Manny DelCarmen, Craig Hansen are ALL playing and the team won last year's Fall Classic by destroying the Rockies....are you kidding me?  It is amost unfair....the Red Sox are still in firts place and Curt Schilling is out, David Ortiz is out, Daisuke Matsuzaka is out...Manny is out...Coco is out....the Cubbies lose Zambrano and they WILL collapse....This is the most talented team of young players to play in 25 years....

I will not offer any excuses for the Patriots....they lost and they deserved to lose to a team that is now a long shot to return to the playoffs.  The Pats are again favored to return to the Superbowl and only a fool like Tom Jackson would seriously question that...they have quietly reloaded a secondary that was not very good last year and they picked up three solid linebackers in the off season...anybody wanna wager with me?  I say they win 12-14 games and retuirn to the ALCS where they will beat Indy, or Jacksonville....as usual.

Now there are the Celtics who have a real small window because they have not shown that they can figureout how to draft NBA players from the lower end of the first round....but...for noow they will likely return to the Conference finals next year and unless Cleveland can figure out how to win on the road the C's should return to the finalls to face NO, Utah or San Antonion...it won't be the Lakers...Kobe will see a lot of Tom Thibodeau's defense next year the way that Kurt Warner got figured out after Bellichik figured him out in 01....Let's face facts...Luke Walton, Vukocic, and Radmanovic are not legitimate NBA players....they were useless in the Finals and then their is the quickly aging and slowing Dereck Fisher and the riddle that is Lamar Odom....plus can someone tell me why Pau Gasol gets such high praise....he's is everything we expect from a European player...he no like hitting...him no like physical ball....him no play defense.....so the Lakers won't be having to worry about another Boston Beat down next year....if New Orleans gets a better 2 they will be the team....or at least I hope they will.....

So my little pinheads....Boston simply rules the sport's universe and yes I did not mention College sports because there is not a single college team that can beat even the weakest professional team at anything so it don't count.....

Hopefully Congress Will Take Its Sweet Time Investigating Clemens so That Bush, The Other Texas Con Man, Won't Have The Ability To pardon him for perjury....

W#### cares that Roger Clemens is an ####, he has always been a bit of a buffoon...remember Terry Cooney, the bat throwing incident, the defiant staring at the Press Box in Fenway...the old Texas Con Man as the late Great Will McDonough used to call him has done it again...The pampered athlete is looking a bit unsure of himself right about now.....Roger Clemens cannot be telling the truth for the following reasons:

1.  In Clemens last two years in Boston his innings, strikeouts, wins and pitch counts were all way down, he had gained a lot of weight and appeared tired and pretty much past his prime.  Now I know that the popularized version is that Roger, ever the fierce competitor, sucked it up while motivated by the slight of Dan Duquette, and rejunevated himself into a repeat Cy Young winner and World Series Champ....of course all of that is #### because we know that he became leaner, more flexible and stronger because of a workout regimine aided by the illegal use of Human Growth Hormone (HGH).  PLEASE DO NOT BE FOOLED...THE USE OF ANY PRESCRIBED SUBSTANCE WHETHER BANNED BY BASEBALL OR NOT IS ILLEGAL.....So as if the Baseball Gods had shined approvingly upon the "greatest pitcher of all time" and made him young again....Halleleuiah...a miracle right in front of mine own eyes.... His innings went up, he strike out legions of American League hitters, he was returned to the top of his game as if by magic...well at the time he pointed to Mr. McNamee and credited him for the legendary workout he'd devised.  Whatever the reason, though,  he became effective beyond anyone's wildest dreams and man he showed the Red Sox...hell it is likely that his departure caused the early demise of Duquette's once bright future as a young and forward thinking GM....Duquette simply acknowledged what everyone in the world knew....when Roger left Boston he was a shell of the Roger of '86-93....that was not a debatable point. Buy hey miracles do happen...right?

2.  If the fact of the new and improved Roger isn't enough (ask yourself first if it was enough for Barry Bonds, why not the Rocket)...let's examine the claims of his trainer.  The Mitchell investigators were not specifically asking about Clemens, McNamey volunteered that information.  If he lied, naming Roger or not, he was subjected to a Federal indictment and almsot sure incarceration.  So why name Roger if it wasn't true....But how can we measure the "he said ....she said" on this one?  Well let's go to the pudding, they say the proof is always in there.   Was he right about Knoblauch?  Petite?  Debbie Clemens?  Yes, yes and yes...He described the times, the dates and the manner of the injections which is far far more than what anyone knows about Bonds and yet everyone is screaming for Barry's head on a platter (myself included).  He gave specific information ALL of which has been admitted to by the others he named, all of it including the revelation that he injected Mrs. Clemens...gotta admit she was ripped on the SI cover don't you?  Not too many moms look like that after the litter of kids these folks had....but I digress, Roger's wife is allowing Roger's trainer to inject her in Roger's bedroom and we are supposed to believe that she must have just assumed that McNamee just so happened to have HGH on him...How did Debbie Clemens even know that McNamee had this stuff to begin with?  Must have just come up in casual conversation I guess.  Laughable how idiotic this guy's defense has been, even those tired old guys on Capitol Hill saw right through it.   Roger cheated and he got caught.  Imagine what you would have said to one of your closest friends on the phone after you learned that the guy fingered you to the authorities for something you did not do...You would have ripped the guy a new one, you would have called him a lying piece of #### and you would not have equivocated about that...well what did Clemens say..."hey buddy, what's up?"  HA,,,,what a load of horseshit.  Clemens, that weasel, called his so-called buddy and said nothing, called him no names, didn't challenge him one time and all the while this so-called hero was secretly taping the guy.....a REAL hero would have taken a very different approach and it might have landed him in the can for a few weeks but Mr. McNamey would need the services o####ood dentist....Clemens did not challenge McNammey on the tape because Clemens knew what he was going to hear in return..."I DID tell the truth Rog...."

3.  Clemens would have you believe that he NEVER heard from his wife that she was injected?  Are you kidding me?  That is laughable and completely idiotic.

4.  Andy Pettite remembers all of it and he has testified that Roger DID it, that he bragged about it and that he reccomended it to others.

5.  Chuck Knoblauch also remembers that Roger reccomended the stuff to him.

6.  There are items of physical evidence like the syringes and cotton swabs that purportedly contain Clemen's DNA.

7. McNamee told Mitchell that he caused a subcutaneous abcess...uh oh...guess what sport's fans Roger was treated for that abcess in Tampa right where and when McNamee said he screwed up an injection.

You would have to have no mind not to believe that Clemens is a liar, his lawyers obviously have no control over him because whether he is indicted or not is not the issue, he has certainly exposed himself to indictment and would not have done so had he simply denied the claims and then said no more. 

Clemens should be disgraced and his records should be asterisked the same way that white America has suggested that Barry Bonds' records should be tarnished.  Anything short of the same treatment for the same crime legitimizes all of the claims that Bonds is being treated as a demon for only one reason...his skin color.  Indeed, Bonds has been cast as a villain for the past decade and while he almost certainly has used these substances, he has been constantly dogged about it and I was first to laugh when he suggested that rascism was at the heart of the matter.  I did not believe that BS, another black man living almost exclusively with white people screaming that he has been the victim of rascism...nah I didn't buy it when OJ tried and I wasn't buying when Barry said it....but now we can test that hypothesis can't we.  If Roger Clemens is pardoned, if he is simply not prosecuted or if the media start to proclaim that he is still a lock for Cooperstown...then add my voice to those who believe that race is the determining factor in American life.   The only difference here is that Clemens is white and is connected to a President with equally questionable moral fiber (remember Scooter Libby and the whole WMD scam????)...unfortunately he may end up beating this...I hope that he is fully prosecuted for any crimes he may have committed of he has in fact done so....and I say that because I think that he lied to Congress and I hope that he serves as an example for people coming up. But most of all I really hope that The Rocket will NEVER be in the Hall of Fame......

The Indictment of Barry Bonds Is Long Overdue But He Should Have Several Co-Defendants...

For those of you who do not know, an indictment or "true bill" is a finding by a grand jury that there is sufficient evidence to believe that the defendant has committed a crime.  In this case, Barry Bonds is the defendant and the crimes alleged are "perjury" and "obstruction of justice"  The indictment — four counts of perjury, one of obstruction of justice alleges crimes that would carry a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.  That is an extremely deceptive statement because NOBODY gets the maximum unless they are classified as a career offender.  The government will negotiate with Bonds' lawyers and you should all expect that some negotiated plea will be worked out for a lesser sentence, I suspect a substantially lighter sentence and some significant period of "supervised release" (federal probation for all of you state retrobates).  Bonds will, though, likely do some term of incarceration and it may be substantial....and maybe he deserves all of it and maybe baseball should wipe his records from the books but he should not be the only one going long on this.

Major League Baseball should have been indicted as well because the evidence of steroid and HGH use being rampant among its players is overwhelming.  Baseball was on seventh heaven when Sammy and Mark were smacking baseballs alll over the country.  They paraded Roger Maris' family out to games so that they could legitimize this fraud.  How much pressure was applied to Henry Aaron to watch and graciously accept Barry Bond's phony assault on his record.  If I were him I would have called him the lying cheating #### that he is and I would have callled Bud Selig and the rest of the owners the same thing. We have a generation of players who look like linebackers, we have second basemen who #### 25 dingers every year, we have pitchers throwing into the 100's, we have pitchers with grey hair throwing in the 90's..... These people know and have known who is using because the evidence is simply overwhelming.  Are we to believe that after 100 years of Major League Baseball that we are just blessed with a plethora of pitchers who seem to grow stronger and throw harder as they age.  Are we to siimply accept that guys like Nomar Garciaparra and Brady Anderson just became power hitters because they hit the weights and really loaded up on protein?  Are we to believe that Bonds' head grew and his power numbers increased exponentially as he entered his late thirties?  What are we ALWAYS told...."I did not intentionally take performance enhancing drugs".  Is there anyone who for a moment can accept that a world class athlete would alllow anyone to inject them with something without knowing what it is?  These guys won't change their underwear or shave when they are going good...yeah sure they'll allow us to inject them and won't know why they have gained 20% of muscle mass in two months. 

Baseball teams employ doctors and staffs of highly trained trainers, they can tell you the tendencies of every player in the game, they know for instance what hitters like, what they hate, who can go left...etc etc etc...but "Honest, Senator, we had no idea that any of this was going on...."  No they only knew that these guys just developed massive muscle growth and began to change the character of their game while gaining size, weight and losing fat...Hell, Bonds' hat size changed!  They were told that they had a problem and their solution was to imlement a testing policy that only tested for the then outmoded steroids, and even then the tests were announced and scheduled for so long that only the real mental midgets got caught.  They then proposed to test ONLY minor leaguers because they knew that the problem was so prevalent at the Major League level that testing would have been disastrous.    

Paul Byrd is a perfect example of just how prevalent the use of performance enhancers is, here's a 36 year old journeyman, he's with his seventh team in a 12 year career (.434 career era)  who purportedly purchased HGH for years.  He spent on the order of $20,000.00 on the HGH.  How about Mark McGuire? That #### made a complete #### of himself in front of Congress, why wasn't he forced to take the fifth or to answer the damned questions?  Does anyone on the good planet Earth believe that he was clean, look at Rafael Palmiero, Ken Camminitti, Jose Conseco, Jason Giambi, Jose Guillen, Matt Williams, Ismael Valdez, Toronto's Troy Glaus, outfielder Jay Gibbons and Mets pitcher Scott Schoeneweis...these are just a smatteriing of players and for a decade now baseball and its players association have conspired to keep this under wraps. I assume that the Feds will be soon be going after Palmiero for his blatant lie to Congress.  Sammy Sosa should be peeking out of his windows for federal agents as well....

 I will say this, in my opinion you would have to be out of your cotton picking mind NOT to use enhancers if by doing so you prolonged a career, were able to have one in the first place or were able to rise to level of an elite player.  So we cannot expect to see the players or his union take any action to address the problem...there is just too much money involved.  Look for just a second at Nomar's SI cover and tell me if he doesn't look like he just a little bit jacked up...then look at his weight when he broke in or the early scouting reports that described him as a skinny, slick fielding banjo hitter.  Ahh yes the Quintissential infielder's body...if your playing baseball with spiked ballls and trolls trying to club you to death maybe.  I think he just got a Gold's membership and was a really hard worker.

The hypocrisy of this is that now that the head blowhard, Selig, will condemn Bonds, he will proclaim that MLB has been proactive in rooting this scourge out and then he will state that he hopes we can just get back to our National Pastime...pure and simple baseball...blah blah blah blah blah...

The only proof you need to know that MLB is complicit in the use of illegal drugs is this....test everyone and make the penalty life suspension and when a drug is declared "prohibited" it doesn't matter which #### doctor prescribed it....wow what a radical idea, why hasn't anyone thought of this to this point?  Hey wait, the Olympic Committee does exactly that, in fact over the counter cold medicines are banned as well....hmmm, interesting.

Say it ain't so Joe!  Newsflash...Joe Girardi is not thinking straight.....

Remember the Owner of this Team finds Nothing Wrong with Announcing to The Press That You are Gone If You lose a Series You Are Currently Playing After You've Won The Ingrate Four Rings.....

Is Joe Girardi an #### or a glutton for punishment?  That is the question of the day.  Let's look at the job he has just assumed in terms of his likelihood to succeed. 

Joe Torre made it to the playoffs in each of the last 12 years, managed to make it to 6 Fall Classics and actually won four of them and yet all we have heard from the nitwit owner for the last 7 years is that the guy is a bum.  What does Mr. Girardi see beyond a pay check for maybe two years?  The Yankees have saddled Joe Torre with controversy (Still liking the Giambi deal Mr. Steinbrenner?), washed up pitchers (maybe next year The Rocket can start in September and take 28 days rest between starts at another cool 20 mil) and a host of apparent bust outs for pitchers...can anyone pick Carl Pavano out of a facebook, how about Kevin Brown, Jared Wright, Tanyon Sturtze, El Duque?  They have an aging team with a rag arm in Center and no third baseman to go along with a catcher who may be leaving town for LA soon.....The Yankees are a rolling disaster  and are about  to lose the guy with the crazy spending habits in favor of his son who was not even heir apparent until the #### son-in-law decided to dump the daughter (can you imagine that level of stupidity?)....so what is it Joe?  Why would you take on this job? 

Maybe he figures he can be the disciplinarian he was in Florida.

The New York Yankees have several players who individually make what your entire Marlins team made in '04, they are coming off of an era where they had the ultimate players' manager and they are all professionally established.  You will not dictate anything to these players, not ever, not one time and if you start to yell and cause a fuss you'll be out of there faster than you were in Florida when it occurred to you that you should pop off to the owner.  This is still Derek Jeter's team, and deservedly so.  He was and is the best overall player they have and a class guy in every respect...but let's be very clear...you are not even in the top five people with opinions that count in that locker room. 

Maybe Joe sees a chance to lead the Yankees through a successful transition.

When they said "transition" in Florida that meant "let's dump payrooll and gut the team"...when they say "transition" in New York they mean "let's say we are in a transition year so when we get worse next year we can blame the manager because our payroll is so screwed up we cannot even have a transition year".  If the past 12 years have taught us anything it's this:  your success will only be defined by the number of rings you get and even then four isn't enough to insulate you from the wrath of the mental midgets who run that team, and you have a team in "transition" which means ruins.  The problem is compounded by the Red Sox success, they have managed to beat you in everything since the start of the '04 season and they have a substantially lower payroll and a stable of outstanding young arms in Becket, Matsuzaka, Okajima, Papelbon, Lester, Buckholz and DelCarmen the oldest of these pitchers is Beckett who has dominated.  They also have a sprinkling of decent older guys in Timlin, Wakefield, Tavarez and possibly one more year out of that #### Schilling.  #### or not the guy was undefeated in this year's playoffs.  Plus they have managed to win two World Series, have a rabid fan base and an ownership group that is willing to spend but is much smarter than the Yankees braintrust in that they tend to admit their mistakes and then move the nonperforming players.  I cannot imagine that the Boston owners would have brought Giambi back after '03 or that they would have signed Pavano without a physical....I mean this is pretty basic stuff.....

What to do...what to do?????

Here's what he's got to hope for to have a decent year....they MUST sign Andy Petite because Wang, despite two 19 win seasons, just does not dominate the way that a Santana does...he is a lucky guy because of the run suppporrt he has gotten.  Hughes is a solid pitcher but let''s face it ,as good as he is when he's on he has a very limited track record..Mike Mussina is a gamer and was once a special kind of pitcher but those days are gone....between Chamberlain and Mo they should have the closer situation sewn up better than anyone except maybe Boston, but in order to get through the first round of the playoffs you need a front line guy and a middle reliever capable of striking guys out.  Kyle Farnsworth may be more effective if he isn't used to death but let's be clear, he is just so-so.  So what to do?  Listen carefully Mr. Cashman, TRADE Melky Cabrera and at least one of your supposed top pitching prospects to Minnie for Johan Santana.  If that doesn't work offer the same deal and the Chrysler Building to Florida for Dontrelle if that doesn't work Joe Girardi is all done before he starts. 

Assume a moderately worst case scenario, the Yanks lost A-Rod, standing alone not the end of the world but still a major loss of offense, that means they need a third baseman who can hit and that leaves two guys, Fatty Cabrera in Florida or Mike Lowell in Boston.  Cabrera is only 23 and while he hits well he has a serious weight problem so do the Yanks take a chance on him?  I'm guessing that they are a bit too gun-shy for that  move especially in light of the Pavano disaster.  Option two would be to pursue  Mike Lowell  who looks like he'll test the market in light of A-Rod's inexplicable departure? This assumes that Boston won't overpay to keep the guy although they are "system" or "process" oriented and haven't deviated to this point from the plan that they seem to have allowing Damon to walk away at the top of his game (hey Brian are you watching what they have done up in the old Hub????? Maybe a "process" instead of panicked moves is an option worth considering.)...Anyway, Lowell would solve the problem at third and he can bat fifth with solid offensive production and, Gold Glove defense and unlike A-Rod, he seems to play pretty well in October and has two rings (Fla in '03 and Boston in '07)  to back that up.  But what else do you need Joey Jo-Jo, you need a catcher unless Posada can be convinced to stay, a firstbaseman and at least two solid pitchers and if truth be told Damon may be the single worst outfielder in the game (his grand total of 6 assists since joing the team isn't because other teams don't run on him). The guy gets major money ($13 million per), he is about to turn 34 and had a whopping total of 63 RBI in '07.  His batting average this year dropped to .270 and it has come down dramatcially for three years frfom a career hig of .317.  He did hit a career high 24 dingers in '05 but he halved that to 12 this past season.  To Damon's right you have a Matsui who has been a very productive player but who will turn 34 in June as seems less of a player as each year passes, clearly Godzilla is still a player.  In right you have the tempermental and fickle Abreau who reminds me more and more of JD Drew, in other words a stiff with unbelievable skills.  As I think about the move to acquire Damon it really was a disaster, you have a guy with decent speed but really very little else....Boston on the other hand has a youngster in Jacoby Ellsbery who looks all-world with the stick and the leather...How did this happen?  Why isn't Brian Cashman's head on a spit somewhere?  Oh I know, he is just a figurehead and cannot be held accountable since he really has had no authority, at least until George started to show his age in the last year or so.....

  I say Joe Girardi needs the money because there is no way a man with money  would take the job....it is a horrible job in that you are following a Hall of Fame manager who was loved by all of his players and the fans.  You are assuming an aging team with a top heavy salary that can't seem to come close to winning a playoff series and you are walking straight into the unknown that is the Hank Steinbrenner era....good luck Dawg, you are going to need it.