The last time the New York Yankees won a Game Six World Series clincher at Yankee Stadium was 1996.  Following that season the series MVP (John Wetteland) and winner of that game (Jimmy Key) were not brought back.  Will the same hold true for Hideki Matsui and Andy Pettitte come 2010?  And should Johnny Damon be brought back as well?

There are certainly many arguments for getting younger, more versatile and reinvesting that money elsewhere. 

Just remember this, it took an awfully long time (in Yankee years) to find clutch, smart hard-nosed winning ball players.

Back in 1997 it worked out fairly well for the Yankees letting those two go, replacing them with Mariano Rivera and David Wells.  Yet there was another player who had a monster postseason in 1996 and if not for Wetteland would've been World Series MVP.

Cecil Fielder hit .391 in the 1996 Fall Classic against the Atlanta Braves.  There was a lot of debate as to whether the organization would pick up Fielder's option and things turned awfully sour between him and the ball club.  Fielder ended up getting hurt, was never quite the same and was out of the game all-together after 1998.  The Yankees needed to find some pop so they dealt for Mike Stanley.

In 2002 the Yankees found themselves trying to replace Paul O'Neill, Chuck Knoblauch and David Justice.  So they signed Rondell White rather than Damon to replace Knoblauch in left and to lead-off and tried platooning Shane Spencer with John Vander Wal and eventually got desperate enough to deal for Raul Mondesi.

I don't need to remind you what happened the last time they let Pettitte go.

As 2009 showed, depth and competition are important.  Remember when there were rumors that virtually any of their outfielders could've been dealt and when there was a perceived worry about how to get ample playing time and at-bats for Nick Swisher, Hideki Matsui and Melky Cabrera?  Well a season ending injury to Xavier Nady and early ineffectiveness from Brett Gardner answered those questions.

Granted the team is older but there is precedent for the Yankees winning with a full-time DH.  In 1998-1999 Chili Davis was solely a DH for the Yankees.  During the 1999 campaign Davis was designated hitter for 141 games.  In 2001 David Justice was DH for 85 games and that was with a 38 year-old O'Neill playing 130 games in right field, much like the gritty, durable, banged up Damon.

If it were up to me I'd bring all three back.  They're winners, smart ballplayers and clutch.  Money is never an issue with the Yankees and it's not like they'd have to commit to 3-5 year deals.  Besides the Yankees are already built for October, so it would behoove them to keep three players who can bring them back to the Canyon of Heroes in November.

If being a hockey immortal wasn't enough, if Martin Brodeur played on the other side of the river in New York or the other side of the border in Montreal, he'd be a hockey God.  Except the reason the New Jersey Devils have had more success (and more Cups) than those two original six teams combined over the last 15 years is because of number 30's presence between the pipes.

No goalie in history has won more games than Marty Brodeur's 551 and if he keeps playing at this clip for about another four years at 40 wins per, he could wind up at around 730 for what has been a spectacular career.  And if it hadn't been for Stephane Matteau's overtime heroics in 1994 and the man he just passed on the all-time wins list Patrick Roy in Game Seven of the 2001 Stanley Cup Finals, Brodeur may well have five Cups to his name.

There has been no more consistent, dominant or durable netminder than Brodeur, who has averaged 73 games played per season over the last 12 years, topping 70 games played in eleven of those season's.  Brodeur has never had a Goals Against Average higher than 2.57, his lowest being an average of 1.88, set during the 1996-97 campaign.  Marty has also cracked the 30 win plateau 12 times and 40 wins in seven season's, including a record 48 in 2006-07.  As far as shutouts go, four times Brodeur has eclipsed double digits in a season, with his career high 12 coming in the same year as his 48 wins.  Marty is closing in on that shutout record as well.

Keep in mind that in his first season Brodeur was sharing the load with Chris Terreri and the following season was shortened by a lockout and he had one full season completely wiped out by another one.  By the way that highest goals against of 2.57 happened the year after the last lockout, you know the season where everything was changed in the rules to up scoring, reduce goalie mobility for handling the puck "the Brodeur rule" as it were and his first season without either Scott Stevens, Scott Niedermayer or Ken Daneyko on the blueline.

So what has Brodeur done in the subsequent season's since?  In 2006-07 Marty upped his win total and shutouts to 48 and 12 respectively, lowering his goals against average to a staggering 2.18, while stopping the most rubber in his career with 2,011 saves.  In 2007-08 (without Brian Rafalski mind you), Marty won another 44 games with his goals against a tick lower at 2.17, making the 2nd most amount of saves for his career with 1,921.  Brodeur in the last two season's also played 155 games out of a possible 164, including a career high 78.  Oh and by the way, the last two season's have resulted in Marty walking away with the Vezina Trophy, Brodeur has four of those.

Speaking of the Vezina Trophy, what is even more amazing than Brodeur winning four of them, is the fact that he didn't start winning them until the 2002-03 campaign.  Apparently the 1996-97 year of 37 wins, ten shutouts and a 1.88 GAA wasn't good enough, nor the 1997-98 year of 43 wins, ten shutouts and a 1.89 GAA or two other 40 plus win season's.

Marty has been equally astonishing this season.  Only played 19 games you say?  Consider this, in 77 games last year Brodeur had four shutouts, this season in 19 games, four shutouts!  

If those awards weren't enough, Brodeur also has a Calder Memorial Trophy and four times has won the William M. Jennings Trophy to boot.

Brodeur's playoff theatrics have been well chronicled as well with 95 wins in total with a career 1.96 GAA and 22 shutouts.  From a classic duel with Dominik Hasek in 1994, to nearly derailing the Rangers date with destiny, to up-ending the mighty Detroit Red Wings in a 4-0 sweep in 1995 posting three shutouts during that Cup run, to scoring a goal against the Canadiens in 1997.

Of course then there were duels with the Philadelphia Flyers and Toronto Maple Leafs in the East as well with Patrick Roy, Eddie Belfour and J.S. Giguere in the West.

If there's one award Marty has yet to attain it is the 2003 Conn Smythe Trophy he was conned out of.  All Brodeur did that year was set an NHL Stanley Cup playoff record with seven shutouts, most shutouts in a Stanley Cup Final with three, against Giguere's Anahiem Mighty Ducks no less.  And Brodeur became just the 3rd goalie to win the Stanley Cup with a Game 7 shutout. 

 

Brodeur has also compiled over 30 Devils franchise records to his credit.   Marty also holds or will eventually earn himself over 17 records, regular and post-season combined.  If that wasn't enough, Brodeur is a ten time NHL All-Star, brought Canada an Olympic Gold Medal in 2002 and a World Cup of Hockey Championship in 2004.

Sure there will be some who will scoff and say Brodeur was a "system goalie" who played behind Hall of Fame or All-Star defensemen.  True in a sense, but remember those trapping Devils didn't score a whole lot, meaning Marty had to steal a lot of nail biters.  And fast forward to more recent times and one will realize that without those aforementioned defensemen, Marty achieved his single season high for wins (48) and shutouts (12) in the same season just two years ago.

None of his contemporaries are close and Marty is still going strong.  Though one kid who does stand out to me as someone who could possibly change the fortunes of a franchise much like Brodeur has with the Devils is Columbus Blue Jackets rookie goaltender Steve Mason.  Mason a top contender for the Calder Trophy, has the Blue Jackets sitting in 6th place with 80 points in the NHL's Western Conference.  Mason has 28 wins with a 2.24 GAA and a league leading 9 shutouts.  Very impressive indeed, but a long way to go to catch Marty the magnificent.

Mason started his pro career with the AHL Syracuse Crunch.  Brodeur began his with the Utica Devils.  Not too shabby from a couple of kids who got their professional start in Upstate New York.

So apparently the New York Yankees could really use Jose Reyes right now... to play 3rd base.  With Alex Rodriguez out for about ten weeks due to being a cyst on the Yankees side, err I mean a cyst on his hip.  Rodriguez won't be back until around May and some are starting to question whether this is a serious injury or MLB taking the back door to a suspension.

The suspicion comes from the long rumored NBA "suspension" of Michael Jordan during the mid-90's for gambling.  Or this could just be something else where Rodriguez picked up something from Madonna who slept with just about every player in the NBA from the mid-90's, but I could be wrong.  Though it sure does conveniently cover a 30-50 day suspension for Rodriguez.

It seriously never ends with this guy does it?  One can take his comments about Reyes as complimentary towards the Mets shortstop or derogatory towards Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon, but the guy would be better served to just shut up and play ball.  

Now the next question, a real baseball question, who plays 3rd in his absence?  Will it be Cody Ransom, Angel Berroa, former once heralded prospect Eric Duncan?  It sure does make signing Mark Teixeira a whole lot smarter, especially now with Manny Ramirez off the market.  Or do the Yankees try something outside the box and try to get Jorge Posada's bat in the lineup by trotting him out occasionally to 2nd base, as he was a former infielder in the minor leagues and shift Robinson Cano over to 3rd for a few games here and there as not to sacrifice any offense.  Or maybe that's where the Yankees try to slot Nick Swisher to get him more at-bats out of that outfield log-jam.  

Looking at the early chemistry of the Yankees, perhaps this is just what the doctor ordered.

There's been a saying recently in baseball about players coming over from the Dominican Republic and the like, guys who don't walk a whole lot like Robinson Cano, that is "you don't walk yourself off the island, you hit your way off the island."  Apparently now you "juice" your way off the island. 

A new report has surfaced where Cano, David Ortiz and a slew of other players from the 2006 WBC Dominican Republic team worked with A-Rod linked "trainer" (injector) Angel Presinal.  Ortiz's comments on Presinal, "He's one of the guys that trained everybody."  Uh-oh, sound familiar?  If not it should, remember this is the same excuse A-Rod used in that it was the steroid culture/era and everybody was doing it.  The answer well everybody else was doing it just doesn't cut it.

Presinal was also linked to Vladimir Guerrero, Pedro Martinez, Jose Guillen, Ervin Santana, Juan Gonzalez, Bartolo Colon, Ramon Martinez, Francisco Cordero, Melky Cabrera, Orlando Hernandez, Raul Mondesi, Stan Javier, Adrian Beltre, Miguel Tejada, Pedro Feliz, Luis Castillo, Guillermo Mota and Ruben Sierra.

So how does Manny Ramirez look to Boston now?  And I'm assuming David Ortiz will now suspend himself for an entire year without pay?  And given more evidence I take it that now we can all throw out A-Rod's 2007 season to boot?  Those Cy Young's and MVP's for Martinez, Colon, Gonzalez, Guerrero, Tejada all out the window too.

When we look at the Hall Of Fame voting on this subsequent era perhaps more borderline guys deserve to get in.  Why do I say this and why shouldn't they be measured against legends from decades past?  While it is important to use those already in the Hall as a barometer, just think if the guys who were most likely clean who put up their stats the right way like a Bernie Williams or Mike Mussina type had played on a level playing field against pitchers and hitters who weren't on performance enhancing drugs?  

I'd say suspend and withhold pay from players who were caught, if only owners and execs who knew this stuff was going on and turned a blind eye were banned too.  In the end its all about the all-mighty dollar, the book "Money Ball" might be the perfect title for this era in more ways than it was intended.

This is not a defense of Alex Rodriguez.  A-Rod makes far too much money to feel sorry for and while I'm willing to forgive if he plays hard and the Yankees win, I and countless others won't forget that he has forever tarnished his image and any records he might "break" are forever tainted.  Having said that, the coverage of A-Rod is way overblown and bordering on the ridiculous.  And I would say that if it were any team other than the Yankees as well.

To the media, I understand it is your job to cover this story, yet a part of me is wondering what exactly do you want from this guy and others?  

First A-Rod has to issue a statement, check.  Then A-Rod has to do an interview and "come clean," check.  Additionally A-Rod has to do a press conference and answer questions from the vast array of reporters, check.

So A-Rod admits he's taken performance enhancing drugs and his legacy as a player has been forever tarnished no matter what he says or does for the rest of his entire baseball career.  That should seem good enough for the media... except that it's not.  Why not and why the media is still out for blood is beyond me.  When you have a murderer confess to a crime, does the story or evidence along the way really matter?  

A-Rod's legacy is done and likewise the coverage of him should be done.  "Oh but, well he's such a superstar, how can you not cover him?"  Well gee how do you think he became a superstar?  I'm not saying he's not a great player on his own, but if he's on a pedestal and ripped down, does anything he does from here on out really matter?  

And this is clearly an "A-Rod thing," just look at SI.com's Jon Heyman's comments regarding the issue:

"The real problem is A-Rod's story. It isn't as good a story as Pettitte's.

A-Rod obviously doesn't have a sympathetic story like Pettitte, who'd been dogged by painful elbow problems for most of his career, was hampered by a congenital defect in that area, and who had the misfortune to hang around with Roger Clemens. Pettitte is a sweet guy..."

Would you like for him to concoct a better lie for you Jon?  So if Don Mattingly with his ailing back had taken them to attempt to revive what would've been a Hall Of Fame career that would've been OK too?  Don't forget it wasn't too long ago that you guys were praising the regimen and work ethic of Pettitte and Clemens and bashing the burger/boozing David Wells and how did that one work out?

This reminds me so much of Pete Rose.  Rose was never convicted (nor were the players of the "Black Sox Scandal") of any wrong doing in a court of law.  Rose lied, then reporters said he had to come clean and tell the truth, Rose then admits he lied and tells the truth and gets slammed for lying and no praise for coming clean.  I don't feel sorry for the guy anymore, but his stats should put him in the Hall of Fame.

Unfortunately we're really self-righteous about these things in baseball, yearning for the "good old traditional days."  You know like when pitchers could do all kinds of things to the baseball and blacks and other minorities weren't allowed to play, you know those good old days?  

I'm not saying to turn a blind eye to it, I'm just saying that when the games start playing again, please, please, please, let me watch my baseball in peace!