Just another lazy lonely New Years Eve for me!
No New Years toast, or midnight kiss.
No trip to Times Square, or party of friends.
No Cristal or Scotch or Slow Gin Fizz.
Just my laptop, my Sports Blog, and the ten best Games or Sports Events of 2007.
In chronological order:
1) The Indianapolis Colts Win Super Bowl XLI
With a light steady mist trickling down in Dolphins Stadium, Indianapolis and Chicago did battle in the early weeks of 2007. Billy Joel was done singing, Phil Simms was done analyzing, I was done eating Papa Johns pizza in my Washington Hotel room, and Super Bowl XLI was under way. Manning Vs Grossman, Dungy Vs Smith, Oprah Vs Letterman. Super Bowl XLI was very competitive thru the first two quarters, and at halftime, the Colts lead the Bears 16-14. But the second half was all Indy. MVP Peyton Manning lead his offense to victory scoring 13 more points in the second half winning 29-17.
2) Golden State’s Warfare
I had no idea who Bryon Davis was at the start of the 2007 NBA playoffs. After watching him thru a few quarters I thought of him as basketball’s version of Kirby Puckett. After watching him thru game six of the first round of the finals, I was stunned by him, and in awe of him! Davis, Stephen Jackson and head coach Don Nelson had shocked the NBA world! The Golden State Warriors were the number eight seed, (42-40 record) and the final team to make the 2007 post season, playing against Mark Cuban’s model franchise. The Dallas Mavericks, who were the NBA’s best team (67-15). This David Vs Goliath match up was suppose to be a laugher. But then Golden State won games three and four at home following a spilt in Dallas in games one and two. Up three games to two Golden State came back home for game six and hammered the Mavericks 111-86. Making it the greatest upset in 2007!
3) Lord Arthur’s Ducks
I can still see the brothers Scott and Rob Niedermayer skating around the ice in Anaheim California’s Honda Center with the Stanley Cup raised above both of their heads. In just five games of the 2007 Stanley Cup final, the Anaheim Mighty Ducks defeated the Ottawa Senators. It hardly compared to the seven game final from the year prior, which I had witnessed first hand. But none-the-less the Carolina Hurricanes passed the Stanley Cup on to The Mighty Ducks.
4) Old West over King Lebron
Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, and of course Tim Duncan paved the way for the San Antonio Spurs to sweep Lebron James, and the Cleveland Cavilers in the 2007 NBA Finals. Although games one thru three were blowouts, Cleveland was desperately trying stave off defeat in game four. With a 81-79 Spurs lead in the closing seconds, Ginobili killed the clock before being fouled. He made both of his free throws and the Spurs completed the sweep. Players celebrated, fans went wild, and Eva Longoria mobbed Tony Parker. That may very well be my favorite sports moment of 2007. I am a big Eva fan.
5) Modern Day Homerun Proprietor
On Tuesday August 7th while playing at home against the Washington Nationals, Barry Bonds stepped up to the plate at AT&T Park. What he did next was history. For the 756th time in his career Bonds had hit a homerun. Bonds past the all time homerun record, held by Hank Aaron, to become baseballs new all time homerun king. The ball was hit into the right centerfield bleachers and set 43,154 Giant fans into a frenzy. Fireworks lit up the San Francisco night, and confetti poured town from the upper deck. His family and teammates mobbed Bonds at home plate. Baseball’s most prestigious record had its new chapter. Despite my well-documented feelings on Bonds, Major League Baseball has recognized Barry's record and holds it to be true.
6) Tiger’s Decree
Winner of the Fed Ex Cup, Woods won his first PGA event of 2007 (Torre Pines) and his last (East Lake). There were also a few in-between! Tiger continued to solidify his place as the best golfer in the games history in 2007. Now I have received lots of criticism for my less then professional obsession into Tiger’s athleticism. And so, in my attempt to be a nonbiased impartial blogger, I will write nothing further of the tremendous accomplishments of Woods in 2007.
7) Rocky Mountain High
In arguably the greatest streak of games ever won by an organization, the 2007 Colorado Rockies won 28 of their final 29 games to capture the National League Pennant. From September 16th until October 24th the Rockies lost only one single game. (A regular season loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks.) From September 16 up to the World Series, Colorado won 20 of 21 regular season games, a one game playoff in extra innings against the San Diego Padres, a sweep in the Division Series of the Philadelphia Phillies, and a sweep in the Championship series of the rival Diamondbacks. Lead by the calm and witty Clint Hurdle the Rockies captured baseball fans everywhere and made them believers of the Denver dream. Sadly for Rockies fans (and Red Sox haters) the dream ended when the World Series began. Colorado was no match for Boston and lost the series in four games. However the remarkable streak of victories couldn’t be out done by any other baseball story in 2007.
8) The New Malevolent Empire
Lead by the table setters Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis, and followed by power producers David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez, the Boston Red Sox bashed their way to another World Series title. In four World Series games Boston out scored Colorado 29-10. The Sox made quick and easy work of the Rockies. By a final of 13-1 in game number one, it was clear that Boston would over match the Rockies. Josh Beckett continued his post-season dominance in game one. The first game told the tale. And the book was easily judged by the cover. Boston won its second Championship in four years. The only consolation I take from the whole miserable experience as a Red Sox hater, is that the Sox won it all on the road away from Fenway Park. WOOP-DEE-DOOO!!!
9) Celtic Pride
In the mid summer of 2007 the Boston Celtics acquired Kevin Garnett from the Minnesota Timberwolves. The nine-player deal solidified Boston’s place among the top teams in the NBA's Eastern Conference going into the start of the season. As I type Boston is the best team in the NBA with an astonishing 26-3 record. In just under a third of a season, the Celtis have already surpassed their total win record from a year ago. Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett have almost insured Boston it's first NBA title since the Larry Bird era.
10) Paragon Patriots
With a victory over the New York Giants this past Saturday night, the New England Patriots have completed a perfect season, and has become the first team to ever go 16-0 in the regular season. However this sports story remains incomplete with the dawn of the New Year. Now as 2008 commences, the Patriots will start where I began this blog, trying to win the Super Bowl to become the first big sports story of 2008.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Friday, December 21, 2007
Eli And Big Blue, Consistently Inconsistent
Nope
Not Brett Farve’s MVP season in his 38-year-old body.
Not Quarterback Tony Romo with his gorgeous Hollywood hottie.
(Jessica Simpson)
Not the New England Patriots who remain the very best.
Not the rejuvenated Chargers of the AFC west.
Not spy-gate, or Romeo, Buffalo, or Bill.
Or the Steelers streaky play, to go with the winter chill.
Not Petrino or Peyton, Vikings or Vick.
Or Monday Night Football on Christmas Eve with old Saint Nick.
No, the most amazing NFL story that I have found,
is how the 2007 New York Giants are post season bound.
Not Brett Farve’s MVP season in his 38-year-old body.
Not Quarterback Tony Romo with his gorgeous Hollywood hottie.
(Jessica Simpson)
Not the New England Patriots who remain the very best.
Not the rejuvenated Chargers of the AFC west.
Not spy-gate, or Romeo, Buffalo, or Bill.
Or the Steelers streaky play, to go with the winter chill.
Not Petrino or Peyton, Vikings or Vick.
Or Monday Night Football on Christmas Eve with old Saint Nick.
No, the most amazing NFL story that I have found,
is how the 2007 New York Giants are post season bound.
As some of you may know, I frequently visit my family back home in New York. At my mother’s house, friends, family and I have worked over the years to make my mother’s basement into a semi finished den / living room area. Known affectionately as the “Burger Palace”, the den area includes a couch, two recliners, a coffee table, bar, sound system, jumbo-torn and every movie and sports poster I’ve ever owned.
One of my favorite past-times is to make my way down to the basement for spurts of time on Sundays to watch NFL games on the big screen. This past Sunday, I told my sister I was headed down to the Burger Palace to see how the dull-witted Eli Manning and the New York Giants were doing.
I have been very critical of Eli Manning this season to say the very least. My sister, who knows nothing of football, knows Eli is a poor Quarterback simply because of all my cursing and swearing. It was a little before nine o’clock and I figured the Giants / Redskins game was somewhere near the end of the first quarter. As I sat down in my recliner with a can of diet Pepsi in hand, I turned my attention to the screen as I began listening to Al and John doing play by play. The very first play I witnessed was the Giants lined up on offense while Eli was calling for the ball. Manning pulled his arm back as he began to look over his passing options. As he scrambled slightly to his right, he lost control of the ball and fumbled it to the ground. The Washington Redskins recovered and sent their offense onto the field. I got up from my recliner instantly disgusted with the game. I went back upstairs, and reported the news to my sister. (She must think I am a broken record.)
What is amazing to me is that the Giants have played lackluster football all season. Plays like the first one I witnessed Sunday night are commonplace. Yet if Big Blue wins this Sunday or next Sunday (yeah right) they will clinch a 2007-2008-playoff birth.
Eli Manning had 34 incomplete passes last Sunday. He already has 17 interceptions this season, to go with a 54% passing percentage. Eli has been consistently inconsistent in his professional career with the Giants. I declare with great certainty now that Eli will never be a superstar quarterback, and will never escape the shadow of his big brother.
Then there is Jeremy Shockey, the Giant Tight End who broke his leg Sunday, and is out for the season. Plexico Burress New York’s Wide Receiver has been playing all season with an injured right ankle. And this Giant team by and large, can’t seem to get it together when playing home games.
No wonder Giants fans have been hushed this season!
Will the Giants make the post season despite an awful Quarterback, key players hurt, and more overall inconsistency then George W. Bush on September Eleventh?
Surprisingly I think they will.
I think they beat the Bills in Buffalo this Sunday, and then they go to Tampa and play the Buccaneers. However after 60 minutes of play in the first round of the NFL postseason, the Giants will be making off-season vacation plans.
One of my favorite past-times is to make my way down to the basement for spurts of time on Sundays to watch NFL games on the big screen. This past Sunday, I told my sister I was headed down to the Burger Palace to see how the dull-witted Eli Manning and the New York Giants were doing.
I have been very critical of Eli Manning this season to say the very least. My sister, who knows nothing of football, knows Eli is a poor Quarterback simply because of all my cursing and swearing. It was a little before nine o’clock and I figured the Giants / Redskins game was somewhere near the end of the first quarter. As I sat down in my recliner with a can of diet Pepsi in hand, I turned my attention to the screen as I began listening to Al and John doing play by play. The very first play I witnessed was the Giants lined up on offense while Eli was calling for the ball. Manning pulled his arm back as he began to look over his passing options. As he scrambled slightly to his right, he lost control of the ball and fumbled it to the ground. The Washington Redskins recovered and sent their offense onto the field. I got up from my recliner instantly disgusted with the game. I went back upstairs, and reported the news to my sister. (She must think I am a broken record.)
What is amazing to me is that the Giants have played lackluster football all season. Plays like the first one I witnessed Sunday night are commonplace. Yet if Big Blue wins this Sunday or next Sunday (yeah right) they will clinch a 2007-2008-playoff birth.
Eli Manning had 34 incomplete passes last Sunday. He already has 17 interceptions this season, to go with a 54% passing percentage. Eli has been consistently inconsistent in his professional career with the Giants. I declare with great certainty now that Eli will never be a superstar quarterback, and will never escape the shadow of his big brother.
Then there is Jeremy Shockey, the Giant Tight End who broke his leg Sunday, and is out for the season. Plexico Burress New York’s Wide Receiver has been playing all season with an injured right ankle. And this Giant team by and large, can’t seem to get it together when playing home games.
No wonder Giants fans have been hushed this season!
Will the Giants make the post season despite an awful Quarterback, key players hurt, and more overall inconsistency then George W. Bush on September Eleventh?
Surprisingly I think they will.
I think they beat the Bills in Buffalo this Sunday, and then they go to Tampa and play the Buccaneers. However after 60 minutes of play in the first round of the NFL postseason, the Giants will be making off-season vacation plans.
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Bonds On Trail, Clink Time To Follow
And Alas Barry Bonds and I have something in common.
Thru the week of October 21, 2007, while in the golden city I had been jogging from my hotel at Compton Place to Mccovy Cove and AT&T Park at the San Francisco bay. There at the bay are five bar fenced gates that look directly into the park from the right field foul line toward center field. From these gates one can look directly into the chain link fence that is the right field wall. The green grass, dirt infield, pitchers mound, and stands, can all be seen thru these gates. The sidewalk (opened to the public) is about twenty feet wide. One side looks into the park, while the other side looks directly into the bay. Every San Francisco night I ran down to these five fences and looked thru them onto at the field within. I would imagine first that I was playing right field, getting myself into a crouching position. With sweat pouring down my face, Paul O’Neill would often come to my mind, the Yankees right field warrior.
What I wouldn’t do to be just inside these fences, just twenty little old feet closer.
Then I would imagine I was getting a lead off first base. Pretending that I was standing 239 feet closer then I actually was. I wouldn’t get picked off is what I told myself. I wouldn’t be like Matt Holliday, who I had seen getting picked off earlier in the evening of game 2 of the 2007 World Series.
Man I wish I could play the game!
I wish I could swing a bat, or throw a ball!
I wish I didn’t get nervous just getting out of bed, let alone all the nervous energy I would feel if I were a major league ball player. Stepping into a big league batters box with 56,000 people watching my every step is so unfathomable to me that my stomach turns just thinking about it. Putting all talent aside or prospect of talent for that matter, I was nervous as a young man just playing little league and Babe Ruth. It robbed me from ever really judging my potential, but also made me realize that playing baseball was not to be my path in my life’s journey.
Then there is Barry Bonds.
The 43-year-old major league baseball veteran, holds the tainted record of most life-time homeruns hit by a major league baseball player. Tainted because of his use of performance enhancing drugs. By his own admission Barry has testified to using the Cream and the Clear two forms of an anabolic steroid. But the truth is Barry has used far greater performance enhancing drugs and has just never owned up to it.
Until today.
Bonds is due today in federal court in San Francisco for perjury charges. It is expected that the federal prosecution has enough evidence that Barry has lied about taking performance enhancing drugs to put Bonds in prison for up to 30 years.
It all dates back to 2003, when Bonds and five other major league players testified before a Federal Grand Jury. They were questioned about their involvement in the seizure of the Balco Laboratories and the arrest of its owner Victor Conte. The six players were granted total immunity for their honest testimony. (Tell the complete and total truth about Balco and you’re free!) Five players told the complete truth, but not Bonds. Barry denied any involvement in Balco, and denied ever knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs.
Now he faces the music.
Bonds and his defense team plan on fighting the charges. However its common legal knowledge that federal prosecutors don’t file perjury charges unless they are 99.9% positive they can get a guilty verdict from a jury. And there is plenty of evidence out there to convict Bonds.
Now most people will defend Bonds. "Leave him alone!" "All baseball players use drugs, so why single Bonds out. Why make him the poster boy of the steroid era?" "They are all millionaire cry baby cheater, but not criminals." "It's strictly a racial thing! Bonds broke the biggest record in baseball, and some people just don’t like it." These are all quotes I have heard on the radio, work place, and in the news in recent months, and they are all irrelevant.
What Bonds is being charged with, and what I have had a problem with from day one, is his arrogance, pride, disrespect and defiance for the game of baseball any more importantly the countries judicial system.
Bond lied to a Federal Grand Jury, and no one is above that!!!
This past week Barry said to reporters that he still wants to play in 2008. He has been quoted as saying he felt unappreciated for all he had done for the Giants and the city of San Francisco, and has asked his agent to find him a deal somewhere in baseball. However with a perjury indictment, and possible prison time lingering, no team in baseball will give Bonds a deal. It’s safe to say Barry’s time within the game of baseball has come to an end.
All baseball fans worship their heros, and despise their villains with great passion. We find even the subtlest similarities with our heros, and we do whatever possible to distance our own characteristics from our villains.
We wear the same shirts and hats as those we admire and curse and judge those we dislike. Even I, at 27-years-old, think of Paul O’Neill and Matt Holliday while jogging around the city of San Francisco.
Barry has always been a player whom I hate. His flat out arrogance his defiance of the game disgusts me. He is one of the great examples of a guy whom I distance myself from. Which leads me back to my initial point of this article, the common link between Bonds and myself.
Barry’s common link to me is that for almost opposite reasons, we are both locked out of AT&T Park in San Francisco. However the bars that lock me out of the park do not lock me out of choices and experiences throughout the rest of the world. In Bond's case, the bars that he will soon be locked behind will be holding him in a 6x6x6 foot jail cell.
Or at least I hope.
Thru the week of October 21, 2007, while in the golden city I had been jogging from my hotel at Compton Place to Mccovy Cove and AT&T Park at the San Francisco bay. There at the bay are five bar fenced gates that look directly into the park from the right field foul line toward center field. From these gates one can look directly into the chain link fence that is the right field wall. The green grass, dirt infield, pitchers mound, and stands, can all be seen thru these gates. The sidewalk (opened to the public) is about twenty feet wide. One side looks into the park, while the other side looks directly into the bay. Every San Francisco night I ran down to these five fences and looked thru them onto at the field within. I would imagine first that I was playing right field, getting myself into a crouching position. With sweat pouring down my face, Paul O’Neill would often come to my mind, the Yankees right field warrior.
What I wouldn’t do to be just inside these fences, just twenty little old feet closer.
Then I would imagine I was getting a lead off first base. Pretending that I was standing 239 feet closer then I actually was. I wouldn’t get picked off is what I told myself. I wouldn’t be like Matt Holliday, who I had seen getting picked off earlier in the evening of game 2 of the 2007 World Series.
Man I wish I could play the game!
I wish I could swing a bat, or throw a ball!
I wish I didn’t get nervous just getting out of bed, let alone all the nervous energy I would feel if I were a major league ball player. Stepping into a big league batters box with 56,000 people watching my every step is so unfathomable to me that my stomach turns just thinking about it. Putting all talent aside or prospect of talent for that matter, I was nervous as a young man just playing little league and Babe Ruth. It robbed me from ever really judging my potential, but also made me realize that playing baseball was not to be my path in my life’s journey.
Then there is Barry Bonds.
The 43-year-old major league baseball veteran, holds the tainted record of most life-time homeruns hit by a major league baseball player. Tainted because of his use of performance enhancing drugs. By his own admission Barry has testified to using the Cream and the Clear two forms of an anabolic steroid. But the truth is Barry has used far greater performance enhancing drugs and has just never owned up to it.
Until today.
Bonds is due today in federal court in San Francisco for perjury charges. It is expected that the federal prosecution has enough evidence that Barry has lied about taking performance enhancing drugs to put Bonds in prison for up to 30 years.
It all dates back to 2003, when Bonds and five other major league players testified before a Federal Grand Jury. They were questioned about their involvement in the seizure of the Balco Laboratories and the arrest of its owner Victor Conte. The six players were granted total immunity for their honest testimony. (Tell the complete and total truth about Balco and you’re free!) Five players told the complete truth, but not Bonds. Barry denied any involvement in Balco, and denied ever knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs.
Now he faces the music.
Bonds and his defense team plan on fighting the charges. However its common legal knowledge that federal prosecutors don’t file perjury charges unless they are 99.9% positive they can get a guilty verdict from a jury. And there is plenty of evidence out there to convict Bonds.
Now most people will defend Bonds. "Leave him alone!" "All baseball players use drugs, so why single Bonds out. Why make him the poster boy of the steroid era?" "They are all millionaire cry baby cheater, but not criminals." "It's strictly a racial thing! Bonds broke the biggest record in baseball, and some people just don’t like it." These are all quotes I have heard on the radio, work place, and in the news in recent months, and they are all irrelevant.
What Bonds is being charged with, and what I have had a problem with from day one, is his arrogance, pride, disrespect and defiance for the game of baseball any more importantly the countries judicial system.
Bond lied to a Federal Grand Jury, and no one is above that!!!
This past week Barry said to reporters that he still wants to play in 2008. He has been quoted as saying he felt unappreciated for all he had done for the Giants and the city of San Francisco, and has asked his agent to find him a deal somewhere in baseball. However with a perjury indictment, and possible prison time lingering, no team in baseball will give Bonds a deal. It’s safe to say Barry’s time within the game of baseball has come to an end.
All baseball fans worship their heros, and despise their villains with great passion. We find even the subtlest similarities with our heros, and we do whatever possible to distance our own characteristics from our villains.
We wear the same shirts and hats as those we admire and curse and judge those we dislike. Even I, at 27-years-old, think of Paul O’Neill and Matt Holliday while jogging around the city of San Francisco.
Barry has always been a player whom I hate. His flat out arrogance his defiance of the game disgusts me. He is one of the great examples of a guy whom I distance myself from. Which leads me back to my initial point of this article, the common link between Bonds and myself.
Barry’s common link to me is that for almost opposite reasons, we are both locked out of AT&T Park in San Francisco. However the bars that lock me out of the park do not lock me out of choices and experiences throughout the rest of the world. In Bond's case, the bars that he will soon be locked behind will be holding him in a 6x6x6 foot jail cell.
Or at least I hope.
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Santana Or Baby Bombers?
I want Johan Santana in Yankee Pinstripes for Christmas this year!
The Minnesota Twins left-handed ace Johan Santana is the hottest available pitcher on the trade market this off-season. Johan has developed into arguably the best pitcher in the American League and is most certainly among the top ten. In eight major league seasons Santana has 93 career wins. In each of the last four years Johan has over 200 strikeouts in over 200 innings pitched. His lifetime ERA is 3.22, which is a great triumph in modern day American League baseball. He is the ace of the Twins staff, the most crucial member of the Minnesota pitching rotation.
I have a photograph that hangs on the backside of my apartment’s front door. The photograph is of New York Yankees Phil Hughes, Robinson Cano, Joba Chamberlain, and Melky Cabrera. They are all gathered in the dugout of Tropicana field in Tampa Florida, wearing thier gray road Jerseys as they pose. Chamberlain is crouched forward, while squatting on the backrest of the dugout bench. Cabrera stands to Joba’s right with a bat hanging like a cross behind is neck, while both or his hands wrap around each end of the lumber. On Joba’s left are Cano and Huges. Cano holds a bat similar to Melky while Hughes is smiling and looking at the camera. The photograph is titled “Baby Bombers”. I often stare at the photo while thinking about pending Yankee games in seasons to come. With great hope and excitement, future Yankee victories race through my mind when thinking about these four special rookies.
Yet over the last several weeks I have been waking up and dreading my daily routine of checking the New York newspapers. Frightened that I will turn on my computer to read of how one (or more) of my “Baby Bombers” has been traded to Minnesota. Dreading that the Yankees will have abandoned their principals and compromised the future in an effort to get John Santana from the Twins. Now although the result of such a move will accomplish the goal from my very first sentence of this blog, it would still greatly upset me!
Upset me because parting with tomorrow’s prospects for a chance at winning today is an uncertain variable. Of course if Santana leads the 2008 Yankees to the World Series, then all the “Baby Bombers” in the world can play in Minneapolis for all I care. However if next season Phil Hughes or Jaba Chamberlain win 23 games with the Twins, while Johan Santana rehabs in August from the Yankees disabled list, while the Red Sox are in first place, well then all hell will have broken lose in the Bronx.
Of course in a perfect world Cano would be at second base, Hughes and Chamberlain would be in the starting rotation, Cabrera would be navigating centerfield, and Johan Santana would be the ace of the Yankees staff. But the more I read, and the more both teams report, that possibility 100% unattainable. This leaves me pondering an age-old question as a Yankee fanatic.
How can I have my cake and eat it too?
I can’t! The Yankees organization can’t! And the millions of other Yankees fans around the world can’t either. The Minnesota Twins have made it abundantly clear that they will not, under any conditions trade Santana to New York without a package that would include one of the four “Baby Bombers”. Under normal circumstances this would immediately end talks involving the Yankees. However the Boston Red Sox have complicated those normal circumstances this week.
The Red Sox have also entered talks with the Twins to acquire Santana. This has forced Hank Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman (Yankee Owner and General Manager) to discuss trading players who would normally be off limits. In my opinion, and probably the opinion of most Yankees insiders, the Yankee brass would do anything to keep Santana from becoming a Red Sox. If that means abandoning prospects and trading away the future, they will. The only silver lining for the Yankees is that the Twins asking price from Boston is equally steep.
How will it all play out at Baseball’s winter meetings (where most trades are discussed) next week? No one can be certain. I personally could see any one of three possibilities happening. I could see Santana remaining as a Twin, I could see him as a Red Sox, and I could see him in Pinstripes.
Only one thing do I know for sure.
If a trade does occur, and the Yankees land Santana, then the Poster on my front door is useless!
The Minnesota Twins left-handed ace Johan Santana is the hottest available pitcher on the trade market this off-season. Johan has developed into arguably the best pitcher in the American League and is most certainly among the top ten. In eight major league seasons Santana has 93 career wins. In each of the last four years Johan has over 200 strikeouts in over 200 innings pitched. His lifetime ERA is 3.22, which is a great triumph in modern day American League baseball. He is the ace of the Twins staff, the most crucial member of the Minnesota pitching rotation.
I have a photograph that hangs on the backside of my apartment’s front door. The photograph is of New York Yankees Phil Hughes, Robinson Cano, Joba Chamberlain, and Melky Cabrera. They are all gathered in the dugout of Tropicana field in Tampa Florida, wearing thier gray road Jerseys as they pose. Chamberlain is crouched forward, while squatting on the backrest of the dugout bench. Cabrera stands to Joba’s right with a bat hanging like a cross behind is neck, while both or his hands wrap around each end of the lumber. On Joba’s left are Cano and Huges. Cano holds a bat similar to Melky while Hughes is smiling and looking at the camera. The photograph is titled “Baby Bombers”. I often stare at the photo while thinking about pending Yankee games in seasons to come. With great hope and excitement, future Yankee victories race through my mind when thinking about these four special rookies.
Yet over the last several weeks I have been waking up and dreading my daily routine of checking the New York newspapers. Frightened that I will turn on my computer to read of how one (or more) of my “Baby Bombers” has been traded to Minnesota. Dreading that the Yankees will have abandoned their principals and compromised the future in an effort to get John Santana from the Twins. Now although the result of such a move will accomplish the goal from my very first sentence of this blog, it would still greatly upset me!
Upset me because parting with tomorrow’s prospects for a chance at winning today is an uncertain variable. Of course if Santana leads the 2008 Yankees to the World Series, then all the “Baby Bombers” in the world can play in Minneapolis for all I care. However if next season Phil Hughes or Jaba Chamberlain win 23 games with the Twins, while Johan Santana rehabs in August from the Yankees disabled list, while the Red Sox are in first place, well then all hell will have broken lose in the Bronx.
Of course in a perfect world Cano would be at second base, Hughes and Chamberlain would be in the starting rotation, Cabrera would be navigating centerfield, and Johan Santana would be the ace of the Yankees staff. But the more I read, and the more both teams report, that possibility 100% unattainable. This leaves me pondering an age-old question as a Yankee fanatic.
How can I have my cake and eat it too?
I can’t! The Yankees organization can’t! And the millions of other Yankees fans around the world can’t either. The Minnesota Twins have made it abundantly clear that they will not, under any conditions trade Santana to New York without a package that would include one of the four “Baby Bombers”. Under normal circumstances this would immediately end talks involving the Yankees. However the Boston Red Sox have complicated those normal circumstances this week.
The Red Sox have also entered talks with the Twins to acquire Santana. This has forced Hank Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman (Yankee Owner and General Manager) to discuss trading players who would normally be off limits. In my opinion, and probably the opinion of most Yankees insiders, the Yankee brass would do anything to keep Santana from becoming a Red Sox. If that means abandoning prospects and trading away the future, they will. The only silver lining for the Yankees is that the Twins asking price from Boston is equally steep.
How will it all play out at Baseball’s winter meetings (where most trades are discussed) next week? No one can be certain. I personally could see any one of three possibilities happening. I could see Santana remaining as a Twin, I could see him as a Red Sox, and I could see him in Pinstripes.
Only one thing do I know for sure.
If a trade does occur, and the Yankees land Santana, then the Poster on my front door is useless!
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