Apparently, she’s not banned for her antics–just not allowed in after a loss.  ‘Cause clearly she’s…ahem…distracting.

Now, if she actually sleeps with a Yankees player, we’ll be sad. But for the moment, we think this is hilarious post-feminist awesomeness. What do you think?

Ugh, ’scuse us.  We have to go beat ourselves up a little.  But that won’t make it less true.

We’re fans of the game, and the way the game’s played, the New York Yankees were far and away the best at it this year.  They hit the best, pitched the best, gutted games out the best.

Which brings us to another point.  Bandwagon Yankee-hatred is just as bad as bandwagon fandom.  Deciding you hate a team because the people who love and know the game (whatever that game might be) is no more legitimate than jumping on the playoff train.  (Unless it’s your hometown team in a sport you don’t like…then the playoff train is fine, and we hope you’ll go to a few games next year!)

There’s only one October, and it’s finally over: in November.  On to basketball, more football, and the Winter Olympics!

And–gulp–congrats to the Bronx Bombers.

(Sorry, Sox gods. They took this one fair and square.)

The biggest story so far, however, is the fabulous award this World Series has, in fact, ALREADY received.  That would be the Pre-Emptive Asshat Fan Award.

Yes folks, this prestigious award is usually given to groups like Douchebags Who Root for USC and People Who Like Tim Tebow. Never before has it been given–in advance no less–to an entire series of sporting events….when they’ve barely begun.

Congrats, Yanks and Phills fans.  You…um..win? (Now come with an awesomely stupid derogatory chant, and get really drunk, and yell it at us even if it makes zero sense in context!)

A-Rod Channels Reggie Is he the new “Mr. October”?  ARod is historically known, and mocked, for his lack of hitting in October.  Except, this year, he’s hitting .407 in the playoffs.  Suddenly, he’s actually a guy you want to have at the plate in a crunch.  Not that the Yankees ever have a crunch, which leads us to…

They’re Just That Damn Good Sure, we were rooting for a freeway series, but the Yankees can’t be denied.  They’ve finally come together–the ridiculous quantities of money have managed to buy a team with some chemistry, even if it kind of happened by accident.

Starting Pitching C.C. Sabathia started last night on three days rest, and it was a non-story.  Unlike his playoff run with the Brewers, this run is almost relaxing for him, probably: the Yankees were far enough ahead toward the end of the regular season that they didn’t have to push him, and the schedule has meant that he got some rest.  Now, he’s 3-0 in the playoffs and clearly enjoying himself.

But, We Still Hate Them Yesterday, the Yanks kicked ass.  So much ass that we sort of forgot it was game 4 and not game 5.  Then, they did one of those line up and high five each other maneuvers.  It looked like taking care of business, and it was…but it was so freakin’ BORING.  (Johnny Damon seemed to agree.  He looked entirely confused at the lack of jumping, hugging, and complex high fives.  Come back to Boston, Johnny! We feel you!) There’s just not a lot of fun looking like it’s being had here. And they’ll beat hell out of the Phillies, and we’ll watch. But…we’re bored, and we’re slightly annoyed.

1. The Mets led the NL in stolen bases this year. When did they ever get on base?

2. Manny’s Suspension: What if you had a really long suspension, and came back hitting like crazy.  Would they let you be the batting champ, if your average was the highest? I guess getting the requisite 502 plate appearances would be tough in that case, but say you’d been suspended at the end of one season and became batting champ the next.  This would make people unhappy, and if it were a voting thing, would never happen.  But it could.  What would Bud Selig do, or could he do anything?

3. NL Pitching Makes Life More Interesting

Seriously.  The pitchers batting rule makes the later innings of a contest like this so much more interesting, on average, than AL baseball’s late innings, when everything just slows down to a freakin’ glacial pace.

In tonight’s game, which we’re probably blogging, maybe, we think, we’ll take the Yankees, even though we wish we wouldn’t.  The Yanks get to go with a three man rotation, and that means they’re going to win. Period.

The ALCS will begin tomorrow, and the Yankees will take it.  Now, don’t get us wrong: we’re rooting for a freeway series–great for the city of L.A. and good for baseball.

The Angels have a lot of momentum: they have never before swept a postseason series, and to do so against the Red Sox, their postseason nemesis in recent years, probably means a lot to the clubhouse.  Their pitching has improved hugely from last year (when they got swept by the Red Sox in the ALDS), and they added the Rays’ Scott Kazmir for the stretch run.  Their starting pitching in the Division Series was nothing short of great.

But….they never added a bat.  Remember a couple years ago, when people started feeling that Vlad Guerrero, their big bat, was mostly done and/or couldn’t walk anymore.  This is still so true that, with two outs in the ninth, Terry Francona opted to walk someone else to get to Guerrero.  Admittedly, he got a hit, but it was his first off of Papelbon, and his first clutch hit in…long. Real long.

The Angels added Torii Hunter in the 2007 offseason.  Even their management knew that wasn’t enough, though–thus the addition of Mark Teixeira for their playoff run, which didn’t turn out to help.  This year, no new bat.

Meanwhile, the Yankees have always had bats.  Too many bats.  (DH options at the beginning of the 2008 offseason?  Johnny Damon.  Hideki Matsui.  Bobby Abreu.  Jorge Posada.  Among others.) What they didn’t have was team chemistry, and Joe Girardi feels that his club has loosened up and is having more fun playing the game.  This is due, in our opinion, to the addition of Nick Swisher, who clearly has a ton of fun playing the game.  Nobody smiled bigger than Swisher last week when the stadium crowd laughed as he forgot how to count to four and tried to take a walk on a 2-2 pitch.  (If it had been A-Rod, he’d probably have burst into tears.)

The Yankees have a veteran playoff pitcher in Pettite, their bullpen is solid with the settling of Phil Hughes into the eighth inning setup role.  Every time you think Mariano Rivera is out, he pulls you back in, Corleone style.  Their bats are huge, and their clubhouse is finally getting rowdy.

We think that Angels have their work cut out for them, and we wish for their sake they hadn’t swept the Sox.  (No, really. A longer break means less momentum headed into the ALCS, which begins Friday.)  But we’ll go ahead and say they’ll take a game:

Yankees in 6.

For now, a bit of updated playoff analysis.

Clinched

The Yankees have clinched the division title, but playoff questions remain.  Specifically, after you start C.C. Sabathia, then what happens? A.J. Burnett has been good at times, but terribly inconsistent.  Pettite–despite the sore shoulder–is probably your best bet for a number two, because he at least eats some innings, even when he’s off.  Because of the extra days off in the first series, this won’t be an issue right away.

The Angels have also clinched. But they always get swept in the first round.  Will this year be different?  Well, last year they needed a bat, and got swept despite the addition of Mark Texeira.  This year they didn’t add that bat. So….you be the judge.  (They have, however, added Scott Kazmir, late of Tampa Bay, so their pitching is solider than in past years.)

St. Louis….looks like St. Louis. They clinched their division behind Pujols, and they’ll play in the playoffs behind Pujols.  They’re not especially exciting, but they’re getting the job done. Again.

Playoff Bound

The Dodgers have clinched their second playoff berth in a row under manager Joe Torre, and they look good going into the playoffs.  With Manny Ramirez’s famously torrid postseason play on their side, they could go far.

Questionmarks

The Red Sox had a magic number of 1 to clinch a playoff berth …three days ago.  They still have that 1.  They’re imploding, and if Texas weren’t quite so far back…well, actually this might still be a race.  The Sox just got swept by the Yankees and lost one to Toronto last night. Why? Who knows.

Texas is less than likely to make the playoffs–their collapse in the month of August was nothing short of spectacular.  They control their own destiny only minimally, but hey, miracles happen.

The Rockies, the little team that could, could also still make the playoffs.  We’ll see…

Detroit and Minnesota: playing a doubleheader today with the Twins two games back.  Update on that one later.

This year, the coolness is today’s Sox-Yanks game, which matters because one of the two teams will clinch a playoff berth today.  If the Yankees win, they’ll have clinched the division, but if the Sox win, they’ll have clinched the wild card and still have a shot at the division.

Luckily, ESPN has the game…of course, we were roundly outnumbered by those around us and are watching football.

And then he named names.

He talked about dreadlocks, and clearly that’s Manny Ramirez.  He talked about showing up and mailing it in or deciding not to play at all.  That’s…well, actually that could also be Manny Ramirez.  He said today’s players didn’t compare to some of the guys he played with and against.  And then somehow Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez came up.

Now, love or hate the Yankees, and specifically A-Rod, but they play hard.  The clubhouse culture of the Yankees might be dry, it might not have a lot of soul, but it’s definitely a place where serious players come and take care of their business: day games, night games, every day, week, and month.  Arguing against that’s probably all but impossible, assuming you’re making any sense.  Derek Jeter, meanwhile, has to be the class act of baseball.  He came up with a bunch of players that flamed out (calling Daryll Strawberry!) from partying and drugs.  Sure, he’s been in the tabloids some, but not in recent years.  The man dated Mariah Carey and Scarlett Johanson, and we STILL don’t have any dirt on him.  He calls Joe “Mr. Torre.”

You just don’t say those things about Derek Jeter.  And you sure as heck don’t say such things to a bunch of kids, about anyone.  The only explanation we can come up with is that Rice let the whole Sox-Yanks thing eat his brain entirely.  Most baseball fans are pretty good about this–good enough baseball fans that they recognize good baseball everywhere, even on the opposing team.

He claims he was misquoted, but we’re not really sure how that could happen.  Jeter isn’t sure either, as the end of this article points out.  He said that Jeter and A-Rod–by name, mind you–couldn’t compare to the guys he played with.  He said it, and now he’s backtracking.

The rivalry does a lot of things, and some of them suck–this is one. Just because you’re a Hall of Famer–finally–doesn’t mean you get to say whatever you want, Jim Rice.  Got it?

The Nationals finally have the One Guy, the franchise face that they’ve been looking for.  Their last try at that, you’ll recall, was Mark Texiera, but he was never going to sign with the Little Team That–so far at least–Couldn’t.  (The Nationals are once again on track for baseball’s worst record and over a hundred losses.)

So this solves one problem–maybe it puts a little swagger in the collective step of the  clubhouse.  This guy is a once in a lifetime talent, and he’s projected by scouts to make the majors as early as next season.

The reason UPH isn’t ecstatic and turning over a new leaf on behalf of the Nationals?  This didn’t take any scouting.  Everyone knew this was the guy to draft, and the Nationals, with their crappy records in recent years, have ended up with very good draft position.

The teams that become Little Teams that Could are the teams like Tampa Bay and the Milwaukee Brewers.  The difference is scouting and the minor league system–the propects picked up by these  teams aren’t the highest paid or the hugest talents, but these teams have been able, quietly, to build, through trades and solid drafting and free agent signings, deep farm systems.  Maybe the Nationals can do that.  But we don’t know yet.  Strasburg is perhaps a start, but he isn’t the solution.

To see why, look at the Yankees.  Over and over again in recent years, they’ve drafted and signed the Next Big Thing, pitching-wise.  Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, Ian Kennedy–every one has been hyped, every one has struggled with injury, and none has yet reached his full potential.  Something, and what is a whole ‘nother post, is wrong with the Yankees scouting or, more likely, they’re pitcher development.

The Nationals may or may not have this problem, or others, in their farm system or with their scouting and development, but the truth is that so far, nobody knows.  That’s why Strasburg, incredible as he may be, isn’t the answer.  Not all by himself, and not yet.