First off, I am not an Angels fan but I would like to thank Vladimir Guerrero for the great years he gave the Expos and Angels and wish him good luck in his future baseball career as he is going to be a free agent.

OK I bet 99% of the blogs will be about the Yankees winning the pennant, and I am not spending too much time on that but I will say a few things. First let’s start with Joe Buck. I used to love his commentary but after watching the last game he obviously was rooting for the Yankees. He sounded upset after every Angels score… and seemed to light up after everytime the Yankees would score… This is actually A-Rod’s first World Series. He came in 2004 (year after steroids) and watched the Red Sox blow by the Yanks to win the WS (which one of my favorite first baseman, Doug M caught the last out of)

Now the Phillies having the upper hand? Well yes every National League team does to some extent… The fact that the pitchers hit on a regular basis is going to hurt the Yankees badly… They have a STRONG pitching lineup and the pitchers hitting in Philly, even if they dont switch, the almost garunteed out hurts. Now because of the AS game the Yankees have home field advantage, but during those (if need be 4 games), the Phillies can use a DH, which will put them at an equal level.

I say it’s the Phillies in 5…

Ha I can imagine the junk I am going to get tomarrow from the bandwagon and the real fans alike… I have made myself a big disliker of the Yankees… (is disliker a word?) anyway… again I am going to try and convice every exclusive member of the bandwagon that they are not true fans…

So the postgame show is ending and I am tired, this is my last blog until Wednesday… and I want to leave the OP with one last thought tonight… it’s about the Yankees…

The current Yankees are being overshadowed by those of the golden age of baseball and even the 70′s and 80′s. They are good, yes, but are they much better than they were in the 30′s and 40′s? No. Before baseball became a big money game, when Ruth would actually sign a few autographs, when the game was about taking your son to his first game to watch Joe DiMaggio plant one in left field while you munch on a hot dog telling him how the stats work. I respect those Yankees. Today’s Yankees? The Mitchell Report had over 20 Yankees in it, the 2003 report (that has Sosa, Ortiz etc etc) has A-Rod in it. The only way to obtain a Jeter autograph is by going through a second party such as Steiner, Upper Deck, Topps, or the MLB itself. Where there is no respect for the game or it’s ancestors, is what today’s big market teams have become. Being a Twins fan and an autograph collector, standing atop the Royals and Twins Dugouts in what was supposed to be the last game of the season was such a beautiful thing. I saw one of the Royals players through his batting gloves at a pair of young kids, dad’s helping their son’s obtain autographs and even, one kid standing atop the Twins dugout screaming “Fransisco! Your my favorite player!” only to be greeted by a surprise, when it had appeared that Liriano left, he reappeared two people down from me to reward his fan with an autograph. Joe Mauer even… had good spirit. The Twins bring 9 kids out before the game to stand at each position, and the kid who goes to home plate walks up to the umps and they start chatting with them. Then one of the umps takes the kid’s hat off and places his on his head for a moment and then takes it off. Up walks your (soon to be) MVP and he pats the kid on the back and starts talking to him. It was the greatest day of my life (as far as baseball).

One of the best parts about being a Twins fan, is we respect MOST (Chuck Knoblach???) of our players who came before us, it doesn’t matter if they are Lew Ford, Joe Mays, Jack Morris, Kent Hrbek, or the greatest of all, Kirby Puckett. I have not seen any respect for any older Yankees players from the current squad.

Thank you for reading my longest edition of the OP, and from the Twins Fan, have a wonderful October and a fast comming spring training.