It's easy to hate Yankees fans

So, I've been told, but I think I am kind of lovable. :)

Living in southern New Jersey and spending a lot of time in Philadelphia over the past week or so has told me a lot about Yankees and Phillies fans. I am not naive to what Yankee fans are and why people do not like them.

Yankee fans are confident with many going into the cocky category.

However, Philadelphia fans are not any different. What's worse is that Philadelphia fans actually cannot comprehend the meaning of anything beyond the boundaries of their own teams.

Here are a few examples of what I've heard in the past two days. We're not even going to go with the week because I don't plan on spending three weeks typing.

1. 'Andy Pettitte doesn't scare me."
- Pettitte isn't the dominating lefty he was several years ago. He doesn't have Roger Clemens on his side like he did previously with the Yankees or while in Houston. However, Pettitte is one of the top postseason pitchers and when he's on, well ... Game 5 1996 World Series. Look it up.

He's given up six home runs to lefties this year, compared to 14 from righties. That's good news for Jayson Werth, but not Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Raul Ibanez.

I'm not saying Philadelphia fans need to quaver, but at least show a little respect.

2. "Jimmy Rollins is better than Derek Jeter."
- I didn't smack the guy when he said this, although I really wanted to. Phillies need to stop pointing to Rollins' MVP season. It was two years ago and since then, Rollins is hitting .276 with a .302 OBP. Again, the Phillies lead off guy has a .302 OBP. He didn't even break .300 this year in OBP.

Defensively, Rollins gets the edge. But there is no way you can come out and say that Rollins is better than Jeter. Rollins won't even be the second-best short stop if the Yankees and Phillies meet in the World Series. Jeter isn't even the best short stop. In case anyone needs numbers, Jeter hit .334 (higher than Rollins' OBP) with a .406 OBP. At 35, he added 30 steals this year.

3. "I would take Ryan Howard over Pujols on my team."
- And, there it is. I couldn't even have a real conversation after that was said. Yes, Howard is very good. Great power numbers and in the postseason, he has been terrific.

But, let's get real. It's Albert Freakin' Pujols. He's the best baseball player in the game. You take a player like Pujols over anyone at anytime because players like him do not come along often.
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I'm done with the rant. So, yes, while Yankees fans are easy to hate, at least they're are knowledgeable and can have a real baseball conversation.

NLCS Tonight!

The days are boring when baseball isn't on television. This time between series isn't good for anyone (you can ask TB (the boyfriend).

However, now is not the time to lament over staring at each other on the couch and him wondering why I have nothing else to do.

Here are my (Sooz) picks for the series.

I have an interest in both these series. In the Yankees-Angels series, I'm a Yankees fan, so I want to see the team I have enjoyed over the course of my life win. In the NLCS, if the Phillies make it to the World Series, I will be covering the entire thing, home and away. Right now, I have only been covering the Phillies playoff home games for work.

Which means I would love for a Phillies-Yankees World Series because I'm selfish and it would be fun for me.

But now we put my bias aside and look at the series from a logical perspective (at least my logic).

Predictions:
ALCS: Yankees in 6.
I feel the Yankees have too difficult of a time against the Angels, but in the end they will pull it out. It should be a great series, but I really think the Yankees are just too good from the starting pitching to the great lineup and a stellar back end of the bullpen.

NLCS: Dodgers in 6.
This series could go down to seven games and part of me thinks that it might. These are two evenly matched teams. Solid starters, who could be inconsistent on any given day. Hitters who seem to always get the big hit when it counts. But the difference is in the bullpens. Brad Lidge and Ryan Madson just haven't done it for Philadelphia. If you look at the stats, you'll see the Dodgers have 26 blown saves, but 13 of them were by guys you'll will never see in the ninth inning (one isn't even on the roster). George Sherrill and Jonathan Broxton are the difference.

What are you predictions?

What a game!

All I have to say is, WOW! Sooz and myself, along with my brother and his friend had seats 15 rows behind homeplate last night for Game 2 of the ALDS, Yankees v. Twins. The seats were insane, most of the people were either bored or had no idea what was going on next to us, but we had fun and the Yankees came out victorious.

I know we had good seats for 2 reasons, the first being we were 15 rows from the field, and the second being we were only 2 rows behind Justin Tuck of the New York Giants.


And if we needed a 3rd reason, Donald Trump was about 8 rows in front of us in the moat seats. You can't miss that rug on his head.

The game was great. A-Rod showed up and proved he can play in the post-season, and I guess it's better late than never. It also could be because he missed a month and maybe thinks it's still September (just ask Flash). A-Rod tied the game with a blast, which I don't have a picture of because I was too busy going bananas (B A N A N A S). Then Teixeira came up in the bottom of the 11th and smashed a line drive that hit the top of the wall for a game winning homerun. I am not going to get into the umpires sucking because I don't care anymore.

Ronan Tynan singing God Bless America.
I took some pictures and I figured some of you guys might like to see a different view. We stayed long enough to see the pie and I got a few pics of that, too. The whole stadium stayed for the pie and most of the people were singing 'New York, New York' very loudly. The first picture was blurry because AJ was running out and I was screaming and couldn't stay still.






The view from the platform of the 4 train, right in between the old (left) and new stadium (right).


Looking forward to Sunday's game and the Yankees crushing Pavano. Until then, I will enjoy watching the Dodgers and Cardinals. (Go Dodgers, and go Albert!)

I love this time of year

Well, it is my favorite time of year and I am super excited to be heading to game 1 of the 2009 ALDS in a little while. I have tickets for all Yankees home games and I am hoping they play almost every one of them. It's about 65 degrees here and super windy which is much better than the last time the Yankees were in the playoffs in 2007 when we were all outside in shorts and tank tops playing football on the parking deck. Playoffs should be cold, I should be wearing Under Armor and a wool hat.

I will be tweeting the occasional pictures when my phone has service, and I will take my camera with me because I was told I had to by a certain someone who will remain nameless (Flash). I hate bringing a camera with me but it's too much work to upload pictures from my phone and I am lazy. Sooz will be tweeting this afternoon from the Phillies game so entertain her if you are on twitter.

I will be in my seats in the bleachers tonight, and for Friday's game I got a nice seating upgrade to behind homeplate on the field level. Sooz and I will be going to Friday's game with my brother and a friend of his. So if we appear to be MIA, well Sooz is covering the Phillies this week and I will be at the Yankees games and pretending to study for a test I have tomorrow....

I actually tried to find pictures from previous playoff games to post in here but I think they are all on actual film, and on my old laptop. Perhaps if I plugged in my external hard drive they are on there...

In case you were wondering, I'm going with Phillies, Yankees, Dodgers, and Sox/Angels I don't care.

Coming down the stretch

I know we haven't updated our blog fantasy league in some time so I will start the blog off with the current standings up to today.

The Dude - 5836
Grand Cards - 5760
Purple Donkey - 5490
Carolina Xfractors - 5220
Legion of Boom - 5212
Victorious Secret - 5131
The Franchise - 5047
Cards on Cards - 5029
gcrl - 4636
WESTCOAST PIMP - 4129
Boneyard Braves - 4113
Gabe's Babe - 4043

My team (The Franchise) was doing very well for a short period of time and was in the top 5, and now since my pitching isn't that great (and I forgot to set my line-up a few times) I think I'm pretty much done.

So what does everyone think of the division races right now? The two hottest teams in baseball have definitely been the Phillies and Yankees (if you can't forget the weekend series the Yankees just played). Lee is going to be a great addition to the Phillies rotation, and from what my inside source (Sooz) tells me, they didn't give up all that much to land Lee.

Any predictions of the playoffs from anyone? I think the A.L. East is going to be a tight race this year, and after last year I won't be complaining. I see the Phillies and Dodgers in the N.L. so far, and the A.L. I don't have any solid prediction though I will go with the Yankees taking first and Boston getting the wild card. I know many people dislike Torre now, but I really want to see them to well again and they seem to be a lock for making hte playoffs. Yankees/Dodgers World Series would be awesome and very old school.

Let me know what you think, entertain me. I'll be back in bed feeling sick and maybe opening some packs...