The word of the day is Champion.
So now we're going to be oversaturated with Yankees discussion for the next week, and on a personal level I'm gonna be ridiculed without prejudice being a Red Sox fan. Joe Girardi got lucky that his three man rotation succeeded in October and November, because had they lost, he would have been highly criticized for it.
The person that will get a huge amount of criticism, however, is Charlie Manuel. How do you let the pitcher who was named the team's pitcher of the year in J.A. Happ get less than THREE innings of work in the postseason. Starting Joe Blanton in game four of the Series was a mistake against the Yankees' lefty heavy lineup.
It has been a turbulent season for the Yankees, starting with their expensive stadium and outrageous tickets, and Alex Rodriguez' steroids issues, and the big contracts they gave to C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira. They struggled in the early part of the season, in particular against the Red Sox, but after their last series loss to the Red Sox, and not coincidentally with the return of Alex Rodriguez, the Yankees heated up, and took the rest of the baseball world by the throat.
Hideki Matsui was huge in the three games he was able to play with the designated hitter, particularly tonight. He tied a World Series record with six RBI in one game, tying Bobby Richardson in 1960. I would have been tempted to start Matsui in the outfield in the NL games and move Damon over to right field just to keep his hot bat in the lineup, though. Matsui's game six performance wrested the MVP trophy away from Chase Utley, who was bidding to be the first player since Richardson to win the MVP for a losing team.
Now, onto the Hot Stove Season.
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