1) Rookies can make a difference (Cano, Wang, Atlanta)
2) The best spent money can be on lesser known players (Chacon, Small, Ortiz)
3) The first 2 months of the season are not always indicative of a team’s or players abilities. Some times you need to invest in those you believe have the talent.
4) Big money does not always produce big results (list too long to mention)
5) Getting highly paid older players is often dangerous and usually financially disasterous.
6) When you promote from within and get results, there is nothing sweeter in the world. (Jetes, Mo, Bernie, Petite. Jorge, Wang, Cano… and the ones that got away, Soriano, Johnson, et al)
7) Is is always good to have money to spend. It is never good to spend it unwisely.
8) No one formula works. The best teams are usally a combination of young and old, FA and internal promotions, stars and journeymen.

I am jealous that Theo manages to find very solid players for little money, who end up contributing to his team. Until Small and Chicon, we have not done this for years. You don’t make a team this way, but certainly add to a team this way.

Have the various results of RJ, Pavano, Wright, Cano, Wang, Small and Chacon had an effect on George and Cashman?

This year’s winter should be interesting.

I yell and scream, jump and up and down, unleash profanities and basically act like I do at The Stadium. She gets concerned if it’s too quiet and will come in and check the score. This season, she’s really into the team (gave up on her SF Giants early), in part because I, too, have forced her to watch to keep win streaks going, or if we need a rally late in the game. More often than not, when she watches, the team comes through, so she knows she’s doomed. But it’s pretty cool, she’s umpiring, on the edge of her seat and way beyond the “Hey, that guy’s cute” stage, even noticing when Torre changes the lineup. I showed her post #52 from pistolpete and she said “So, I’m not alone, huh?”

Whenever I can peel our son off of XBox Live, he’s getting into it, too. The Yankees are a big part of the day around here, especially with the 4 o’clock Pacific Time starts, we get the whole game in before bedtime.

Speaking of gametime, here we go again

Let’s go Yan-kees!

In her favor, she’s certainly become more of a fan this year. It helps that she teaches school, and the kids – 99% Sox fans, as we live near Boston – know she’s a Yankees fan.

I remember being on vacation in Bar Harbor, Maine, I delayed my trip because of 9/11 to a time that no one would be in Bar Harbor – the end of October. Well, I had already gone to the ALCS games vs. Seattle and my brother had tickets to games 4 and 5 vs. the Diamondbacks. I told him I wouldn’t be able to make games 4 & 5 because I would be on vacation, I hadn’t anticipated the World Series going that long. To make a long story short, I said if Clemens wins game 3 then I’m there for games 4 and 5. I cut my vacation short 3 days, the girl left me (eventually), but I could never replace the great time I had in both those games.

Yesterday, my wife and I spent the night watching DVDs of the First Season of “Lost” with a laptop on my lap, occasionally catching up on the Yankee score.

pathetic!

Yesterday she was upstairs in the kitchen when Sheff hit his grand slam. As soon as she came down to watch it with me in the den, the Orioles took the lead and slowly pulled away. Do you know how much willpower it took for me NOT to tell her to get back upstairs?!!

LOL. The thing of it is, I usually get somewhat of a reprieve this time of year because the Yanks have either clinched already or they’re not even in the running (see early 90′s, late 80′s). This year it’s been wire to wire, mostly because of the horrible start and now the nail-biting finish. I truly see myself getting a divorce if they don’t win it all…;)

It sometimes leads to a great deal of guilt on my part. Sometimes I wonder why I invest so much of my personal time and energy into a team that I have zero control over.

Anyone else share my predicament?

I log in within the second ticketmaster put tickets on sale, on two different network connections, and I get “Sorry, nothing available.”

I log in again and I get bleachers for home game 4 of the ALCS!

WTF?

Also, i think it would be great if the Yankees had to knock $50million off the payroll. They are overpaying like mad for crapshoot talent and players on the right side of the career curve.

For that reason (among others) I thank you all for contributing here, as does Alex (I feel safe speaking for him here). In a way, you guys vent for me. It’s great group therapy. And, as the “objective” half of our little Gemini pairing, it helps me focus when I sidle up to the keyboard.