To take a page from Roger Kahn, who our fearless proprietor Alex Belth credited in Lede Time II, “Every year is next year for the Yankees.” Apparently, it’s next year already. The offseason doesn’t exist anymore.

Less than a week after the World Series, the news cycle has shifted to the GM meetings and the Hot Stove League. At least we got to enjoy the parade for a day or two.

Columns talking about 2010 and dismantling the team that were written within days of the Yankees doing their victory lap around the New House left as sour a taste as the bogus basking-in-the-afterglow pieces of Mike Lupica and Wallace Matthews. How quickly they changed their tunes; two days prior, they took Joe Girardi to the rails, one driving the “Win Game 6 or the s—t hits the fan from the Steinbrenners” bandwagon and the other riding shotgun.

It seemed like too much, too soon. Maybe that’s because for the first time in six years, the Yankees’ season went beyond the first week of October. Maybe it’s also because the Free Agent declarations were made public on Monday.

The Red Sox have already exercised the option on Victor Martinez, signed Tim Wakefield to a two-year deal, and traded for outfield/bench help, acquiring Jeremy Hermida from Florida. If it’s about keeping up with the Joneses, then the Yankees are playing their typical game of Snake in the Grass. They are the Joneses.

The stories coming out now as they pertain to the champs — random aside: now YES Network really is “the home of champions” — will center around three storylines:

1) Age (Keep 36-year-old Johnny Damon and 35-year-old Hideki Matsui, who’s now nothing more than a DH? Keep one? If so, which one? Or Jettison both?)

2) Pitching. Lots of decisions to be made outside of re-signing Andy Pettitte, non-tendering Chien-Ming Wang, and placing Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain in the rotation.

3) Economics. The GM Meetings taking place at the Airport Hilton at Chicago O’Hare did not signal a depressed market. A weak free agent class does.

Where does that leave the Yankees as the Hot Stove premiere shows tape for YES and MLBN this week? Perhaps the most intriguing article came from John Harper at the Daily News. In his “10 Ideas For 2010” list, No. 8 was especially provocative:

CONTENT WITH CANO?
Robinson Cano’s abysmal postseason confirmed what scouts say about him, that he’s an undisciplined free swinger who is always going to put up numbers during the season against a lot of mediocre pitching, but should be an easy out on a big stage against elite pitching.

It doesn’t mean the Yankees should trade him. Indeed, he improved his focus in 2009 after his late-season benching in 2008, and for the most part played a brilliant second base. But it does mean the Yankees shouldn’t rule it out, in case some team sees him as their No. 3 hitter and is willing to give up a golden arm for him.

The Cano conundrum is interesting, mainly because the same things were said about Alfonso Soriano after the 2003 World Series loss. All the Yankees did that winter, albeit right before pitchers and catchers reported in February of ‘04, was send Soriano to the Texas Rangers as part of the blockbuster trade for Alex Rodriguez.

While Harper was just tossing an idea around as thought snacks, Joel Sherman preheated the oven with rumblings of Curtis Granderson heading to center field for the Yankees. Leave it to Sherman to leave some crumbs as the Winter Meetings approach.

This is the time of year when the good reporters in the industry elevate their games and separate themselves from the rest of the pack. On the TV side, the hangers-on from the local networks who are generally detached will be further removed from the process, leaving the info-gathering to the people who are typically in the trenches. In the coming weeks, you’ll see which beat writers and columnists have the most connections and go to the greatest lengths to source their stories. Their methods are not as scientific or analytical as the respective crews of Baseball Prospectus and Fangraphs, but that doesn’t mean they’re ineffective. They have a more difficult task: being first or being right.

And for us, the group that’s largely on the receiving end of all the tidbits, we have to decide which line is most credible.

This update is powered by a Happy 40th Anniversary wish to Sesame Street:

• Matsui contract talks on hold.
• Freddy Guzman and Josh Towers opt for free agency.
• Hideki Matsui in the outfield?  Some GMs doubt it.
• Internet Baseball Award AL results:
  • MVP: Mauer 1st, Jeter 2nd, Teixeira 3rd, Rodriguez 8th
  • Cy Young: Greinke 1st, Sabathia 5th, Rivera 6th
  • Rookie of the Year: Porcello 1st
  • Mgr. of the Year: Scioscia 1st, Girardi 4th
• Homer Bush turns 37 today.

Back on Monday!

More memorable ledes…

This, perhaps the most famous of them, comes from Grantland Rice:

Outlined against a blue, gray October sky the Four Horsemen rode again.

Dick Young on the Brooklyn Dodgers choking:

The tree that grows in Brooklyn is an apple tree and the apples are in the throats of the Dodgers.

Joe Trimble on Don Larson’s Perfecto:

The imperfect man pitched the perfect game.

Shirley Povich, on the same game:

The million-to-one shot came in. Hell froze over. A month of Sundays hit the calendar. Don Larsen today pitched a no-hit, no-run, no-man-reach-first game in a World Series.

Roger Kahn, after the Yankees won Game Seven of the 1952 Serious:

Every year is next year for the Yankees.

Barbara Long on the second Ali-Liston fight:

I loved the minute of it.

Bob Considine on Louis-Schemling:

Listen to this, buddy, for it comes from a guy whose palms are still wet, whose throat is still dry, and whose jaw is still agape from the utter shock of watching Joe Louis knock out Max Schmeling.

Tom Keegan on the Mets collapsing during the 1998 season:

If Bobby Valentine knew his team one day would disgrace baseball as badly as it did last night at Turner Field he never would have invented the game in the first place.

Mark Kram on the Thrilla in Manilla:

It was only a moment, sliding past the eyes like the sudden shifting of light and shadow, but long years from now, it will remain a pure and moving glimpse of hard reality, and if Muhammad Ali could have turned his eyes upon himself, what first and final truth would he have seen? He had been led up the winding, red-carpeted staircase by Imelda Marcos, the First Lady of the Philippines, as the guest of honor at the Malacañang Palace. Soft music drifted in from the terrace as the beautiful Imelda guided the massive and still heavyweight champion of the world to the long buffet ornamented by huge candelabra. The two whispered, and then she stopped and filled his plate, and as he waited the candles threw an eerie light across the face of a man who only a few hours before had survived the ultimate inquisition of himself and his art.

Tomorrow…WC Heinz on Bummy Davis.

Judy Pace Flood looks to cash in on some of her late husband’s possessions. Bob Gibson and Lou Brock have auctioned off their stuff, so why not Judy Pace?

Yesterday, Mark Teixeira and Derek Jeter won Gold Glove Awards. Today, Joe Pos riffs…and it’s not about Jeter.

A lede is the opening sentence, paragraph, or several paragraphs to a newspaper or magazine story. I got to thinking about the very best ledes in sports writing history yesterday, then e-mailed a bunch of guys who know a lot about the history of sportswriting to get their take. Got some good ones.

I figure I’ll sprinkle them over a few posts. And I’m going to hit my library to find some more. But here are a few for starters:

Red Smith on the Bobby Thomson home run:

Now it is done. Now the story ends. And there is no way to tell it, The art of fiction is dead. Reality has strangled invention. Only the utterly implausible, the inexpressibly fantastic, can ever be plausible again.

Or how about Heywood Broun on Mr. Ruth:

The Ruth is mighty and shall prevail.

John Lardner on Stanley Ketchel, Down Great Purple Valleys:

Stanley Ketchel was twenty-four when he was fatally shot in the back by the common-law husband of the lady who was cooking his breakfast.

Hugh McIlvanney on the Ali-Foreman fight in Zaire:

We should have known that Muhammad Ali would not settle for any ordinary old resurrection. His had to have an additional flourish. So, having rolled away the rock, he hit George Foreman on the head with it.

William Nack on Secretariat, Pure Heart:

Just before noon the horse was led haltingly into a van next to the stallion bam, and there a concentrated barbiturate was injected into his jugular. Forty-five seconds later there was a crash as the stallion collapsed. His body was trucked immediately to Lexington, Ky., where Dr. Thomas Swerczek, a professor of veterinary science at the University of Kentucky, performed the necropsy. All of the horse’s vital organs were normal in size except for the heart.

“We were all shocked,” Swerczek said. “I’ve seen and done thousands of autopsies on horses, and nothing I’d ever seen compared to it. The heart of the average horse weighs about nine pounds. This was almost twice the average size, and a third larger than any equine heart I’d ever seen. And it wasn’t pathologically enlarged. All the chambers and the valves were normal. It was just larger. I think it told us why he was able to do what he did.”

JR Moehringer, Resurrecting the Champ:

I’m sitting in a hotel room in Columbus, Ohio, waiting for a call from a man who doesn’t trust me, hoping he’ll have answers about a man I don’t trust, which may clear the name of a man no one gives a damn about. To distract myself from this uneasy vigil–and from the phone that never rings, and from the icy rain that never stops pelting the window–I light a cigar and open a 40-year-old newspaper.  “Greatest puncher they ever seen,” the paper says in praise of Bob Satterfield, a ferocious fighter of the 1940s and 1950s. “The man of hope–and the man who crushed hope like a cookie in his fist.” Once again, I’m reminded of Satterfield’s sorry luck, which dogged him throughout his life, as I’m dogging him now.  I’ve searched high and low for Satterfield. I’ve searched the sour-smelling homeless shelters of Santa Ana. I’ve searched the ancient and venerable boxing gyms of Chicago. I’ve searched the eerily clear memory of one New York City fighter who touched Satterfield’s push-button chin in 1946 and never forgot the panic on Satterfield’s face as he fell. I’ve searched cemeteries, morgues, churches, museums, slums, jails, courts, libraries, police blotters, scrapbooks, phone books and record books. Now I’m searching this dreary, sleet-bound Midwestern city, where all the streets look like melting Edward Hopper paintings and the sky like a storm-whipped sea.  Maybe it’s fatigue, maybe it’s caffeine, maybe it’s the fog rolling in behind the rain, but I feel as though Satterfield has become my own 180-pound Moby Dick. Like Ahab’s obsession, he casts a harsh light on his pursuer. Stalking him from town to town and decade to decade, I’ve learned almost everything there is to know about him, along with valuable lessons about boxing, courage and the eternal tension between fathers and sons. But I’ve learned more than I bargained for about myself, and for that I owe him a debt. I can’t repay the debt unless the phone rings.

As part of SI.com’s big Hot Stove kick-off package, I’ve broken down the offseason outlook for all 30 teams, identifying the big holes and targets for each team as well as listing their pending free agents and minor leaguers on the verge of cracking the big league roster. For example, here’s my take on the Yankees:

New York Yankees

PENDING FREE AGENTS: LF Johnny Damon, DH Hideki Matsui, SP Andy Pettitte, OF/1B Xavier Nady, 4C Eric Hinske, UT Jerry Hairston Jr., C Jose Molina.

PLAYERS WITH OPTIONS: None.

PROSPECTS ON THE VERGE: RP Mark Melancon, SP Ian Kennedy, CF Austin Jackson, SP Zach McAllister, C Jesus Montero.

BUILDING FOR: Their 28th world championship.

BIGGEST HOLES: Left field, designated hitter, the back of the rotation.

TARGETS: LFs Matt Holliday and Jason Bay, DHs Matsui and Damon; Pettitte.

BREAKDOWN: The Yankees’ focus this offseason will be on how — and whether or not — to replace World Series heroes Damon and Matsui. They’ll certainly be in the mix for Holliday and Bay, but after their spending spree last winter, could back off on long-term deals given that those two are just five and four years younger than the incumbents, respectively. Bobby Abreu‘s signing set the market for defensively-challenged, soon-to-be 36-year-olds who can still get it done at the plate at two years, $9 million per, though Damon and Matsui’s increasing fragility may bring them in for less. Consensus is that the Yankees will only re-sign one of the two. As for the rotation, another one-year deal for Pettitte seems like a given, and one can’t rule out a run at John Lackey, but the Yankees have shown commitment to their home-grown pitching prospects, which likely means Phil Hughes will return to starting chained by an innings limit while Joba Chamberlain will finally be fully unleashed. Expect the Yankees to also keep arbitration-eligible Chad Gaudin, who greatly improved his slider under pitching coach Dave Eiland, as insurance on those two, but to non-tender Chien-Ming Wang, who is coming off shoulder surgery that could have him rehabbing past Opening Day. As for the remaining free agents, Francisco Cervelli is ready to replace Molina. Hinske and Hairston would be worth keeping on the bench. Coming off Tommy John surgery, Nady is an afterthought and should be headed elsewhere.

The 30 capsules are broken into six articles, one for each division. Here are the links:

• AL East
• AL Central
• AL West
• NL East
• NL Central
• NL West

Crank it up!

Mark Harris reviewed the new Robert Altman biography last weekend in the Times Book Review.

Looks like lots of fun for us Altman fans.

My favorite Altman movies are: McCabe and Mrs Miller, The Long Goodbye, M*A*S*H, Nashville, and Short Cuts.

Over at the Baseball Analysts, Rich Lederer takes a look at the new Bill James Handbook:

Whereas The Bill James Abstracts from 1977-1988, the Bill James Baseball Books from 1990-1992, and The Bill James Player Ratings Books from 1993-1995 were full of commentary from James himself, the Handbook is devoted more to the presentation of stats. However, I’m happy to say that the number of pages penned by James has grown from five six years ago to over 30 this year.

Check it out.

David Waldstein, writing for the Bats blog over at the Times, is at the GM Meetings.

Here’s Yankees GM, Brian Cashman:

“Over the last few years we’ve tried to improve the way we’ve gone about our decision making, and a part of that is sample size,” said Cashman, in Chicago for the general managers meetings. “I think you look at the broader perspective of what somebody’s abilities are. Jerry Hairston, for instance, is a free agent. If he had hit .700 in the World Series doesn’t necessarily mean that he would get an A-Rod contract. We’re thankful for the guys who did what they did, and if you had a great postseason, terrific.

“What they are when they went into October, that’s what they still are, regardless of how good or how poor they played in the postseason.”

I think it would be risky to keep both Hideki Matsui and Johnny Damon. I figure they are going to want to give Jorge Posada a bunch of at bats at DH which makes Matsui the tougher fit. Who would you keep? Would you lose both of them and go after Chone Figgins to play left instead of Damon?

Hmmmm.

Over at SI.com, Ted Keith ranks the Yankees championship teams in the Derek Jeter Era:

2. The 2009 Yankees
Regular-season record: 103-59, 1st in AL East

Postseason: ALDS: defeated Twins 3-0; ALCS: defeated Angels 4-2; World Series: defeated Phillies 4-2

Any thoughts that this team would be so highly-regarded seemed foolish when it got off to 14-16 start and was mired in third place, 5½ games out, in early May. But from that point on the Yankees went 89-43 to finish with 103 wins. Since the end of the original Yankee dynasty, only the ’98 team has won more games in a single season. The catalyst for their turnaround was the return of Alex Rodriguez from hip surgery and the emergence of Mark Teixeira that gave them the destructive lineup many had long expected. The Yankees finished the season with the majors’ best offense, leading all of baseball in home runs and runs scored. It was enough to more than compensate for a pitching staff that was surprisingly unsettled, given its depth of talent. CC Sabathia was a stud all year long, and Andy Pettitte was old reliable, but A.J. Burnett was consistently inconsistent, and the latest Rules kept Joba Chamberlain from establishing himself as a front-line starter. As always, they still had Rivera, who finished with 44 saves and a 1.76 ERA.

In the postseason the Yankees benefited from curious, and at times downright hideous, play from the opposition, but the closest they came to being in trouble was when they lost Game 1 of the World Series. Undeterred, they won the next three, making their 27th title a mere formality.

JR Moehringer wrote an appealing memoir, The Tender Bar. I loved the first half of the book, but felt the story went on for too long–the last third of the book lost me.

Turns out, Moehringer is the ghostwriter behind the new Andre Agassi book, which might make it worth checking out. Or maybe Moehringer makes Agassi’s story too artful. Haven’t read it so I can’t call it.

Here’s Janet Maslin’s review today in the Times.

And here is an excerpt from the book that was featured in SI. It includes a chilling encounter with Jim Brown.

I was out and about yesterday afternoon and heard “Empire State of Mind” playing in car radios, bleeding from cheap i-pod earphones on the subway, booming out of apartment windows, and out of the lips of teenagers walking down the street.

Now I can’t get it out of my head.

This anthem is not wearing well.

Please, help.

Hi folks . . . back from SF (pics up later this week) and good to be back.  I’ll be here on Mondays and Thursdays from here through the opening of Spring Training.

Today’s update is powered by . . . Mr. Tony Bennett

• What’s left in the Yankee Stadium clubhouse?
• A-Rod is now just “one of the guys“.
• The Captain reflects on a return to glory.
• Girardi’s next payday?:

Though the Yankees’ policy is not to address contracts until they expire, things might get interesting this winter. Girardi will also likely ask for an extension since his three-year, $7.5 million deal runs out at the end of next season. If the Yankees don’t extend Girardi, then he will be a rare manager who comes off a World Series victory yet faces lame-duck status. Quoth Cashman, “We have to evaluate everything when we have our organizational meetings—players, coaches, and manager.”

• Some Hot Stove scuttlebutt from Baseball Prospectus:

World Series MVP Hideki Matusi will sign with another major league team if he does not re-sign with the Yankees as a free agent, instead of returning to his native Japan. … Yankees closer Mariano Rivera was serious when he said during the World Series trophy presentation that he wants to play five more seasons. Rivera feels so good after having shoulder surgery last winter that he believes he can pitch until he is 45. …

• Happy 45th birthday to Kevin Mmahat.
• Dion James turns 47 today.

The New York Giants Nostalgia Society was scheduled to meet last Thursday in the Bronx but the meeting was post-poned on the count of the World Serious. Bill Kent, the Grand Pooh Bah of the club, sent out the following:

Howdy, folks!

Due to circumstances beyond our control (the Yankees losing yesterday) we are changing the date of the meeting. I discussed it with the speaker, Allen Barra, and he will not be available in case of a prolonging of the series. Likewise some of the members.

So, we managed to switch the date to the following Thursday, Nov. 12th. Barra has agreed with this, likewise the church.

Sorry for this. Now we have another reason to hate the Yankees.

Couple few more things…

According to a blog post in the Times, Jack Curry reports that Mariano Rivera pitched with a ribcage injury this post-season.

And I neglected to mention this item about Joe Girardi, who, it turns out, is a good man.

“I made the Yankee hat more famous than a Yankee can.” –Jay Z.

Well, not really, but nice try, Jigga. It’s not a bad line.

A few days ago, Emma wrote:

Empire State of Mind, as I said a few weeks ago, has a nice catchy hook but isn’t a great song, and far from Jay-Z’s best. Still, it’s neat that this postseason had such an obvious anthem – if only because now I’ll think of the 2009 Yankees every time I hear it, probably for the rest of my life. And I mean, say what you want about the tune, but the song that makes me think of the 2000 Yankees is “Who Let the Dogs Out,” so count your damn blessings.

I don’t listen to much new music these days so I missed this tune when it first came out. Then I caught a performance of it on TV right before the playoffs began. Can’t say that it moved me much, but I am a sucker for New York City love songs. Pop songs, or whatever. And I like Jay’s rhymes so it wasn’t offensive or anything.

Since then, of course, the song has literally become the anthem for the 2009 Yankees. Like it or not. Jocks and musicians have always loved hanging around each other, so it makes sense that Jay-Z would latch on to these Yankees. It’s all about branding, son, and Jay didn’t just fall off a turnip truck.

Jay loves the Yankees, he raps for the Yankees, he rides in their parade. And the Yanks love Jay in return.

So, for better or worse, we’ll never be able to listen to this song without thinking of the Yankees.

I’m in the new Sinatra, and since I made it here, I can make it anywhere.

Hearing that lyric while watching images of Alex Rodriguez’s heroics this off-season, and yeah, the song fits, man. The fact that it is a pop song makes it ideally suited for this kind of thing.

Emma was right, it’s an upgrade from “Who Let the Dogs Out.”

A few reasons to feel uncontrollably happy:

The Alex Rodriguez-is-a-choke-artist-storyline is dead. Smell you later, forever.

The headlock the Red Sox have had the Yankees in since 2004 is gone. The Sox had their best decade since WWI and still place second to the Yanks.

The Yanks won in their first season at the new Stadium. Nice segue. Not even a chance to dream up those “Curse of the New Stadium” stories. Fergit it. Next.

Pettitte, Posada, Rivera and Jeter: five times dope.

Mariano–one of the best. Ever.

The George Era is over, the Torre Era is over: congrats to Joe G, Cash Money, and the Steinbrenner Boys. I always said you wouldn’t want to be the guy to replace Torre–you’d want to be the guy to replace the guy who replaced Torre. But now Joe Girardi has a ring of his very own.

No, no, they can’t take that away from me.

Here’s a few clips from the SNY Parade coverage. Dude, I went to make up. Never done that before. A woman airbrushed my face and told me to relax my eyes. That was pretty funny, I liked that. The rest was fun as well. It was a good time.

On Alex Rodriguez:

On the Boss:

Can you think of a better way to end a season?

I’m going to be on SNY’s broadcast of the Parade. Not exactly sure how it will all go down, but some time between 11-1 I’ll be on TV, suit, tie, the whole schmeer. Check it out, if you can. Oh, and if anyone can Tivo it and burn me a copy, get at me, cause I don’t have a DVR dingus, if you can believe it.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees!