if I didn’t constantly hear how wonderful they were from the announcers.

I have a soft spot for Durbin after Muser ruined his arm and Matt Stairs is a role model for us over-weight white guys. Ibanez also signed and threw me a ball during ST one time.

largely through the draft…I don’t like the Yankees, not because they are the Yankees (well, yes, that as well) but because they’re largely just a collection of high-priced free agents. The Yankees of the mid-90s were at least somewhat tolerable b/c many of their key guys were home-grown, but they’ve reverted back to being the Evil Empire.

I suppose it’s just part of the natural ebb and flow, continuing to add more and more “last piece” types to maximize the core you’ve built, but it’s different with the Yankees…the amount of $$$ they’ve wasted on bad contracts is just obscene, and they can just shake it off and keep doing it.

But it’s true that I would root for whoever was playing against the Yankees.

Phillies new stadium looks way more comfortable than the Vet, which is where I had to watch them. I felt like I was going to prison every game – a feeling that was only intensified by the behavior of the other fans.

I also liked how last night after his 2nd home run Jason Werth turned to his own dugout with a look that seemed to say, “See how easy that is? Can a couple of you PLEASE step up for f***’s sake.”

Is that when they beat the Angels to go to the World Series, there was NO EXCITEMENT in the celebration. No sense of joy. No sense of accomplishment. No Dog Pile. Nothing. It was the biggest Joy-Kill ever.

It’s a bunch of guys that are so overburdonned with expectation from a shitty (albeit HUGE) fanbase, that puts nothing into the player, it’s all about the uniform that they don’t play with Joy at all. If they win the series, I’ll watch with great reverence to see how they react to accomplishing the greatest Team Feat in Baseball. Will it be with Joy, or a sense of Relief?