Only a Yankee fan could complain about a victory parade.

It's partially my fault, I know.  My train didn't reach Penn Station until 10 o'clock.  I walked onto Nassau around 10:25.  I followed the crowd until we came to a stop around Isamu Noguchi's Red Cube.

I've always had trouble with modern art- my taste for the aesthetic is apparently underdeveloped.  I prefer stories, narratives, or portraits.  I look at El Greco or Henri Matisse or Salvador Dali and I begin to invent cause and effect to explain how we got it.  I can't really enjoy just what is.

Which is why I was disappointed by the parade.  I didn't want to just be there- I wanted to see my heroes and celebrate them, and I went into the city to see them acknowledge being celebrated.  And standing 15 people deep along Broadway, I didn't get to see that.

Double decker busses rolled by with Yankee employees standing on top.  I could see those guys.  But I didn't take the train in to cheer the hot dog man.

Mr. Cashman, I know you read the blog from time to time, so here's my suggestion: next year, put the players on top of the buses and let the little guys ride in the little cars.

More photos » by David J. Phillip - AP

They'll be there, too.

Browse more photos »

I've got a half day from work, so I'll be there.

The New York Yankees parade for 2009 will be held Friday morning, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg announced after the Yankees wrapped up their 27th World Series championship. Friday's ticker-tape parade will begin on Broadway at Battery Place at 11 AM ET and continue northbound up the Canyon of Heroes to Chamber Street. After that, Mayor Bloomberg will present the Yankees with the keys to the city.

More photos » by David J. Phillip - AP

An overrated shortstop playing in a media heavy city in the North East? Why, I've only ever heard of one person like that...

Browse more photos »

Jimmy Rollins is playing Karnak again.

He says Phils in 5 because of "our team."

He obviously hasn't paid much attention to our team, which is fine.

All the Yankee Haters in the world are rallying around the Phillies, from Peter Gammons (who last night picked Carlos Ruiz over Jorge Posada) to my boss (who is from Philadelphia and couldn't name a single player on the current roster but tried to talk trash anyways).

Who's the person you'd be happiest to shut up for 24 hours with a Game 1 victory?

Last season the Yankees sent Juan Miranda, Austin Jackson, Kevin Whelan, Phil Hughes and Humberto Sanchez to the Arizona Fall League.

This year they'll be sending Ian Kennedy, Austin Romine, Brandon Laird and Colin Curtis to the Surprise Rafters, with 3 spots TBA (possibly Zack Kroenke and Mike Dunn).

We all remember IPK's appearance on the scene in 2007, when he was a lights out September call-up.  The market corrected itself, and he got trashed in 2008.  He had a few good outings (I still believe he can be a reliable big league starter), but too many clunkers- he didn't make the 4th inning in 5 of his ten starts.  He was back in Scranton by June.  He got called up again when Joba got hurt, got one start, got slapped around by the Angels and got sent back down.

He's missed most of this season with an aneurysm under the arm, similar to David Cone's surgery in '96.  Because of that, he's pitched only 4 games for Scranton- which is a shame because he looked ready to be brilliant, going 22.2 innings allowing 18 hits and 7BB against 25 Ks. 

Austin Romine is the catching prospect so often lost in the shadow of Jesus Montero.  He's a 2007 2nd-round pick out of high school, and he has refused to move slowly as he refines his craft.  He spent all of 2009 with high A Tampa, going .272/.319/.429, a step back from his stats in Charleston.  Still, he's only 20 years old (21 in November).  He started the season ranked the Yanks' 4th best prospect, and BA's choice for catcher in 3 seasons.  He could get a boost of confidence from the hitter-friendly AFL.

Brandon Laird is another 2007 draftee, going in the 27th round.  Like Romine, he spent the season at high A, going .270/.330/.421 in 122 games.  He mainly played third this season with Brad Suttle on the DL.  He's been electric since the All-Star break (.294/.373/.520) and it's worth seeing if he can ride this hot streak up to Trenton next season.

24-year old Colin Curtis is just about at the end of his prospect status, and he's reached the point in his minor league career when he has to be added to the 40-man or be eligible for the Rule 5 draft.  He plays all 3 outfield spots, and has always had a little power and a little speed, but he only hit .252/.321/.369 this season at AA and AAA.  Sending him to the AFL will help the Yanks decide where he fits in their plans- if the Yanks opt not to resign Matsui, Damon, Hairston Jr. and Nady, Curtis will be either the 4th outfielder or the injury reserve.

More photos » by Kathy Willens - AP

Shit, Danny. Gimme that ball before our fans start jumping off the Prudential Tower.

Browse more photos »

With all right in the world, what is there left to talk about?

From Gehrig's official website:

Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans. 

Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn't consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I'm lucky. Who wouldn't consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball's greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure, I'm lucky. 

When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift - that's something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies - that's something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter - that's something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body - it's a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed - that's the finest I know. 

So I close in saying that I may have had a tough break, but I have an awful lot to live for.

'Sure, I'm lucky,' he said.

Continue reading this post »

More photos » by Carlos Osorio - AP

Browse more photos »

An interesting footnote in the Times' recap of the first game against the M's.

Helping Hughes’s case to stay is the veteran Sergio Mitre, who is 2-0 with a 2.88 E.R.A. in four starts for Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Having Mitre as insurance for the rotation lessens the need for Hughes to fill that role.

Mitre is 28 years old, and one of the Marlins who needed TJ surgery after Girardi left, though I haven't heard Joe G. blamed as directly as for Josh Johnson (and Mitre's usage bears this out).

From 2002-2006, Mitre was a swing man, usually appearing in a dozen games or so, starting 7 and relieving the rest.  His high for IP was 60 in 2005.

In 2007, Mitre's innings jumped from 41 the previous season to 149.  He started 27 games and produced 180 hits, 41 BB and 80Ks.

Mitre's put his sinker to good use in the International League, and has held the opponents slugging down (albiet in a small smaple size).

I like the move (or non-move).  Mitre is the kind of guy who should be in the minors waiting to be called up for a spot start, not Phil Hughes.  Hughes is showing too much potential to waste his arm in AAA.

Joe Posnanski wrote about the process that went into the signing of CC Sabathia during the Winter Meetings in Las Vegas last week (excerpted from tomorrow's issue of Sports Illustrated).

Day 1:

The biggest jackpot is the big free-agent lefthander Carsten Charles Sabathia, CC for short. He could be the heaviest pitcher in baseball history,* not that his weight has anything to do with it; Sabathia won the Cy Young Award in 2007. He was even better in '08, especially after he was traded in July from the Cleveland Indians to the Milwaukee Brewers (11-2, 1.65 ERA after the deal, delivering the Brewers their first playoff appearance in 26 years).

*That title of heaviest pitcher usually goes to Jumbo Brown, a reliever for five teams from 1925 through '41. Jumbo was listed at 295 pounds. Sabathia is officially listed at 290-but there are reasons to believe that his official weight would be overturned upon further review.

Sabathia was so good in Milwaukee that the Brewers are cashing in all of their savings bonds, pulling out the money they stuffed into mattresses and borrowing from various grandparents in an effort to keep him. The down-market team has reportedly offered him $100 million for five years, a staggering sum, almost double the salary they have ever offered a player. But because the Yankees are said to be interested, nobody believes the Milwaukee money will be nearly enough.

Day 2:

The first big rumor to make the rounds on Day 2 is that Yankees general manager Brian Cashman slipped out of Vegas and headed for San Francisco to meet with Sabathia. Nobody seems quite sure how Cashman made it out of the hotel without being noticed. "He must be like James Bond," says one baseball scout, though nobody is quite sure what he means.

Day 3:

Everyone knows that the Red Sox and the Yankees do not like each other, but seeing the "You sunk my battleship" looks on the faces of Boston officials in the moments after New York signs CC Sabathia (seven years, $161 million) tells a more complete story. "You have to understand," one Red Sox official says, "they won last night. Sure, we knew there was a good chance they would sign CC. We planned for it. But now that it has happened, I can tell you, it's like a punch to the gut. We never stop competing with the Yankees."

Ironically, some media members have ripped Cashman for the Sabathia deal, yet also ripped him for not trading for Johan Santana. A big reason they didn't trade for Santana was because CC was going to be a free agent this winter. Why give up four prospects and a long-term deal when you can give up merely one potential prospect and a long-term deal?

Frankly, Santana is a year-and-a-half older than Sabathia and was trending downward (and still mostly is) when the Mets traded for him. Sabathia is trending upward.