Benching A-Rod

"Raul had some kind of day for us....."

A home run in the 9th to tie it and a walk-off homer in the 12th to win it.... yeah, I'd say that was a pretty good day.

The fact that Ibanez was pinch-hitting for Alex Rodriguez made it sweeter.  He wasn't expecting to be called up. It was every jock-kid's dream.... (cue Creedence in the background...) put me in, Coach... I'm ready to play, TODAY.... and it wasn't centerfield it was behind the plate and he smashed the ball clear into the upper decks and the home team had tied it in the bottom of the ninth.

It was late on a school night but the stadium was still packed and the fans went wild.

C'mon.  Even if you don't know a thing about baseball that has to sound pretty good.

A-Rod admitted that ten years ago he might not have accepted riding the pines with such equanimity. He was right to chastise the reporters who don't want to hear that; colorful copy is much more entertaining.  The smile on his face, the determination to bring his A-game to the next game, that's boilerplate.  I could feel the intensity of the reporters' eyes, even though they weren't on camera.  The media is a beast; it takes a lot of strength to resist the bait. 

I was impressed with his "there's no I in team" moment and choose to believe that he meant it.  After all, it would be beyond churlish to pout when your replacement saved and then won the game.

Yankee coach Joe Girardi called it a difficult moment. Why did he make the change?  "I felt it in my gut," was such an old-school answer that I had to smile. I thought the gut went out when Billy-Ball came in.  How was I to know it had been revived in the Yankee dugout last night?

It's mid-October and the Jewish holidays are over and the World Series is no where in sight; sports seasons do seem to run on and on and on these days.  But there's a layer of clouds hovering over the scarecrow and the temps are down in the 80's and though everyone else is wearing sweaters and gloves and zip-up jackets to announce its arrival, Fall is here in the desert Southwest, too. Kvetching seems out of place.

I'm going to stop complaining and start enjoying the nonsense: grown men playing a child's game and treating it as if the outcome will change history. It will be easier than watching the debate over John Nance Gardner's job which is "not worth a warm bucket of piss."