Off to Barcelona With Final Thoughts

When I went to book a vacation months back, I wanted to avoid going away during the World Series. I had no clue if the Yankees would be in it or not, but I figured it wasn't worth taking the chance. So I booked the flight to leave on October 29th figuring that would work fine.

It ends up the Yankees did make it, but the World Series was a lot later than I expected. I am (very sadly) going to miss Game 2, but I have mapped out every "American" bar by my hotel in Barcelona and plan to saddle up next to the bar in my Don Mattingly shirt and, even if I am the only American there, root like heck for the Yankees.

I will miss writing on the blog (and tweeting) for a few days. But fear not, I've asked Ben, Jay, and Ari to handle the load for a few days. I do have a few final thoughts on tonight:

-I just read that Jose Molina AND Jerry Hairston, Jr. are starting tonight. This really makes no sense to me. Why not start Posada and Gardner here? Posada seems like a logical choice vs. Pedro and the increased OF defense would be better than any slight improvement in bat Hairston may give. Seems to me like another case of overmanaging. Hopefully it doesn't come back to bite them.

-Brian Bruney should not throw another pitch this season. I'm serious about that.

-A.J. Burnett has been a better pitcher at home. But if he loses his control again in the first inning, the crowd may get a little anxious. When you pay $500 for standing room, this can happen.

-Pedro should get some great treatment tonight. I'm excited to see the highlights of that. The Yankees need to hit him hard and make this his last start (AKA making him their Daddy).

-I would love to see what happens the first time Pedro throws one up and in

-Jimmy Rollins will make one really big play in this series. It may be huge gaffe or it may be a huge hit, but with all eyes on him following his Phillies-in-5 prediction, he's going to be in the middle of something.

-A-Rod needs to prove it once again in the World Series. That's the harsh reality of life. If he hits like he did last night the rest of the World Series and they lose, he's going to get pounded for just getting big hits against the Angels and Twins.

-Phil Hughes can't act like a kid, yelling at the umpire and skipping out on the media. That's not fair to his teammates and not the type of guy who deserves the responsibility of the set-up role. Say what you want about Joba, but he always seems to face the media afterwards and never seems to blame the ump.

-Lastly, you could tell Jeter want this. Badly. 3-4 against Lee in Game 1 is impressive.

Let's go Yankees! I'll catch you from Barcelona!



-Andrew