​

I'm still trying to wrap my head around it.

Well, I'm finally just getting out of bed, after celebrating the World Series Championship of the New York Yankees up until about 7am. None of us wanted the night to end.

Ball game over. World Series over. Baseball season over. Listening to asinine hating anti-fans drop the "who's won more in this century" over. Having to hear people say they "can't wait til the Yankees choke" over.

First year at new stadium over.

Nine years without a ring over.

Ball game over.

The Yankees win. The Yankees win!

​November 4, 2009.

11/4.

Andy Pettitte is pitching in his 11th postseason with the Yankees. If he wins it, it'll be his 4th of the year.

Pedro Martinez is pitching his 11th postseason game. If he loses, it'll be his 4th against the Yankees.

If the Yankees win tonight, their postseason record is 11-4.

And it will be their 114th win of 2009.

The only people who should be worried right now are Phillies fans.

​"When the dazzling dark breaks over the far slopes of time, then it's time to toss things, like our reason, and our will...then it's time to break our necks for home."--Annie Dillard

After last night's loss in Citizen's Bank Park that staved off elimination for the Phillies, I realized that the game was really a fascinating indicator of fandom more than anything else.

The Yankees took 2 out of 3 in Philly and now head back to the Bronx with a 3-2 series lead, so in essence, they were playing with house money last night. But for some reason, it engendered such a colorful palette of reactions from baseball fans that I couldn't help but start categorizing them.

When I returned home after the final out was recorded, my sister sat at my desk and started surveying the myriad of responses that only a Facebook News Feed can capture.

"Ugh. I knew it. This douchebag Sux fan who has been quiet for the last 5 days, has decided to re-emerge from the woodwork now: 'Adam is here's to the Phillies making the second greatest comeback in playoff history. Go Phils!'"

Bad move, Boston fan. Bad move.

Mariano Rivera actually had to be subjected to an MLB investigation over his alleged spitball--an accusation that was dismissed as ridiculous roughly 15 minutes after the league consented to look into it.

...And yet this incident from last night's game oddly is not generating a single peep.

​I talked to my mom earlier today, and she had this to say about the World Series:

"I lost any respect I had for Charlie Manuel after what he did yesterday. He knew he couldn't beat CC with Joe Blanton, so instead of trying to win by the power of their own offense, they compromised CC's comfort by immediately hitting A-Rod and effecting the warning to both benches. Whatever else happens in the remainder of the series, the Phillies don't deserve to be the champions. If that's how they're going to try to win, they just plain don't deserve it."

Amen, Mom. Amen.

(And as I mentioned yesterday in my preview, parents are always right.)

​I started this entry on Sunday night (well, technically early Monday morning), and I was going to wait til I got into the office to write up the game, seeing as it's 3am etc.

But in my excited victory celebrations that involved a lot of arm bashing and elbow bumping, I developed a giant softball-sized lump on my upper arm, and I figured if it hurt that much THEN, it's probably going to be impossible to use my right arm in 7 hours.

So here we are. The Yankees beat the Phillies in Game 4, in an emotional rollercoaster of a game that was about 5,239 times more stressful than it needed to be. It gave the Yanks a 3-1 lead in the World Series, and tomorrow is a must-win for the Phils. And a chance at unbridled glory for the Yankees.

Nine hours from now, Game 5 of the World Series will be underway. And 174 games of living and dying by every pitch, may or may not come to a head.

I don't see me getting through the day at the office very well. Nope, not even a little bit.

​Is Girardi giving CC the Scott Proctor treatment*? Or is he just getting his money's worth out of the fat boy?

I'd say the latter, but critics [read: people terrified of a Yankee championships] are tsk-tsking the decision to pitch superace CC Sabathia on short rest for Game 4 of the World Series, rather than the unused Chad Gaudin.

*In the Torre tenure (Torrure?), relief pitcher Scott Proctor began to look less like a major league athlete and more like a jaded corporate executive who was sick of all the tireless hours he was putting in the office. The only explanation for the absurd amount of innings Scott Proctor was called upon, is that Torre in his heart of hearts actually thought Proctor had a prosthetic arm (Proctetic?)

​

I'm still trying to figure out why I was so calm when we were down 3-0. Half of me wants to chalk it up to the fact I opted to not watch the game in my usual bar, and thereby removed the unavoidable alarmist sentiments dominating such a locale.

The other half of me wants to say it's because all sports fans--regardless of your affiliation--every now and then have these gut feelings about their team when watching a particular game that just says, "Nah, I just have a feeling they're going to come back."

Or maybe my buddy whose apartment I watched it at, had the foresight to just slip a Valium in my beer when I got up to go to the bathroom.

Whatever the reason, it played out to my favor. I managed to never near the ledge, and the Yankees came through for us.

And when I say "Yankees," I mean it quite literally in the sense it was, indeed, the whole team that came through for us. Every last player chipped in to this win. Yeah, even Swisher.

​Happy Halloween!

My plans are largely contingent on the outcome of this game. If the Yankees fall behind 2-1 in the series, I'm going to drag my self back home to avoid the chaos intrinsic to Halloween in NYC. If the Yanks take a 2-1 series lead over the Phillies? Well, then me and my Billy Hoyle costume are good to go.

Tonight Andy Pettitte--the king of postseason victorys with 16--goes up against last year's World Series MVP Cole Hamels.

Whoever coined that "pitching wins championships" mantra should have had it trademarked, because every year it seems to stymie even the biggest offensive-proponents. The best line-up in the league only managed 4 runs in the first 2 games of the World Series and still managed to split at home.

I'd by lying if I said I wasn't a bit concerned about how long we can keep this up...

​Ahh, much better.

The Yankees beat the Phillies in a much-needed, if technically not "must-win" Game 2, with A.J. Burnett outdueling old friend Pedro Martinez.

The Phillies took an early 1-0 lead in the 2nd with an RBI single from Matt Stairs, but the Yanks answered in the 4th with a solo shot from Mark Teixeira. Two innings later, Hideki Matsui went yard to give the Yanks a 2-1 lead, and then they collectively abandoned the long ball game in favor of the small ball one.

If we had lost that game, I would have undoubtedly been arrested, and they would have needed dental records to identify the first base ump's mangled body.