Yankee Bashing et al....

This is great. Not only has baseball started its exhibition games but they're being covered exhaustively, along with ongoing analysis of each team and game. This is unprecedented. The MLB Network is a keeper.

Right now they’re discussing the chances that the Rays and Phils will repeat. And Tom Seaver will join the panel in a while to discuss whatever. I think I must’ve died and gone to heaven.

Then when you’ve had enough baseball, when you can feel the baseball lodged in your throat, there are college and NBA basketball, free agency beginning with a loud bang in the NFL and if you still have the time, you can follow Barry Bonds’s embarrasment of our free-wheelin’ U.S. “Justice” Department.

I’m a Mets fan, of course, like any other fun-loving New York area baseball fan, those fans who can live with not always having the most expensive players, and not always being the favorite to win the pennant, a team that laughs and jokes and jumps around when something good happens.

That’s a far cry from the world of the Yankees. Bobby Abreu, the former Yankee who recently signed with the Angels, said it was really nice to be with players who were smiling all the time. He didn’t really say nobody smiled in the Yankees clubhouse but the implication was clear.

Let’s play “compare and contrast”. The Yanks have Joe Girardi as manager while the Mets have Jerry Manuel. Manuel is smooth, smart and experienced and somewhat of a philosopher, capable of entertaining his players and the media for hours on end. Girardi’s best move so far was to take his players to the pool hall.

At the GM spot, we Mets fans have the energetic and warm personage of Omar Minaya while the Yanks have the cold and calculating Brian Cashman. I say “calculating” but you couldn’t prove it by his pitcher selections over the years. Behind his silly decision to go with two unproven rookie starters last year, I’m sure, was his record of failure in selecting pitchers in free agency.

Delgado versus Teixeira, Reyes vs. Jeter, Wright vs. an un-juiced Arod, I’ll take the Mets player in each case. I’ll give the Yanks second base, but just for now. I think Castillo will make a dramatic comeback and Robinson Cano will be, well, Robinson Cano. Hopefully, the Yanks can keep him interested enough to chase ground balls this year.

In the outfield, Beltran is the best centerfielder in the game. Melky Cabrera is trying to stay out of Triple-A. We have a guy in left who shows a lot of promise in Murphy, the Yanks have a whole bunch of guys to put there, Abreu, Matsui, probably Swisher, who knows, but usually, if you have multiple guys filling a position, that means you haven’t really filled the spot. In right, they’ve got Nady, the guy we should have kept. We’ll have Ryan Church in right, who started last year as a star but got hurt and flamed out upon his return. We still take two out of three outfield positions.

At catcher, the Yanks have Posada, who’s coming off an injury but sure can hit. Our Schneider cannot. But he can field the position with the best of them. We don’t know what Posada can do these days, but I have a strong feeling that Posada may wind up being still another Yankee candidate for designated hitter. So at catcher, I’d call it even.

You have to like the Yankees starters though. I’ll call the respective aces of the staff even, Sabathia vs, Santana, if just because Santana may not be totally healthy. Then at #2, there’s Burnet vs. Maine, I’d have to go with Burnet. Pelfrey vs Wang, I’d have to go with Wang and Joba vs. crazy Ollie, I think Joba will be a little more consistent. So the Yanks, for once, have a great starting staff.

Relievers are a different story though. With the Mets’ acquisition of Francisco Rodriguez and J.J. Putz, they match up well against the Yankee relief corps at closer and well ahead at the setup guy, unless you’re really a fan of Edwar Ramirez. He does have the right last name though, joining Manny and Hanley and Aramis and Alexei as the most prolific group of guys ever to share the same last name.

Ah yes, and then there’s the DH. The Yanks have a flare for filling that spot. Indeed, it seems as if half their roster over the years have been best at DH. At a wildcard position meant to keep older guys in the league forever, the Yanks seem to have fixated on trying to find the perfect DH. You have to love it.

I almost forgot the announcers. We have Keith Hernandez, probably the most knowledgable and entertaining guy in the game while the Yanks counter with Michael Kaye. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! If you want to know how may balls and strikes a pitcher has thrown, updated on virtually every pitch, Kaye’s your guy.

So it’s going to be another great year for following the Mets and Yanks, and for the exhibition season, it’s like a whole new paradigm, what with five different ESPN’s and now the MLB channel.

And then there’s the Patriots giving away Cassell and Vrabel for a second round pick to the Chiefs, who just hired former Patriot Pioli as their GM. You have to wonder how long this deal has been in the works since Cassell was the Pats designated guy at first, thus protecting Cassell and themselves from having him hit the open market. Then they trade him to the worst team in the league, saving their 14.5 mill and ridding themselves of an aging linebacker at the same time. If it smells a little, what the hell, it’s the Patriots.

If all the above isn’t enough fun for you, there’s March Madness right around the corner, Steph joining the Celtics and Manny being Manny in a financial way. He does play hardball.