Aces Wild? Time To Play Ball!!

Former teammates and the last two American League Cy Young Award winners square off this evening in the Brox in the first World Series game to be played at New Yankee Stadium. This will be just the 6th time former Cy Young winners will face off in the World Series and the first time since the1999 World Series when Roger Clemens and John Smoltz faced off. This will be the 105th edition of the World Series and it gets underway tonight in the Bronx. The Yanks are throwing out CC Sabathia and the Phillies are countering with Cliff Lee. The Phillies will be looking to spoil the party in hopes of going Back to Back as the Champions of the World.

It wasn’t that long ago that these 2 pitchers were on the same team in Cleveland and dreaming of being in this game...only together. But as we see in all sports, economics and a bad team in Cleveland has reared its head and forced moves that have landed these 2 aces elsewhere. Cleveland’s misfortune are great gains to the Yanks and Phils. Without these 2 guys these teams probably wouldn’t be in the position they are in. These 2 guys are workhorses - especially CC and it will be interesting to see how the strategy plays out. Depending on each teams position, it will dictate how many times you see these guys in the series. The potential, because of the TV induced off days may allow them to throw games 1-4 and 7. That may not be an ideal setup but I guess at this point you have a lot of time to rest before the start of next season.

Weather will have to be a factor, face it these are 2 Eastern teams and it is the end of October and heading towards November and it is supposed to be cold and wet. CC is well insulated so it shouldn't be an issue for him but the rest of the pitchers will have to stay warm. Maybe it will go the other way, maybe it will become an issue for the bats, will it be them that freeze up. Just like early April days hitting is at a premium when it is cold. What will the threat of rain do? What if there is a delay or postponement and you lose the service of a pitcher, that could sway a series one way or another. Time to brush off the baseball almanac and see if anyone’s parents are mudders. Maybe his mother is a mudder...his father is a mudder.

My question is how good does Alex Rodriguez have to be for Yankee Stadium to be deemed the house that ARod Built or does that designation still fall to George and/or Jeter??

Around The Horn

New Yankee Stadium looks like a launching pad where good baseballs go to die...over the fence. After the Yankees gave up 14 runs in the second inning Saturday and lost the game 22-4 they were probably looking for answers. The dimensions are the same as the original Yankee Stadium, so either the pitching was really bad, the aerodynamics of the new stadium are way different or after some $1.5 Billion put into construction they used some of that money to pipe in the thin air from Denver. Even a clean ARod may hit 80 home runs after he returns. Also who would have thought that entering the season that Right Fielder Nick Swisher would be the most effective relief pitcher on the Yanks?

Kevin Garnett of the Celtics is said to be out of the NBA Playoffs with a knee injury. Maybe this is true and if so the Celtics may be in big trouble. Just let us not forget that last year Paul Pierce went down and needed to be wheeled off the court in an apparent series threatening injury versus the Lakers and withing 5 minutes he was back running and jumping down the hallway to get back into the game. Guess you can’t always believe what you see. Lets see how this plays out.

Rafael Nadal won again at the Monte Carlo Masters, his 5th straight. He is now officially the face of men’s tennis. Roger Federer got married and is expecting his first child...could that be the beginning of the end for Roger? Is it time to start worrying that he may not get to Pete Samparas’ record? Hard to cover the court with a ball and chain on your ankle.

Isiah Thomas was hired as coach of Florida International University. Where is that? don’t worry you an’t the only one wondering. He was a great player but not a great executive a bad coach and questionable conduct when it comes to sexual harrasment. This small name school clearly picked Isiah only to get on ESPN with his name...and the best thing about that is when he was formally announced he was called ISIAH THOMPSON! Even Bobby Clark who forgot the name of his #1 draft pick Claude Giroux thinks this is really bad.