Baseball 180!

The Red Sox broke theirs. The White Sox broke theirs. Is this the year the Chicago Cubs finally win one? I think so. With old curses now old news, it’s only fair to let the Cubs get rid of their jinx.

It’s been 100 years since the Cubs won it all, 100 years exactly. 100 long season for the Cubs faithful and they’ve seen their Cubbies put together a team with speed, power, and great pitching. Essential tools for a championship. Going into this postseason, one has to consider the Cubs the favorite. They come into October with the best record and the most talented team. Alfonso Soriano, Geovany Soto, Derek Lee, Kosuke Fukudome…the list goes on.

All these guys can hit the ball, get on base and move around. This team is very remniscent of the 1996 New York Yankees, a team that had talent, speed, solid pitching, and hadn’t won a title in a while (not that the Yanks’ 18 year drought is even close to the Cubs’ 100, but play along).

The main strength of the Cubs has to be their pitching. I consider Ted Lily the most underrated starter in the bigs and they also have a Sabathia-like performer in Carlos Zambrano. Kerry Wood has actually finished a season and is becoming one of the game’s most elite closers.

With that said, it’s time for a championship for God’s sake. Poor Cubs fans have waited lifetimes, no body should live without seeing their team win a championship. So, if you’re up there baseball Gods, you’ve had your fun with the Cubs, now give ‘em a ring.

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By Sean Connolly

It’s hard to believe that the last time the Yankees were out of the playoffs was in 1993, but with the horrible season they’ve been having it looks like this year’s Yankees will be sitting at home in October. With speculations on Girardi’s job security, Hank Steinbrenner confirmed that Girardi will be back next year. After last night’s 12-1 loss to the new A.L. powerhouse Angels it looks that the Yankees’ season is done instead of Girardi’s managerial career in the Bronx.

They Did It To The Last Joe, Why Not This One?

After a sub-par season last year which resulted in another missed chance at returning to the World Series, Joe Torre saw his career end with the Yankees. Although they didn’t fire him, they might have well have after the offer they gave him. So, the question is, with Torre having a much better year than Girardi last season, shouldn’t the result be the same?

The answer is yes. Girardi should be gone if you’re going to be fair, but unfortunately the Yankees are never fair. Girardi hasn’t shown much this season that Steinbrenner and crew can look forward to so I don’t see the point of keeping him. He hasn’t made a decision that was looked back on as a great move that helped the season, only moves that should have been second-guessed that hampered the season. I’m just saying, if Torre brings the Yanks to the playoffs last year and after 4 World Series titles and still gets fired, the ringless (as a coach) Girardi should be gone too.

Shave The Mustache, It’s Over

Let’s face it, with the Yanks being 10 games back in the AL East and now behind the Blue Jays the 2008 season has come to an end for them. Riddled by injuries, controversy, and mental errors, the Yankees are a long shot to make the postseason after 13 straight seasons of October baseball. So, who are the Yankee fans supposed to blame?

Well like I said earlier, Girardi should be fired so obviously he should take a hit here, and young talent such as Robinson Cano, Melky Cabrera, Phil Hughes, and Ian Kennedy not turning into what they were supposed to. I’m most disappointed in Cano. He’s flailed at pitches all season long and has yet to show any discipline at the plate. His fielding has only gotten worse and it makes me wonder why the Yanks didn’t trade him when they had a chance. Melky isn’t even in the majors any more after having a dreadful season in which all I saw him do was joke around in the dugout with the aforementioned Cano. Hughes and Kennedy are, well, Hughes and Kennedy, playing poorly and getting injured that seems to be their mantra.

Another reason for the horrible season the Yankees have had was the performance of Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez. It was expected that Pudge would give a boost to the Yanks season when the surprising trade went through. They dumped Kyle Farnsworth on the Tigers and it seemed as if the loss of Posada wouldn’t hurt the Yanks as much as they thought. Instead, Pudge played like a below average catcher instead of the MVP catcher we were expecting of him. The trade did nothing really, other than getting rid of another useless talent in Farnsworth.

But, mainly you have to blame the injuries. I know you should overcome them but it’s kind of hard when you’re opening day pitcher and catcher are out for the season. After a moderate start to the season Posada was out along with Chien-Ming Wang for the season. Wang’s injury was a result of poor coaching after he was told to round home while running the bases in an interleague game against the Astros. Both injuries were huge but the little injuries throughout the year really hurt. Alex Rodriguez was out for a portion of the year with a hamstring injury and Hideki Matsui missed a huge portion of the season as well. The injuries surmounted and at one point it seemed like every Yankee was in the trainer’s room.

Overall, you have to look at Girardi’s season as a disappointment…duh. With so much invested into every year, it’s hard to believe that the Yankees don’t win the World Series every season and for them to not even make the playoffs…well that’s just unacceptable.

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