My Thoughts

1) How did the Cardinals ever win the World Series?

2) Joe Girardi was my first choice. Followed by Tony Pena, Larry Bowa, and Buck Showalter. Don Mattingly was not. I am one of the believers that you follow a calm players' manager with a fiery one and vice-versa. Don Mattingly will probably be just like Joe Torre, but with less experience.

3) They handled the Joe Torre thing the exact way I expected them too. People say the got bad publicity by handling it "wrong", but they don't realize they would have gotten much worse publicity if they had just fired him. The fact was they didn't want him back and they came up with the best offer that they knew he'd still turn down. It would have been much worse to fire one of if not the most popular manager in the team's history. Letting him make the decision to walk away (even if it was mostly forced) was the way to go.

4) I'm definitely hoping jinxes are real with the departure of Don Mattingly. In the last 27 years Don Mattingly was in the Yankee orginzation for 18 of those seasons. Those 18 seasons the Yankees did not go to a World Series, even once. In the other 9 seasons the Yankees went to the World Series 7 times. 7 of the last 9 and 10 of the last 14 seasons without Don Mattingly the Yankees went to the World Series.

Since 1921, the Yankees have been in the World Series 57% of the time when Don Mattingly wasn't on the team as a player or coach. That's amazing.

5) ARod. I thought he was coming back. I assumed that when the Yankees talked to him they would convince him (with a huge deal to help) to stay. The Yankees were right, he would have. Boras knew it too. That's why Boras never let the Yankees talk with him.

6) I didn't mind watching Clemens in amazement after he left the Yankees. I never felt slighted with it. That won't be true with ARod.

7) How bad will ARod look if the Yankees do win the World Series next year? People may notice the Mattingly connection, but the talk will be ARod.

8) After the shock of the opt out was over, all I kept thinking was, that's a great salary slot for Johan Santana. I'm not expecting it this season (although I'm sure Cashman will call), but it's very rare that the best pitcher on the planet is a southpaw, and I can't imagine Santana's agent would let him sign anywhere (if there is a deadline deal somewhere else) without checking in on the Yankees' offer price.

9) You know Boras already has a deal in his pocket with another team that's $30 million a year, the questions are which team (probably the Angels) and can the Yankees proove it for tampering (probably not).

10) I would be shocked (and very upset) if Posada, Pettitte, or Rivera went anywhere. I wouldn't think the change to Girardi would not negatively impact their decision as Pettitte and Rivera finished 2-3 for the Cy Young the first year they pitched to him (their sophomore season) and Girardi mentored Posada.

11) Mattingly had to leave after Girardi got the job, as Girardi is younger than him. If Lou Piniella got the job, Mattingly could stay, and Mattingly could follow Torre to LA (especially with his son in their organization), and Torre's age means Mattingly would be his natural successor.

12) The Jitter Critters helped me a lot this year, as it allowed me to not pay attention too much to anything going on. And the kids loved the show on Saturday.