Heart of a Champion

So, a day after the 27th World Series Championship, the party keeps going on. Some memorable moments on a memorable night:

• As usual, we'll start with A-Rod. In March, the rest of the team stood by him (and were probably forced to stand by him) at his steroid press conference in Spring Training. It was a complete 180 to see Teixeira, Rivera, and Jeter jumping up and down with him on the mound to celebrate a World Series. And while Matsui may have been World Series MVP, Rodriguez was definitely the Postseason MVP.
• Speaking of Matsui, we may have just seen the best World Series performance ever in a series and probably the second best single-game performance (behind Mr. October himself, Reggie Jackson). Godzilla turned in a .615 batting average, 3 home runs, 8 RBI's and a 1.385 slugging percentage. There are only two other players that have batted over .500 and hit at least 3 home runs in a World Series. Their names: Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth.
• Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada, and Andy Pettitte all now have their 5th World Series Championship. I was a little concerned that Jeter might get stuck at 4 after appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated wearing his four World Series Rings prior to the 2001 season, but I can rest easy now.
• And, if you've watched SportsCenter at all today, you've heard this story about Joe Girardi. Apparently he helped a car crash victim at 2:30 AM. After all that champagne being sprayed every where, I'm not sure Giradi should have been driving, but apparently he drove through a DUI checkpoint, so I guess he was okay.

We started this blog way back on June 1st. That night, Joba Chamberlain threw 8 shutout innings in a gem against the Indians. Since then, the Yankees are 85-42, including the playoffs. That's a .670 winning percentage. The overall record on that date was 30-21, 9 games over .500. At the end of the season (including postseason) was 114-63, 51 games over .500. Almost 300 posts and over 3,000 visits later, the World Series trophy resides in the Bronx. We want to thank everyone for reading the blog this season. We will, of course, cover all the off-season and Hot Stove news as it comes and offer our views. But, for now, sit back, relax and enjoy the celebration, and smile at the fact that next April the Yanks will hoist a Championship flag and receive their rings (that's a picture of Jeter's ring from the 2000 World Series) in front of the Angels at the home opener.

The Ticker Tape Parade down the Canyon of Heroes will be 11 AM tomorrow in the City. There are 500 free tickets available for the Key to the City Ceremony in City Hall Plaza and you can try and get your hands on a couple of those here.

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