Joe Girardi to take Yankee Helm

BAMBINO: With all the topsy-turvy things surrounding the Yankees these days, this is one of the bright spots. Joe Girardi is the perfect person to take the Yankee Helm in the post Joe Torre Era. Girardi knows baseball and is a proven winner. His experience as a National League catcher like his predecessor, as well as his World Championship experience, makes him the best candidate the Yankees have. He will work well with the younger players and veterans alike. Derek Jeter will respond to him just like he did Torre. Now I am looking forward to pitchers and catchers.

DONNIE BASEBALL

As much as I loved Mattingly as a player, I don't think he's manager material, especially the highest profile management position in baseball. Mattingly seemed to be irate about not getting the Yankee job and refuses to take any position within the organization. There are rumors that Joe Torre may manage the Dodgers and Donnie will be his bench coach. If that's the case, I wish them both luck. It will be weird seeing them both in Bridal White and Dodger Blue.

TONY PENA

I think that Pena was a better candidate than Mattingly. He has managerial experience and was a National League catcher as well. A good baseball mind indeed. However, he has the tendency to explode on players and upper management. Still, if Girardi turned down the job, then Pena would have been fine with me.

FULL STORY

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=Aun0Csb8YJZGL0GxRzAxPKk5nYcB?slug=ap-yankeesmanager&prov=ap&type=lgns

Red Sox 2007 World Series Champs!

BAMBINO: As a Yankee fan, I should be miserable that the Boston Red Sox won yet another WS Title in the last 4 seasons. Well, I am not. I was rooting for them actually. Call me Rudy Guiliani if you want (not a bad name to be called IMO), but this Boston team, with the exception of Manny Ramirez, is a very likeable team and had my support. The aforementioned Ramirez to me is the the epitome of the lazy hot dogging modern ball player. The rest of the team has a throw back mentality, which is why I like them. The Red Sox are a classic team and deserve their share of baseball history. After all, the Bambino himself was a Red Sox.

Prior to the World Series, I couldn't name one player on the Rockies and above all, I am an American League fan. Unless the Mets are playing in the WS, I root for the AL. Although Mets fans these days or Boston fans don't deserve my support, I do it because of the team. Terry Francona is a great Manager and a classy guy to boot. He never talked trash and let any Anti Yankee bias permeate his mind. He just goes out there and pushes the buttons to get wins for his team. He is one of a kind.

RED SOX NATION

I think Boston fans are some of the worst sports fans in the history of sports. They are vile crude neanderthals who don't deserve the greatness their team has given them. Already we are hearing that 37 morons were arrested "celebrating." Funny, that hasn't happened in NYC for any of their Championships. Don't get me wrong, Beantown is a wonderful city, but they take their sports a little too serious. In the post 9/11 world, things like a baseball game need to be put into it's proper perspective. IT'S JUST A GAME, PEOPLE!!!!!!

Giants 13, Dolphins 10

Giants leave winless Dolphins in a London fog

Associated Press

WEMBLEY, England -- For art, they could have gone to the British Museum. For something grand, Big Ben and Buckingham Palace were a train ride away.

Instead, what the fans got on this history-making Sunday in London was old-fashioned, muck-it-up football -- not very entertaining and not pretty at all, unless you ask the New York Giants, who came out with a 13-10 victory over the still-winless Miami Dolphins

We won, so obviously it was worth it," said Giants defensive lineman Osi Umenyiora, who was born in London.

Eli Manning threw for only 59 yards but ran for New York's lone touchdown to lift the Giants to their sixth straight victory, a mud-caked slog through the unfriendly pitch at torn-up Wembley Stadium in this, the first regular-season NFL game played outside North America.

The Giants (6-2) had more riding on this game, and were in no mood to take a 3,500-mile trip to help the league expand its international presence. But Brandon Jacobs helped make the journey a success, running for 131 yards, the second straight week he's hit a career high.

And helped in part by a steady rain that made offense nearly impossible, the New York defense allowed only 254 yards and held the Dolphins (0-8) out of the end zone for the first 58 minutes.

"I'll be glad to give my opinion to the commissioner with the issues that came up," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said when asked if the trip was worth it.
Most issues had to do with jet lag, transportation and the general inconvenience of coming this far to play a game. Whether that or the sloppy conditions had more to do with the less-than-scintillating game is up for debate.

But there were brief moments of intrigue, especially when Cleo Lemon drove the Dolphins 80 yards to pull them within 13-10 on a 21-yard pass to Ted Ginn Jr. with 1:54 left. But Jay Feely's onside kick went out of bounds -- "The field was like ice," Feely said -- and the Giants kneeled on it three times to seal the game, ignoring the loud boos from a crowd of 81,176 that wanted more.
Coughlin said that was the only off-note he noticed from the enthusiastic crowd.

"You'd have to know a lot about football to understand that," he said.

BOX SCORE
http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/recap?game_id=29301&displayPage=tab_recap&season=2007&week=REG8

GIANTS 33, 49ers 15

Giants defeat 49ers, 33-15
The Giants today won their fifth consecutive game as a dominant performance by the defense key a 33-15 victory over the 49ers.

By Michael Eisen, Giants.com


EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – That 0-2 start certainly seems like a distant memory now, doesn’t it?
The Giants today won their fifth consecutive game as a dominant performance by the defense keyed a 33-15 victory over the San Francisco 49ers in Giants Stadium. The Giants are now 5-2 as they prepare to fly to London for next week’s game in Wembley Stadium against the 0-7 Miami Dolphins.
“We’re a team playing well right now,” linebacker Antonio Pierce said. “We’re on a roll.”
But they are hardly complacent.
“We need more people to keep telling us how bad we are,” Pierce said. “We don’t need no pats on our backs. Just be honest. We are a team doing well right now, five in a row. We have to take it one game at a time.”
The 49ers, who were coming off their bye, lost their fourth straight game and fell to 2-4.
The day belonged to the defense, which forced four San Francisco turnovers, the most by the unit since Oct. 26, 2006 at Dallas. The unit scored a touchdown on Osi Umenyiora’s 75-yard return of a Trent Dilfer fumble – one of the Giants’ six sacks of the beleaguered quarterback. The defense also produced takeaways on back-to-back San Francisco snaps in the second quarter, leading to 10 Giants points. Another overpowering series led to a Lawrence Tynes field goal. Pierce’s fourth-quarter interception set up Eli Manning’s three-yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Shockey.
The Giants also scored on a Manning touchdown pass to Amani Toomer, who became the franchise leader with 49 career scoring passes, and Brandon Jacobs’ five-yard run. Jacobs rushed for 107 yards.
“I get fired up (when I see the defense make big plays),’ Manning said. “That makes our team better. When our defense is going and getting a fumble returned for a touchdown we get excited. That is what it is all about. When A.P. gets an interception we are telling him to go in there and score. He didn’t and Shockey gets a touchdown catch, so it works out to keep everybody happy. When our defense is playing well it gets the offense fired up, it gets the team going, and I think it helps the whole momentum of the game.”
“It seemed like we really capitalized on a lot of their mistakes,” Mathias Kiwanuka said. “We had a lot of angry guys out there just trying to make plays and get to the ball. When you have that many turnovers it frees you up to do a lot of things. You can get out there and take chances and capitalize”
The 49ers got Dilfer touchdown passes to Arnaz Battle and Darrell Jackson (with 16 seconds remaining in a long-since decided game) and a safety when Moran Norris blocked a punt out of the end zone.
The little mystery that remained in the game evaporated early in the fourth quarter, when Pierce intercepted Dilfer’s pass intended for Battle and returned it 28 yards to the San Francisco five. Four plays later, Manning threw a two-yard scoring pass to Shockey.
“It was a critical play,” Pierce said. “I got myself in a good position to make a play on the ball. Whenever our offense is clicking the way they are clicking we just keep giving them more opportunities to have the ball to score. We are just trying to create turnovers and create havoc, which is good on the part of any defense.”
San Francisco cut its deficit to 26-9 when Norris broke through the line and blocked Jeff Feagles’ punt in the end zone with 8:52 remaining in the third quarter. The ball sailed out of the field of play for a safety.
It was the first blocked punt by a Giants opponent since Dec. 5, 2005, when Washington’s Walt Harris blocked a Feagles punt. Ironically, Harris now plays for the 49ers. A Giants opponent had not recorded a safety since Nov. 24, 2003, when long snapper Carson Dach deliberately snapped the ball out of the end zone at Tampa Bay.
The Giants increased their lead to 26-7 thanks to the best and most exciting in a series of superb plays by the defense, Umenyiora’s 75-yard return for a touchdown of a Dilfer fumble with 12:53 remaining in the third quarter.
On first down from 15-yard line, Dilfer was sacked from behind by Umenyiora, who jarred the ball loose with the force of his hit. He then finished off the grandslam by picking up the ball and racing ahead of the field for the second touchdown of his career.
“I was thinking, ‘I cannot get caught,’” Umenyiora said. “I talk so much trash about how fast I am, I was thinking they better not catch me, or I’ll never hear the end of it. Now (the other defensive linemen) will never hear the end of it. I’m going to talk about this as long as I’m with the Giants.”

BOX SCORE
http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/boxscore?game_id=29289&displayPage=tab_box_score&season=2007&week=REG7

KIMI THE KING!!!!!

BAMBINO: Wow! The Iceman finally cometh! Kimi Raikkonen did the improbable, he won the Brazilian GP outright, and he got some help from the McLaren Boys as Hamilton and Alonso did not score enough points to win it all. It was a great ending to a great season in F1. One of the best I have seen in a long time. BRAVO KIMI!

FERRARI

The team held together and never gave up. Kimi and Felipe won their share of races but in the end, Kimi was the one who had the icewater in his veins. His win at Spa and Shanghai really propelled him down the stretch. Felipe Massa was a great team mate. His time will come.

MCLAREN

With all the bickering and controversy surrounding the team, they were leading in the Driver's Championship on the last day, but Lewis Hamilton's rookie mistakes and Alonso's inability to catch the Ferraris did them in. Still, they are a great team with two world class drivers.

BMW

A great season for the second tier team. As a fan, I hope they can make the leap to the elites. They have good engineers and two fine young drivers. They can only go up.

THE REST

Toyota and Honda had miserable seasons. Their non factory teams (Williams and Super Aguri) out raced them. The bottom feeders really didn't make a dent, but we can hope they get more competitive.

FINAL POINTS STANDINGS

1) Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari (110 points)

2) Lewis Hamilton - McLaren - Mercedes (109 points)

3) Fernando Alonso - McLaren - Mercedes (109 points)

End of the Joe Torre Era

BAMBINO: Things that are always certain in life; death, taxes, and Joe Torre leading the Yankees to the post season. Now, this great era in Yankees baseball comes to an end with Joe Torre rejecting a feeble offer by the Yankee Brass to retain him for another year. To me, the offer was an insult to a class act who was loved by his players and the fans. A guy who brought stability to a very unstable job in baseball, a guy who year in and year out led his team to the playoffs. A guy who had to deal with picadors within the organization who did nothing but question his moves and the way he handles his players. Joe Torre did not deserve any of the grief his employers laid on him.

CLUELESS JOE
I couldn't believe the headline in the NY Daily News when the Yanks hired Torre. I liked the idea from the start. I always knew that Torre was a good player and a good manager. He had a National League approach to the game which he implemented with the Yanks. He also had a very even keeled approach to dealing with the media. He was a regular guy from Brooklyn. How can you not like that? Well the Daily News ate crow over that headline several times.

THE 4 RINGS
Torre led the Yanks to their first WS Championship in 18 years when they shocked the Braves 4 games to 2 in the 1996 WS. To me that was all I needed to keep me warm at night as a Yankee fan. But no, Torre then led them to their best season in the history of the franchise in 1998 winning 125 and losing only 50 games en route to another Championship sweeping the Padres. 1999 saw Torre fall ill with prostate cancer and he missed some games, but he was back by the playoffs and the Yanks swept the Braves for yet another WS Title. His legacy was culminated in 2000 by being at the helm for a third straight WS Title, this time at the expense of the Mets in the first Subway Series since 1956.

6 AL PENNANTS
Joe led the Yanks to 6 World Series winning 4 of them. That's .666 winning Pct. The Yanks won the pennant in 2001 after the horrific 9/11 attacks and really captured the spirit of New York and the country. Unfortunately, the Diamondbacks had fate on their side as they rallied in the bottom of the 9th in Game 7 to take the series. Still the Yanks had nothing to hang their heads about. They did lose key players to retirement and other teams (O'Neill, Brosius, Tino). 2003 saw them play the Red Sox in the ALCS and the Yanks won Game 7 in 13 innings with Aaron Boone's walk off HR to take the AL Pennant. Again, it looked like fate with on the Yankees side. But the Florida Marlins had other plans. They beat the Yanks in 6 to take the title, celebrating on the Yankee Stadium field.

2004
Upper Management clearly never forgave Joe for the Yankees losing to Boston in the 2004 ALCS after being up 3-0 in the series. To me, it was the Baseball Gods giving Boston and their tortured fans, a taste of the victory well. I thought Torre made the right moves, but the Red Sox were a destined team. I got over it quickly.

2005, 2006, & 2007
The Yankees bounced back from the '04 debacle and won the division but lost to the Angels in the first round. George was livid, but still extended Joe's contract for 2 more seasons. 2006 saw the Yanks win another Division Title only to lose to the Tigers in the first round. 2007 saw them floundering the first 2 months of the season. After the All Star break, the Yanks were the best team in baseball and they clinched a Wild Card birth. I thought this was Torre's best work. He held the team together and ushered in the youth and the Yanks were the team to beat. Unfortunately, the Cleveland Indians out pitched them and beat the Yanks in the first round.

LEGACY
No matter what happened the last few seasons, Joe Torre cemented his legacy among the Yankee great managers and in the history of the game. He brought nothing but class and winning to a storied franchise. He led the Yanks to 4 WS Titles in a 3 tier playoff system where his great predecessors only had to win one series. His even keeled, never panic attitude helped me through tough times in my life. Thanks Joe for the memories. This was the best era that I have seen in my 40 years on earth.

ALL TIME YANKEE MANAGERS

1) Joe McCarthy - 1931-1946 (1460-867, 7 WS Titles, 8 AL Pennants)

2) Joe Torre - 1996-2007 (1173-767, 4 WS Titles, 6 AL Pennants) * 3 Tiers of playoffs.

3) Casey Stengel - 1949-1960 (1149-696, 7 WS Titles, 10 AL Pennants)

October Update from the Bambino

YANKEES: Well another season ends in disappointment, but it could be worse; I could be a Mets fan. The Yanks scratched and clawed their way back to the playoffs after being left for dead in May with A-Rod leading the way only to lose to the Indians in the ALDS in 4 games. They were outpitched, plain and simple. Now it looks as if Joe Torre wore the Pinstripes for the last time after 12 successful seasons at the helm. More on that in another post.

FOOTBALL GIANTS: After dropping the first two games of the season (getting killed both times by the Cowboys and Packers), Big Blue has reeled off four wins in a row against the Redskins, Eagles, Jets, and Falcons to pull within one game of the Cowboys in the NFC East. Defense is leading the way. They got a pretty easy one with the 49'ers coming up at Giants Stadium this Sunday. I will be watching that one.

RANGERS: Slow start for the Blueshirts as they begin the season 2-4. They just lost 5-3 to the Thrashers (at one point it was 3-0 Atlanta). They need to get it together or it may get ugly early. Lots of hockey to play though.

FORMULA ONE: Can you believe that the Driver's World Championship is going down to the wire? 7 points separate points leader and Rookie Phenom Lewis Hamilton (107), defending Champ Fernando Alonso (103), and Ferrari Ace Kimi Raikkonen (100) with the Brazilian GP upcoming this weekend. My Oh My, the qualifying and subsequent Grand Prix should be one for the ages. Can't wait. My Rosso Scuderia blood has to go with Kimi.

IRAQ: The "Drive By Media" hasn't been reporting much on it, so things must be going well over there. Our military is the finest in the world, and when allowed to do their job (which is to kill bad guys and destroy things), no one can hold a candle to them. And for those leftist loons that want us out; guess what? We haven't left Germany or Japan, so we will always have bases in Iraq. Deal with it.

ELECTION 2008: Dems are such pansie wastes and emasculated dolts. Out of the DNC candidates, Mrs Bill Clinton has more balls than all the male candidates combined. I mean, look at the Breck Girl. You want him making executive decisions with our fate on the line? NOT! The GOP also has some issues with Rudy and Romney going at it pretty good. Still, I trust the Republicans to protect me more than the socialist nannies in the Jack Ass party.