Why Cliff Lee could be beatable, Michael Kay is jumping the gun, and Freddy Sez will be missed

I heard Michael Kay said the ALCS was over after the Yankees won on Friday. And if you read the newspapers, he wasn't the only one he felt that way. Yet on Sunday, there's all this hysteria in the media about how the Yankees are doomed. Puh-lease. It's amazing how quickly the pendulum goes from "Yankees are gonna sweep" to "OMG the Yankees have to face CLIFF LEE TWICE in this series now." Spare me.

First of all, I guess I missed when losing one game in a best four-out-of-seven series meant there would automatically jigger a Game 7 to happen. Somebody should have told me that!

Second, while Cliff Lee pitched majestically against the Yankees in Game 1 of the World Series, am I the only person who remembers what happened in Game 5? The Yankees knocked him around for five runs and nearly won the game, despite the fact that A.J. Burnett spit the bit. And in 2010, while Lee pitched one great game against the Yankees in September, and one very good game in June, he also gave up four runs and eight hits in 6.1 innings in an August game.

Third, as my Facebook friend William says, the Yankees have beaten lots of great pitchers in the postseason. Why wouldn't they be able to beat Lee? But even if he does pitch well, the Yankees could still face the Rangers' bullpen and get to them.

Fourth, Andy Pettitte is no slouch in the postseason.

Anyhow, I'm going to have faith that the Yankees will beat Cliff Lee. But even if they don't, that doesn't mean the series is over, even if A.J. Burnett is still pitching Game Four!

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I was saddened to hear the news about Freddy Sez's demise. Freddy the Fan, who Squawker Jon saw in his neighborhood a couple of times, had so much energy, enthusiasm, and gratitude. I met him several times, and got to hit the famous frying pan with the spoon. The Stadium will sound differently without Freddy around. I'd like to see the Yanks have a special patch on their uniforms of a frying pan!

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Mike Francesa thinks Derek Jeter could be named player-manager of the Yankees one day

There was a whole to-do in the blogosphere Friday after WFAN's Mike Francesa suggested on the air that whenever Girardi goes, he wouldn't be shocked if Derek Jeter became a player-manager. What?

I stand by my contention that making superstars managers is generally a bad idea. And making Yankee icons Yankee managers is an even worse idea. I was against it with Mattingly, and I would be against it with Jeter or any of the other Yankee stars. Especially with an icon like Jeter. You think it will be tough one day to move him out of the shortsop in a few years? Imagine the grief the Yankees would get for firing the captain!

At any rate, has Jeter even shown any desire or inkling to want to be a manager?  He's a Hall of Fame player, but by his own admission, he never watches any baseball games he's not in. How would that work for a manager? I don't see it.

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Shocker! The Yankees beat the Rangers after being down, 5-0

There are nights where even when the Yankees are down, I can feel the sense of a comeback in the air. Game 1 of the ALCS was not one of those nights, and I was truly shocked by the outcome.

When the Rangers went ahead 3-0 in the first before making their first out, I wasn't exactly in a hopeful mood. As my friend Steve Lombardi wrote on his WasWatching blog, it looked like CC Sabathia went trick-or-treating as A.J. Burnett! I can't ever remember seeing Sabathia look as inept.

After the Yanks fell behind 5-0 in the fourth, CC was out of the game, and Joba Chamberlain and Dustin Moseley were acting as mop-up men. Combine that with the Yankees' hitters' inability to get anything going against C.J. Wilson, and I figured the Yankees were going to lose. I kept on watching, but I was peeved!

Little did I know that not only would those two relievers shut down the Rangers' bats, but that Ron Washington was going to remove Wilson after just 104 pitches in the eighth inning. Yes, he did let two runners get on base, with Brett Gardner's gutty, gritty play, and Derek Jeter's RBI double, but he was still the best option. The second-best option would be to bring in closer Neftali Perez in that spot, with the heart of the Yankee order coming up.

But Washington instead decided to do this whole revolving reliever bit, using the Darrens (Oliver and O'Day) and a whole other slew of arms in the eighth. I was half-expecting to see the Darrens from "Bewitched" to pitch as well!

A-Rod silenced the "he's not clutch" critics for one night, at least, with his big hit. And after Robinson Cano drove in the tying run, and Marcus Thames got a hit to put the Yankees ahead for good, there was the thing that was symbolic of the night: the Nolan Ryan Face (photo courtesy of Sliding Into Home). Nolan really had the whole Angry Dad face going on, didn't he? Classic!

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Jorge Posada, the media, and other notes on the ALCS

A few quick thoughts while we wait for the game to begin:

I've written before that I worry Jorge Posada's arm would cost the Yankees in the playoffs. It ultimately didn't matter in the first round, but now the Yankees are facing the speedy Texas Rangers, with that whole "claw and antlers" thing. Heck, Benjie Molina stole a base in the ALDS, and he's. like, the slowest runner in baseball. Let's hope Jorge's arm doesn't hurt the Bombers.

I love how the media is acting like A-Rod and Mark Teixeira are returning to Arlington for the very first time since leaving town. Good grief.

I'm trying to convince Squawker Jon that we need an official Squawker hand signal. He gave me a signal, alright!

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Was Mickey Mantle's behavior better or worse than today's athletes?

Foxsports.com's Mark Kriegel has an interesting piece about where Mickey Mantle fits into the pantheon of bad boys in sports. The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood, Jane Leavy's new book on Mantle, talks about his drinking and serial womanizing. Make that serial groping, too -- he even once groped Leavy herself. Yikes!

Anyhow, Kriegel's point is that Mantle acted more out of control than Brett Favre or Tiger Woods, "yet Mantle remains loved and revered while Favre and Woods have become punchlines." He also argues that "unlike Favre, Mantle didn’t have to deal with TMZ or Deadspin. His misbehavior wasn’t merely tolerated; it was journalistically disappeared."

I don't think this is a good thing. In fact, I would argue that Mantle might have gotten help for his drinking if he had been held to some sort of journalistic standard. The very same media that lionized him as the golden boy, and took his side in 1961 against Roger Maris, knew what a creep Mantle could be, especially if he were boozing. Yet they didn't let their readers see that. The press even attacked "Ball Four" Jim Bouton for being the only person to dare to write that Mantle wasn't exactly a saint.

And to what end? Mantle didn't get help for his drinking until late in his life. In the meantime, he got to grope countless random women, and make a fool of himself drinking in public, with no fear it would be covered. After going to Betty Ford, he did speak out to tell others not to do what he did. But maybe Mantle would still be alive and serving as a Yankee elder statesman if he had to face some sort of accountability, whether it be through the Yankees or the press, much earlier in his life.

After all, Kriegel, the author of the great book "Namath," ought to remember that Joe Namath finally got help for his own drinking problem after he was seen drunk on national TV, trying to get Suzy Kolber to kiss him. (And how innocent that sounds as compared to Favre's creepy sexting!)

Kriegel continues:

Not only can’t you apply today’s standards to yesteryear’s heroes, you can’t apply today’s standards to today’s heroes. Not if you want heroes. The evolution of technology, journalism and popular expectations have all conspired to ensure there will be no more Mantles.


Nor will there be any Favres or Tigers or Jordans (remember, by the end, he, too, was being taken to court by one of his goumares). And you can forget about any Babes or DiMaggios.

Actually, I would argue the opposite. Even now, unless you're A-Rod, if you're a big enough star, with enough power, and the media needs access to you to do their jobs, you can get away with being a jerk for a long, long time, until 1) somebody has physical evidence on you, and 2) the MSM is willing to write about it.

Look at how long Favre and Tiger and Jordan themselves got away with it. Not forever, but long enough. And the mainstream media will help you protect that image, too. Remember, the MSM was ready to bury the Tiger Thanksgiving story when TMZ did their thing. And look at how many sportswriters (hi, Peter King!) are still trying to protect Favre.

It's hard to know whether Mantle was better or worse than other athletes of his ilk. But I do know that if his bad boy behavior had been exposed by the media at the time, he wouldn't have been able to continue his misdeeds for decades.

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Story of the week::Justin Bieber disses Tom Brady for stealing his hairdo

Squawker Jon told me yesterday about how Justin Bieber made fun of Tom Brady for stealing his hairdo, but I thought it would be too good to be true. Thankfully, it really happened!

The teenage pop star rapped under the moniker "Shawty Mane" this week in this video, and here's what he said about the Patriots quarterback stealing his infamous hairstyle:

"Sacked like a sacker. Call up Mr. Brady. Tell him to leave his hair to the guy who sings ’Baby.’"

Love it!

Brady claimed he didn't know who Bieber was. I don't believe him.

What do you think? Tell us about it.

Did smoking, profanity cause a rift between Mark Teixeira and Ron Washington?

There's a story in today's Daily News about Mark Teixeira and Ron Washington not exactly being BFFs when Tex was on the Texas Rangers. But what are the reasons behind it? Among other things, according to the article, "former teammates and a club executive said Teixeira complained of Washington's penchant for profanity and smoking in the dugout."

While I don't doubt that the two of them had a conflict - Washington acknowledges as much in the article - I wonder if those two things are really some of the reasons the two of them reportedly didn't get along.

First of all, unless Mark is challenging Tony Dungy these days, he has to be used to hearing profanity, even from the manager. But if this is the case, guess Teixeira won't be palling around with Jets coach Rex Ryan, eh?

Second is the "smoking in the dugout" accusation. Did Washington do it? It's possible. However, as Squawker Jon noted, even famous Mets smoker Keith Hernandez went to the clubhouse to get his tobacco fix. Joe DiMaggio would smoke in the Yankee tunnel. Even Jim Leyland, the famous smoker/manager in the game, doesn't get away with smoking in the dugout anymore. There are laws at almost every stadium these days banning smoking.

At any rate, as a former smoker, I wouldn't blame Teixeira for complaining about this if it happened. I don't really like breathing tobacco smoke now (I always said I wouldn't become one of those hectoring, judgemental ex-smokers when I quit, but it does bother my lungs.) And if I were a professional athlete, I'd be peeved to be around smoking in such an enclosed space during the game.

Anyhow, in an interview with the News, Washington didn't directly address what caused friction between them, but said something happened:

"It was a one-night thing where something happened in a ballgame and I called him on it. From that point on, I guess he disliked me," Washington told the Daily News. "Other than that I always felt I gave him the respect that he deserved.

"More than anything else we didn't get a chance to get to know each other," Washington continued. "If he'd have stayed around long enough, he'd have understood better what I meant by questioning him on some things. But the next thing you know, it was out of hand.

"I never had animosity toward him, but when I had something to say to him I said it."

Saying that you gave somebody "the respect that he deserved" isn't always a compliment, though!


According to the paper, Washington said he never heard the smoking/profanity complaints. But he does say:

"One time I had something to say and he was the guy I said it to," Washington said. "He said something back. And I went right back at him. It was just about the game of baseball, his ideas versus my ideas. But I am the manager."

 When asked about the issue, Teixeira responded:

"I really don't know what he's talking about. That was a long time ago," Teixeira said. "I was here for four months with him and I was on the DL for a month."

Wonder what the real story is here.

What do you think? Tell us about it.