Baseball 2008

So... March has not been a kind month to this sports fan. SU once again failed to make it into the NCAA Tournament, only this time we didn't deserve to go. Then, they choked away a 22-point lead in the last 14 minutes of the NIT quarterfinal against UMass AT HOME and saw their season come to a lousy end. My Buffalo Sabres underachieved all season, lost more games in OT than any other team in hockey, probably lost more games in which they outshot the opposition than any other team in hockey, and on the same night that SU went in the tank, Buffalo turned a 3-2 lead against Ottawa with 6 minutes to play into a 6-3 loss. Then for good measure they went out a few nights later and turned a 3-1 3rd period lead over Montreal into a 4-3 OT loss. At least SU got to play in the postseason; this will not be happening in Buffalo.

Thank goodness baseball is about to start and I can start rooting for my Mets again.

Yes, I know that the last time we saw them, they too were choking big-time. In fact, go ahead and get all of your "Mets choke" jokes out of your system now... I'll wait...

Spring is about optimism... of course, Spring needs to get here for that to happen, but the calendar says Spring and baseball starts tonight (the 2 games in Japan notwithstanding). So I'm ready to make predictions about this season's baseball goings-on.

We'll start in the division where my Mets reside, the NL East. This is pretty much a pitched battle between the Phillies and Mets. Last season was only the tip of the iceberg for this rivalry, as I wrote about a few weeks ago. Now I was watching ESPN this morning, and John Kruk predicted that the BRAVES will win the NL East. John Kruk is an IDIOT. But on further review, ESPN's Jayson Stark is picking the Braves to WIN IT ALL. And I'm sure disgruntled former Mets GM Steve Phillips is also all in for the Braves. These guys were saying the Braves would win the NL East last August when they were 10 games out. Apparently they must be stockholders or something. Let me let you all in on a little something: ATLANTA HAS NO CHANCE OF WINNING THE NL EAST. Not with 2 teams ahead of them who are so much better, not with a starting rotation full of 40-somethings and broken-down pitchers. Let's recap: John Smoltz- 40-plus and on the DL, Chuck James- on the DL, Tom Glavine- 40-plus, Mike Hampton- will be on the DL within weeks, because it's inevitable, Tim Hudson- was on the DL last year as well. No division title here, folks.

So, in this corner... it's big Ryan Howard, big-mouthed Jimmy Rollins, Met-killer Pat Burrell, Chase Utley, Cole Hamels and the rest of the Fightin' Phils of the Schuylkill. In the other corner, it's a pissed-off (for him) Carlos Beltran, David Wright, Jose Reyes, Pedro Martinez and the rest of the Amazin' Mets of the thankfully-soon-to-be-demolished Shea Stadium. Oh, and some guy from Minnesota named Johan. Yeah, I hear he's a pretty decent pitcher...

So who am I picking? Der, I'm picking the Mets. But why? Besides the fact that they ARE my team, these guys know the urgency of the situation. They know they're good, they know how BAD they were the last 3 weeks of 2007, and they know they cannot let it happen again, because otherwise manager Willie Randolph and a lot of other guys are gonna lose jobs. Unfortunately, the whole bullpen is back from last year, except for Matt Wise taking over Aaron Sele's long relief role. The bullpen created this whole mess with their inability to get anyone out when it mattered. GM Omar Minaya did not take my advice (blow the whole thing up and start over) and I guess I just have to cross my fingers every time Aaron Heilman and Scott Schoeneweis come in to try to get us out of a jam. However... the Phillies have Brad Lidge for a closer. When he gets off the DL. Ahem. Take the Mets.

OK, now the rest of baseball... the NL Central will once again be between the Cubs and Brewers. The Cubs will hope for a full productive season from Alfonso Soriano, a better season from their pitching (Kerry Wood as the closer? eeeeeeeeeek), and an outfielder from Japan named Fukudome (be careful how you pronounce that one). The Brewers have the offense (Prince Fielder, J.J. Hardy, Ryan Braun, Corey Hart, Bill Hall), but their pitching is also creaky and hoping for a full season of Ben Sheets is like hoping for a full season of Kerry Wood as your closer. The Brewers will win 90 games and take the Central.

Colorado arrived last season with their insane 21 of 22 streak from the end of the regular season through the NL playoffs. They're THAT good and only getting better. But they still play in Colorado and have to deal with the fact that no All-Star pitcher of any merit would ever play in Colorado. Arizona is also young and they got even better by picking up Dan Haren from Oakland. The Dodgers have promising young players of their own, Andruw Jones thanks to free agency, and Joe Torre as the manager. And don't forget the Padres, with Jake Peavy, Chris Young, Greg Maddux, Adrian Gonzalez... I don't think the Padres have enough to stay in the race, so it's a 3-team struggle. This is the toughest division to pick, but I'm going with Arizona on the strength of their pitching. The wild-card comes down to the Phillies, Rockies, and Dodgers, with Colorado prevailing. So really... it winds up being a repeat of last year in the NL... that is, if the last 17 games of the Mets' season had turned out better.

The AL East... easiest division to pick. The Red Sox will cruise to the division title. They are the best team in baseball, the defending champs, and scary as it sounds, they're only getting BETTER. The kids (Pedroia, Ellsbury, Lester, Buchholz) have only scratched the surface of what they're going to do. Josh Beckett's early-season stint on the DL may lead to a slow start, but with Boston's offense, it won't last long. Second place will be a battle between the Yankees and Blue Jays. Toronto has the talent to take 2nd for the first time in ages, with Vernon Wells certain to come back from an off year, joining Alex Rios and a potent offense, even if Scott Rolen spends a large chunk of the year on the shelf. Of course, the Yanks can score runs as well, with A-Rod, Jeter, Matsui, Robinson Cano, et al. However, the Blue Jays have more pitching. I'll take Roy Halladay, A.J. Burnett, Dustin Magowan, and Shawn Marcum over Chien Ming-Wang, Mike Mussina, and Phil Hughes any day. Mariano is fading, Joba's not a closer, he's a displaced starter (and look how well that ultimately worked out for Aaron Heilman), and the Blue Jays have Jeremy Accardo AND B.J. Ryan if he can get healthy. Toronto 2nd, the Yanks 3rd and OUT of the money... haha, Yanks, money, get it? Suck on that, Hank Steinbrenner.

Oh, and this will finally be the year that the Orioles lose 100 games, and the Nationals will outdraw them. And Peter Angelos will probably sue Major League Baseball for ruining his franchise.

The AL Central is loaded, with Detroit and Cleveland battling tooth and nail all season for the division, loser gets the wild card. I'll give the edge to Detroit based on pitching, even if Dontrelle Willis doesn't pan out, his fellow ex-Marlin Miguel Cabrera WILL pan out, making a great offense even better. The White Sox will finish 3rd, just enough to allow Ozzie Guillen to keep his job, for now.

I've heard a lot of talk about Seattle being on the rise in the AL West. Getting Erik Bedard for practically nothing (Peter Angelos at his best) doesn't make you a playoff team overnight, but with Bedard and Felix Hernandez in the rotation, they have a good nucleus forming. The hitting's a little thin, and I don't think Adrian Beltre's ever going to come close to his fluke "walk" year in LA when he hit 48 homers. No, the class of the AL West is still the Angels, but they'll have to overcome not having John Lackey or Kelvim Escobar in the rotation to start the season. Escobar's career may be over, a huge setback. The Angels can hit but they'll have to string together enough arms to stay ahead of Seattle. I think they can and will.

So there's your predictions for this year, with the first pitch in Washington's new ballpark just minutes away... and another ESPN analyst (Eric Young this time) just picked the Braves for the World Series. Can we get some sort of investigation going? George Mitchell's free now, he could do it...

Caution: Future Trigenarian* Crossing

* - I don't think this is actually a word because I couldn't find it in the dictionary. But since "septagenarian" (age 70+) and "octagenarian" (age 80+) are in there, this one only makes sense, and therefore I take credit for inventing it.

I'm turning 30 soon.

Yeah, it's still over half a year away, but it's close enough that it freaks me out. Pretty much since the first time I found myself telling someone "I'm gonna be 30 in November." Now, I realize most of the readers to this blog are over the age of 30 and therefore don't see the point of me being concerned about this, but it IS a big deal. When I turned 29, my friends and I joked that leaves only one more year to mess up, do stupid things, act without thinking, that sort of thing that you can blame on being "young and stupid." While for the most part, I'm not really LOOKING to do stupid things between now and November, I still like having the excuse.

I'm fortunate that I'm in good health, have no serious problems, and really I've taken better care of myself in the second half of my 20s. Getting your first ulcer at 21 and your first BAD ulcer at 24 will do that to you. Since then, I've pretty much cut out soda from my diet, and let me tell ya, I used to drink A LOT of it. I think now I average a soda every two weeks just cuz it may be the only thing offered and I can handle it. For the most part, I drink iced tea... I have especially become addicted to sweet tea. I also had to change my diet and avoid spicy or overly greasy stuff, which pretty much means I'm eating healthier, even if I still don't make the effort to cook anything that isn't incredibly simple.

Also, I started working out seriously at age 24. Yeah, I came late to this party, but I've done it faithfully ever since (except for a few-months gap when I was between gyms), and I intend to continue for the rest of my life. I may never be able to pull semis with my teeth but I feel good after I work out and that's the important part.

However, it also means I have to deal with the occasional inexplicable aches and pains. For example, I had a recent one-week period where I first had sharp pain in my left hand, then my left forearm, then my left elbow. It's like parts of my left arm just took turns nagging me. I'm really not looking forward to dealing with things like this for the rest of my life.

Another recent episode made me all the more aware of my aging. A friend of mine is engaged to the lead singer of a local ska band called The Action! So my circle of grad school friends and I have gone out to see them perform on a few occasions and I have to say they're quite good. I went to see them during Spring Break (what a joke that was... I think we've had maybe two days this month where the temperature has broken 40), at a venue that I was advised "caters to a younger crowd." As soon as I walked in the door, I understood what my newly-engaged friend meant... it was like I walked into 1997. Except I'm not 19 anymore. I think I was easily the oldest person there by at least 5 years. I still had a pretty good time and enjoyed all the bands I saw, but I have to admit, I wished I was younger so I could REALLY enjoy it.

I can sum this all up with another recent anecdote: I went to a 30th birthday party a few weeks back, and the guy's friends gave him the full "over the hill" treatment: black balloons, headstones on the cake, you name it. That was funny... because it wasn't happening to me. Now I can see it all coming my way in just 7 months and 19 days...

Not that I think about those things...

The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth (Radio Edit)

Well, the decade of the 2000s has less than two years to go, and it's never too early to start looking back at what we've seen in this decade... at least that's what academic-types like I say. Looking at the last several years in the world of pop culture, it has become clear that we've seen a transition from loving pretty, plastic, pop queens to embracing geeks. No, I'm not talking about the horn-rim glasses and pocket protector types, but these people do proclaim themselves proudly to be geeks.

When the 2000s dawned, we had to deal with the "Britneys". The prefabricated pop stars. And despite efforts of many serious female artists to try to tear the public eye away, the "Britneys" kept finding ways to bring us back to them. Things like a 48-hour marriage, "Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica", "X-tina"... and then there was the rise of Paris Hilton. A "pop star" who didn't even have to record an album (although she later did, tragically for us all) to live the "pop star" life and get the associated adoration. And when we learned how much she loved to party, well, now the prerequisite of a prefab plastic star included "has to party like a rock star". Which led to Nicole Ritchie (famous only for having a dad who could sing), and Lindsay Lohan (who, like Paris, tried to sing and didn't do it well).

Meanwhile, emo was rising. "Geek rock" bands like Weezer and Fountains of Wayne had big hits, and the emo bands that paid homage to them started to break through as well. Look at Fall Out Boy and put them next to the Backstreet Boys. Compared to the pretty-boy pop acts that saw in this decade, these guys look like, well, geeks (except maybe Pete... the ladies ADORE Pete). But Fall Out Boy is riding the wave of stardom today. Flip on the TV and you'll see, on the same network that gives us "America's Next Top Model", "Beauty and the Geek". You've got these guys who love things like D&D and Star Trek and all the geek stereoypes, and the goal of this "social experiment" of a show is to make plastic types fall in love with these guys. Yeah, they clean the geeks up, give them a makeover and all that... but that makes no difference. A better-looking Trekkie is still a Trekkie.

But the Britneys have imploded. The woman who was the very definition of "plastic pop star", and therefore the one I named the whole lot of them after, has become the very definition of "train wreck." The former "X-tina" is now a married mom who has arguably softened her image. Jessica Simpson is now a divorced skin care spokeswoman who apparently wrecks All-Pro NFL quarterbacks. Her sister got a nose job and now nobody remembers what she looks like. Paris went to jail. Lindsay went to jail. Nicole went to jail... and then married one of the Maddens from Good Charlotte (self-professed "geeks" back in their growing-up days).

This is not to say the phenomenon has completely gone away. In fact, the next generation may be rising in the form of Miley Cyrus. Don't get me wrong, I get the popularity of her show, and I know she's supposedly more wholesome than those who came before her (but Jessica Simpson supposedly was too), but the music? THAT I don't get. I've heard "See You Again"... I didn't realize techno country was becoming so popular.

However, don't think I'm taking some perverse form of schadenfreude from the demise of these people. I feel bad for anyone who gets put through the hell any of these women have gone through the last year-plus... perhaps it may serve as a reason to not pursue this way of life anymore. A cautionary tale. After all, finding meaning and learning from things like this is a very geeky thing to do...

While I'm on the subject of music... I think the practice of editing a song's lyrics for mass consumption has gone too far. Of course I believe that bad language should be edited out of songs on the radio... except of course for classic rock standards like "Money" by Pink Floyd or "Who Are You" by the Who which have attained "grandfather clause" status. And yeah, I understand the reasons behind editing out references to drugs or guns in songs on pop stations, although I don't believe that hearing the word "gun" on the radio will cause some kid to grab a gun and shoot someone. It goes deeper than that.

Take "What It's Like" by Everlast, for example. The last verse is about a guy who becomes a drug dealer, gets mixed up in a gunfight and dies. In NO WAY is this song glorifying the lifestyle, it's trying to say, "This is the wrong way to go and imagine being the loved one of this guy, having to find out he died this way." However... we get versions of this song that go beyond only bleeping out the pair of 4-letter bombs in the verse to bleeping out half the verse because the words "drugs", "gun", and "Colt .45" are used. That's stupid. Take the song on its merits before you presume that the use of a word will cause some kid to do something stupid.

But this latest example just goes over the line. The anti-suicide song "Never Too Late" by Three Days Grace is currently making its way up the pop charts. I can take or leave the band, the song's not too bad, and I like message songs like this, and apparently a lot of people out there do too, or else it wouldn't be played on pop stations. However... the version I heard on our local pop station changes what is perhaps the most important line of the song. The chorus in the album version goes, "Even if I say it'll be alright/Still I hear you say you want to end your life." The "pop version" goes, "Even if I say it'll be alright/Still I hear you say you want to CHANGE your life." That completely changes the meaning of the song! It's no longer about suicide! Why Three Days Grace agreed to this I'll never know. In fact, I don't know what's worse, that pop stations said, "Nope, sorry, gotta change that line because some kid might hear that line and kill himself", or that the band AGREED and changed the line!

This all just goes to show you that how much things might change for the better in our society, there are still things that annoy me. I'm sure there will ALWAYS be things that annoy me...

Who's the Terrorist and Who's Just Throwing Food?

In the past few days, we've gotten a couple new reminders that we still face real dangers in this country, and they may not even be from foreign terrorists.

When the USA Patriot Act was passed, I hoped that the justice that would be handed down on the likes of al-Qaeda would also apply to domestic terrorist groups. Just in case you'd forgotten that we actually HAD domestic terrorist groups, the Earth Liberation Front provided a perfect reminder this week when they torched a new housing development. Apparently, the green technology used to build and run these homes was meaningless to these environmental wackjobs, who operate on the principal that the only "green" way to build a home is not to build one. These guys and their buddies, the Animal Liberation Front have torched their way all over the Pacific Northwest, creating a danger to humans that of course doesn't register with these people, because they'd rather see humans die than animals any day.

Why should the ELF not face the same punishment and scrutiny as foreign terrorists? I say round them all up, convict them, throw the book at them... hell, send them to Gitmo for the rest of their lives. They're no more sane or reasonable than those who pervert the Quran to justify blowing themselves up and killing innocent people.

Unfortunately, just when we thought that enviro-nuts with a pyromania problem were the worst of our troubles, early this morning, the military recruiting office in Times Square in New York City was bombed. I haven't heard anybody say this yet, and I know I will get attacked for it, but I'm going to tell you the first thing I thought when I heard about the bombing... "Anti-war group? I mean, why else would they choose perhaps the most well-known and most visible military recruiting station in the country?" Don't tell me the thought didn't cross your mind when you immediately cycled through your mental list of possible suspects. Well now it looks like I'm right, because offices all over Capitol Hill have received letters saying "We did it", and there are reports of a political manifesto denouncing the Iraq war among the letters from this terrorist group. And that is what they are now. PLEASE do not take this as me saying we need to round up all anti-war groups; that is NOT what I am saying. You protest, that's okay. But throw a bomb at a recruiting station, you are now a terrorist and should be dealt with as such. See above for my recommendations on what to do with these guys as well should we find them.

Whatever the case, perhaps now we will spend more time focusing on those who seriously would do us harm and less time on those who we THINK might possibly be construed to SOMEHOW do us harm through some exaggeration of the term "harm." By this, I would be referring to those of our younger population who continue to run afoul of our schools' zero tolerance violence policies. If you didn't hear about this one, the latest example comes from Laramie, Wyoming, where police cited three 13-year old girls for "hurling missiles". 13-year old girls in Wyoming with missiles? This is serious! Is this one of those wacko fringe groups from the mountains plotting to overthrow the government? An attempt by al-Qaeda to establish a terror cell in the U.S. under everyone's noses?

No. Because the "missiles" these girls were "hurling"... were french fries.

Now there had been rumors of a food fight at Laramie Junior High, and the principal had warned of consequences if anyone got caught throwing food. The girls were suspended for three days. Okay, that's fine. But having the police charge them with "hurling missiles"? Now these girls have to be tried AS ADULTS and this may give them a criminal record for the rest of their lives! What good does that do and how the hell does that make Laramie, Wyoming, or ANYWHERE for that matter, a safer place to live? Way to ram the point home that it's not okay to throw a french fry at someone. And while the Police Chief of Laramie pats himself on the back for stopping another "violent" act in his town, those of us who know better will continue to be vigilant in going after the REAL threats to homeland security...

Odds and Sods

When I go long stretches without writing entries, things build up. Ideas build up for entries that I just don't have time to fully flesh out so they never become entries. So in a period of relative calm with my classes such as this, it would be a good idea to get it all out there. So this entry is a mishmash of various things on my mind (one might call them "bloglets"), much like a B-sides and rarities album by your favorite rock band. And here we go...

I've Really Gotta Start Writing These Down: My ability to predict things astounds me. This is a rare case of my ego on display but I just have to brag when I get things right. There was that excellent Super Bowl prediction of mine, when I picked the Giants to upset the unbeaten Patriots. I didn't quite foresee the big night Amy Winehouse had at the Grammys, but I know the reason is correct... controversy = awards. That very fact was controversial in itself, as many established musicians had a problem with someone who had so many personal problems winning so many awards. I also am quite delighted with the fact that my guy won the Republican nomination, and I feel good about Senator McCain's chances in November.

With that said, I have to start getting some other things I've predicted out there before they happen so I can properly take credit when they do happen. Back before Hugo Chavez's big referendum in Venezuela that would have him consolidating more power into the hands of his socialist government, I predicted 2 things at the time, though not here in this blog: 1) If he loses, he'll try to circumvent the process; 2) He will rally support behind him by invading Colombia, who he's had problems with over prisoners. Also, history shows that the next step for a dictator when he has reached the limits of his power over his own people is to start taking over other people. Look it up: Hitler, Mussolini, etc.

Well, these two recent items from Venezuela are serving to prove me correct once again: First, Chavez has threatened to nationalize food distributors to fix shortages of food with his people. While this was not one of the items in his referendum, Chavez has apparently decided that when the people say he can't do a couple things, he can still do EVERYTHING ELSE.

But the more frightening story comes today... Chavez has started massing troops on the Colombian border and closed his embassy there. The quote from him would be hilarious if it wasn't so scary: "We do not want war." BS, El Presidente. Of course you want war! These Marxist rebels who have been causing problems in Colombia are no doubt backed by Chavez; why else would he inject himself in something that on the surface does not involve his country? Colombia kills a rebel leader in Ecuador; how does this affect Venezuela? Answer: It doesn't, but it DOES affect Hugo Chavez in his attempts to spread socialism throughout Latin America. He has his own twisted version of the Monroe Doctrine now in that he feels the need to intervene in South America when his interests are threatened. And since we back Colombia, a Venezuelan invasion may force our hand on dealing with Chavez which may cause him to make good on his threats to cut off oil to us. Hello, $6 a gallon for gas... oh and did I not mention not too long ago that Chavez also has friends with Iran and Hezbollah?

And it won't stop here, folks... here's another prediction. The recent transfer of power from Chavez buddy and idol Fidel Castro to his brother Raul brought shrugs from our State Department, and rightly so. Nothing will change in Cuba in the short term, but the scary part is in the long run, when the Castro brothers pass on. I predict that before Fidel Castro dies, he will either state publicly (or privately to Mr. Chavez) that Cuba must always stay a communist nation and that any attempts to bring democracy must be crushed. This will give Chavez a license to intervene in Cuba should the people ever try to install democracy once the Castros are dead... because he would be honoring his friend's "dying wishes". And when that happens, it will REALLY get scary.

The Strike Is Over... Has Anyone Noticed?: We're finally starting to assess the damage from the writers strike. I'm glad they reached a deal, because I do feel that the writers should be compensated for their work getting online. The irony of the strike is that with shows off the air and absolute crap like "The Moment of Truth" and "Amne$ia" replacing reruns, people are going online to watch the increasing number of current and older shows being offered by the networks and partners such as Hulu and Joost. This proved the writers' case perfectly.

However... now we're in a situation where we'll have new shows coming back in limited runs starting in a few weeks, and it's been so long since new episodes have been on that our viewing patterns are all out of whack. The networks' move to spread their few remaining pre-strike episodes out at a rate of one every 3-4 weeks threw me off big time. I got to the point where I would forget a show was on because I didn't want to watch reruns, then it turned out they aired a rare new episode that night, and now I'm behind. It's happened with just about all of my favorite shows. Then there's the fact that "Heroes" will not be back until next year and "24" won't come back until next January (and without its creator).

The worst news that came from this mess is NBC's decision to dispense with the traditional notion of a "new fall season". Well, now they're just messing with the natural order of things. The new fall season is what we TV enthusiasts look forward to most, and it just makes sense to happen when it does. Summer is over, either you or your kids are going back to school, and you need something new to get excited about. Also, you're more likely to be inside in the fall for the debut of a new show because the weather is getting colder. But now, NBC has decided that they can just roll out new shows whenever they feel like it instead of at least having a core group that starts in September. I think this will backfire on them big time, because people still set their viewing habits in September and if you're debuting shows all the time, they won't switch unless it's REALLY better than what they're already watching. It just looks like chaos to me... but I'm an organization freak...

The Son Also Rises: Nice to know that we're only 2 weeks into spring training, and the Mets and Yankees' fight for the back pages of the New York papers has spilled over into fighting over whose rivalry is more important. Last season, the Mets-Phillies rivalry really came into its own with Jimmy Rollins' boast that the Phils were the "team to beat". Then, the Mets choked away a 7-game lead with 17 games left, the Phillies won the division, and the redeemed Rollins won National League MVP. So, Rollins topped himself and predicted the Phillies would win 100 games this year. Then, the normally soft-spoken Carlos Beltran opened Mets camp by proclaiming to the press that they should tell "J-Roll" that the Mets are the team to beat. The Fightins' response to the Amazins' so far has been to yell, "Scoreboard". Suffice to say, the gauntlet has been thrown down and (another prediction) don't be surprised when we don't make it out of the first Mets-Phillies series of '08 without a pitcher for one side drilling someone from the other side and a bench-clearing brawl resulting.

Meanwhile, new Yankees big boss Hank Steinbrenner is applying all he's learned from father George and making headlines with his big fat yap. First, he sent Joe Torre packing and said that Torre's managerial career was nothing without the players that Daddy Dearest provided him with during his decade of dynasty in the Bronx. Now, he's attacking the Boston Red Sox. He proclaimed "Red Sox Nation" to be... "a bunch of (expletive)" and a creation of "ESPN, which is filled with Red Sox fans." Then, he said that we are a Yankees country and that anywhere you go, people are wearing Yankees gear and not Red Sox gear. Not to be repetitive, but... BS, El Presidente. I live in Syracuse, widely acknowledged to be Yankee Country, but on the Syracuse University campus, I see MUCH more Red Sox gear than Yankees gear. The Red Sox are what's hot right now... and oh by the way, Mr. Steinbrenner, they've won TWO more championships than your team has since 2000. While he's not going to "restore the universe to order" by putting the Yankees back on top (and Brian Cashman's head will roll for that, according to another recent proclamation by Hank), he has restored the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry back ahead of Mets-Phillies for the title of baseball's best rivalry. For now.