2009 MLB Playoffs

If you are a New York Yankees fan, you have to start feeling like there is a lot of late '90s magic going on with this team.

When I say magic, I am not talking the clutch hitting from Alex Rodriguez or the brilliant pitching by Andy Pettitte.

I am talking the egregious umpiring that always benefits the Yankees (Joe Mauer call in Game Two), teams and players making bonehead plays they would normally not make (Nick Punto last night), and even when the Yankees make a bad play, it somehow working out in their favor (Robinson Cano misplay leads to an out last night).

During the 2009 regular season, Alex Rodriguez posted up good numbers overall. Unlike previous seasons, he did not head the team in home-runs and runs batted in. The 2009 campaign was Alex Rodriguez's way to say that he was now a team player.

After admitting to using steroids in the past, while with the Texas Rangers, Alex Rodriguez began to preach the fact that he was now focused on winning more as a team than just for himself.

This Article Originally Published at GetOutofMyBallpark.com.

There is no real fall in New England.

From Opening Day in April until the last out is made on the Boys of Summer, we have six (sometimes seven) glorious months of sunny days and warm temperatures. After that, it's all dark, cold, gray winter.

As the Los Angeles Dodgers finished their three-game sweep of the Cardinals, it occurred to me that this is one club whose success has seemed to be taken for granted.

Last year, as the Dodgers did the same to my Cubbies, most everything that was talked about and written seemed to focus on how poorly the Cubs played and very little, if any, respect was accorded the Dodgers for winning the series.

The Minnesota Twins begged the New York Yankees to win Game Two of their American League Division Series last night at Yankee Stadium, and the Yankees took them up on their offer.

The Yankees beat the Twins last night, 4-3 in 11 innings, on a walk-off home run by Mark Teixeira to give the Bronx Bombers a two-games-to-none advantage in their best-of-five series.

Vicente Padilla will get the nod to pitch Game Three of the NLDS on Saturday against the St. Louis Cardinals as manager Joe Torre chose to go with Padilla over the early season ace, Chad Billingsley.

He also was awarded the start over Jon Garland, who possesses post-season experience and even a World Series championship ring, but Padilla has done yeoman’s work in the final months of the season and has earned the right to toe the rubber.

By Ryan of The Sportmeisters

About The Minnesota Twins:

A day after clinching the AL Central in a one-game playoff, the Twins travel to the Big Apple to take on the Yankees. At 87-76, the Twins closed a seven-game deficit, going 17-4 over the final month to tie the Detroit Tigers and force the playoff before clinching the AL Central.

I look forward to a potential American League Championship Series matchup with the Angels in the same way I anticipate turning 40 and having my wife tell me I need a fully invasive prostate exam.

To clarify, I dread the future worse than Chris Russo.

The Yankees beat the Angels at their own game on Monday in the Bronx, manufacturing the go-ahead run thanks to the infinitely valuable Brett Gardner and a helping hand from Chone Figgins, who was more skittish at third than Tom Brady in the pocket against the Bills.