Baseball

In the words of Howie Rose, "Put it in the books" when it comes to Sandy Alderson as the new GM for the Amazin's.

GM: check.

Now the focus will turn to who will take the helm as the team's next manager. Before I give some suggestions, I'd like to set one thing straight.

Getting an opportunity to play in Major League Baseball doesn’t come without sacrifice and hard work. Everyone that gets there goes a different route in realizing their dreams.

Some players have more obstacles in front of them than others, which make the success of San Francisco Giants’ second baseman Freddy Sanchez quite remarkable.

No team plays with the goal of being called second or third best.

They play to be called Champions.

But, that does not exclude the non-champions from being ranked. Nor does it stop some governing body or League Office/Association from crowning a second or third place team.

With the sting of the New York Yankees loss to the Texas Rangers in the American League Championship Series still fresh in the minds of many Yankee fans, many are demanding drastic changes.

The uninspired six game defeat to the upstart Rangers will surely result in some roster turnover.

Pitching coach Dave Eiland has already had his fate determined, as he was fired earlier this week.

Like The Who said, “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”

Technically, your New York Mets have yet to officially name Sandy Alderson as the new General Manager, but that’s mostly out of respect for the World Series than anything else. Mets fans everywhere can rejoice as the hiring of Alderson is set to start a whole new era of Metropolitan baseball.

Or is it?

The 2010 season saw a changing of the guard atop the second base rankings, with Robinson Cano overtaking Chase Utley in what has become an extremely deep position.  That was just one tough decision among many when it comes to our early rankings. 

Let’s take a look at how things currently look (and keep in mind that these will be updated throughout the offseason):

Not repeating and no longer reigning as champions was not the game plan the New York Yankees had at the start of the 2010 season.

Losing the ALCS to the Texas Rangers was heartbreaking. The Bombers elimination seemed almost unreal, as the Yankees were the stronger ball-club all season long.

The blame-game is in full swing in New York, pointing fingers at Skipper Joe Girardi for his managerial calls and GM Brian Cashman not facing a team of over-the-hill players in time.

NOTE: PLAY THE  BELOW MUSIC WHILE YOU READ THIS ARTICLE

The San Francisco Union-Giants marched onto the fields at AT&T Gettysburg under an orange and black sky on this day of 27 October 2010.

General Lee (Cliff) looked to continue his invasion northward after successful campaigns against Fort Tampa and the Yankee outpost in the Bronx.

When the Atlanta Braves 2010 came to a close a couple weeks back at the hands of the eventual National League Champion San Francisco Giants, there was a lot of mourning at the Britt (that's me) household.

I was resigned to filling out college applications and (gasp) putting school over baseball for a couple of weeks as I bitterly refused to watch the LCS's for the thought of what might of been had Chipper Jones, Martin Prado, Billy Wagner and Kris Medlen been good-to-go for the first round of the playoffs.

What's that?

Going to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York is a place where you can dig your mind into a gold mine of artifacts and have an amazing day in one of the greatest sports-related places in the world. I have gone to the Hall of Fame multiple times, and diehard baseball fans can never leave Cooperstown without new chunks of baseball knowledge.