New York Yankees

So, at the beginning of this season I wrote that the Yanks had a shot. All the Bawston guys were yelling through their keyboards at me. Hmmm.

Turns out I was right. Turns out that having Texieria, Posada, Swisher, and Cabrera—all switch hitters—in one lineup is pretty annoying for opposing teams. The main hitters in this fall roundup are:

A-Rod: .455

Jeter: .400

Posada: .364

After the Yankees and Angels both completed their respective sweeps of the Twins and Red Sox yesterday, it was time to start looking forward to the American League Championship Series.  The series will start Friday night at approximately 8 p.m. EDT, and two of the American League's top teams will be pitted against each other.

The cool thing about the postseason is that teams that advance to the next round can adjust their roster, for whatever reason—maybe someone gets hurt, maybe someone is better against one team than another.

With the ALDS over, the Yankees can now construct their ALCS roster.

This roster will largely remain the same—the differences come down to basically whether or not, against the Angels, you want an extra pinch runner or an extra arm out of the bullpen.

LET'S GO YANKEES!

Just chanting that in my head in the same monotone sound that can be heard from the bleacher bums in Yankee Stadium.

Typing this makes me feel a bit dirty. I'm going to need a shower after writing this article.

Unfortunately, I'll probably be showering quite a bit during this postseason, as I, a huge Mets fan and self-proclaimed Yankee hater, will be rooting for the Evil Empire of the Bronx during the 2009 baseball 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.

As a Mets fan, this has been a long, terrible season, and yet, for me personally, it all came together with one blast off the bat of Alex Rodriguez.

I went to see the Mets on opening day, the first time all of the rivals came to Citi Field, and I was fortunate enough to see the team finish the season with a 10-7 record at my games.

Carl Pavano robbed the Yankees of $38 million from 2005-2008 and on Sunday night, New York will look to make him pay for it.

The 33-year-old right-hander is the only thing standing between the Bombers and their first trip to the American League Championship Series since 2004, and there's more on the line in Game 3 than just the satisfaction of sweeping the Twins and exacting revenge on Pavano.

He knew it was gone the moment he hit it.

It was one more in a long series of moments that have Yankee fans everywhere believing that this is one of those special teams that will go down in history. One more long shot paying off for a team that, for all its talent and gaudy statistics, for all the money it cost to put together, is building its legacy as a team that refused to lie down.

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.