WELL, THAT WAS QUICK

Congratulations to the Boston Red Sox on winning the World Series. I really thought the Rockies would make something out of that...but they barely showed up. Click on the link to the right that says "Orange Couch". The Southern Bureau did a nice job of breaking down the World Series in his pick on his blog...although he admits to letting his heart get in the way a little, he made the right calls. I should have seen this coming...but I didn't.

The layoff definitely hurt the Rockies' hitting...but it didn't help that they were facing Josh Beckett early on also. Their pitching was pretty bad.

The Series was so quick that I didn't even have a chance to offer a bet to one of my co-bloggers...either the Southern Bureau or Dave in Brighton, who are both Red Sox fans...or even The Wife. Maybe we can still work something out, since I'll admit that I would have lost whatever we bet.

I could have let the Southern Bureau cash in on his bet in person, too. How's this for an impulsive move? The Southern Bureau came north Tuesday for the Red Sox championship parade. That's awesome. I had to be with the Baby, so I couldn't meet up with him, but I admire his move from afar. Great work, Southern Bureau. (Dave in Brighton also attended said parade, but who are we kidding...he's from Brighton. It would be news if he didn't go.)

I need to weigh in on a few other things that have been making news lately:

A-ROD
I agree that it was in poor taste that the announcement that A-Rod was opting out of his contract came during the World Series. But the media made way too big a deal out of it...they could have let it sit until after the World Series - they chose to play it up. Also, I would have bet money that the Yankees were waiting for a couple of hours until after the World Series ended (and the Red Sox won) to try to steal some headlines by naming their new manager. Perhaps they waited a day after they saw how A-Rod got slammed by not waiting with his news. It just seemed like a Yankees way to steal headlines - and trust me, as a Mets fan, I know the Yankees are a well-oiled machine when it comes to grabbing headlines away from their rivals.

Also, I hate to even bring this up, but this occurred to me, and I think it needs to be mentioned. Jose Reyes was not himself the last couple of months of the season. You hate to think it, but I'm sure the front office was wondering what was up. Now the best shortstop in the game is available. The Mets have to be in the conversation, since they're one of only a handful of teams in the majors who can afford Rodriguez. Do the Mets think about trading Jose Reyes for some stud pitchers somewhere, while his value is at its peak, and then sign Rodriguez? I am not in any way endorsing this move - I just thought it might have some fragment of the way the Mets' front office might be thinking.

Something needs to be shaken up after last season's collapse...do the Mets do something this dramatic? I think that I hope they don't...but I'm not really sure how I feel. The ending to last season...and then the impending steroid report results....it all has me a bit bothered, and I'm not sure I'll know how I really feel about baseball and the Mets until spring training rolls around. And I don't know that I'll care very much if Alex Rodriguez is a Met and Jose Reyes isn't. But I won't know until this stuff actually happens.

One last thing - a lot of Red Sox fans I know are saying they absolutely do NOT want Alex Rodriguez on their team. They're throwing around words like "cancer". I don't know if A-Rod is that big of a clubhouse cancer - how can he be? He's just not that big of a personality. I just think he's selfish...and that probably doesn't endear him to teammates...but I don't think he tears teams apart. I think he just folds in tough situations, and ends up letting his team down at key moments.

MANAGERIAL MOVES
So Joe Torre is out in New York, Joe Girardi is in, and Joe Torre is now in in Los Angeles, and Grady Little is out. And Don Mattingly is following Torre to L.A. The two guys that got the worst out of these deals are two guys I like a lot. I like Grady Little. I don't know why, I just do. And I think he got a raw deal in Boston. But that's ancient history. Too bad it didn't work out for him in L.A....who knows if he'll ever find success as a manager. (Meanwhile, I was about to write about what a great job Terry Francona has done with the Red Sox since succeeding Little, but Bob Ryan beat me to it with a great article in Tuesday's Boston Globe. So I won't waste my time.)

Then there's Don Mattingly. I always liked Mattingly. For a long time, I was a Yankees and Mets fan - I harbored no ill will towards the Yankees at all. People always said, "How could you like both New York teams?" They never played one another, so I thought it was easy to like them both. They both represented my city. But then Don Mattingly got old fast. And the Yankees showed him the door. I can't remember the details of his departure as I write this, but one day Don Mattingly was a Yankee, the next he wasn't even invited back to spring training, if I remember correctly. So now, another unceremonious departure later, I just feel bad for the man. He's a Yankee...and I don't think they treated him right twice. That's why I stopped rooting for the Yankees...just in time for their great run of World Series titles. But I guess it's a good thing that happened - because otherwise I would have been quite confused in the 2000 Subway Series (don't worry...I would have rooted for the Mets).

It will be interesting to see how Joe Girardi does in New York after the fiasco in Florida where he clashed with ownership while doing a wonderful job managing a young group. There are elements with this Yankees team that are the same (young players, interfering owners?), but it's a mostly veteran team of which a lot is expected. So that's different.

FINALLY, A PICK: The Yankees-Dodgers is too obvious, with that managerial connection. So the early frontrunner for my World Series prediction for 2008 is Braves-Tigers, following the Edgar Renteria trade.