Well, that's that- the Yankee season came to a grinding halt last night in the Bronx. It was win or go home and the Bombers did just that and they are going home. And although that old adage of "good pitching beats good hitting" very well may be true, but the Yanks were a hit here or there from taking the series and failed. Do I blame A-Rod? To some degree although sitting here there's no way to tell how healthy and ready for the series he actually was. But from that same seat, when A-Rod looked like he had nothing in the clean-up spot (he got 3 rbi early on but none from hits; his only 2 were late in a blow out game) and although I didn't have George's Ghost tweet it or write it here, I was privately calling for his benching and substituting the lefty Eric Chavez at third especially against the Tigers all right-handed starting staff.

I didn't hear one other commentator call for that. And feh, it probably would have been easier had AJ just been his inconsistent self; the Tigers would not have had the chance to celebrate on our field- first time at the new Yankee Stadium coincidentally.

And as the Yanks are built to take the ring, this is now 5 times in the last decade that they've been bounced in the first round. Cashman's contract is up and while there's talk that it will just be extended, this could be the chance to look around and see if there's anyone out there more up to the task of supplying this team with the tools (ARMS!) that they need to get the ring.

We're going to be saddled with A-Rod's albatross on a contract and after he most likely opts out so that he may opt right back in with an extra year and some extra money CC will most likely not be the same pitcher he's been four, five years down the line.

But this off-season one would have to imagine beside re-signing CC (and you have to figure the bosox will attempt to pry him away or, at the very least, drive up his price; it's the off-field battles between NY and Boston clubs that have maintained the animosity; one could say the sox owe the Yanks one for Crawford) that the Yankee GM will go very hard after Texas lefty CJ Wilson. A 2012 starting rotation of: CC, Nova, AJ, Hughes and CJ Wilson is a nice mix of righty/lefty and youth/experience. The bullpen was rock steady this year and hopefully will get something out of the oft-injured parts of the pen we haven't seen.

Anyway, I will leave the hot-stove stuff until the season is officially over. Now? Now I root for an all Mid-West World Series -- and I don't mean the Cards, although I'd be fine with them knocking out the Phillies but to a lesser degree since the Yanks, sadly, won't get to face either.

So yeah, let's go Brew Crew and yeah, I'll root for the Tigers now. WI vs. MI has a nice ring to it and at least the games will be in my time zone. Sadly that's all that's left...

Brian