I wrote this when I finally got out of bed circa 2:30 in the afternoon.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around it.

My fellow crazies and I were out celebrating the World Series Championship of the New York Yankees up until about 7am. None of us wanted the night to end.

Ball game over. World Series over. Baseball season over.

Listening to asinine hating anti-fans drop the "who's won more in this century" over.

Having to hear people say they "can't wait til the Yankees choke" over.

First year at new stadium over.

Nine years without a ring over.

Ball game over. The Yankees win.

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by Seth Wenig - AP

It ends here.

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"Have you ever seen Gattaca?"

"Um. Oh. Yeah. With Halle Berry?"

"Huh? No..you're thinking of Gothika. Wait, you've seen Gothika?"

"No."

"Then why did you say--ok, nevermind, the point is, there's this part in the movie where these 2 guys, who always have these swimming competitions with each other, are like treading water in the middle of the ocean, and one guy says, 'How did you do it? How do always, always beat me?' and the other guy says, 'You know how I did it? I never saved anything for the way back.'"

That was a conversation I had with my sister after Game 5.

The Yankees don't need Game 7. The 2009 baseball season ends tonight.

Put everything in. Andy Pettitte with short rest. Pedro Martinez with long-history. A Yankee line-up whose made a living just-besting their postseason opponents. A fanbase that's teetered on nerves, anxiety, but always hope.

A team that's been waiting for this for 9 years.

Never save anything for the swim back.

Because it ends tonight.

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November 4, 2009.

11/4.

If the Yankees win tonight, their postseason record is 11-4.

And it will be their 114th win of 2009.

The only people who should be worried right now are Phillies fans.

More photos » by Eric Gay - AP

An awkward homerun celebration, but a homerun celebration, nonetheless...

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Ahh, much better.

The Yankees beat the Phillies in a much-needed, if technically not "must-win" Game 2, with A.J. Burnett outdueling old friend Pedro Martinez.

The Phillies took an early 1-0 lead in the 2nd with an RBI single from Matt Stairs, but the Yanks answered in the 4th with a solo shot from Mark Teixeira. Two innings later, Hideki Matsui went yard to give the Yanks a 2-1 lead, and then they collectively abandoned the longball game in favor of the small ball one.

If we had lost that game, I would have undoubtedly been arrested, and they would have needed dental records to identify the first base ump's mangled body.

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by Elise Amendola - AP

You again, huh?

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Let's see...in the last 24 hours, I've:

• Thrown a pen at a Red Sox fan because he said, "I'm loving the way this series is going."
• Told my buddy to go to hell when it came to my attention he bet on the Phillies to win the whole series.
• Took a leave of absence from my best friend/sister for texting me during the game.
• Changed the M and N on my coworker's keyboard because he said, "They lost BAD last night, huh."

And still none of these behavioral monuments to lunacy are as ridiculous as Pedro Martinez saying "Any time I hear that, 'Who's your daddy?' it reminds me that God is my daddy. It gives me strength. It keeps me strong and healthy, and I believe I can do anything."

So, if we consider that it was only 5 years ago that Pedro claimed the Yankees were, in fact, his daddy, by the transitive property, we can infer that Pedro thinks the Yankees are God.

Here we go. Game 2. Not a must-win situation, so I won't call it that. The Phillies send our boy Petey to the mound, who hasn't pitched in the Bronx since his Mets days in 2005. According to him, he's "older and wiser" which should bring his overall net intelligence to around sea level now. A.J. Burnett gets the nod for the Yanks, and I have this weird feeling that our boy is going to stun us (in a good way.)

The Phils are good. But the Yankees are the Yankees. And that's all you need to know going into tonight. Let's get 'em back, NY. This series is ours.

More photos » by Eric Gay - AP

Game breaks open right about....here.

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I can't do this.

I blame my sister for this one, actually, who decided a good time to pick a fight would be the second inning of the f'n World Series. THIS IS EXACTLY WHY I DON'T DATE ANYONE DURING  BASEBALL.

Ugh.

How much more do you need to know here? The Yankees got shut down by Cliff Lee. CC Sabathia let up 2 solo homeruns to Chase Utley and Chase Utley. David Robertson, once the Houdini of bases-loaded-jams, gave up a base hit in the 8th to Raul Ibanez to make it 4-0.

Then Ryan Howard doubled in the 9th for 2 more runs. A couple of meaningless baserunners in the the bottom of the inning allowed Derek Jeter to score, but it was too much for even the Yanks to overcome.

We lost out first game at home.

A.J. Burnett better rip the Phillies a new you-know-what tomorrow.

Til then...

by David J. Phillip - AP

It all starts here...

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It's almost surreal. I can't believe that in mere hours I'll be watching the New York Yankees in the World Series. I'm strangely calm, which means that it's all going to catch up to me about 2 minutes before the National Anthem is sung. Fortunately, I'm prepared.

Tonight, our favorite round boy and ALCS MVP CC Sabathia (3-0, 1.19) goes up against superace and ex-teammate Cliff Lee (2-0, 0.74) for a match that walked straight out of Type Casting for Mega-Pitching-Duel. The AP so insightfully informs us that the two hurlers have more in common than we may think:

"Teammates only 16 months ago, Lee and Sabathia have more in common than their Cleveland history and potent left arms. Their families are friendly, and they still text each other often."

Wow, they're practically clones.

CC hasn't had the most success against the Phils (1-2, 5.55), but then again, it seems like the baseball world has been scoffing left, right, and center at history this year. Lee isn't striking fear into the hearts of most NY fans either, though. In 12 IP, he's let up 16 hits, with Yankee hitters boasting a .320 BA against him.

Lee's the type of pitcher the Yanks can work from both ends--his control is subject to variability, and he has too much faith in his completely hittable fastball. If they jump on those 2 weaknesses, the Phillies aren't gonna know what hit 'em.

This year, the Yankees are 1-2 against their "Liberty Series" counterpart, but I think we can agree that the Late May Yanks are a far cry from this Late October one. Much has been made of the Big Bad Bats decorating the Philly line-up, but technically Ryan Howard and Chase Utley don't bat 9 times in a row.

And, most importantly, this is the Bronx.

And I think Reds' manager Dusty Baker sums it up pretty well here:

I’ve lost in Yankee Stadium as a Dodger and won in Yankee Stadium as a Dodger. It can be done, but you don’t want to be in a position where you have to win there. They just believe they are always going to win, the players believe it, the fans believe it.

They brain wash you. They put all those great moments in Yankees history on the scoreboard during batting practice. The highlights are great and the Yankees are just killing teams and you have to watch it for two hours. You can’t help but see it. It's just not conducive for visitors.

They wanted to take that vibe and that history from the old stadium and bring it to the new Yankee Stadium and with the success they are having it appears to have worked. I remember when Aaron Boone hit that home run off Wakefield to get the Yankees to the World Series in 2003, Derek Jeter had told him not to worry that the ghost will come.

So the Ghost of Babe Ruth may be a curse to some but he’s been good for the Yankees.

Scared yet, Philly?

Yeah, I'm just not seeing it...

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The 2009 ALCS and 2004 ALCS are practically mirror images of each other.

Indistinguishable.

Talk about carbon copies! I haven't seen this level of uncanny similarity since watching Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes in White Men Can't Jump.

Yeah, that's about how alike these two series are.

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More photos » by Mark J. Terrill - AP

I BLAME THIS GUY.

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I guess it makes sense...

7-6.

#65 gets the win.

#65 gets the loss.

In game 5.

Thanks to a 4 run 1st.

From #34.

And a 3-hit game.

From #41.

And a final out from #33.

On the 22nd.

See ya in the Bronx, kids.

Do the gory details need to be relived?

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by Mark J. Terrill - AP

It's not a postseason win without a patented captain fist pump.

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The more I think about it, the more I'm relieved the Yankees didn't beat the Angels on Monday. Because being up 3-0 would have undoubtedly cued a barrage of clips from The Unspeakable Year. And if they had won 3, then lost 1? Forget about it, the sports world would have had a veritable field day predicting "Here we go again!"

But that's not the case. The Yanks have Anaheim right where they want 'em: 27 outs away from the final hurdle in the Road to 27. A.J. Burnett (13-9, 4.04) gets the honor of trying to close out this series, while John Lackey (11-8, 3.83) gets the chore of trying to avoid headlining Anaheim's season swan song.

Burnett, who I assign a generous helping of credit to for lighting a fire under this team's ass, is too much of a pistol to not rise to the occasion here. In his last start, he let up 2 earned runs and 2 unearned, with his wild penchants discernibly surfacing before getting pulled. Lackey got worked in Game 1, giving up 9 runs and 4 runs over 5.2 IP.

The Yanks won't be able to rely on their sit-on technique that worked like clockwork again Scott Kazmir: Lackey's a 1st-pitch-strike kind of guy (my head is already hurting from T-Mac and Buck marveling at this for about 89 mentions.)

This also might be a good time for Mark Teixeira flex his offensive muscles and break out of his .133 postseason freeze. #13 can only compensate for his buddy's sleeping bat for so long... As for predictions, I think #34 delivers us to 4-3 final tonight, giving the Yanks their 40th pennant with a 4-1 series victory. All on the eve of #41's 31st birthday. 

LET'S GO YANKEES. THE TITLE AWAITS!

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