I Do Believe In Angels

I don't often revel in the downfall of others, but there are certain people that draw my ire, and I cannot help but feel a little better when they fall. These people are the ones who act entitled to what they have. The ones who swing their egos and their jaws, but when push comes to shove, they can't swing their bats. People who put money above honor. People who, instead of helping their side to win, will abandon those who count on them to join the side that is already winning. People like Alex Rodriguez. People like Gary Sheffield. People like Randy Johnson. People like Jason Giambi. People like Mike Mussina.

As many of you know, I am a Yankee Hater. That does not mean I hate all Yankees. I like Hidekyi Matsui. I like Chen-Mein Wang. I liked Paul O'Neill. These are players who do their jobs and blame nobody but themselves when they fail. What I hate is the Yankee mentality. That sense of entitlement that comes with being a Yankee. Like the "blue-bloods" of old Europe, Yankees feel they are born, not made, and God help those who stand in their way. Players like Derek Jeter are certainly entitled to their swagger and cockiness. After all, he has been on a winning team his entire career and has been a loyal servant of the Yankee empire. He runs out every ground ball and every pop-up. Rodriguez, Sheffield, Johnson, Giambi, Mussina, and their ilk, are entitled to nothing. They came to the Yankees because they saw a winning team and they wanted a piece of it. They saw the "majesty" that attaches itself to Yankee winners and they wanted to be made royalty. They have only succeeded in making themselves court jesters.

For the almost-quarter-billion-dollar Yankees, nothing short of victory is acceptable. Yet these mercenaries whom the Yankees brought in to assure victory were nothing short of disasters in winners' clothing.

• Giambi, while not terrible at the plate average-wise (.421), only drove in two runs and scored one, and his play in the field will never be described as pretty.

• Sheffield hit .286, and like Giambi, drove in two and scored one, and, whatever you think or hear about his collision in the field with Bubba Crosby, it is a baseball truism that any ball a centerfielder can get to is his ball, no excuses.

• Johnson almost redeemed himself last night with a masterful relief appearance, but as the saying goes, "too little, too late." If he had pitched like that on Friday, they probably wouldn't have even played a game five. Now even Mel Stottelmeyer has come out saying that Johnson tips his pitches, but it only matters when he doesn't have good stuff. How much longer do you think a 42-year-old pitcher will have his good stuff?

• Mussina had a decent start the first game. He gave up no runs, but failed to make it out of the sixth inning. Then, after five days of rest in sunny Southern California, he has another start like that against Baltimore at the end of the regular season. I agree with his post-game statements that it was the little things that really took the game from them, but he still bears some of the responsibility. The ball was in his hands and he couldn't hold on.

Now we come to Alex Rodriguez, the man at the center. The could-be regular season Most Valuable Player who is most certainly the post-season Least Valuable Player. For the second year in a row ARod has proven himself incapable of coming up big. He had ample opportunity to drive in runs and play that wonderful defense I keep hearing about, but only seemed to crumble in tight spots. The $25 million-per-year man was 2 for 15 (.133) with two runs scored and ZERO runs batted in. His only two hits came in the 11-7 loss. The game before, he made a costly error at third base and got caught stealing with some more failed big guns coming up behind him (when has running been a part of the Yankee game plan? I thought they played Earl Weaver-wait-for-the-three-run-homer baseball). In the final game he struck out twice and in the last inning hit into a double play with the tying run on first base. So much for doing what the Yankees brought him in to do.

Some of these players would only sign with the Yankees, some of them demanded they be traded to the Yankees, and all of them failed as Yankees.

And now their winters will be as cold and desolate as their hearts.