[CJFusco]

ok, jason, i have a lot more respect for you now. And here's some "tit for tat"

I've said it all along during the playoffs: Hideki Matsui is absolutely amazing. The Yankees best all-round player right now, if you ask me. Every time he came up to bat last night, I was expecting him to put the final nail into the coffin.

My respect also goes out to Rivera, even though it is clear that he is tired and over-worked at this point. He is, with the possible exceptions of Eckersly or Gossage, the best closer of all time. And I don't doubt that Joe Torre is one of the greatest managers in recent history (along with Mike Scoscia).

What makes me hate the Yankees? Guys like Gary Sheffield, who are no more than hired guns and say very stupid things to the press. And *most* Yankees fans are condescending jerks. (admittedly, the drunken college kid Sox fan is pretty obnoxious too)

If I was a Yankees fan, I would find it a bit more difficult to love this team than the 1996-1999 Yankees, to tell the truth. Guys like O'Neill, Brosius, Tino... those are REAL ballplayers, not the hired guns like Giambi and Sheffield.Actually, I have heard old-school Yankees fans say that guys like Nixon, Damon, Millar, and Varitek (the "dirt dogs") remind them of the grit that the guys like O'Neill and Tino brought to those dynasty Yankee teams.