Reg et al:
You asked for it.
Grady Little made obvious mistakes in game management all through the year. He easily lost ten games for the team before the All-Star break.
His strength is generally considered to be "people skills", and while he does earn points in that area, his skills are vastly overrated. Theo (GM) brought in Ortiz and Millar, two guys who contributed as much if not more to the Esprit de Coeur in the clubhouse than Grady. In fact, Grady's inability to stand up to Manny and Pedro earlier in the year actually threatened to fractionalize team.
The Sox won the number of games they won this year because of the incredible talent level, and because at least half a dozen players had career years. Speaking of talent level, the Yankees this year were rather ordinary. Yes, that's right, aging and uninspired, riding the pin-stripe reputation, talented but not nearly at a level that would justify Steinbrenner's immoral payroll.
Perhaps Yankee fans need to convince themselves that their's is always "the better team". Perhaps that is the only way they can reconcile their fan loyalty with the obvious, blatantly unfair, absurdly UNLEVEL PLAYING FIELD upon which the spoiled, greedy lunatic Whinebrenner gathers up his the meaningless championships year after year, championships with which he unsuccessfully attempts to feed the insatiable, unfathomable black hole that is his ego.
(Removing myself from your throat and getting on with my day ..... )
). i didn't care for zimmer, garcia & nelson either, but pedro & manny are the superstars, and needed to maintain their composure: a pitcher known for beanballs & brushbacks SHOULD NOT taunt the other team with a threatening gesture, even if it wasn't what he meant. and a hitter of manny's caliber SHOULD NOT charge the mound because of an eye-high fastball over the plate.