Yankee fans ready 4 Pedro Martinez

Pedro Martinez is one of the top baseball villians in NY Yankee history. He is hated by Yankee fans for a lot good reasons: constantly hitting Yankee hitters, throwing Don Zimmer down to the ground, ridiculing the Bambino. To top it off, he actually went and signed with the Mets after leaving the Red Sox, playing for the Yanks' two hated rivals. It's like he was asking Yankee fans to hate him worse than we already did.

His arrogance is the thing I dislike most about him. During a pre-game press conference today, he called himself one of the most influential people to enter Yankee Stadium. That's amazing to me considering that he could never beat the Yanks when it counts. But Pedro is right about one thing: he's still the center of attention, even overshadowing the Cy Young matchup of CC Sabathia and Cliff Lee.

Yankee fans will be all over him with the "who's your daddy?" chants when he pitches Game 2 of the World Series tomorrow night. But Martinez said that actually motivates him and reminds him that God is his daddy.

Martinez did have a legitimate point about the New York media, which often feels the need to stir things up and blow things way out of proportion. Come on Posties, did you really have to put

Shane Victorino in a cheerleading outfit? Just silly.

But a lot of the criticism of Martinez is legitimate, including the fact that as great as he was against most teams in his prime, he never seemed to match that against the Yanks. I think the same is going to be true tomorrow. Despite his great performance against the Dodgers and Pedro's love for the spotlight, the Yankee offense is going to spank him. And Yankee fans will be ready for the guy they love to hate the most.

Thanks to dbking via Wikipedia for the photo.

Cliff Lee rains on Yankee parade

The day started off pretty well for the Yanks with a mid-day pep rally in Times Square. Despite the rain, I was sorry I missed it cause it looked like people were having fun. Plus, Reggie Jackson, Jeff Nelson and Mick "the Quick" Rivers all showed up to wish the current Yankees well.

But once Game 1 of the World Series started, things quickly went downhill for the Yanks. Cliff Lee cruised during a dominant, complete game performance. Derek Jeter had a typical Jeter playoff game with three hits, but the rest of the line-up got nothing off the lefty.

Though it wasn't as easy for him this time around, CC Sabathia pitched well, allowing only the two home runs to Chase Utley in 7 innings. But the Yankee bats were just no match for Lee.

And then the Yankee bullpen imploded. The continued struggles of Phil Hughes are the most discouraging part of what was a bad overall performance by the pen. He came into the game in the 8th inning to keep it close and promptly walked the first two batters, who eventually scored. Damaso Marte relieved him to get two outs, but Dave Robertson, who had been pitching well in the playoffs, came in and gave up a hit and a run. Brian Bruney and Phil Coke combined to give up a couple of runs in the 9th inning.

A disappointing loss, for sure, but the Yanks have a good shot to rebound in Game 2 tomorrow night. They just have to avoid their bullpen, no small feat with AJ Burnett on the mound.

Thanks to artolog via Wikipedia for the photo.