Finally! The waiting is over! After nine long years without a World Series victory, the Yankees are champs once again. Nobody suffers like a Yankees fan. Think of the toll all those championship-less years have taken on an eight-year-old Yankee fan who’s never seen his favorite team win. After overcoming the Curse of Danny Cater by winning it all in ’77 and the Curse of Hiring a Manager Named Stump with the team’s ’96 Series win, the Bombers have now wiped out the Curse of Giving Us the Image of Jason Giambi in a Thong. This year’s Yankees were a heartwarming story of pies to the face and walk-off wins, and they were, of course, built the old-fashioned way: By buying up every free agent star on the market and paying hundreds of millions of dollars to them. The World Series celebration was more subdued this year because the only people who can afford to go to a Yankee game are the players and their Hollywood girlfriends. But however big their payroll is, they got it done on the field, so they earned it. And the Phillies were certainly no pushovers.

Instead of the usual Player of the Week mumbo jumbo, here are some World Series observations and fun facts:

With their 27^th championship, the Yanks have won 25.7% of all World Series. Whether you love ’em or hate ’em, that’s impressive.

Out of all the players in the history of baseball who have styled their hair using bacon grease, Chase Utley is without a doubt the best of the bunch.

Johnny Damon’s mad dash to an uncovered third base was the best play of the Series and will be the signature highlight of this Fall Classic. If this postseason has taught us anything, it’s that other teams can be as boneheaded and fundamentally lacking as the Mets.

Bud Selig is coming closer and closer to fulfilling his dream of having a baseball game played on Thanksgiving.

If it was his last game with the Bronx Bombers, Hideki Matsui made his mark as a Yankee in this Series, by batting .615 with three home runs and eight RBI’s, and driving in six runs in the clincher, which tied a record set by fellow-Yankee Bobby Richardson in 1960. Matsui also announced after the game that he would be releasing a tell-all book entitled, Stuff I Overheard in the Yankee Clubhouse After Tricking Everybody Into Thinking I Didn’t Speak English.

Is there a cooler character than Cliff Lee? He might as well have been throwing pitches between taking bites of a sandwich.

Do you think Tim McCarver tries to predict every little moment at home like he does when announcing a game? “I can tell we’re going to have pot roast tonight, kids, because your mother is opening the oven door with her left hand. And when she wears an oven mitt on each hand, you just know she’s going to be pulling out a big roast of some kind.”

Phillie fans think Joe Buck is pro–New York and Yankee fans feel he’s pro-Philadelphia. But, come on, he hates all of us East Coasters. His allegiance is to Anheuser-Busch and St. Louis.

I imagine the word “choking” won’t be coming out of Cole Hamels’ mouth on the radio this offseason.

Alex Rodriguez finally got his World Series ring. Thank God―we were all worried for him. Will he love himself even more now? Imagine the makeout sessions with the mirror this winter.

Jimmy Rollins made a nice fool of himself with his Patrick Ewing-like prediction before the Series. Maybe he should stop with the yapping and use that time to take some extra batting practice. That’s two years in a row he’s left the heavy lifting for his teammates (.217 in this year’s Series; .227 last year).

It looks like Mark Teixeira is the new/old A-Rod, with his .136 average. Lucky for him the Yankees won.

The performance of the Phillies’ bullpen was no surprise, but the rest of the Phillies didn’t look like the Phillies. What happened to Ryan Howard (he broke the World Series record for most strikeouts, with 13, and batted .174), Rollins, Shane Victorino (.182) and even Pedro Feliz (.174)? That didn’t resemble the Philadelphia team we’ve seen over the last few years.

Andy Pettitte was the winning pitcher in each postseason series clincher for the Yanks this year. Every Yankee fan knows he’s the pitcher you want in a big game. They also know if they need steroids, Pettitte can round some up for them in a pinch.

Joe Girardi: Lucky or genius?

The Yankees announced this morning that they will be charging a nominal $2,500 fee to each fan who attends today’s parade. “If we ripped them off before we won the World Series, think of what we can do now that we’re champs. They’re not the greatest fans in the world for nothing,” they stated in a press release.

Congratulations, New York Yankees.

In Major League Baseball, the MVP award goes out at the end of the regulated season. It goes to the athlete who has stood out as being the most valuable, above all the rest. To an individual player, it is a huge accomplishment and honor considered being the elite in your field.

Within baseball, two players one from the American League and the one from the National League respectively, receive this prize each year.

The awards terms incorporate the obvious, which are stats and production for the season. Baseball has more stats than any other sport but this at least provides an idea of who is in contention.

However, for me, a fan, the MVP means so much more than just that.

A player selflessly plays the game by the game as part of the team not for his own personal goals. This is by no means a wimp, nor a loud mouth. His personal goals are for the team and to help the team win.

It is an athlete, proud of their sport’s history, as well as respects the veterans who played before him by learning from their wisdom.

The MVP is an athlete who discovers it is not his right to be a professional athlete but a gift that get treated as such through hard work and dedication.

Anyone will agree that the first lesson taught in gym class is to be a good sport and a team player. It is the fundamentals of displaying sportsmanship.

Plenty of MVP awards have gone to athletes (aka. Lebron James) who do not display these fundamental basics. The kind of message that is being sent is one where stats are all that matter.

That is furthest thing from the truth. It is so confusing if a player is the named ‘MVP’ because they are supposed to be the perfect, in valuable to a team. Perfect examples all around is what I am getting at.

The game of Baseball took a beating that goes beyond damage. The game deserves to get some of its integrity back. With all the PED talk and craziness of a list, that is destroying baseball name by name.

This only cements why this particular season’s MVP has to special. A player being one with the obvious of having top stats but also displays what the game of baseball is still. It has to be the story that tops the baseball world by getting everyone to stop and remember why it is America’s past time.

The answer might be the easiest decision to make.

Simply, it would be to crown Derek Jeter the MVP because he deserves it.

It sends a message to the kids who idolize baseball. That you can play fairly, not being a circus show, not wanting to draw attention to yourself but to your team and displays the courage to give credit where credit is due, win or lose.

Jeter is the template of baseball and his stats are good enough to be on the list. The persona that Derek Jeter characterizes so consistently is more valuable to baseball than any RBI’s or Home runs hit.

He not only represents the great City of New York but of our country as well at the WBC (World Baseball Classic), which took place last February. The players vote for a captain who will represent not only the USA but also themselves. Rollins, Wright, Pedroia, Youkilis to a name a few all voted for Jeter without hesitation.

If a room full of your own peers, who are the best of the best, elect you to be their captain it speaks more to society then the stats on the score-sheet.

Derek Jeter is the Most Valuable Player this season. He is the Yankees captain, he is also America’s captain and he is baseball’s captain.

No one represents baseball to the fans, to the players and to the world more than Derek Jeter does.

In addition, because of what this athlete is to the sport of baseball alone says it all.

Baseball would not be what it is without Derek Jeter and I am not the only one…..

Rays manager Joe Maddon said it best: “I’m very happy for him. He carries himself in a manner that’s worthy of passing Gehrig.”

“I can’t tell you how much I admire Derek Jeter, everything about him. He’s a symbol of everything that’s right about the game, as far as I’m concerned. He’s a great role model for other players. When I tell my kids or grandkids about the great players from my time, I’ll be proud to say I was on the same field with Derek Jeter.” – Howie Kendrick, Angels

“It couldn’t happen to a better person. He’s a great teammate, a great friend. He’s done things the right way. He’s a great leader on this team, so you can’t say enough about Derek Jeter.” – Andy Pettitte after Jeter broke Lou Gehrig’s hits record

“He’s a leader and a winner and that’s something I’d like to be.” – David Wright, Captain of the New York Mets

All anybody’s talking about in the New York area is the Islanders’ first regulation win over the Rangers (though Jimmy Rollins predicted it on Monday). You can’t walk down the street without somebody stopping you and asking all about the hockey team from Long Island. Will they get on a roll? Is John Tavares the real deal? Islanders, Islanders, Islanders! Everybody’s forgetting all about the bad start of the two local basketball teams, and does anybody even know that the Yankees are in the World Series this year? All the Islanders-all-the-time talk is really taking the pressure off the other local teams.

Here at Hot Stove, we know that the Yankees are in the World Series again, as you can’t get anything by us. The Bronx Bombers paid their $200 million entry fee into the Series, setting up a rematch of the 1950 Fall Classic. And with so many off-days, it seems like there are about 59 years between games in this postseason. In the Series we’ve already seen Cliff Lee nonchalantly put the Bombers’ bats to sleep, and in game two the Yankees proved once again to be Pedro Martinez’s daddy. After the game, Martinez also claimed that Mark Teixeira was his uncle, Hideki Matsui a distant cousin and Jorge Posada was his Aunt Lucille. People in New York may not care for the Phillies (or Eagles or Sixers or Flyers), but not everything from Philly is bad. They did give us two of America’s greatest cultural achievements (no, not Chase Utley’s hair): Cheesesteaks and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Of course, the mayors from the two cities made their usual bet on the Series. Many ideas were tossed around on what the bet would consist of: If the Yankees lose, New York City would change its name to Mike Schmidtville, if Philly loses it would change to Little Smellier New York; if the Phils win NYC would have to replace the Statue of Liberty with a 300-foot statue of the Philly Phanatic, if the Yanks win Philadelphia has to tear down its statue of Rocky and put one up of Clue Haywood; if the Phillies win Pedro Martinez gets to slam the Yankee coach of his choice to the ground once more for old time’s sake, if the Yankees win A.J. Burnett gets to smash a pie filled with stuff fished out of the East River in Shane Victorino’s face. They finally settled on the losing city just disappearing from the face of the earth.

In local football news, the Jets and Giants beat Oakland this season by a combined score of 82-7. The Jets kept things simple for Mark Sanchez, who spent the game eating hot dogs in the huddle while watching his running backs go wild. Teams instantly get back on track when playing the Raiders, but can it work like that in real life, also? If your marriage is on the rocks, can you spend the day with the Oakland Raiders and you’ll be on your way to a second honeymoon? Failing out of high school? Will three hours with the Raiders get those grades back up and you’ll find yourself enrolling in Harvard? If your life is falling apart because of an alcohol problem, will running around the football field for an afternoon with the Raiders put everything back into place? Are the Oakland Raiders the cure for all of our problems?

Player of the Week

Shonn Greene: The Jets rookie stepped in when Leon Washington was lost for the season, and gained a whopping 144 yards and scored two touchdowns. But how many spellings of the name ‘Sean’ do we need? Shonn, Chone, Shean, Sean, Shaun, Shawn. Stop the madness.

Runners Up

A.J. Burnett: The Yanks needed Burnett to come up big, and he was clutch in game two, throwing seven strong innings and outdueling Pedro.

Mariano Rivera: After getting a two-inning save to close out the Angels on Sunday, Rivera did it again last night to save game two of the World Series (though he got a little help from the umps).

Mark Teixeira/Hideki Matsui: Each blasted a homer to right, which was enough offense for the Bronx Bombers. But what’s happening to Alex Rodriguez? 0-8 with six strikeouts in the Series? Uh-oh.

Thomas Jones: Another day at the office for Jones – 121 yards and a TD.

Jets Offensive Line: They only let up one sack and have blocked their way to being the first team to have back-to-back 300 rushing yards since the 1975 Bills, who, of course, featured O.J. Simpson. Let’s just hope that none of these linemen become A.C. Cowlings to Thomas Jones’ O.J.

Calvin Pace: The busy linebacker had three sacks, seven tackles and two forced fumbles. But does it really count if it’s against Oakland?

Andy Pettitte: The veteran lefty notched his record-setting 16^th postseason win, while clinching the ALCS for the Yanks on Sunday.

Kevin Boss: The Giants tight end had three catches, but the one late in the game when he was almost knocked unconscious with a helmet to helmet hit earns him a spot here. That’s one tough dude.

Jeff Tambellini: The Islanders went 1-0-2, this week, and Tambellini picked up three goals and an assist along the way.

Brook Lopez: The Nets big man scored 27 points, hauled in 15 rebounds and blocked five shots, but the Nets still collapsed in Minnesota.

Marian Gaborik: The Ranger star had five points in two games, and left a gaping hole in the lineup when he missed Wednesday’s game.

R.I.P. Bill Chadwick: Legendary Rangers announcer The Big Whistle died on Saturday, at the age of 94. He was colorful, loud and fun. I ranked him #7 on my painstakingly non-researched post of the best local announcers of the last 40 years. He was originally a referee and invented the hand signals that refs still use today. I was watching the Rangers game when his death was announced, which reminds me of the time when I was a kid and was viewing the back-to-back Hogan’s Heroes episodes that channel 5 used to show from 11 PM–midnight, when the news team cut in with the startling report that the show’s star Bob Crane was murdered. I instantly blamed Colonel Klink. Coincidence? Synchronicity? The ghost of Bob Crane has haunted me ever since, though. I constantly wake up to find radios in my coffee pot, tunnels built under my house and Lebeau’s strudel sitting on my kitchen counter.

Schmuck of the Week

Eli Manning: The Giants QB may have been over-thinking things a little too much by changing plays at the line of scrimmage on every down, taking two delay of game penalties along the way and throwing three picks. Or was he listening to the Yankees game in the radio in his helmet?  At any rate, Manning had trouble hooking up with his receivers all game long and never seemed to solve Arizona’s defense.

It was a brutal week for the New York football teams, as the Giants got killed and the Jets fell to lowly Buffalo and lost Kris Jenkins for the rest of the season. Even the hockey teams mixed in some debacles with a few wins. And something bad probably happened to the Mets even though their season is long over.

But even after last night’s loss, the Yankees are sitting pretty, with a 3-2 lead in the series and heading back home. With a budget as high as our country’s deficit, the Yanks had two options this offseason: Use their money to cure the U.S. economy or buy a whole bunch of free agents. They chose the latter, and it’s working out just fine (well, for them). Unfortunately, the one aspect of the playoffs that has stood out the most is the atrocious umpiring. The horrible umpiring in this year’s postseason is unprecedented, but there are things out there that are actually worse, if you can believe it. And there’s only one way to discover what those things are – we’re going to have to play Family Feud. So here we go . . . let’s play the Feud! We’ve surveyed 20,000 Americans and came up with the top 20 answers. Name something that is worse than this year’s playoff umpiring. Survey says . . .

Steve Phillips‘ judgment

Steve Phillips’ taste in women

Steve Phillips’ wife’s taste in men

ESPN’s taste in announcers

The closers on every playoff team except the Yankees

Joe Girardi’s decision to bring in Alfredo Aceves in game three

The Angels’ defense

The Angels’ base running

The Islanders

The Nets

The Knicks

The Mets

Bud Selig

Nick Swisher’s ALCS batting average

Chip Caray

The Tennessee Titans

Eric Mangini

An Omar Minaya press conference

Me spending 45 minutes at work watching a flying saucer-shaped balloon fly over Colorado (oh, who am I kidding? I wouldn’t give that time back for anything)

And the #1 answer: Sobriety

Players of the Week

CC Sabathia: He was the man in games one and four. Eight innings and one run in the first game and then he did it again his next time out on Tuesday. Short rest? No problem. He’s already been storing up food for the winter by eating eight meals a day, so strength wasn’t an issue (ok, he probably does that year-round).

Alex Rodriguez: What’s going on with the erstwhile choke artist? He may be calm and relaxed on the outside, but his clutchness seems to have caught a case of ’roid rage. He has three homers and five RBI’s and is batting .368 in the ALCS

Runners Up

Mariano Rivera: The always reliable Yankees closer has pitched five innings in four games without giving up a run in the series vs. the Angels.

Derek Jeter: He and A-Rod carried the Yanks during the first part of the ALCS. He’s belted two dingers and has driven in three.

Domenik Hixon: The only bright spot for the Giants this week was Hixon’s 281 kickoff and punt return yards.

Thomas Jones: The Jets running back set a franchise-record, with 210 rushing yards. He also had one TD, and two career-long runs in a row (64 and 71 yards), but it wasn’t enough to beat Buffalo.

Zach Parise: The star of the Devils had four goals (including two vs. the Rangers last night) and two assists this week.

Martin Brodeur: The future Hall of Famer ended his hex against Henrik Lundqvist last night and also notched another shutout this week.

Michael Del Zotto: The Ranger teenager added two more goals, which gives him nine points in his first 10 games.

Matt Moulson: In four games this week, the Islander netted three goals and assisted on another.

Schmucks of the Week

Mark Sanchez: He threw a whopping five interceptions, and finished with an 8.3 QB rating on Sunday. Maybe he is the next Joe Namath, after all. Broadway Joe threw a lot more INT’s than TD’s in his career (220 to 173).

Giants D: Not a good game for anyone on the Giants D on Sunday. They let up almost 500 yards, couldn’t cover any of the Saints receivers and didn’t put any pressure on Drew Brees. Are the injuries starting to catch up with them? Did they think too much of themselves and came in to the game unprepared? Or did the recent bad baseball umpiring affect their play?

Now that the Great Balloon Hoax of Aught-Nine is over, we can concentrate on sports again (CC Sabathia’s uniform is so big and baggy, it could probably be filled with helium and flown across the country, too). This past week in New York sports, the Yankees swept the Twins and now have to take on those pesky, team-of-destiny Angels, the Giants killed the Raiders to stay undefeated, the Jets suffered their second consecutive loss, the Rangers kept on winning, the Devils heated up, but the poor Islanders still couldn’t manage to notch their first victory of the year. The most bizarre moment of the week, though, was the Mickey Rourke sighting on the Giants sideline. And Kevin Bacon showed up at the Garden for the Knicks preseason home opener. Is the cast of Diner making the rounds of the local sports teams to commemorate the 27^th anniversary of the movie?

Besides being at the Knicks game, Bacon could also be seen hiding in the Yankees dugout on Friday because, unbeknownst to A. J. Burnett, that was Shrevie’s wife, donned in curly black wig, behind the plate and not Jose Molina (or even Carol Heathrow for that matter). And wasn’t that Daniel Stern with a headset on standing next to Rex Ryan on Monday Night Football? I’m not an expert in lip reading, but I think Kris Jenkins put Stern’s James Brown album in the jazz section, and Stern was none too happy about it. I’m pretty sure he was also yelling at the Jets defense, “You never ask me what’s on the flip side!” Paul Reiser was spotted sitting at the end of the Islanders bench on Monday wondering if John Tavares was going to finish his sandwich and telling him, “You know what word I’m not comfortable with? Nuance. It’s not a real word. Like gesture. Gesture’s a real word. With gesture you know where you stand. But nuance? I don’t know. Maybe I’m wrong.” Tim Daly ended up in the penalty box during Wednesday’s Rangers game, and was heard yelling at the Kings, “I’ll hit you so hard, I’ll kill your whole family!” And, yes, that was Steve Guttenberg playing goalie for the Devils against Washington on Monday. He did play Jim Craig in made-for-TV movie Miracle on Ice, after all. Martin Brodeur was busy taking Guttenberg’s hockey quiz, so the actor had to fill in for him.

Player of the Week

Alex Rodriguez: The Yanks’ third baseman batted .455, with two HR’s and six RBI’s in the division series vs. the Twins, and belted a game-tying two-run dinger in the bottom of the ninth on Friday. His transformation from a steroid cheating, adulterous, narcissistic, megalomaniac phony to just a regular narcissistic phony is the talk of the town. He’s even going to star in an upcoming movie, The Pride of Scott Boros.

Runners Up

Ahmad Bradshaw: The Giants backup running back only had 11 carries, but gained an impressive 110 yards and scored two TD’s.

Andy Pettitte: Sunday was Pettitte’s 36^th postseason start, the most in MLB history, and his 15^th win tied him with John Smoltz for most victories. Of course the postseason lasts almost as long as the regular season now. Whitey Ford could have won 30 games if had a chance to pitch in the “postseason” and not just the World Series.

Mariano Rivera: It’s Mariano Rivera Appreciation Week. Look at Joe Nathan, Jonathan Papelbon and Huston Street as exhibits A, B and C to see how good the Yankees have it. The best closer in the history of closers pitched 3.2 scoreless innings, with seven K’s and one walk in the three game series.

Mark Teixeira: The MVP candidate blasted a walk-off homer that just cleared the fence on Friday. Now that it’s playoff time, the deep-pocketed Yankees have specially made shaving cream pies flown in direct from the Gillette factory (though the Yankees had to hire a shaving cream taster to test them for poison beforehand since Gillette is located in South Boston).

Eli Manning: Things couldn’t have worked out better for Manning and the Giants. He was in the game Sunday just long enough to test out his foot and build up a quick 28-0 lead. He went 8 for 10, throwing for 173 yards and two TD’s. He finished with a perfect QB rating of 158.3, which was, coincidentally, the same score I got on my SAT’s.

David Carr: The backup QB mopped up for 2+ quarters, going 9 for 14 (90 yards), and had a rushing TD.

Justin Tuck: The monster defensive end recorded two sacks, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. He led the D, which dominated―six sacks, three forced fumbles, 124 total yards allowed, and they didn’t give up a first down until well into the second quarter.

Braylon Edwards: The new Jets receiver made his presence felt in his debut, hauling in five passes for 64 yards, including a few acrobatic catches and a TD reception.

Vinny Prospal: The veteran left winger notched two goals and four assists in the three games the Rangers played this week, and netted the 200^th of his career.

Marian Gaborik: Mr. Third Period scored two goals and had two assists in three games. He has a point in all seven contests played by the Blueshirts this season.

David Clarkson: The Devils’ winger scored the game-winner in Saturday’s victory over Florida, and tied the game in the third period in Monday’s shootout win against Washington.

Schmuck of the Week

Rex Ryan: Uh-oh. Did Ryan take classes at the Herm Edwards school of clock management? His defense didn’t seem prepared, but at least he blamed himself for the Jets’ loss to the Dolphins. So he practically volunteered to be the Schmuck of the Week. Don’t forget, he’s a rookie, too. You could throw a few of the Jets players on here, also, for whining about Miami’s wildcat offense.

With the playoffs in full swing, the possibilities begin to become realities. Manager Joe Torre’s Dodgers, focus is now on the NLCS as the team swept the Cardinals in three games to proceed onward.

Across the country another team with a chief named Joe accomplished the same. Joe Girardi’s Yankees followed L.A.’s lead Sunday night in Minnesota’s Metrodome by winning their third game against the Twins. The possibility of Joe vs. Joe could happen and what a World Series that would be.

Two teams, two sweeps, two Joe’s who have much more in common then realized. These Joe’s own quite a history together.

Here is a little out of this chapter:

1) Both Joe’s Play
Ironically, both skippers were catchers. Torre* batted and threw right as did Girardi.  Both were players in New York during their career. Torre played in Queens as a Met; Girardi in the Bronx wearing Yankee Pinstripes. The selection as an All-Star only happened once for Girardi in 2000. On the other hand, Torre was an all-star nine times in a decade (1963-73), won a gold glove in 65′ and was the NL MVP in 1971. Torre in comparison to Girardi was a more complete hitter but sadly never once made it to October as an active participant. For Girardi, in a decade (1989-99) he played in six postseasons and won three World Series rings.

2) Joe manages Joe.
Girardi won those three World Series championships with Torre as his manager. Torre presided over the Yankees in the late 90’s when Girardi was the team’s catcher. Torre’s success as a skipper in October was the opposite of his playing years. With the Yankees he went 12 years in a row. He holds the evidence for MLB’s most winning manager with 2000+ wins.

3) Joe Follows Joe
When Girardi retired as a player, he went directly into broadcasting for the YES network in 2004.  The next year he rejected the offer to be the Marlins’ bench coach with a promotion to manager guaranteed. Instead, he follows Torre and became his bench coach in 2005. The next season Florida named Girardi manager and he won Manager of the Year in his first season as a skipper in 2006.  The Marlins owner and Girardi did not hit it off and he got fired in the same year. Though Girardi had several offers to lead again in 2007, he decided to return to YES and broadcast for the Yankees.

4) Joe replaces Joe
Well, 2008 was the end of the Torre era in Pinstripe. It also marked the beginning for another Joe. In late October, Joe Girardi became the Bombers manager and Torre’s replacement. Torre went to the Dodgers. Mattingly, and fellowship followed, but Tony Pena stayed on as Yankees bench coach for Girardi. Girardi had said many a time that when named as Yankee head the first call he made was to Torre.  What makes this so extraordinary is that the Dodgers wanted Girardi to manage in L.A. but he wanted to work for the Yankees. This was just two years before Torre hires Girardi, who passed on Dodger’s proposal. Supposedly L.A. wanted Girardi so badly to be wearing Dodger blue that they offered him the job before ownership granted permission. Girardi said no to get the duty under his skipper in New York.

5. Joe on Joe

After this soap opera of a link, both men have nothing but the highest regard and respect for each other.

Here are two quotes from this dynamic duo and their admiration for each other is evident.

Girardi on Torre:
“The great thing about Joe was that he let me say anything I wanted and I was never fearful of saying anything; that’s the greatest guy you can work for. Joe’s a very trusting guy. One of the big things I learned about him was his patience and the importance of knowing people.”

Torre in Girardi:
“He’s a good manager and he’s going to get better,” Torre said today. “I’m happy for him. … They’re a very good team.”

*Torre played first and third base during his career but is #15 on Top 50 Catchers of All-Time.*

The Giants kept on rolling this week, the Jets lost to a good Saints team (but traded for troublemaker Braylon Edwards), hockey season has started, with mixed results for the three local teams, the Mets held a day-long press conference on Monday to announce the firing of two coaches, and the $200-million juggernaut that is the Yankees steamrolled over the Twins in the opening game of their playoff series. Here are some fun facts about the Yanks and Twins:

CC Sabathia eats more food in one year than the farmers of Minnesota produce combined.

Brett Favre was warming up in the Twins bullpen in the seventh inning of Wednesday’s game.

George Steinbrenner gave an inspired speech to the team down in Tampa after the Yankees’ final regular season game. It was short, yet fiery: “Where the hell is my damn calzone!”

After defeating the Tigers in their dramatic one-game showdown on Tuesday, the Twins immediately called Darryl Strawberry, Lenny Dykstra and Keith Hernandez to find out the most effective way to destroy a plane on a flight to New York.

Carlos Gomez almost missed third base, fell down and stopped running when heading for home with the winning run against Detroit because he briefly thought he was back on the Mets.

The real reason Kevin McHale was fired by the Timberwolves was that he spent the last month of his tenure trying to trade Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau to the Red Sox.

Kate Hudson first met Alex Rodriguez when she appraoched him about tips on steroid use, because her husband at the time, Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes, weighed only 39 pounds.

The Yankee players have a plan if they fall behind in the series – they realized that they make so much money they can just buy the Twins and force them to pitch Nick Punto and Michael Cuddyer in games four and five.

Trying to change his manager’s mind about not playing him in game two, Jorge Posada committed two passed balls on Wednesday to show that it’s not just A.J. Burnett he has trouble with – he can’t catch anybody.

Former Yankee and Twin Chuck Knoblauch will be honored before tonight’s game by being handcuffed and hauled away to jail.

Player of the Week

Steve Smith: After his 11 catch, 134 yard, two touchdown day on Sunday, he now leads the NFL in catches, yards and TD receptions. He’s stepped up big-time and turned what seemed like a weakness for the Giants into a strength.

Runners Up

Eli Manning: He had another impressive game on Sunday, although he had to leave with a foot injury. His consecutive game streak is now in doubt. I always thought that the only way he would miss a game would be if he had to film another commercial. Manning moved up to third on the all-time Giants list for TD passes (106), passing Sir Francis Tarkenton. He has a long way to go to catch Phil Simms (199) and Charlie Conerly (173).

Michael Boley: The linebacker recorded a sack and five tackles (four in the backfield for losses), but now he has to have surgery – “and like that . . . he’s gone.” The Giants D held Larry Johnson to 53 yards.

Bryan Kehl: He recovered a fumble on the opening kickoff and grabbed onside kick to start second half. And guess what? He’s out with an injury, too. The Giants better be careful or they’ll turn into the Mets.

Darrelle Revis: It was another shutdown game for the shutdown cornerback.

Alex Rodriguez: He closed out the regular season with two homers and seven RBI’s, all in one inning, which set the AL record for most ribbies in an inning. And he got two hits and drove in two runs – in the playoffs! Maybe he doesn’t know the postseason has started yet.

CC Sabathia/Derek Jeter/Hideki Matsui: They all did what they were supposed to do in game one.

John Tavares/Micheal Del Zotto: The teenagers made their NHL debuts and both scored their first career goals this week. The Islanders phenom had a goal and two assists in a pair of games, while the Rangers’ 19-year-old defenseman racked up four points in four games, with two goals and two assists, and was plus-one.

Marian Gaborik: So far, so good for the Rangers’ big-money acquisition. He piled up four goals and two assists in the team’s first four games, and scored the tying and winning goals in the third period last night to beat Washington.

Nelson Figueroa: The journeyman right-hander threw a complete game shutout on Sunday. The Mets are finally firing on all cylinders, with a three-game winning streak. You mean the season’s finally over? After the game, Met players threw their hats and other equipment into the crowd, but the fans threw it all back.

Schmuck of the Week

Mark Sanchez: He’s not really a schmuck, just a rookie. He threw three INTs and fumbled once, leading to two Saints TD’s. It had to happen sooner or later.

The Mets baffled everybody by holding a nine-hour press conference on Monday to announce . . . the firing of two coaches (and reassignment of a few others). Yes, that was it. Did they really need to hold a press conference for that? Omar Minaya, Jerry Manuel and Jeff Wilpon took turns showing that there’s no accountability in the world of the Mets. Here’s what I heard Wilpon saying on Monday (keep in mind, I’m just paraphrasing here):

“What happened this season was unacceptable. But we decided to keep Omar Minaya around because when he came onboard after the 2004 season, he took a Mets franchise that was seemingly irrelevant and in five short years turned them into an embarrassing laughingstock. Not everybody has the talent to do that. Instead of creating a plan and vision for future stability, we’re going to continue to put our finger in the dike and keep on plugging holes.

“Today we’re announcing the firings of Luis Alicea and Sandy Alomar Sr., because, quite frankly, the failure of 2009 was all their fault. Our pitching staff was 20^th in the league in ERA and walked 616 batters, which is just three shy of the franchise record, and every one of our pitchers regressed this season, so we’re rewarding pitching coach Dan Warthen by keeping him on the staff. I mean, we almost set a team record for walks; isn’t that good? Razor Shines will stay with the team. Mets base-runners were thrown out at home at an alarming rate this season, but firing him may hurt his feelings, so we’ll keep him around. And who has a cooler name than Razor? In fact, I want everybody to start referring to me as Razor Wilpon.

“Omar and Jerry Manuel must step up and be successful next season or else – or else we’ll give both of them contract extensions. We saw what a good job Rex Ryan has been doing with the Jets, and we tried to lure him away from them, but he wouldn’t budge. So we had no choice but to stick with Manuel. Who else are we going to get? And besides, we like the fact that he’s always laughing, even when there isn’t anything remotely funny going on around him. And since we hold nobody accountable – and that includes Fred and myself (well, except for Alicea and Alomar) – we’ve kept on our medical staff as well. So next season, Mets fans can expect more of the same bumbling failure as the last few years. Why should the results be any different if the same people are going to keep running the show? Again, 2009 was unacceptable, so our philosophy will be to ignore it and do nothing about it while keeping our fingers crossed for next season.”

Mike Vaccaro has been the lead sports columnist for the New York Post since 2002. A New York native, Vaccaro has also covered the local sports scene for the Newark Star-Ledger, as well as working for papers in Kansas City and Arkansas. He’s just written a book entitled The First Fall Classic: The Red Sox, the Giants, and the Cast of Players, Pugs and Politicos Who Reinvented the World Series in 1912. He’s also the author of 1941: The Greatest Year in Sports and Emperors and Idiots. His latest book details the ninth World Series, and third one for the Giants (the only New York team to make it to the fall classic up to that point). And it had it all: Intrigue, drama, hatred, gambling, cheating, a tie game, an extra-inning deciding game, an all-time goat to rival Bill Buckner, day games, fans sitting on the field of play, no Joe Buck or Tim McCarver, the rebuilt Polo Grounds, brand-new Fenway Park, the Royal Rooters, Christy Mathewson, John McGraw, Tris Speaker, Smoky Joe Wood, you name it. It was one of the the most thrilling World Series (or world’s series as they called it back then) of all-time, and was played by real men, not the pampered metrosexuals who run around on the field today, with their batting helmets, batting gloves, elbow pads, steroids, manicured facial hair, dopey handshakes and dances, umpire warnings, air travel on gas-powered flying machines and newfangled electricity to play night games.

Jeff Freier: Why did you pick the 1912 World Series to write about?

Mike Vaccaro: I wanted to find a Series that was classic in every sense of the word but hadn’t been written to death. That pretty much eliminated most of the ones from 1950 on, because we’ve surely read many book-length accounts of 1955 or 1960 or 2001. I thought about the ‘47 Series but there have been so many books written about the Dodgers, and Jackie Robinson, that I felt that ground had been covered. And I seriously considered 1926, a great Series between the Cardinals and Yankees that featured the famous strikeout of Tony Lazzeri by Grover Cleveland Alexander. But once I started looking into 1912, I realized it had a lot of the elements I was looking for. It went the distance (beyond, in fact, since there was a tie and Game 8 went into extra innings). It had tons of compelling figures (five Hall of Fame players, a Hall of Fame manager, even two Hall of Fame umpires). And because I like to put my books in context with the times, it even had two excellent complementary storylines to pursue (the 1912 Presidential election and the attempted assassination of Teddy Roosevelt, which happened during the Series, and an infamous murder trial that was really the first-ever “Trial of the Century”).

So that was where it started. And it was then that I really saw just how fertile the storyline was, because of all the things we’ll soon talk about in detail. It was an incredibly fun and rewarding Series to research and a terrific book to write.

JF: Was there a New York–Boston rivalry all the way back in 1912?

MV: Absolutely. Really, New York and Boston had been rivals going back to Revolutionary times, when New York mostly stayed loyal to the crown and Boston, of course, became sort of the home office for Patriots. Then, not long before 1912, New York Harbor surpassed Boston Harbor as the country’s primary port. Baseball only stirred the pot. In 1904, the Red Sox held off the Highlanders (now the Yankees, of course) on the last weekend of the season to win the AL pennant and then were denied the chance to defend their World Series title because the Giants refused to play them. So all of that was simmering as the ‘12 World Series began as well.

JF: What are the biggest differences between the 1912 version of baseball and today’s version?

MV: The biggest thing is the style of play. 1912 was still very much the Deadball Era, and home runs were happy accidents that no good team ever relied on because they still occurred relatively infrequently. So there was a lot of “small ball” and a big reliance on pitching. And everyone was expected to play that way. When you look at games from that era it’s at first shocking to think how routine it was for a superstar like Tris Speaker, for instance, to not only be called upon to sacrifice but to do it on his own because that’s just the way things were done.

JF: What was the role of gambling at that time? Weren’t players actually allowed to bet on their own team? And how much of a threat was throwing games, going all the way back to the first World Series in 1903?

MV: It was huge. Remember, this was only seven years before the Black Sox scandal ruined the 1919 Series and nearly destroyed the sport, but gambling was an accepted part of the game them. Bookmakers were visible at every ballpark, and in the newspapers leading up to the Series players would talk openly about the odds of the Series; John McGraw had bet (and lost) $500 on his team in the 1911 Series and was planning on doing so again. And it was interesting to discover that McGraw was business partners with none other than Arnold Rothstein, who wound up masterminding the 1919 scheme. He and Rothstein owned pool halls together; it doesn’t take much imagination to realize that more than billiards was being contested in them.

Baseball was always very concerned about the throwing of games, which is why the players’ pool was drawn only from the receipts of the first four games of any Series (a practice that still continues, by the way). Starting in 1903 there had been talk that maybe the Boston and Pittsburgh players weren’t quite going full tilt because why only play five games (it was best-of-9 in that year) when you could milk it for 7, 8 or 9 games and get a bigger pie to divide? This all became a big point of contention when Game 2 of the ‘12 Series was ruled a tie, and the players believed the make-up game should be included in the player pool and the National Committee said no.

JF: The 1912 Red Sox were a lot like the 1970s A’s and Yankees, with in-team fighting and brawls, weren’t they?

MV: That’s a very good analogy and yes, they were, though mostly the dividing line between the two was religion. The team was almost evenly split between Masons (non-Catholics) and “KCs” (the Catholics) which was especially relevant in a very Catholic city like Boston, and especially interesting because the Sox’ two most important players — Smoky Joe Wood and Tris Speaker — were very much a part of the Mason faction. For the most part the ‘12 Sox learned to play with each other much like those A’s and Yankees teams did, but it nearly came splintering apart at the worst possible time, during games 7 and 8 of the Series before they decided to hold their noses and play together one last time.

JF: If John McGraw and Billy Martin got into a fight, who would win?

MV: Maybe the BEST question of all! I think Martin would win only because he was like the most nightmarish bar brawler ever: he wouldn’t care how many bones of his YOU broke, so long as he knocked you cold by the time it was done. Plus, while McGraw was feisty and ornery, and while he was definitely a spikes-up player, he was never inclined to put up his dukes nearly as often or as readily as Martin. Billy by TKO.

JF: Besides his obvious talent, why was Christy Mathewson the most popular figure in baseball at that time?

MV: Even in those days, a lot of people turned to sports figures to find role models and Mathewson was as perfect a model as anyone could ask for: not only was he a gifted athlete he was a devout Christian, a loyal family man, his teammates and manager loved him … and the thing was, it wasn’t an act. I open the book with a true story of him happening upon a car accident and him speeding off with the injured toward a hospital, and unfortunately for Mathewson the end came for him when, at age 38, he decided to enlist in the Army for service in World War I when nobody would have questioned him sitting the war out. Over There, he was exposed to mustard gas, got TB, and ultimately died far too young from it. It only increased the mythology around him.

JF: Until Babe Ruth came along, the Giants owned New York. How were the Yankees (or Highlanders) and Dodgers perceived at that time?

MV: The Yankees were complete step-children. They had the worst year they ever had (and ever have had, to date) in 1912, they were about to get kicked out of their ballpark (which was being torn down so Columbia-Presbyterian could be built) and it was the next year when they officially changed from Highlanders to the more headline-friendly Yankees. McGraw barely acknowledged them, and only agreed to let them share the Polo Grounds because they’d done McGraw a solid and allowed the Giants to use Hilltop Park in 1911 after the previous Polo Grounds had been burned to the ground on Opening Day. As for the Dodgers, they were in Brooklyn, and in 1912 that meant they might as well have been in Philadelphia or Chicago, a whole different city as far as the Giants were concerned. Brooklyn had only been absorbed into the city at large 14 years earlier and while it was certainly more convenient to play the Dodgers than, say, the Cardinals, there was no real blood feud yet. Brooklyn residents cheered for the Dodgers, everyone else rooted for the Giants, and a few of the farmers in Northern Manhattan cheered for the Yankees. As dominant as the Yankees have been since 1921, even they never touched the 1912-era Giants for city-wide appeal.

JF: Were the players back then tougher and meaner yet more “pure,” playing for the love of the game, or is that really just a myth?

MV: Well, I do believe they were tougher only because the game was a tougher, meaner place and it required a lot more toughness just to get by. But they were hardly playing for the love of the game. It was actually refreshing; most every player, when talking about the Series, failed to say things like “We want to win the title!” or “We want to raise a pennant!” or “We want a championship pin!” They were totally upfront and honest: “We want the winner’s share.” They took being professional very, very, VERY seriously.

JF: Why aren’t there any players named Rube or Heinie anymore?

MV: Because I think whoever dubbed anyone that would wind up with a fist in the face. Although it would be great if the left side of the Yankees infield was manned by Rube Rodriguez and Heinie Jeter, wouldn’t it?

JF: Let’s move on to some modern-day topics. How do you think this year’s Yankees are different than the championship-less editions of the previous eight years?

MV: I believe they have embraced the journey a lot more than their immediate predecessors. Too much joy is taken away from Yankee seasons, I think, because it’s become the team motto that any season that doesn’t end in a title was almost a waste of time. I think that’s made some teams lately very tight and less likely to maintain a certain level. I think this team likes playing together and so the journey has been as important to them as the destination. Oh, and taking Mark Teixeira away from the Red Sox might well turn out to turn the rivalry back onto its other axis before too long, proving that when it comes to Boston and New York, the more things change the more they stay the same.

JF: Any profound thoughts about the mind-boggling 2009 Mets?

MV: Only this: I know there’s a lot of anger among Mets fans, and they deserve to be angry. And I know it’s a loser’s lament to spend so much time about injuries. But it does beg the question: how good would the Yankees have been if they lost Jeter for 120 games, Teixeira for 130 games, both Melky Cabrera and Brett Gardner for 2/3 of the season, CC Sabathia for the final month and Phil Hughes for the season? Maybe they don’t lose 92 games. But I doubt we’re seeing them in the playoffs, either.

JF: Who have been your favorite Met and Yankee players to cover over the years? How about least favorite?

MV: David Cone was always a guy who was terrific to talk with, and I have never met a nicer professional athlete than Berne Williams. Mike Piazza was a lot better with the media than we’d been led to believe before he came to New York. Least favorite? I was never a big fan of Randy Johnson when he was here. And I’ve had some battles both in the paper and in person with Steve Phillips.

JF: Who was the best interview?

MV: Cone. He wanted to be a sportswriter when he was growing up and was as good at the Q part as he was with the A.

JF: Who was the biggest bonehead you ever interviewed?

MV: Well, I never got to cover Fred Merkle so … I’ll never forget how insolent and defiant Chuck Knoblauch was after he failed to pick up that ball in Game 2 of the ‘98 ALCS. I was just breaking in as a columnist in New York and it was nice to have someone to tee off on.

JF: How much of a difference is it covering sports in New York than, say, when you were in Kansas City?

MV: Numbers, mostly. In Kansas City, there were two papers in locker rooms, and that was only if the Topeka paper was there that day. On one hand, that was terrific because you could actually develop personal relationships. I remember doing a story on Johnny Damon when he was with the Royals; the team had a plan where as a means of trying to entice their young players to stay they would pay for the first $100,000 of a new house (I know, it seems very innocent. But, man, you could buy a serious palace for 100K in KC in 1997). Johnny had me out to the place as it was being built and it was … well, just very different than you can expect to get from any athlete in New York City. There’s just too many of us.

JF: What would you consider your greatest moment while covering New York sports?

MV: It will always be hard to top Games 4, 5 and 7 of the 2001 World Series, the combination of incredible moments and the backdrop of Ground Zero. Taken collectively, those would be No. 1, easy. If I were to round out a Top 5 it would probably look like this: 2. Giants over Patriots; 3. 2000 Subway Series; 4. Larry Johnson’s 4-point play, 1999; 5. Game 6 of the ‘96 Series, when it was still fresh and unexpected for the Yankees to win a title.