World Series needs Yankees

Is it really October without a New York baseball franchise playing in the postseason?
For the last five years, I’ve felt kind of naked without the Yankees playing in the World Series.

What’s worse is that in 2008, the old Yankee Stadium didn’t see the postseason in its last year of hosting America’s favorite pastime.

With the Red Sox out of the picture, more than ever the New York Yankees have to play in the 2009 World Series to save Major League Baseball and Bud Selig’s job as commissioner — and even that might not be enough, which attests to just how atrocious Selig has been.

Sorry, LA fans, but this Fall Classic has to go up and down Interstate-95 from the George Washington Bridge in the Bronx to the City of Brotherly Love.

The Yankees must play the defending World Series Champion, Philadelphia.
It doesn’t matter who wins the championship, but the World Series has to be full of walk-offs, scrappiness and just pure all-out grit.

It’s the only way MLB can get back on the map and at least compete with the NFL in television ratings.

And it can’t be a short four or five game series. It’s got to go all the way.
Since 2002, the Fall Classic has been boring and downright embarrassing for the MLB.
Can anybody name who won it in 2006? Unless you live in Detroit or St. Louis, the average sports fan probably can’t answer that.

In 2007, “Rocktober” fever swept out of the Rocky Mountains and into the nation’s heart as the Colorado Rockies won 21 of 22 games to get the National League Wild Card spot.

The Rockies then swept the Phillies in the National League Division Series and the Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League Championship Series.

But that was before they hit the Green Monster at Fenway Park, and they hit it hard. America’s feel-good Rockies were brutally swept by Boston for the Red Sox’s second title in four years.

The 2008 World Series was rain-delayed. It irritated a lot of sports fans, but Philly fans didn’t mind. After all, Philadelphia did wait more than 20 years for another championship.

For baseball’s sake, before the Jedi return, the Evil Empire must strike back.