1. Every baseball fan knows that regular-season success doesn’t translate into postseason success. Some teams perform well during the regular season, only to collapse in the postseason. The Atlanta Braves come to mind. They grind out victories during the six-month season, but when they get to the playoffs, they fail to increase the intensity. This year’s New York Yankees are another example. They played well after the first two months of the season. But during the Division Series against the Cleveland Indians, they played as though it were just another weekend series. Even Derek Jeter, who is usually fiery, showed no intensity. Even Roger Clemens, for God’s sake, looked uninspired! What was that all about? Some Yankee players never look inspired. I’ve mentioned Bobby Abreu (“Good Time Bobby,” always with a smile on his face) and Hideki Matsui (who appears to be emotionless). What about Robinson Cano? He showed me nothing. Does he have any fire in his belly? One Yankee who plays with passion is Doug Mientkiewicz. He’s a gamer. It’s clear that he wants very much to win and will do whatever it takes, within the rules, to help his team prevail. Chien-Ming Wang looked like he didn’t give a damn whether his team won. Alex Rodriguez wanted to do well, but one suspects it was for personal reasons (viz., being the star) rather than for the sake of his team. He is the most self-absorbed player I’ve ever seen. Remember: I watched him every day for three years. I’m curious about what Yankee fans think of this. Does your team need to be remade? Do you need a different breed of player? And shouldn’t the man who hired these uninspired players be fired? I refer, of course, to Brian Cashman. It’s Cashman, not manager Joe Torre, who should be fired.

2. Now that the hated Yankees have been eliminated, my goal is to get rid of the Boston Red Sox. Go Indians! I like both the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Colorado Rockies, so I will be saddened to see one of them eliminated. I’m almost certain that I’ll be rooting for the National League team in this year’s World Series, for, while I don’t dislike Cleveland, I don’t like the Indians as much as I like the Diamondbacks and Rockies. The television networks are probably (at this point) rooting for a Diamondbacks/Red Sox World Series. Phoenix is a larger television market than Denver, right?

3. Let’s make a list of players who have fire in their bellies. Here’s mine: Gary Sheffield, David Eckstein, Pudge Rodriguez, Michael Young, Jake Peavy, Derek Jeter, Kevin Youkilis, Jimmy Rollins, Carlos Zambrano, and Miguel Tejada. Feel free to add players to the list, as a comment to this post.