A-Rod

I'm so torn about the whole A-Rod situation. Half of me wants the Yankees to give him a swift kick in the ass and slam the door in his face. The other side of me doesn't want to see the best modern day baseball player go someplace else.

I'm trying to figure out the motivation behind his sudden change of heart. Best I can tell, there are a few reasons this could have happened:

1) Scott Boras jumped the gun and announced Alex's decision to opt out too early. Was it miscommunication? Boras taking the bull by the horns? I don't know.

2) Alex expected "suitors" to beat down his door throwing cash his way. Perhaps that didn't happen the way he envisioned it.

3) Perhaps now that the Yankees have a manager, Jorge and Mariano are back he feels that things are stabilized.

4) He's just a media whore, and likes all the attention.

Fattening of America

When I was in California a few weeks ago, our trainer was Canadian. We started talking about portion sizes in Canada vs the US. He travels a lot, and said that by far American portions in restaurants are huge when compared to Canadian restaurants. He said that Australian portions are even tinier. I guess the large portions combined with the mind set that we have to clean our plates is a big contributing factor to the obesity rise in the US. Think of everyone you know. How many of them are overweight? How many of them are obese? How many of them are at or under weight.

I think lack of nutritional education. When I was going to school, I don't remember learning much about nutrition at all during science or health classes. Health class mainly consisted of our gym teacher trying to scare us about drugs and STD's. I'm not a drug addict and I don't have any diseases rotting my crotch, so I guess his message got across. So hopefully, schools nowadays are focusing a good portion (portion, get it) of their curriculum to educating kids about eating healthier.

Then this weekend I was reading about this list put together by Mens Health magazine about the 20 Worst Foods you should NEVER eat. I can't believe 1)some of these items are being sold and 2) that people actually order some of this stuff. But some of the items seemed kind of innocent, almost healthy. Like some of the drinks from Jamba Juice are 900 calories and have 10 grams of fat. A lot of people are under the impression that smoothies are healthy. And generally they are, but these damn chains find ways of making them taste better than the store next door, and they end up killing you in the process.

Quiznos makes a sandwich called the Classic Italian is a whopping 1500 calories, with 92 grams of fat and 4600 mg of sodium! Macroni Grill has a spaghetti and meatball meal that contains all the calories you should eat in an entire day!! 2,430 calories 128 g fat, 207 g carbs and 5,290 mg sodium!!! Geesh!!!

Mens Health has a portion in their magazine each month called Eat This Not That. They take an item like a cheeseburger from one chain/restaurant and offer a healthier alternative from another chain/restaurant. They are actually releasing a book in a few weeks on the same subject. A lot of times, it's hard to tell what's healthy and what's not. And sometimes doing something as simple as getting a sandwich without cheese and mayo can knock off several grams of fat.

One other thing that bothers me is that unhealthy food is so much cheaper than healthy food. I love Mama Celeste microwave pizzas. They are often on sale for $1 a piece. In comparison, I bought some Healthy Choice personal microwave pizzas and it was priced over $3.00. More than 3X's the price of the unhealthy Mama Celeste pizza which contains 4 grams of trans fat. Most shoppers (myself included) shop with their wallets and not with their brains, so of course more people are going to stock up on the pizzas that cost a dollar. How can it be that a healthier pizza costs so much more. I don't get why major brands don't have more choices of low cost, healthy foods. Probably because the unhealthy stuff sells so well.

iTunes Experiment

The other night I was looking for a particular song in my iTunes library and I typed in sky. I was amazed at how many songs came up. Give it a try, type in sky and see how many songs pop up. Try a color like red. An adjective like big.

The two Joe's

Seeing Joe Torre in a Dodgers jersey and hat yesterday was really weird. I'm not bitter towards Joe at all. He had a good run with the Yankees, and I wish him luck with the Dodgers. I think the Steinbrenners went about it all wrong, but I think it was the right time for Joe to part company with the Yankees. I don't see Joe winning World Series with the Dodgers, but I do think he can improve the team. It's a tough spot to come in and to be expected to win right away. Bill Parcells had great success with the Giants, but could never get a Super Bowl ring with the Patriots or Cowboys. But maybe Joe will be more like Phil Jackson and less like Mike Holmgren, who knows.

The guy I am bitter at is Alex Rodriguez. Up until this past season, I didn't feel like he was a true Yankee. I thought with the kind of season he had this year, he would surely stick around for at least one more year with the Yankees. I actually thought at one point he would sign an extension and commit to maybe 5 more years. The Yankees stuck by him during his fielding woes of 2006, and his sub .200 post season batting average. Then he turns his back on them. No loyalty whatsoever.

I see A-Rod's only motivation is money. He played like he's capable of playing in 2007 because he wanted to put up huge numbers to make him that much more attractive in the free agent market. Whoever his new team is in 2008, good luck dealing with that spoiled headcase named A-Rod. And don't expect him to hit 50+ home runs and to drive in 160+ RBI's. He will have a cushy deal, and coast through the season. Mark my words.

Losing A-Rod doesn't really hurt. If we lose Jorge Posada, that will hurt. If we lose Jorge Posada to the Mets, that will hurt even more. Of all the current Yankees, Jorge is my favorite. Mattingly was my favorite before him, Paul O'Neill followed and now Jorge. If he leaves, it's gonna really suck. Wake up Brian Cashman!!! Open the checkbook Steinbrenners.

I think Joe Gerardi will do well as Yankees manager. I don't know if he will get the Yankees to the World Series in 2008, or 2009. But I think within a few years, he will get the Yankees team back to a level of greatness. They have a solid core of young pitchers like Phil Hughes and Chen Ming Wang, and promising talent like Joba Chamberlain and Steve Karstens. The Yankees offense has remained pretty strong, but the big difference between the 2007 team and the late 90's teams is pitching. Back then they had guys like David Cone, David Wells, Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte who were big game pitchers. They would step up and close the door on the opposition. Roger Clemens isn't capable of that anymore, and Andy Pettitte still does to a certain extent, but not like he did 10 years ago.