Worst Week Ever?

Really. The week of October 7th, 2007 could not have been any more miserable:

• Monday - Yankees eliminated in the first round for the third consecutive year
• Tuesday - Didn't do too hot on my GREs
• Wednesday - Dry run for .82 lowered all of our self-esteem
• Thursday - Real run of .82 penalized us for advice we took from the dry run
• And Friday - Took the worst controls exam of my life. I read problem 1 incorrectly until the final 30 seconds of the exam, I made an initial assumption in problem 2 that could result in all three parts of the question being wrong, and problem 3 was ehhhh. On stuff that I've learned THREE TIMES ALREADY, that shouldn't have happened.

So after the test, I decided to skip the .400 review session for the test during the upcoming week and instead decided to drown my sorrows in gaming. I spent the entire day and evening cycling through Kingdom Hearts, Katamari, Twilight Princess, and Super Paper Mario. It was a COMPLETE waste of life, but I definitely needed and deserved it after the previous five days.

Hmm, well, I suppose the good news is that it can only go up from here. Right?

Some silly sports writer for the Tech wrote a column in yesterday's issue about how Joe Torre shouldn't be fired over the 2007 DS. It contained a number of factual errors of which I am going to correct for her. The original can be found at http://www-tech.mit.edu/V127/N45/torre.html , and the errors include:

• She's a die-hard Sox fan trying to talk about Yankee issues. 'Nuff said.
• The headline and premise. Joe Torre isn't getting fired; his contract is up.
• No one is dare insulting Torre's accomplishments during his Era. So those stats are irrelevant.
• This isn't about losing one DS. This is about a series of disappointing performances in the postseason dating back to 2004. It's also about Torre's magic being at the end of its life.
• Who says the dominant Yankee Era is over?
• We're loading our team with overpaid free agents? Huh? Has the writer been following the Yankees at all recently, or did she stop at 2004? (On that note, since when have your Sox been winning off of homegrown talent?)

In fact, that's an excellent summary of my response. Now I just have to make it more professional.

While we're on the subject, rumor has it that Joe Torre will be invited back to manage the Yankees for 2008. (Source: http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=sports&id=5704479 )

Now, this is a local affiliate, so I don't know how much we can trust it. But if it's true... I have yet to rule personally on how I feel about Torre going or staying (although new blood in that position couldn't hurt.) But at any rate, this entire ordeal is all the fault of "King George." As soon as he opened his mouth after Game 3, the entire world went up in arms. It was a combination of Joe's well-known success and the fact that most don't know that this contract is over this year--no one could understand how he could be fired just like that. Then the players got involved and starting getting vocal, and things blew up from there.

If The Boss never said anything, Cashman could have let Torre go in the background, or he could have retired on his own. But now it's turned into a matter of principle. There's no way THE Joe Torre can have that as his farewell. So now he has to stay. Lame.

This is a ballclub, not (as Sam Raymond put it) a "welfare system." We can't hold on to the past just because it will make the player (or coach or manager) in question feel good. It was the same way with Bernie. "Yes, we love you, but keeping you on the roster is no longer in the best interests of the organization. This is not a statement on your character or accomplishments; it's just time to move on." Keeping Torre on board for the hell of it would be a violation of that philosophy. Let him exit in style and not with an embarrassing season.

In closing, let's talk about Arod:

AJSwift89: would you boo [Arod if he goes to another team]?
It Lacks Oomph: There is a high probability
AJSwift89: i'm undecided
AJSwift89: hopefully i won't have to
It Lacks Oomph: He could have a chance to be mentioned with other Yankee greats...Ruth, Mantle, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Rodriguez?
It Lacks Oomph: If he leaves...well I'm sure the Angels need a great
It Lacks Oomph: Seeing as how they basically have none
It Lacks Oomph: But even then
It Lacks Oomph: He'd spend less than the last half of his career there
It Lacks Oomph: So that doesn't really qualify as Mr Franchise
AJSwift89: I can see the ABC primetime biopic now:
AJSwift89: Wandering the Bases: The Alex Rodriguez Story
It Lacks Oomph: With Scott Baio as Alex Rodriguez
It Lacks Oomph: Bea Arthur as George Steinbrenner
AJSwift89: hahaha!
AJSwift89: baio would be so old by then
AJSwift89: he could play washed-up alex well
AJSwift89: the alex without a home
AJSwift89: so much fame he doesn't know how to handle it
It Lacks Oomph: E! True Hollywood Story: Alex Rodriguez
It Lacks Oomph: (which would only really work if he went to the Angels)
It Lacks Oomph: ARod gets caught partying with Lindsay Lohan
AJSwift89: the post would tear him a new one
AJSwift89: "HEY ROD!: Alex continues his decline after turning back on the Yanks"
It Lacks Oomph: He and Paris could get together and throw things at poor people
It Lacks Oomph: "Lay-Rod: Ex-Yank taps Hollywood skank" (wouldn't happen, but still)