There’s a lot to write about today! ESPN is reporting a reliable source has just revealed that Joe Girardi has been offered the job as Yankees manager for next season. Let me just add that the Yankees couldn’t have made a better choice. He’s got a great career with the organization as a player with 3 World Series rings and on the coaching staff as a the bench coach under Torre. He’s also proven himself as a manager in 2006 turning the Marlins into a winner and landing the NL manager of the year award.
It’s with sadness that we close the book on one Joe era. Mr. Torre you’re the best. The Yankees should have treated you with more class. I have to admit though, as we open the book on the new Joe era, I’m feeling the refreshing winds of change. The Yankees essentially have new owners (George has passed the baton to his kids), a great group of young and talented players, a new ballpark in coming in 2009, a ton of cash thanks to A-Rod’s departure, and a new manager to lead them into a promising future. Welcome, Joe Girardi. We already know you look good in pinstripes and I think the team’s going to look good with you in the lead.
So have you heard the big baseball news? No, not the Red Sox sweeping the Rockies out of the World Series. It’s the report that Alex Rodriguez has opted out of the largest contract in baseball history essentially saying to the rest of the Yankee team, “This town’s not big enough for the both of us.”
Buster Olney, sports columnist and author of the book, The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty, put out an article this morning that puts things into perspective. An excellent read, but the last line says it all.
“Somebody will buy into A-Rod, of course. He’s an extraordinary player. The cost will be hundreds of millions, and the heart and soul, of his next franchise.”
With A-Rod gone, we lose his 54 homeruns and 156 RBI, but we may just get our team back. Here’s to next year and the building of a new Yankee dynasty. The first spring training game of 2008 is February 27th. That’s only 121 days away.
Sam is a pretty agreeable kid. He’s fairly obedient (when he happens to be listening) and is a lot of fun to hang out with. Every now and then, though, he gets his mind set on something and goes to great lengths to get his way. Sam’s been honing his skills in the art of negotiation. Yesterday he was at his finest.
Every year for Family Weekend @ AU we host a breakfast for all of the Chi Alpha parents. This year Jen graciously decided to bake the bulk of the breakfast items. I was up early with the kids in the morning and a tray of blueberry muffins were sitting on the counter, right about eye level for Sam. He noticed. Here’s how the conversation went:
Sam: “Daddy, can I have a blueberry muffin?”
Me: “Sorry you can’t have one now Sam. We need to save these for our guests today.”
Sam: “But Daddy, I want a muffin.”
Me: “You can have one, you’ll just need to wait awhile.”
Sam: “Daddy, I’ll let you do whatever you want.”
Me: “Well, I want a muffin too, but I need to wait, just like you do.”
Sam: “I just want to hear a little bit of yes.”
A little bit of yes…talk about tugging the heartstrings. I almost caved, but mustering up my parental fortitude, I held firm. Hopefully I didn’t show too many signs of weakness. I’ve got to find out what they’re teaching him at school.
I was on Skype with my brother today and he was getting on me a bit about my infrequent posts. Well, I had something to share today so I thought I would write a little before hitting the sack.
On the left you’ll notice a lovely picture of Sam. It was one of those rare occasions when he wasn’t cheesing in front of the camera or putting his hands in his face. What’s the occasion? He was grinning @ my new phone.
I devoted a couple of blogs over the summer to the iPhone release. As you can read, I eventually came to the conclusion that I didn’t need to upgrade my phone. That was until the Palm Centro came out! It’s basically a $600 smartphone for $100 (of course after the contract and mail-in rebates, etc., etc.). I figured that if I sold my old phone on Ebay for that price, I could get an upgrade essentially for free (2 year commitment temporarily ignored). So after conferring with Jen, I happily headed off to the Sprint Store.
If you’re like me, this is where you’d expect reality to come crashing down. But this is a happy story! Mohammad Ali (seriously, that was his name, although I didn’t ask him about the boxer – it’s spelled differently), brought out the phone and let me know it wasn’t $100, but $50! Nice. When I mentioned that I was going to sell the old one on Ebay, he told me I could turn it in to Sprint for $50. Tempting, but I was pretty sure I could do better online, so I turned him down. After a few clicks with his mouse, he sweetened the deal to $100. Sold! I walked out of the Sprint Store with a brand new smartphone and (excluding the contract of course) they gave me $50 to take it.
The funniest part of the day was when I showed it to Sam. I said, “Sam I got a new cell phone!” Sam replied, “But Daddy, you didn’t need a new cell phone.” Maybe not, but it’s hard to pass up when they pay you to take it 
We just got back from an great fall retreat with our students from AU. Our speaker, Shawn Galyen shared 4 excellent messages on the life of Joseph. I was able to record them and they are now available on our TNW Podcast. They’re definitely worth a listen. Just click the link to download them in iTunes or listen online.
There’s a lot to write about today! ESPN is reporting a reliable source has just revealed that Joe Girardi has been offered the job as Yankees manager for next season. Let me just add that the Yankees couldn’t have made a better choice. He’s got a great career with the organization as a player with 3 World Series rings and on the coaching staff as a the bench coach under Torre. He’s also proven himself as a manager in 2006 turning the Marlins into a winner and landing the NL manager of the year award.
