Hi there boys and girls.  I’m not really 100% recovered from a really kick-butt upper respiratory virus, but I’m decent-enough.  (Daytime is OK … nighttime is a cough-fest).  Don’t know if I’m back full-time this week, but I’ll try.  But anyway, today’s news is powered by Basil Fawlty (aka John Cleese):

• The Bombers know they will be in for a fight with the Angels:

“We are going to have a nasty series,” Andy Pettitte said after his 4-1 victory on Sunday, which clinched a division series sweep of the Minnesota Twins. “It’s going to be a war with us and the Angels, but we are looking forward to it.”

The Angels clinched a spot in the American League Championship Series by completing their sweep of the Red Sox in Boston before the Yankees took batting practice at the Metrodome on Sunday. Some of the Yankees watched the game in their clubhouse, impressed but not surprised at the Angels’ ninth-inning comeback.

“There’s no quit in the Angels,” Johnny Damon said. “We see that when we play them.”

…“What makes them tough is they hit, they pitch, they run, they steal, they play defense, good bullpen, good closer, good manager,” Derek Jeter said. “I think that pretty much wraps it up.”

• Ron Gardenhire admires the Bombers:

“They just keep running great hitters at you,” Gardenhire said. “That’s why you end up having to make pitching moves. Change, change, change, because they are so dangerous that you just try to finagle your way through it half the time.”

Once Gardenhire started praising the Yankees, he did not stop.

“It’s a great baseball team,” Gardenhire said. “They deserve all the accolades. They have got a great bullpen. Those guys come out there firing. Bench. The whole package. They’ve got the whole package, they’ve got the whole deal, and they have got some of the classiest players in the league out there, guys I really enjoy watching play.”

• William Rhoden thinks a Dodgers-Yanks series would be good for the game:

Still, what Major League Baseball needs is a great World Series, a Series for the ages. And with all due respect to those two other potential matchups, it’s a Yankees-Dodgers World Series that could take the game back to its roots at a time when baseball desperately needs to recover a portion of the trust, if not the innocence, that it has lost in the steroid era.

There would be a number of interesting story lines in a Yankees-Dodger World Series, not the least of which would be the return of Dodgers Manager Joe Torre to New York to face the team that he unhappily parted with after the 2007 season. But the greatest attraction has to do with the history and traditions that the Yankees and the Dodgers represent.

Two venerable franchises competing in a World Series would recall an era in baseball when things seemed simpler and the game was more pure.

• A belated congratulations to Banterite “mpalmer717”, who led his Quadruple A’s to the inaugural “Banter Battle” fantasy baseball title.  The A’s nabbed 211.5 out of a possible 240 points, finishing in the top two in seven categories and top four in nine out of the 12 categories.  In finishing 18.5 points ahead of the field, they only made 14 roster moves all season.
• George Frazier turns 55 today.  After coming over from the Cards in the middle of ’81, he managed to lose three games in relief in the 1981 World Series.
• A very happy 85th birthday to Charlie Silvera!  Silvera was Yogi Berra’s caddy during Silvera’s tenure with the Yanks (’48-’56).
• On this date in 1978, 3B Graig Nettles puts on a fielding clinic and prevents seven runs as the Yankees beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5 – 1, in Game Three of the World Series. Nettles makes four spectacular stops and gives the Yankees their first victory of the series.
• On this date in 2000, the Yankees batter the Mariners, 8 – 2, to take a 2-games-to-1 lead in the ALCS. Bernie Williams and Tino Martinez hit back-to-back home runs in the second inning for New York, while David Justice has three RBI. Mariano Rivera breaks Whitey Ford’s record for consecutive scoreless innings pitched in postseason play with 33 1/3 scoreless frames.