The World Series is over and Phillies spring training doesn’t start until late February so I’ll try and get all the baseball out of my system to last the hiatus.

First off congratulations are in order to the 2007 Boston Red Sox. They get my praise not so much for winning the fall classic but for being the lesser of two evils between them and the Colorado Rockies. Had the Rockies not demolished the Phillies, or thought that Todd Helton’s lord and savior willed the team to postseason berth I would have sided with them. To read about how the Rockies’ clubhouse turned spiritual click here. By the World Series I half expected to see Jesus hitting clean up in their batting order.

Clearly the topic of baseball cannot be adequately covered without saying something about the New York Yankees (at least ESPN can’t do it). Reports surfaced yesterday that Joe Girardi, former Yankee catcher, will be the new skipper. He beat out bench coach and hitting instructor Don Mattingly who promptly decided he was not going to return to the team in 2008 after hearing that he didn’t get the nod.

Alex Rodriguez is going to opt out of his Yankees contract (hey we get to talk about them twice, yipee), but the bigger news may be how he did it. His agent, Scott Boras has apologized to Major League Baseball as well as the teams competing in the World Series for breaking the news during Game 4. I see no reason to apologize. The only interesting thing about the series was to see whether or not someone would steal a base, winning tacos for all baseball fans; and Red Sox outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury said “lunch is on me” in Game 2.

The A-Rod hype is sure to be one of ESPN’s top stories everyday until some general manager convinces all his fans to re-mortgage their homes so they can all pitch in to afford the third baseman. Until that happens I urge Phils’ fans to IGNORE IT. It’s not gonna happen here. That being said, Torii Hunter filed for free agency yesterday. Now there’s a more reasonable off-season pick up.