We've been giving a lot of good-natured grief to baseball fan Chris Velardi over the past few days. As a long time New York Mets fan, it galls him to see those New York Yankees win yet another World Series. So of course, we assigned him to cover Yankees-related stories for the past two days! This morning we gave him a ticket out of town and said go to the city and cover the parade.

Connecticut Yankees fans on the train to the championship parade in New York City. (Photo: Chris Velardi)

Tweeting from the rails, @cvelardi says "On the train to NYC - they could call this the Yankee Clipper."

Have fun Chris! More of Chris' pictures are posted here, and watch his report tonight on News Channel 8.

A bit of premature celebration by the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper Monday. The paper ran an ad congratulating the team for winning back-to-back World Series Championships. That would be on the same day the sports page reported that the Yankees took a three games to one lead in the series.

Ad in Philadelphia Inquirer.

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I have come to accept certain truths in life. I have to pay my taxes, I have to go to work, and I will never grow up to be Hugh Hefner. I also know that I root for the single biggest villain in all of sports, the New York Yankees.

As Yankees fans around the country gear up for Game 1 of the World Series tonight, there is no question that pretty much everyone outside of those Yankees fans is rooting for the Phillies. And you know what? I have no problem with this. Every story needs a great villain, the Yankees fit the bill perfectly, and the rest of baseball should be thankful for the Yankees.

Think of this in movie terms. Darth Vader, Hannibal Lector, Norman Bates, and so on. All of these characters are far more memorable than their counterparts, and make their respective movies memorable. You root against them, but there is a part of everyone that wishes they could be more like them. That is the New York Yankees. Every sports fan hates them for what they are, but wishes their team was just like them. Name one sports fan wouldn't want their team to be a contender every year, if all it meant was losing favor with the fans of other sports teams? Waiting.... waiting... no one?? Thought so.

Without the Yankees, there is no villain, and the story falls flat. Say what you will about sportsmanship, but people enjoy the games more when there is drama, when there is a clear cut good guy and bad guy. It's the same formula the pro wrestling bases their billion dollar industry on, and in baseball, the Yankees are an entire team of King Kong Bundys, Iron Sheiks, and Randy Ortons. Would you care if this World Series was the Rockies versus the Twins? Of course not. Regardless of the quality of the games, ratings would plummet and the World Series would be a second rate story.

The Yankees are what the World Series needs. People will watch, even if just to root against them. You can call them the evil empire, you can say they buy their players, and you can even say they are what's wrong with sports. But no matter what, the Yankees bring drama, the Yankees bring storylines, and the Yankees make the World Series matter. The Yankees are the perfect villain.

Former UConn standout Hasheem Thabeet makes his debut with the Memphis Grizzlies tonight. He had some fun Tuesday with the Fox station in Memphis and their Meteorologist Joey Sulipeck. In the interest of sharing some fun, here's the longer clip of the outtakes.

Ok, so this isn't exactly the match-up I was hoping for in the World Series, but this should be a good one to watch. The Yankees get to celebrate their first World Series in eons (at least it feels like that long for pinstripe fans) in their new park. It's their 40th overall. And Philadelphia gets to try and repeat as World Series champions, and no one has done that since the (irony alert) 1998-2000 Yankees.

I'm going to say this one goes all the way to seven games. Game one is Wednesday night.

For those of us who have spent far too much time watching the baseball playoffs, there has been a running theme throughout: poor umpiring. This became abundantly clear during Game 4 of the ALCS on Tuesday.

There are three calls that stand out.

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The 2009 ALCS has lived up to the hype, but not for the reasons advertised. While we have seen back-to-back extra inning games that sent the home fans away happy, this has been a sloppy series of missed opportunities on both sides of the diamond.

In Game 1, we watched the Angels commit 3 crucial errors down the stretch to give the game to the Yankees. In Game 2, A.J. Burnett's wild pitch led to extra innings. In Game 3, there was Bobby Abreu's baserunning error, Gardner getting caught stealing one pitch before Posada's HR, Girardi's misuse of the bullpen, and countless runners left on base. For two teams that put up prolific offensive numbers this season, they have struggled to plate runs when the opportunity has presented itself.

Now the momentum has momentarily swung back to the Angels, with a Game 4 match-up of C.C. Sabathia vs. Scott Kazmir. Sabathia has proven why he is one of the game's best in his first two postseason starts, but is starting on short rest. Kazmir got pounded by Boston in Game 3 of the ALDS, but was bailed out by some late inning heroics and will no doubt be looking to show he belongs in the rotation tonight. One has to agree that these two teams are far overdue for an offensive explosion, and perhaps tonight is the night. If you're a Yankee fan like me, you know how dangerous the Angels can be when they get some momentum. If you're an Angels fan, you're hoping last night's drama carries over to tonight and allows you to even the series.

Regardless of team affiliation, this series has been fun to watch and provided fans from both sides plenty of opportunities to cheer and jeer. I still think the Yankees take one game in LA, and will get the series finalized in New York in Game 6. But with the way things have so far, expect the unexpected and keep the Rolaids handy.

I have to admit I would never would have expected this one -- three games and out for the Red Sox in the American League Division Series.

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