The words and phrases are spoken and written day after day, year after year - generally without any wonderment as to how they became part of the language. All have a history, a story.

For those of you who liked Parts I thru III and wanted more, here is more.

"The Called Shot" A heavier, slower and older Babe Ruth had much more to prove in 1932. And prove he did! Batting .341, driving in 137 runs, slugging 41 homers, the Sultan of Swat pushed the New York Yankees to another pennant. The Cubs of Chicago were the opposition in the World Series.

Observation #1 - The New York Yankees made a huge mistake allowing Alex Rodriguez to be at Opening Day, when Derek Jeter was rehabbing. If you didn’t fly Jeter in to be announced as captain did you think it would go well to have Rodriquez there? To make things worse Rodriguez wasn’t announced and wasn’t in uniform but Mark Teixeira was and he’s hurt too. These kinds of head scratchers will be common place this year in the Bronx as the team starts to trend downward this year.

I've been sitting on this for about two weeks and now is the time for me to discuss why it's time to cut the A-Rod cord. There are reasons he was signed to that huge contract which had nothing to do with his prowess as a baseball player, and why there's still this scared/delay thing in getting rid of him.

The easiest thing is to move him to Kansas City or realistically some place where he wouldn't use his no-trade clause, and eat a good deal of the contract, instead of bothering all baseball fans with the drama of trying to void a contract because he lied to management again.

The Yankees roll on, top of the heap, more stars, more world championships, more hype and hoopla. They are New York. They are big time baseball.

They are baseball's greatest franchise, a team of legends, ghosts, marker moments, odd characters. So much has been written about them and the talk stream stretches out through many decades. Herewith, a small sampling of some of the more memorable observations, enjoy.
On the Yankees
"I would rather beat the Yankees regularly than pitch a no-hit game." - Bob Feller
"It was a death struggle every day being a Yankee ­ you either won or you lost. There was no second place. Half of us were nuts by the end of a season." - Jerry Coleman