Twenty-seven

Is there anything better than the day AFTER your team wins a championship? As great as the moment of victory is, there's nothing I enjoy more than basking in the glory the day after.

The primary reasons I'm nursing a moderate hangover today (which would be a million times worse under normal circumstances) are Hideki Matsui and Andy Pettitte. Pettitte delivered exactly the kind of outing everyone should have expected, and Matsui went absolutely nuts with six RBI.

It's official, Godzilla is Pedro's daddy.

If it was Matsui's last game in pinstripes, he certainly went out in style. A two-run homer off Pedro in the second. A two-run single off Pedro in the third. A two-run double off J.A. Happ in the fifth. A World Series MVP trophy.

I don't know what's going to happen with Matsui beyond 2009, but there's one thing I do know, there is a HUGE Hideki fan who has assured me that she'll never let me live down any bad things I've ever said about her boy. And you know what, it's well worth it. What he did last night was mind-blowing, simply one of the best offensive performances in World Series history.

It was also a big night for Matsui's translator "Roger", who got a lot of facetime after the game. That guy must have felt like he won the MVP award.

While Godzilla was destroying the Phillies with his bat, Pettitte was answering all the questions about how a 38-year-old would handle pitching on three days rest. It was a typical Pettitte outing - not spectacular, but effective. There's nobody I would have rather given the ball in that game than him.

Amazingly enough, even after losing in six games, Phillies loudmouth Jimmy Rollins (who hit a whopping .217 in the Series) actually had the nerve to say that his team was still the better one. (From the Daily News)

"They were the better team this series," Rollins said Wednesday night. "Do I think we're the better team? I really do. They just executed. I think we weren't playing bad, but they were playing that much better. ... They got the hits, we didn't. It's that simple."

Pardon my French, but go F yourself, J-Roll. You did nothing in this series to earn the right to say a damn thing. If you want to see how a real city celebrates a championship, head down to lower Manhattan tomorrow.

There are a lot of other things I could (and will) say about the 2009 Yankees, but they're all too cluttered in my mind right now to get them out. Maybe after I get some sleep I'll flush them out later this week.

I do have to turn off my jerkiness for a final thought on last night's victory. This is the first championship won by the Yankees since my grandfather passed away more than three years ago. Nobody is more responsible for my Yankee fanhood than him, and I constantly tell people the story of how he explained to me when I was six years old that I was born into a Yankee family, and thus could not root for the Mets, even though they were the better team at that time.

As I was counting down the outs last night, I couldn't help but think of that wonderful man and how much he would have enjoyed seeing them win another title.

I miss you, RFOC. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.