Our Yankees

From July 26: "Winning would have been nice, but it didn’t really matter. As we left you said you want to go again. As we got on the train, you said it was a great game. It WAS a great game. It’ll just show up in the stats as one of 60 or so losses for the year, but for us, it was the world series. We both fell in love with the Yankees yesterday."

Did we ever! We carried our love for the Yankees down to Tejas, where it ain't easy sporting your Yankee pride. There have been some great lessons on courage and boldness I've been able to teach Sam. Wear that shirt with pride son - don't worry what other people think.

We battled through some internal conflict. Do we like the Rangers now? Well, yeah, we do. But the Yankees are our team. Sam, you know the lineup up and down. There's Jeter, Johnny D, Tex, A-Rod, Fives, Hip Hip Jorge, Nick Swisher (the guy with a name begging for a nickname, we just call Nick Swisher), Robinson Cano, and last but not least, (I want my) Melky Cabrera. And of course you knew the pitching rotation inside and out: AJ, CC and Andy with Mariano Rivera. What a team! One day you'll learn that it was an expensive team. Don't listen to that crap. It's jealousy plain and simple. Of course they were expensive. They're awesome!

Not sure how it came about, but we started telling Little Derek stories at bedtime. Madeup stories about Little Derek when he was 7 years old - all the amazing feats that surprisingly revolved around baseball. Your favorite was the time Little Derek went to a Yankee game with his daddy and late in the game when they were running out of players, they asked people in the stands if they'd like to play. Of course, Little Derek raised his hand and got to play shortstop. He won the game for them and they carried him around the field to roaring fans. They told him to call when he turned 18 - that they would surely have a spot for him when he grows up. I think it took you awhile to fall asleep after that one.

You even got your mom and sisters into the Yanks. It was definitely a family affair. Even before last night, ask mom who she'd want up in the clutch, she'd tell you Fives is the guy. What a final game for Fives! He was huge!!

As a goodbye gift, our good friend Mark Alvarez (huge Yankee fan from way back) from NY gave us some dirt from homeplate at the new stadium. I can't wait to frame it with a few world series posters. We'll remember this season forever!

A few pictures from last night's game and from Halloween. Sam was A-Rod, of course.