It’s almost that time of year when Major League Baseball flickers through the Australian sporting landscape for a scant few minutes. The World Series is almost upon us, and this year it could be a corker.

On the one hand there is the defending champion Philadelphia Phillies. On the other there is a familiar sight, for the evil empire has returned. The Yankees are back in the World Series.

The Bronx Bombers haven’t made the big show since 2003, an interminable stretch for a team that has won 26 “World” titles and finished runner up on a dozen other occasions.

With a payroll of over $180 million a season the Yankees make squabbles over salary caps in Australian Sport seem fairly pitiful.

At the start of this season the consensus in the baseball community was that the top three uncontracted players available were Milwaukee Brewers pitcher CC Sabathia, Toronto Blue Jays pitcher AJ Burnett and Los Angeles Angels first baseman Mark Teixeria.

The Yankees signed all of them.

Whilst Burnett has been somewhat inconsistent, Sabathia and Teixeira have been excellent. Sabathia claimed MVP honours in the penultimate playoff round against the Angels and Teixeira was near the top of the home runs chart all season.

But the biggest story of all has been the disgrace and redemption of Alex ‘A-Rod’ Rodriguez. Despite being considered an all time great in the sport (and the man most likely to take the home run record away from Barry the creep Bonds) A-Rod has never been a popular figure amongst teammates or the fans.

Underscoring this was his long history of failing to deliver in the big moments in the big games.

Like the St George Illawarra Dragons, you always knew he would live down to the challenge.

So when it was revealed prior to the start of the season that he had used a banned substance during 2003 a gleeful horde descended on Rodriguez to wallow in his shame.

This would presumably be the final straw for A-Roid, as he was now being called. Only infamy and a quick trip to Hades remained.

But a funny thing happened on the way to baseball purgatory – Rodriguez suddenly became a monster on the field again. After a brief injury layoff to start the season Rodriguez returned to the Yankees line-up with a flurry of home runs.

More importantly, since the playoffs started a few weeks ago, Rodriguez has been almost Micheal Jordan (or Michael Bevan) like in the clutch moments.

On three occasions he has come to the plate as the Yankees’ final hitter in a game and rescued them from defeat. Beyond that he has created scoring opportunities for his teammates and been a rock at his position of third base.

A strong World Series and his redemption will be complete.

The other big story of the season for the Yankees has been the opening of the New Yankee Stadium. Built to replace The House that Ruth Built, New Yankee Stadium has been seen by some as a gleaming testament to capitalism and hubris.

After costing well over $1.5 billion to construct the stadium has ticket prices so high that even wealthy people are being forced out (real people of course were priced out years ago).

Regardless, the new stadium has proved the perfect environment for the power hitters in the Yankees line-up with pitchers giving up 87 home runs in the first 23 games there, setting a new record.

However, for all the batting prowess in the Yankees line-up, playoff baseball is usually won with quality pitching and, surprise surprise, the Yankees are pretty stocked in that department as well (it’s amazing what $180m will get you).

With Sabathia and Burnett expected to start games one and two respectively and the unflappable veteran Andy Pettite pitching game three the Yankees bring the noise on the mound as well as at the plate.

Not to mention they have Mariano Rivera, considered by many to be the greatest ninth inning closer of all time (when Rivera enters the game the loudspeaker play Metallica’s Enter Sandman – because Rivera puts the game to sleep).

It all sounds rather formidable really but the Phillies aren’t in the World Series by accident. They have two top tier pitchers of their own in the forms of Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels (last season’s World Series MVP).

And if you want power hitting check out first baseman Ryan Howard who has hit the most home runs for a player at his age ever.

But it won’t be enough.

For several years since starting to follow the MLB I had gradually been wooed by the Yankees much like Anakin Skywalker was slowly won over to the Dark Side of the Force.

With the big name players and extensive media coverage, the Yanks were indeed quicker, easier and more seductive.

However, I resisted the temptation for a long time, trying to stay true to the good side. However, several months ago I finally had my “watching the Emperor slaughter Mace Windu” moment when I found myself revelling in a Yankees four game sweep against the hated Red Sox.

From that moment on, I have become a fully committed Yankees fan, and damn the sports karma consequences.

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