Good morning, good afternoon or good evening to you friends - whichever of those aforementioned three applies at this present time. Welcome to our Easter Sunday edition of The Gospel According to "L". I want to first wish a Happy Easter to all my fellow Christian friends - I killed the Easter Bunny, he's decomposing in my backyard right now, hee hee you fools believed me! Anyway, the season is only one week away, so we're going to have a little fun with this edition. I am going to talk about a few things with the website, I will be speaking a little bit about the failures of baseball's economic system, and I want to give you my outlook for the 2005 Yankees. So if you're ready to go, let us do so with our first topic.

In case you have not noticed, I have made two adjustments to this site. First I have a new design for the website banner - unfortunately the height is a little longer than I wanted, but that's the only way I was going to fit a little backdrop of Yankee Stadium into it. Second, I created a new page in the "NYY links" section on the left-side bar. It is called "Fan Pages." This is something that I had on the previous version of this site, and it has been a long-time coming for this version. I've had a few sites that I have visited and have even received compliments from their webmasters. Just as I hope they'd plug this website on theirs, I will plug theirs on mine. I hope that last sentence was easy for you to understand - if not then keep reading it until you do understand it because I am not going to play the role of English teacher here. As you can see, some sites will be linked via a banner, others will be simply linked by text.

Anyway, there aren't that many websites listed as of today - however if you know of anymore, or you have a Yankees' fan site that you'd like me to link, just follow the instructions on the site. Remember that if you want to link your site via a banner, you must send me the web address of the banner - I do not open attachments unless I absolutely know who is sending them to me. In this era, you cannot trust almost anybody! All right, let's go on to the next topic.

As you know, my "Directions to Yankee Stadium" page actually gets more hits than the L.O.T.M. Yanks homepage does. In fact, to this date, it is closing in on 2,000 hits - it's not high, but considering that most people only view it during the season, that's not too bad. But now - during the regular season - I usually get tons of e-mails from people asking me to help them get to Yankee Stadium via the New York City subway. Being that I am both a native New Yorker and a subway buff, it's a piece of cake as far as I am concerned. I have even spent most of my time posting over at the subway message board at Subchat.org - my handle is Roosevelt Avenue Jorge.

Last year I believe I got about 20-25 e-mails from people living around the New York City metro area or well outside it. I can remember I've only gotten one from a person from and in New York City (a girl in Brooklyn.) Aside from the latter, I usually get e-mails from upstate, New Jersey, Connecticut, and even the Island (that's Long Island for you out-of-towners.) Most people who ask me within the five boroughs are tourists from out of town. I enjoy giving these directions out, and I know I will have fun this season. I just want to say, I enthusiastically await your e-mails and I will do as best I can to help you get to Yankee Stadium in a timely and comfortable manner.

I do want you to please keep something in mind. If you are going to ask me for directions to Yankee Stadium, you should send your requests at least 48 hours in advance! The only reason I suggest this because this would take the pressure off me. Let me give you one example of why I suggest a 48-hour period: let's say you need to get to the Stadium the next day for a day game, and you send me the e-mail after I've gone to bed. I might not be able to check my e-mail until that night - therefore you'd end up losing out because you wouldn't be able to get a response from me until it's too late! If I could answer e-mails on call I would - but I also have a life to live. I'm not like Craig (if you ever watched SNL in the 1970's, you may remember the Craig's Traveler's Checks commercial - which was a spoof on American Express Traveler's Checks. Craig would never leave his apartment - therefore you could call him anytime to replace your traveler's checks.) So please, send your requests at least about 48 hours in advance - this way I can give you the best possible directions. In any event - I am anticipating your requests for 2005. All right, now let's move on to our first big baseball topic.

Now I want to talk about baseball's economic system and how it has become an absolute joke. It is now 2005 and we've had a collective bargaining agreement since August of 2002, yet the payroll gap has actually increased. Why? Well I will tell you why - revenue sharing and the socialist luxury tax are total failures. I predicted that none of this would help baseball, and guess what, I was right!

If you disagree with me on this issue then please let me ask you a couple of questions. Why is it that the Montreal Expos are now the Washington Nationals? Why is it that Carlos Beltran is still not a Kansas City Royal? Why is it that the Oakland A's could not only not re-sign Miguel Tejada, but now had to deal their top two pitchers this past offseason? Why is it that the Yankee payroll is now over $200 million and the Red Sox and Mets are also spending like drunken sailors? If revenue sharing and the luxury tax do in fact work, why do I even have to bother asking these questions? Somebody explain this to me. Actually no, don't bother, I will answer that question for all of us.

What most people do not understand is that some teams play in markets that have no business being Major League markets. Up until the 1960's, baseball only had only sixteen (16) teams - eight (8) in each league. In case you forgot, markets like Milwaukee and Kansas City failed, and they ended up losing their teams - the Milwaukee Braves moved to Atlanta and the Kansas City A's moved to Oakland. Seattle was always a minor league market, as were some cities like San Diego and Minneapolis. Washington, DC failed with two teams - because most residents lost interest in baseball and cared more for football and other such sports. Maybe now, with some new demographics, things might change, but who knows. If you want to blame somebody, blame the players for inflation. It was guys such as A-Rod, before he became a Yankee, who asked for nine figures and got it with Texas - $252 million over 12 years. Mike Piazza got 7 years and $91 million from the Mets, and Albert Belle signed for a huge chunk of change with the Chicago White Sox back in 1997 - thank God the latter never became a Yankee. This has forced owners to raise the bar in terms of offers, and has made it impossible for small market owners to be able to sign players. Remember one thing - the fire sales never took place until after the 1994 players' strike - remember when the Montreal Expos dismantled their team? John Wetteland to the Yankees, Ken Hill to the Cardinals, Marquis Grissom to the Braves, and Larry Walker left as a free agent to sign with the Rockies.

Small market owners get tons of money from the luxury tax and revenue sharing funds, yet they never spend that money. Instead, like corrupt politicians, they pocket the money and never spend it on their team’s priorities - and you wonder why they can never re-sign their top players! Everybody wants to quickly blame the Yankees for this mess. George Steinbrenner is a successful businessman who knows how to increase income and profits, unlike other owners. He goes out and spends money on his team's best interests. And last I checked, this is a capitalist society - if you can't make money, you have no business being in business! It's time to end welfare for teams that don't know how to increase revenue by their own means! All right, final topic coming up.

I want to finish up by previewing a little bit of the 2005 season for baseball in general, and the Yankees in particular. As I mentioned in an earlier Gospel, I am, for the first time in a few years, excited about the upcoming season. To have a rotation with guys like Randy Johnson, Carl Pavano, Mike Mussina and Jaret Wright would give anybody confidence. But please do not think this is going to be easy - on the contrary. The Red Sox have revamped their rotation with Wade Miller, Matt Clement and the bloated traitor known as David Wells. I didn't mind that Wells went to Boston - it's his right - it was the opening of his smelly mouth that upset me. I just hope Randy Johnson makes him his b--ch next Sunday night – now that is one big b--ch!

I still believe the Yankees will win the East with the Red Sox finishing second and probably taking the Wild Card. The Orioles could be a threat, especially with that heavy lineup with Rafael Palmiero, Sammy Sosa, Javy Lopez, etc. The one factor that will keep the O's from catching the Sox and Yanks is pitching - almost none to speak of. The Central division will be interesting with the Twins still the best team there, and then you have a dark horse in the Cleveland Indians. You need to keep your eyes on the Tribe - they may be young, but they are good and they could sneak up there past the Twins, especially now with Kevin Millwood in their rotation. The West will probably go to the LA (can't call them Anaheim anymore and I won't) - the Mariners and Rangers could present a real challenge to Anaheim as well as the Wild Card. Oakland, on the other hand, is more than likely finished now that Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder are out of there.

The National League is going to be interesting - the East will still go to Atlanta while the Mets and Phillies will challenge, but fall short for the division crown. The Marlins and Nationals will take the last two spots - best they could do is play spoilers at season's end. The Central will be interesting with Houston and St. Louis, the Cubs could present a threat, and everybody else is just there to get beaten up. As for the West, that will be the most unpredictable division this season. The Giants will be without Barry Bonds for a while (maybe the entire season), the Dodgers did sign Derek Lowe, but lost their MVP Adrian Beltre, and the Diamondbacks, despite sending us the Unit, did sign Russ Ortiz and Troy Glaus. As far as I am concerned, even the Padres could sneak up and win that division.

I have some other predictions - A-Rod will be better now that he has truly adjusted to this city, that's one. Jason Giambi will hit a good number of homeruns, don't believe the media talk that he'll now only hit 15-20 - bull sheet! Gary Sheffield will have another good season, however thanks to his idiotic decisions, just like Giambi will hear steroids-type chants, he will hear the chants of "R. Kelly" in opposing ballparks. Hey Sheff, that's what you get for not having enough guts to leave that whore who cheats on you with a guy who basically has his career ruined by sleeping with a minor. You're a thousand times the man he is Sheff, you should have left the hoe when you had the chance! Moving on - Randy Johnson will not be bothered by a knee, hamstring, or even the press and will win 20 games and be a top candidate for Cy Young honors - and the Carl Pavano/Jaret Wright combo will combine for about 30 wins more or less. There will be weaknesses on this team - such as centerfield. Bernie's getting on in years and Damian Rolls runs like the Flash, but he can't hit at a Major League level. Kevin Brown is the only weakness of the rotation and the bullpen has some sore spots such as Tom Gordon. Other than what I have just mentioned, everything seems to be ok for now.

I'll be at the game on April 10 against Baltimore sitting in the Bleachers. I have a question: why is it the Yankees didn't announce through the media that they were raising ticket prices? The bleachers are now $12! The tier reserved is now $20, the tier boxes are $42 and box seats range from $55 to $95! As much as I despise the Red Sox and hope they never see glory again, at least they informed their evil fans that they were raising prices, so why couldn't Steinbrenner have done likewise? Why did we have to find out at the box office?

I mentioned I'll be there April 10, I'll also be at Shea on May 22 for the Subway Series sitting in the upper level. I'm hoping to go to at least go to one game per month, especially now that I got a new job, but we'll see. Anyway, we're a week away from the time this is being written, and my one beef is that the Yankees open the season the very same day and time as Wrestlemania 21! Couldn't MLB wait until April 4? At any rate - I'll see you again in two weeks my friends!