End of discussion.

1. This piece had nothing to do with Swisher, although it did have everything to do with voting an unlikely player to the All-Star Game. I respect Swisher’s off-field work, but I don’t think he’s really that great a baseball player. Keep in mind I’m only basing this off of things I’ve seen, read, heard, derived, pondered and witnessed. Perhaps there is some other dimension of spectatorship out there in New York we Midwestern hayseeds don’t know about. Or perhaps New York schools are as terrible and woefully underfunded as everyone says they are.

2. Peavy didn’t write off Chicago, he wrote off the league they play in; the Cubs, for one, are on his “safe list.” Either way I think his refusal to play in the AL says more about him than it does about me. For what it’s worth, he also preemptively refused both the Yankees and Mets.

3. The Yankees went 12-10 with a Swisher who could hit and 14-9 with the Swisher who couldn’t, so how far did he really carry them? Second place? For such an allegedly great team, $200 million is a lot of money to spend for the right to stare at Boston’s collective ass all season long.

4. A partial list of other hard-working players Yankees fans have respected: Jason Giambi, Chuck Knoblauch, Kevin Brown, Roger Clemens, Andy Pettite, Mike Stanton, Jason Grimsley, Dave Justice, Glenallen Hill, Denny Neagle, Todd Williams, Alex Rodriguez, Daniel Naulty, Darren Holmes, Gary Sheffield, Ron Villone, Rondell White, Jim Leyritz, Jose Canseco.

5. Actually, the only reason the White Sox get one All-Star is because your .273-hitting first baseman plays in a larger market than our .303-hitting first baseman. It’s a good thing fans can’t vote on pitchers, though. I’d hate to see Roy Halladay or Zack Greinke denied recognition because Bensonhurst cast five million votes for Chien-Ming Wang. Or, if not Wang, perhaps up-and-coming lefty reliever Nick Swisher.