New York Yankees

Every year we hear the same whispers:

"How much longer can Mo last?"

Because it's such an infrequent occurrence, anytime he blows a save, the doubters surface with their proclamations of Mariano's imminent demise.

At a point in his life where most of his peers are playing golf, or delving into post-playing-career business ventures, the inimitable Mariano Rivera is continuing to add luster to his likely first-ballot Hall of Fame credentials.

As the Yankees faded down the stretch this season, many fans scrambling for any semblance of hope pointed back to 2000.

That was the year New York lost 18 of 21 games to close out September, their 87 wins still enough to win the division thanks to a little late period "Curse of the Bambino" action.

Veteran Jim Thome's season ended yesterday when the Minnesota Twins were swept by the New York Yankees.

With Thome having no contract this offseason, and amid rumors of whether he'll return for another season, could Yankees general manager Brian Cashman make a move for him?

Going into Saturday night's Game Three, the Yankees had to be feeling very confident of their chances to sweep the Twins.

They were up 2-0 on the Twins and they had history on their side since Minnesota had not won a playoff game against the Yankees since 2004.

There is all this talk about Yankees skipper Joe Girardi walking away after the season and taking the job as the next Cubs manager.

But if the Bombers win a consecutive championship, they have to keep him, right?

I know that many Yankees fans have questioned Girardi's managerial skills. Heck, if you check with most fans they will point to one reason or another why they do not like their manager.

Entering the MLB postseason, analysts and other fans of the sports seemed to be skeptical of the New York Yankees chances to repeat their World Championship run from last year. Much of this skepticism centered around the lack of quality pitching following CC Sabathia in the rotation.

However, in the Yankees sweep of the Minnesota Twins Sabathia's win ended up being the weakest performance, as Andy Pettitte and Phil Hughes pulled strung together very strong performance in their respective wins.

The New York Yankees are the first team to advance in the postseason this year with their 6-1 win over the Minnesota Twins, who will spend another long, cold winter trying to figure out what went wrong again.

The Yankees dominated the Twins in all aspects of the game and appear poised to retain their title as World Series Champions.

Congratulations to the New York Yankees for sweeping the Minnesota Twins and moving on to the American League Championship series.

Throughout the 2010 season, the New York Yankees had many pitching issues.  Like with A.J. Burnett, he was about as frustrating a pitcher you can come across.  What about Andy Pettitte, going down with an injury mid-season and forcing a spot-starter to go in his place.

And then there's Javier Vasquez.  After starting the season much like Chien Ming-Wang did last year, Vasquez had a stretch when he was as good as anyone pitching on a mound.

Mariano Rivera is a 16-year Major League veteran, and at 40 years old he is still dominating hitters in their 20s, but the question is how long can this continue.

Take a look at Rivera's career, and it's easy to tell this is a future Hall of Famer on the mound. What he has been able to do while seemingly only throwing one pitch has been incredible. Rivera has a career ERA of 2.23 which accompanies his 559 career saves.