Joy, apprehension in Yankee land

Remember that feeling you had the night before you went away to college? The pit located in the center of your stomach, a mix of anxiety and excitement that just ate up your insides? The packing, the preparation, the last dinner at Charlie Brown's when your parents speculated you weren't eating because of narcotics use? It was a stressful time to be sure. Luckily, that apprehension faded when you got to campus and adjusted, but until that time came, there was nothing to do but wait and hope that things would work out.

Well yeah, that's what it's like to be a Yankees fan right now.

I can't ever remember being more scared and excited about a team's prospects heading into a new season. On the one hand, you have a loaded roster of position-player talent and a pitching staff widely thought to be one of baseball's most promising.

But then there's Hank Steinbrenner. Crazy ole Hank Steinbrenner, a man who petrifies me on every level. He comes off in the media like an irrational version of his Old Man, if that's even possible. He looks like a mean person, the type of dude that would put razor blades in apples on Halloween. He hardly seems the patient and even-keeled type, a pair of traits you'd hope for when your organization is committing to any form of youth movement. Poor Brian Cashman must be spinning in his grave.

Wait. Cash is still alive? Is he still in baseball? Which team is he with? Best of luck to him wherever he is.

ANYWAY, this is an organization clearly at a crossroads. After a series of postseason misfires, the club made the right decision in parting ways with Joe Torre. Joe Girardi has quite the job in front of him, but it's one I believe he's well-suited for. In fact, for all his bluster -- and let's face it, playboy is a Wizard of Oz tornado-level windbag -- Hank hasn't pulled the trigger on any franchise-deflating moves since taking over day-to-day operations. He made the right decision at manager (with all due respect to the great Donnie Ballgame), played hardball and won (sort of) during the A-Rod contract saga, re-signed Mo and Posada (a PR necessity) and has resisted trading away his farm (so far) for Twins ace Johan Santana.

So no, the sky isn't falling in the Bronx. And here's the thing that a lot of people don't seem to realize ... this team was so to a championship run in 2007. Chien-Ming Wang's playoff meltdown completely obscured the fact that the Yankees were baseball's best team down the stretch of the regular season, a squad that clearly outplayed the world champion Red Sox in the second half. I'm not going to go sour grapes saying New York was the better team than Boston, but I will say the difference wasn't as vast as the playoff results seemed to indicate.

Can Wang be trusted anymore? It's going to take awhile, at least for me. In fact, Wang's Indians gag job has landed him in the unsavory position of having to wait until October to prove his true worth, a place more popularly known as the Alex E. Rodriguez Baseball Abyss. This is not a good place to be.

I don't worry about soft-spoken Chien though. Is he a true ace? Nah. We shouldn't be asking him to be something that he's not. The problem isn't so much Wang (assuming the ALDS was an aberration), but rather that we're asking the best No. 2 pitcher in baseball to be our No. 1. Round peg, square hole, ya dig?

NOW, if either Joba or Hughes pitch like the phenoms they're supposed to be and seize that ace role, this is a team that's going to be very difficult to beat. That, my friends, is the exciting feeling in my stomach.

But the nervousness remains. The bullpen is a major question mark. I love him more than 10 cent wings, but Rivera is clearly slipping, and I only envision those shaky outings increasing at age 38. LaTroy Hawkins was a poor signing and I CANNOT believe I have to put up with another season of the terminally-awful Kyle Farnsworth and his stupid Charlie Sheen "Major League" glasses. I hold out hope that Humberto Sanchez -- the hard-throwing right-hander acquired in the Gary Sheffield trade -- can serve as a wild card here. He missed all of 2007 following Tommy John surgery, but he could be ready by the All-Star break. And a little birdie told me that Mark Melancon (another Tommy John survivor) could be an impact player in '08. Melancon is a former University of Arizona closer who the Yanks selected in the ninth round of the 2006 First-Year Player Draft. If healthy, the 22-year-old right-hander may get his shot sooner rather than later if (when?) the Hawkins/Farnsworth duo falters.

And then there's of course, Hank ... a figure in some ways more important to the Yankees' future than Hughes, Chamberlain and Kennedy combined. Will he remain under control and listen to his baseball people? For all his warts, Hank's Old Man eventually learned to let his baseball people lead the way (a suspension helped), paving the way for Gene Michaels and the Yankee Dynasty of 1996-2000. Did Hank learn from his father, or will Yankees fans live through the frustration of the 80s all over again?

It's all more stressful than meeting my pot-ingesting, Creed-adoring freshman roommate. Pass the Tums please.