By JERRY RILES

The New York Yankees are the Champions of the World. They defeated the Philadelphia Phillies to win the 2009 World Series for the 27th time in franchise history.

Call it money, call it high priced talent, call it the greedy, but whatever the case, the boys in pinstripes made it happen again. 7-3 was the final from the new Yankee Stadium. Alex Rodriguez collects his first.

Derek Jeter latches on to another. Johnny Damon picks up one with his second team. The Yankee magic continues in the Bronx. The goal and the mission was to win the entire thing after the Steinbrenner family invested and built a $1-billion modern day Yankee Stadium.

They acquired a smart, disciplined, and intellectual manager in Joe Girardi. They sought out and convinced C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, and Mark Teixeira to sign on with a team of stars and they all made it happen.

Even pitcher Andy Pettitte, after all the steroid controversy, can finally smile up to the baseball gods and say thank you.

Are the Yankees deserving of the championship? Did they simply pay for the darn thing? Do you hate New York? Maybe yes to all or some, maybe no to all or some. But one thing for sure the drought is finally over in the Big Apple.

After nine years the Bronx-bombers once again bring home the World Series title and they win it in front of the hometown crowd. Even those fortunate enough to spend more than $1,000 for a seat per game during the regular season. How sweet it is.

Even former White Sox nutty guy Nick Swisher gets a ring. 29 homers during the season and most of them on the road. What a great teammate and quite an acquisition by the organization.

And son Hal the new GM of the team, was so elated after the victory, that he shouted out to daddy George Steinbrenner during the post game celebration who was watching from home, and said "Dad this one's for you."

The Boss gets his wish. Another title! A-Rod finally had the opportunity to hoist the trophy as a World Series Champion after an incredible post-season performance including six homeruns while also being binged three times.

Love 'em or hate 'em, the Yankees do it the right way. They pay, they play, they win. Hideki Matsui was named the game's MVP after killing the Phils pitching, including Game 6 hurler Pedro Martinez.

Godzilla belted in six runs in leading the Yanks to the 4-2 series victory over the defending champs. What a night in New York. Lady Liberty certainly is standing proud sitting in the Hudson River just outside the city that never sleeps.

The captain Jeter once again held the trophy in the house that HE built, and super closer Mariano Rivera was so ecstatic that he predicted that he would return to play for the squad for another 5 more years. And just think, it all started in spring training.

These guys just seem to play the game the right way, and when that happens, everyone can now see what the results are. The White Sox tasted that magic in 2005. Let's hope the Cubs can share in the experience come 2010.

The Ricketts, new owners of the organization, made a prediction after paying $850-million for the team, that there would be a World Series victory on the north side. The only question not answered was when.

Hopefully, the new family will be able to tell their fans very, very soon, "This one's for you." Congrats to the 2009 World Series Champions. The New York Yankees.

 (Jerry Riles is a weekly 5on5 contributor featured every Tuesday in the RedEye)

By JERRY RILES

Losing ugly.

Better yet, it was an old fashion butt kicking.

The Arizona Cardinals kicked the Bears all over their home field beating the so-called Monsters of the Midway 41-21, dropping them to 4-4 on the season.

Defensive end Alex Brown, in his post game comments, said it's not easy for him to put a loss like this behind him.

Believe me it's not easy for the Bear fans either.

Brown stepped up by admitting that he needed to play a better game defensively. He collected 2-sacks and a forced fumble in the Bears fourth loss.

Unfortunately, Brown and the Bears could not stop Kurt Warner and that Cards offense. Arizona moved the ball successfully producing an impressive 18 first downs against the home team in the first half.

They were so good, the squad from out West converted all five of their third downs against the Bears defense. Warner threw five TDs on the day. It all started going downhill very early.

 Thanks to 3-time pro-bowler defensive tackle Tommy Harris. At the 13:42 mark in the first quarter, on just the fourth play of the game, Harris' frustration level exceeded its limit.

The defenseman punched Card's right guard Deuce Lutui in the face as he lay on the turf of Soldier Field. The refs saw it and tossed him out of the game for unsportsmanlike conduct.

The Bears were also hit with a 15-yard penalty. Talk about a lack of discipline. Talk about a stupid penalty. Does this come down to coaching? The game just started. How could a player in the eighth game of the season lose control on just the fourth play?

Is Head Coach Lovie Smith to blame? Fans are calling for his firing. Should he be fired? Have the players given up on the coaching staff?

It appears there's no imagination on either side of the ball. Harris gets ejected. Charles Tillman is escorted off the field and into the tunnel after injuring his shoulder.

He would be done for the day, and linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer gets rattled as well. This Bears team appears to be going in the wrong direction. DOWN!

Smith believes the Bears can fix the problems they have. That's nice to know, but unfortunately, they won't have much time to work on getting things righted.

It's a short week. Very short.

They take on the 49ers in San Francisco on Thursday night. It'll be a quick turn around for them for sure. The Bears have talked about executing a lot. Good luck.

They couldn't even do it against visiting Arizona at Soldier Field. And, the Cards did it without star receiver Anquan Boldin who is nursing an injury.

Tight end Gregg Olsen feels the Bears can bounce back from the terrible defeat. The only problem is they'll be taking on Mike Singletary's Niners, and he won't be feeling too sorry.

Olsen would have three touchdowns on the day in a losing effort. QB Jay Cutler who found his tight end would finish the day 29 of 47 for 369 yards including the three strikes and an interception.

Samauri Mike is very aware of this Bears team demeanor. Can Lovie's team get back on track Thursday night? In Singletary's words "Can't do it."

They are riddled with injuries, have very limited talent, and lack depth at the safety position. It sure would be nice to have Mike Brown back there playing center field. And the scary thing is, the schedule only gets tougher.

So if you thought the Bengals, Browns, and Cardinals games were ugly, just wait, there's more to come.

A .500 record might not be too bad by the end of December. Ugly, yes!

(Jerry Riles is a weekly 5on5 contributor featured every Tuesday in the RedEye)

By JERRY RILES Penalties, turnovers, and injuries.

That was the formula for yet another Bears defeat on Thursday night.

 But woe and behold these mucks had a chance to pull it out to win it 13-10 on a last drive of the game.. And boy what an ugly, sloppy, nasty drive.

Unfortunately, it ended just like it started for starting Bears quarterback Jay Cutler. With an interception.

The final 10-6 49ers over the Bears.

San Francisco's Michael Lewis picked off Cutler's final pass of the game in the end zone to seal the victory.

"I think we are a better football team," Head Coach Lovie Smith said after the game. "We need to just finish a game and get a win."

The Bears were penalized 10 times for 77 yards against the San Francisco 49ers.

Just before the 2-minute warning at the end of regulation, Bears offensive lineman Chris Williams was a bit overzealous and was called for a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty that pretty much ended the Bears chances in a 10-6 loss.

Cutler threw 5 interceptions on the night. His 17th of the season after just nine games. The first 5 pick game of his career. He finished with 29 completions, 52 attempts, for 307 yards on the night.

"Jay realize what that did for the team. There's still a lot of football to go," Smith said. "This one hurt but we'll comeback."

A year ago at this time, he had thrown just 10 picks after the 10th week of the season with the Denver Broncos.

The difference though, between this season and last, is that he has already been sacked 19 times. The last Bears QB to throw 4-interceptions in one game twice in one season was Billy Wade back in 1962.

Cutler recorded his first 4-INT game of the season in week 1 against the Green Bay Packers.

 Is Cutler trying to force too many of his throws in trying to make something happen? Is the offensive line that bad and aren't giving the pro-bowl QB enough time? Are the Bears poorly coached or are they just simply bad?

The Niners defensive line did an impressive job of taking away the run game of the Bears and putting pressure on the O-line while forcing Cutler to make mistakes.

The last time the Bears defeated the Niners in San Francisco was way back in 1986 when the great late Walter Payton was running the rock.

Mike Ditka's Monsters beat the west coast squad 26-10 in week 6. Tight end Desmond Clark left the game after injuring his neck.

After suffering a tough loss against the Arizona Cardinals last week and now this humiliating defeat the Bears and Smith will have time to prepare for Donovan McNabb, Michael Vick and the Philadelphia Eagles a week from Sunday at Soldier Field.

The Bears fall to 4-5 on the season.

(Jerry Riles is a bi-weekly 5on5 contributor featured every other Tuesday in the RedEye)