I dialed Acc as I walked down 7th Avenue late this afternoon.  The Yankee game would definitely be over by now.  He was at the game, and if he didn’t come back with a win I was going to hold him personally responsible.  No answer.  This was disturbing.  I wasn’t reading into it at all, but the kid knew I needed some sort of update.  I was on a train for a good part of the afternoon, and when I stepped out at Penn Station, I was hoping to get some news.  I got nothing.  Next call; Tony Sherry.  He’s usually listening to day games as he drives around Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island doing whatever he does.  “What’s up Krimp?”  “What’s up dude.  What are you doing?”  “I’m on the back nine at Silver Lake.” I knew it.  The freaking kid was out playing golf, having a rousing old time.  “So you don’t know who won the Yankee game?”  “No idea.  Did you call Acc?”  “I did.  He’s ‘Mr. Useless-with-no-information-who-isn’t-answering-his-phone’ to me.”  “Well I'm about to hit.  Call me back and let me know who won when you talk to him.”  “Okay Reggie.  Hit’em hard.”  I strolled past the always confusing “Mustang Harry’s” and “Mustang Sally’s” bar & grills, and down towards F.I.T.  Finally Acc calls me.  “Talk to me, dude.”  “Yankees won, bro.  Things got weird, though.  Weird.  Randy Johnson pitched awesome; it looked like he was going to pitch a complete game.  Then he started the ninth, let up two runs, and Mo came in and shut ‘em down.” The first question in my mind was – why is that weird?  That pretty much sounds like the exact formula to win a million games.  Or at least this one.

         And so it was.  Apparently Allie Boy decided to get nuts again.  I’m pretty sure as I tap the keys he’s on the phone with Vermont Teddy Bear, ordering a “thanks for the bear-ry fat pitches bear” for Jeremy Bonderman.  Good for Allie Boy.  Take your curtain call, bro.      

         So the Yanks took two of three from the Tigers, five of seven on the season.  Do you know why?  Because they’re better than the Tigers.  No question.  You see what the Tigers do.  They get quality starts, competent relief, and just enough offense to make the other two count.  It’s the same formula the A’s have made famous.  The White Sox were similar last year.  But the starters aren’t durable enough to last through the end of October (or maybe even September), and that’s ultimately going to doom their season.  Bonderman hasn’t won since July, Verlander is cooked, and Kenny Rogers is 75 years old, and therefore should only really be playing a three-month baseball season.  As far as the offense goes, you keep waiting for the big name stud to come up and start hammering the ball, and he just never does.  So you get what you get.  The Tigers got two walk-off miracles against the Yanks this year for their only wins against them, and neither featured Mariano.  I wouldn’t feel too great about the match-up if I were the Tigers.   

         The way I see it, the Yanks and the AL Central comprise the AL pennant race right now.  Of the Tigers, White Sox, and Twins, I don’t know who’s in and who’s out, but your ALCS lies in there somewhere; probably between the Yanks, Twins, and White Sox.  The White Sox will be in the playoffs.  The other spot will be between the Tigers and Twins.  If the season started today and lasted 30 games, it would be the Twins.  But the Tigers have that nice lead.  We’ll see.  I’m not discounting the A’s, but their lineup is kind of sad.  They are the only first-place team to have the lowest team batting average in the league this late in the season, according to Elias.  The lowest.  Whoa.  So I don’t see them going all the way.

         That speck you see way in the distance is Theo Epstein, sitting on top of the Green Monster, waving the white flag.  David Wells’ locker was cleared out and his nametag removed before the clubhouse opened today.  Terry Francona remarked that he had never seen that before.  He is obviously going to be traded, to San Diego if reports are correct, but the precursor was a bit harsh, I think.  I don’t know how fans in Boston are going to react to this whole “giving up” bit.  Theo better be getting something super-size-french-fries legit back for this, not this minor league catcher hitting .228 they’re talking about.  I know they’re out of it, but I still don’t think the Sox fans are going to want to thrown in the towel so blatantly.  I don’t know if any trade could cloud the stench of quitting. 

        I wonder if Theo is regretting his decision to come back.  The BPS made the point last winter.  Leaving while he was on top was the right move.  His legacy would have been secure.  The mere mention of his name would have raised glasses from Boylston to Needham.  But he blew it.  Nowhere to go but down.  I imagine Theo Epstein isn’t having much fun right now.  He would be having more fun if he was Juan Epstein, chilling with Vinnie B, Horseshack, and Freddy “Boom Boom.”  Look-ing good, Mister Kotteeeeerrrrr….

         Not a lot more to say.  Now would be a good time to take down the Twinkies.  Not those twinkies, Acc…      

         Let’s be honest.  I could tell you that the Yanks had a good day today.  They’re playing a first place team; they’re going to split a doubleheader.  You always split doubleheaders.  I could tell you that this was just baseball playing itself out exactly according to the script.  I could also tell you that it didn’t mean a thing.  The Red Sox lost today, and they are no longer a factor.  The Yankees will win the American League East.  Joe Torre made his decisions tonight based on this fact.  I could tell you all of these things.  They are certainly all true.  But I would be full of BS.  That was tough.  Two outs and two strikes (multiple times) in the ninth, and the game slipped through our fingers.  Ouch.  We still don’t know what happened to Farnsworth tonight.  Bruised ego?  Poor Scott Proctor.  He has gotten so many big outs this year.  He really has been Joe Torre’s workhorse out of the bullpen.  But you just can’t walk two guys in the ninth inning.  You just can’t. 

         This was one of those games I alluded to in a recent post.  Torre willing to give it away.  Although once I cool off, I will admit that Torre was probably right not to use Mo here.  I usually go with the theory that you never know what tomorrow will bring, so win today.  In other words, who knows that tomorrow won’t be a ten run blowout in either direction and Mo will be resting comfortably next to his tree?  So if it’s a consecutive days in a row thing, I say pitch him.  But a day/night twin bill, fine.  Sit him down.  Again, it’s not really going to affect the post season.  Although it would have brought the Yankees to within one game of the Tigers in the loss column.  But I still think they’ll get there.  I have to admit, it’s not like they completely stole the game.  We only had 3 hits.

         I do have a few things that stick out in my mind.  Why wasn’t Proctor throwing strikes?  Could he not find the strike zone?  Was he trying to be too fine?  I think the latter.  I have a problem with the way Proctor and the Incredible Sal attacked the 9th inning.  With one out, nobody on and a 2-2 count on Brandon Inge, the Incredible Sal set up crouched down very low behind the plate so that his glove was outside and barely off the ground.  The obvious intent was for Proctor to try and get Inge to chase the 2-2 pitch low and away.  Proctor sizzled it right into the glove.  Inge didn’t offer.  Ball 3.  Incredible Sal pointed his glove at Proctor and nodded his head, as if to say, “Way to put it right there.  He didn’t swing, but good execution.”  Here’s my problem with that.  Why are you wasting that pitch?  Proctor throws 96-97, and Inge hadn’t touched any of his pitches.  There is no one on base.  Make him hit his way on.  Go after him.  So now with a 3-2 count, Proctor made another good pitch and Inge fouled it off.  Then ball 4.  Great at-bat by Inge, bad game plan by Proctor and the Incredible Sal.  Then you get a fly ball from Pudge.  Two outs.  Then strike one on Curtis Granderson, who leads the Major Leagues in strikeouts.  Again.  Go after him.  Ball, ball, ball.  Then he gets tough, and finishes off a nine-pitch at-bat with a walk.  Again, phenomenal at-bat.  Then Monroe polished things off.  Ouch.  So not only did Detroit pull off only their second win against the Yankees, both in the ninth inning, but both wins were conspicuous in the absence of the closer, Mo Rivera.  And this one was missing not only Mo, but Posada.  Tough, tough, tough.

         The crowd, as reported to me by Robbie Wonderful, who was at the game, was behind Alllie Boy all night.  Of course he was hitting into double plays and stranding guys all night, but he did get the one RBI.  And the crowd was cheering him.  So we’ve got that going for us… which is nice…..

         Celebrity Duets and tea.  That’s right.  I don’t apologize for that. 

         Well, if you’re going to lose a heartbreaker, do it on the night before a day game.  Don’t do it on getaway day.  Randall against Bonderman tomorrow.  Depending on which Randall shows up, this should be a good one. The big boy will be at the game.  Acc, bring us back a win and put a cap on this series.

         I’ve been lazily sitting around with the Mrs. for the last few hours, watching Celebrity Duets on Fox.  No baseball on this rainy New York night.  It had a very off-season feel for me.  Just flipping through the channels with the Mrs, watching whatever…  This is what winter looks like for me; not like the hang-on-every-pitch intensity of the Yankee summers.  Anyway, it was an okay show.  They had some surprisingly decent names (Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight, Michael Bolton, James Ingram) as the duet partners for the “celebrities,” who were the usual D-list fare.  Wayne Brady did a nice job as host, but the judges were tough to watch.  Little Richard.  God bless him, he’s a legend.  But he’s got to be 75 years old.  And he wasn’t so much entertaining as he was odd.  The Simon Cowell-esque music producer guy had less personality than a lava lamp, and was utterly forgettable.  Marie Osmond played a pretty good former star/industry insider, but hasn’t yet found a way to mix constructive criticism with her obvious desire not to offend anyone.  And she talks too much.  That said, Lucy Lawless (who looks a thousand times better as a glammed-up blond than she did during her Xena days), Alfonso Ribeiro (forget Carlton, old-school New Yorkers will always remember him as Broadway's Tap Dance Kid), Leah Thompson (liked her in Back to the Future, found her gratingly annoying in Caroline in the City, back to liking her singing duets with Randy Travis), and Jai Rodriguez (of Que*r Eye for the Straight Guy fame; a borderline ringer) can sing.  Hal Sparks (who, in his starring role on Que*r as Folk, has probably made out with more dudes than Jai Rodriguez), Carly Patterson (an Olympic medalist in gymnastics just two years ago, who looks like her next reality show should probably be Celebrity Fit Club), Cheech Marin (now why wouldn’t he have come out and sung “Born in East L.A.” - that was his only shot!), and Chris Jericho (one of Mike Sherry’s all-time favorite pro wrestlers, back in his Y2J- "lion-tamer" days) most certainly can not sing.  I don’t know how long this show is going to last, but I mostly likely won’t see another one until baseball is done in November.  Jericho got kicked off tonight, and the smart money is on Jai Rodriguez to win.  Just in case any of you thought that I was any less of a loser in the off-season than I am during the season, I hope I’ve made my case.

         I’m also keeping one eye on the Oakland/Red Sox game on the mlb.com gamecast.  It’s at the point now where I’m rooting against the Red Sox out of force of habit, but I’m thinking that it might be time to think about the A’s and home field as the bigger threat right now.  Let’s be honest.  The Red Sox are crumbling violently, right before everyone’s eyes.  Now that Papi, Manny, and Willy Mo are out for the near future, and Wells is on the trading block, clearly Theo Epstein sees the writing on the wall.  If the Red Sox were to lose tonight [they’re down 1-0, bottom 4], they would be 9 games out in the loss column.  With only a month left in the season, that’s not going to do it.  The A’s, on the other hand, are 4 behind the Yanks in the loss column.  They have a very tough schedule, but they constitute a direct threat, as we’ve previously discussed in the BPS.  Not having home field advantage in the first round is brutal, especially when you’re jockeying back and forth to the West Coast.  If the post-season got underway today, the Yanks wouldn’t play the A’s, but you never know how things will work out.  So I’m still up in the air.

         Tony Sherry broke the news to me today about Big Papi, with a voicemail message early this morning.  There was some immediate speculation in the media (and on the BPS comments) that this might be somehow related to performance-enhancing drugs.  It’s very possible.  I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised, as the evidence certainly tilts toward that possibility.  But I have no ill-will towards Ortiz.  By all accounts he is a great guy, a happy-go-lucky personality who is active in charities and a good teammate.  Of course I wish him a safe and speedy recovery, just as I do Manny and Willy Mo and Varitek and anyone else who’s battling an injury.  That’s not how you want to win.  But we at the BPS have been very vocal over the past two years about the Red Sox being so over-reliant on two guys to key their offense.  Right now they have absolutely nothing.  Also kind of interesting that the Red Sox minor-league system, which was fashionably and incessantly declared “abundant” by the national media types over the past two years, has failed them in spades.  The Yankees farm system, panned as “desolate” by the same lot, has saved their season, just as it did last year.  And more talk today about the fed-up Red Sox, once again, setting the stage to trade Manny this off-season.  No one would be more psyched than me.

         Maybe we’ll get some baseball in over the next few days.  The Tigers didn’t scare me in May, and they don’t scare me now.  Look out.

        All of us here at BPS, especially Umair, Lucky, Happymeds, Ras, Guava, Rocco, Nick, Petey, Sean, Sal, Chris Woy, Mikey Juice, Mike Sherry, the Big Boy, etc,  have been preaching the “win the series” mantra.  You don’t need to win every game, just win the series.  Win the series and good things will happen.  So there were the Yankees, faced with their biggest stretch of the year, 21 games in 20 days.  The stretch that would define their season.  And interestingly, that’s just what they didn’t do.  They won just one of their next six series’.  One.  But what a series it was.  A five game sweep of Boston before a six game west coast swing that included their nemesis, the Los Angeles Angels of Krypton. 

         So where do these guys stand?  The injury report still tells you a lot about this team.  Here are some highlights.

         There hasn’t been a whole lot of chatter about the broken bone in Johnny Damon’s foot for a while.  I have to assume that this isn’t an issue any more.

         I also haven’t heard a lot about the tendon in the back of Posada’s knee.  He was the slowest man alive before that happened, he’s the slowest man alive now.  So maybe it’s a wash.  The one thing to worry about with Posada is the mileage.  Kelly Stinnett didn’t hit a lick, and the Incredible Sal may have a stache like Donnie Baseball, but he’s got a swing like Paul Zuvella.  Joe Torre can’t tolerate even one whole game with The Incredible Sal’s wildly impotent bat.  He’s constantly pinch-hitting Jorge around the 7th or 8th.  Jorge is 35 years old.  Something to think about. 

         The Ferocious Lion is hitting soft-toss BP, but not yet live BP.  He’s a few weeks away, and he’s going to have this issue with no rehab games, as the minor league season ends at the end of the month.  So he’s going to have to get up to speed on his own.  If all goes well, he’ll get his swing by October 1, when we’ll need it.

         I haven’t heard anything on Sheffield.  Word was a few weeks ago he was swinging a bat underwater, whatever that means.  I haven’t heard anything since.  Searching “Sheffield” on Yankees.com doesn’t bring up anything more recent than August 1st.  Not sure what to make of this, but I think I’ve shared my opinion.  Whatever day it is that Sheffield wakes up healthy, he will start crushing the ball.  That’s just him.  If he’s around by October 1, the Yanks will have that one extra right-handed bat that they are looking for.

         Carl Pavano.  Goodness gracious.  Now the guy comes out and says he was in a car accident a few weeks ago.  What a major league mess.  I agree with Happymeds.  That dude has a black cloud hanging over his head.  The “Curse of Alyssa Milano?”  It still sounds like he may pitch soon, however.  Talk about the biggest buildup in the history of the world.  If he gets shelled after all this, I won’t know whether to laugh, cry, or throw a hardball at him.

         Giambi.  This one worries me.  He seems to be breaking down a bit.  Some might say the fresh cycles of HGH are finally starting to catch up to him.  It seems like he’s always leaving games with a hammy problem, groin problem, whatever.  Knock on wood, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he went down one day after Sheffield/The Ferocious Lion came back.  That’s what has defined this ’06 Yankee team.  But until then, let’s ride the wave.  He’s back to being a killer. Allie boy should take a look at some clips of Giambi last year.  He got crushed by the fans.  In and out of Yankee Stadium.  All’s well that ends well.

          With all of that said, the Yankees are 7 games in front in the loss column.  Home field and good health should drive them the rest of the way.

         Happymeds, welcome back.  The comment total was awful low without you.  I’m in the middle of an ugly 5-post streak of single digit comments, with the last one being the worst at 5.  Thank you Sal, Lucky, and Rocco for propping us up with those.  Rocco, I’ll be honest with you.  Given the choice last year, I would have taken home field over setting up the rotation.  Just a matter of personal preference.  Lucky, way to bring one back for the BPS.  Our record is outstanding this year, if I do say so myself.  Sallie, excellent work with the Benfry page.  I’m going to take your word for it, though, because I don’t have some sort of java something that would let me see it.  Ras, I didn’t see the Lupica piece in the News last Sunday, but nothing that whiny little man says surprises me.  I’m just surprised they allow him to take his anti-Yankee rants that far.  Why?

         Three with Detroit coming up.  I feel good about it.  Not because the Yankees are so much better than the Tigers, but because there is a rhythm to a baseball season.  The Yankees just got back from losing four of six.  They are due to go on a run, so they will.  The question will be around Boston’s ability to keep up.  This will be a good week for the Yanks.

         “When was the last time Allie hit a bomb?” I asked Mike Sherry as we stood in Mikey Juice’s backyard, right in front of the window to his den.  “When he was on the Mariners,” was his disgusted reply.  We were watching the game on Saturday evening.  Loosely following it might be more accurate.  Mikey Juice was having the barbeque that was supposed to be at Brian Rumble’s cabana at the beach; cloudy, cool weather forcing the compromise.  As Mike and I wore out the grass between the window and the grill, Tony Sherry, Corvetti and Billy B. were taking turns trying to make each other laugh.  The girls, as usual, were alternately laughing at us uncontrollably, turning away from us disgustedly, and ignoring us to talk about more interesting fare; “Jessica was totally cheating on Nick.  She better watch it…”   Back among the dudes there was smack talking about who the first guy to put on a sweatshirt would be (the smart money was on me, apparently, but it turned out to be Mike Sherry).  In other words, it was a typical summer night in our New York.  The Mets were steamrolling yet another National League patsy, the overseas airliners taking off from Kennedy were overhead every couple of minutes, and Yankee baseball was shining out the window from Mikey Juice’s den TV.  Mike Sherry called out to Brian Rumble.  “Bri, we need you over here.  We might have some things happening.”  “Are they coming back?” Bri asked as he hustled over from the ribs he was babysitting on the grill, a bit of surprise in his voice.  The Melk-man was up with two outs in the ninth, staring down Frankie Rodriguez, one of the bigger d*uchebags in any bullpen.  We all agreed that it was fun just to get to him, loading the bases like the Yanks did, because, shockingly, he always seems to tone down the usual “genuine” wild gesticulations when they make him sweat a little.  Adding to the strange sight of us collected outside of the window was Mikey Juice, who was watching while talking on the phone inside the same den that we were peering into, oblivious to the fact that we were all looking over his shoulder from outside.  “Get out,” Bri and I both barked at the same time as Melky crushed one 365 feet to the deepest part of right field.  No luck, of course.  It was Anaheim and it was the Angels, after all.  Luck has long since abandoned us when it comes to that team. 

         This should have come as a surprise to absolutely no one.  We have officially breached the point where the national news media catch on to what Yankee fans and Angel fans have known for a few years now.  The national media can’t stop talking about the fact that the Angels are the only team (not counting a few one-off Interleague games) with a winning record against the Yanks in the Joe Torre era.  Yawn.  No kidding.  What does it mean?  Not much right now.  And I think all Yankee fans are hoping that it doesn’t take on any more meaning any time soon.  The Yanks didn’t lose any ground over the last week, and didn’t suffer any new injuries (seemingly).  As of now, the Angels are 6 games behind the A’s in the AL West, and even further behind in the Wild Card race.  Unless the Angels make a furious charge over the last month, they will not be there waiting when the Yankees raise their battle flag for October.  And the fact they are 10 games behind the Yanks in the loss column means it is highly unlikely that we will have to deal with them without home-field advantage.  Not that it would matter with that team…  But our season series with them is done, and they have inflicted their usual bruises upon us, taking the season series 6-4. 

         So with that out of the way, we can look at the current playoff picture.  The Red Sox truly look cooked.  West Coast trips are tough, but they had a golden opportunity to gain ground against Seattle.  If they had swept that series while the Yanks were getting b*tch-slapped by Mike Scoscia’s Angels, they would be 4 and ½ out right now.  Sounds a lot better than 6 and ½...  Trouble is their schedule doesn’t get any easier, and the Yankees schedule does get a lot easier.  The Yanks have 33 games left.  Of those, only 18 games are against an opponent other than Baltimore, KC, or Tampa Bay.  And of those 18 games against the tough competition, 15 are at Yankee Stadium.  So, barring a bizarre late-season swoon against the chumps, that leaves the Red Sox with 18 games to make up 7 in the loss column.  That’s when you can start playing games with the math, like hypothesizing that even if the Yanks were to go 9-9, the Red Sox would need to go 16-2 just to tie.  While we’re at it, this might be an appropriate time to correct a BPS blunder. We’ve been blustering on about the fact that the Yanks’ 7 game lead in the loss column is really an 8 game lead by virtue of the fact that the Yanks have won the season series, which would give them the division in the event of a tie.  Incorrect.  The only way the head to head record comes into play is if both the teams will make the playoffs, and the tie-breaker is just for who wins the division and who gets the wild-card.  If the tie is for one team winning the division and one team being left out of the playoffs, there would be a one-game playoff.  Hey, we at the BPS have never claimed infallibility.  So anyway, it looks more and more like Chicago and Minnesota will fight it out for the wild card, although Detroit shouldn’t be too comfortable in their perch.  Although I am not as belligerent about it, I am not going to entirely walk away from my prediction that they will be the odd-man out here.  They seem very much to me to be a burned-out team still living off of their fast start.  But then again, the ’05 White Sox looked the same way down the stretch last year.  In fact, the whole pennant situation looks eerily reminiscent, with the Twins playing the role of the ’05 Indians, the White Sox playing the role of the defending champion ’05 Red Sox, and the Yanks playing the part of, well, the Yanks. 

        With that said, the Yankees should remember the fate that befell them last year, letting home-field advantage slip through their fingers.  They have a four game lead on the A’s in the loss column at this point.  Joe Torre needs to preserve that at all costs.  The last thing these guys need is another away-field disadvantage out on the west coast.  And the last thing I need is to be standing next to Brian Rumble and Mike Sherry on a cold October night in Juice’s backyard, watching a game being broadcast from 3000 miles away, hoping for a miracle.

        Sean called me as the game was about to start.  He’s at Safeco on assignment for the BPS, and marveling at the majesty of Safeco.  I was there a few years ago, and it is a great place to watch a game.  Unfortunately, as I tap the keys tonight, this is not a great game to watch.  This has got “one of those games the baseball gods are not going to let you win” written all over it.

         Let’s start with first things first.  Jarrod Washburn, who had two strikeouts in his last two starts combined, has seven strikeouts in three innings.  Seven.  Unbelievable.  [It was tied; the M’s just plated another.  2-1 M’s]  So far, Ichiro has made a sick play robbing Giambi of a run-scoring double, the Mariners got a base runner on a ball that hugged the line, and had another base runner on a ball that was foul and spun back into fair territory. [Another double.  Now it’s 4-1.  Randall is getting shelled.]  Sean sent a text message in the first inning: “Not sharp.”  That pretty much says it all.  I’m not the least bit surprised.  Randall has been hit or miss this year, and he had a couple of big starts in a row.  He was due for this.  The Mariners were due for this.  They had lost 11 in a row.  They are not a team that should be losing 11 in a row.  I think they won 8 out of 10 a few weeks ago.  And the Yankees were due to run into a bit of a wall after the Boston series.  It’s not going to get any better in Anaheim.

      Speaking of which, let’s talk about Jarrod Washburn.  The guy is 6-12 with an ERA near 5.  But tonight he has seven strikeouts in three innings, as I’ve said twice already.  He has already equaled his season high, and he’s on pace for 21 for the game.  A new record.  Has anybody not made the connection?  But of course - he was an Angel for his entire career.  The Yankee kryptonite has clearly not all rubbed off yet.  So he’s pitching the game of his life.  I will caveat that, though, by saying he has already thrown 65 pitches with two on and nobody out in the top of the 4th.  It is early.  But we need to figure out a way to get them out.  And we need to score some runs. [Melky strikes out on a full count with two out and nobody on.  This is wildly frustrating.  Good Lord.  Now they picked off Cano.  Like I said.  This has “one of those games” written all over it.]

          I’m not really sure why I insist on torturing myself by watching the game and tapping this thing out at the same time.  Somebody remind me never to do this again.  In the last inning, Washburn hit 2 batters, walked one and gave up a base hit.  And yet the Yankees don’t score because the hit didn’t come with anyone in scoring position and Cano got himself picked off.  Washburn is at 80 pitches through four.  But he also got another strikeout.

         It’s not really evident tonight, but you’ll see, it appears, over the next few weeks where Joe Torre and I really diverge.  Joe Torre is a huge believer in resting his regulars.  Down the stretch you won’t see one single game with every starter in the lineup.  Every single day he rests either one or two regulars.  Last year was really the first year he couldn’t do it, as the race came right down to the wire.  I understand you don’t want to wear guys out, and you want to keep everybody fresh for the playoffs.  I’m not advocating never resting guys.  But here’s where Joe Torre and I don’t see eye to eye.  He will rest people at the expense of home field advantage in the playoffs.  [Another sick play by Ichiro to save a run.  One of those nights.  Makes you wonder why Ichiro hasn’t played center field his whole career.]  I think home field is huge.  Last year was a great example.  We clinched on the second to last day of the season.  So on the last game of the season Joe Torre puts my mom’s bridge club in the infield and my sister’s kindergarten class in the outfield.  This while the Angels were winning their last game of the season to snatch home field away from under Torre's nose (aided, of course, by Buck Showalter pulling three starters off the base paths in the third inning of a game they were winning).  I wonder if, right before game 5 in Anaheim last year, Joe Torre was wishing he hadn’t traded one extra day of rest for the right to play that fifth game at home.  I know I was pretty miserable about it.  We’ll see how it goes.

        Now Washburn has 9 k’s, and worse yet, the Yankees let him sneak out of the 5th with only 9 pitches.  The Yanks have stranded 7 guys already.  They are just refusing to get back into this game.

         Game over.  This one was tough to watch.  Ichiro made another ridiculous play to rob Nick Green, and Johnny Delicious homered on the next pitch.  Then in the ninth Ben Broussard boots a ball – literally- he kicked it, and it went right into his bare hand off his shoe.  Unbelievable.  The next batter was Bernie, who smashed a ball directly up the middle that hit Putz and bounced right to the second baseman.  Again unbelievable.  I guess they had a lot of those coming to them after having lost 11 in a row.  And we had those coming to us after taking all 5 in Boston.

         Well, as I said, it’s not going to get any easier in Anaheim.  As I tap the keys at 12:48am, I think Chone Figgins is already on base against us in tomorrow night’s game… 

         My ride home today was a roller coaster.  I change trains at Pacific Street in Brooklyn, and as I approached the stairs to the R train, I saw the pace of the crowd start to pick up.  Not good.  That meant the train was at the platform, and I wasn’t going to have much time to get down the stairs and jump on.  I broke into a jog (a sprint is out of the question – there’s a line between trying to catch a train and painting yourself a jack*ss).  As I’m barreling down the stairs, I quickly encountered a problem.  On one side of the stairs was the “up” traffic, thick with the passengers who had just gotten off the train.  On the “down" side was a 60-ish lady walking right next to the rail taking her sweet time.  This is one of those times when you have to make a decision.  If I were to come up behind her and say, “Excuse me, ma’am, I’m trying to get on that train,” I’m going to lose too much time.  So that wasn’t going to work.  I could try and squeeze past her without breaking stride, in which case I was sure to brush past her at best, at worst knock her clear from the stairs and sprawling all over the subway platform.  By accident, mind you.  Needless to say, tempting as it was, I couldn’t risk it.  So I went with option three.  Come up right behind her and slam on the brakes, hoping that she instinctively moved aside and I get lucky with somebody holding the door open or something.  I still kind of bumped into the lady from behind, but nothing any ref would have called.  And wouldn’t you know I got lucky.  Some little punk was holding the door open for one of his boys, also trying to make his way down the stairway.  Any other day I probably would have been annoyed with him.  But today I just ducked in before the doors closed.  Only it wasn’t so lucky.  I got on the express train to 36th street, at which point I would change to the R.  Problem was the express was crawling along like Mikey Rumble and Ciampi were pulling it on a rope.  It took me twice as long and I missed the R train connection.  So as the train limped along I glanced down at the Post.  The first article I saw was the piece on the Yankees’ new solidarity mustaches. 

        The Mrs, for one, is not happy with this development.  She always took comfort in the fact that the Yankees would never let “Captain Caveman” happen.  Against the rules, of course.  She didn’t realize that Donnie Baseball-style mustaches are within the rules.  Giambino is saying his is a tribute to Mattingly, and I think Damon is always looking to jump in on something that will unify the team.  Of course neither one of these guys can hold a candle to The Incredible Sal.  What they don’t realize is that The Incredible Sal’s true ambition is to play the “pizza guy” in a Dirk Diggler movie.  Personally, I’ve always been of the opinion that the Yanks don’t need any kind of rallying point to crush people’s lives.  But I’m also a bottom-line guy.  If this wins me a World Series, I’m in.  I’m sure there will inevitably be some guys in the stands at the Stadium next week with some peach fuzz on their lip.  But I know one guy who won’t be one of them.  I’m an obsessed loser, but I have to draw some lines.

        The Yanks have a pretty comfortable 7-0 lead in the top of the 7th.  Our boy Chien Ming the Merciless is whipping through this game the way Tricky used to whip through a bag of cheese doodles.  Felix Hernandez got the start for the Mariners, and I have to say I found the guy intriguing.  And not necessarily in a good way.  Here was a guy who was getting spanked off of the mound to the tune of seven runs in three and a third innings, and yet somehow he was pimping a strut reminiscent of Johnny Drama strolling into the "comic-con" in his Viking Quest gear.  I was almost thinking someone should really take a quick jog out to the mound, tap the guy on the shoulder, and remind him he was getting life-pounded.      

        Allie boy not playing third again.  Apparently he doesn’t feel well.  Ugh.

        Grossman e-mailed me the latest “Sports Guy Mailbag,” featuring, of course, Red Sox rooter extraordinaire Bill Simmons.  Grossman knows I generally think he’s a whiny Red Sox baby, but he also recognized the value in this piece.  I hate to drudge this up in a kick-them-when-they’re-down kind of way, but there were a few lines that said it all:

"In a way, I can understand why Giants fans still defend Bonds so rigorously. It goes much deeper than being in denial -- by admitting what happened, they would be admitting that every good memory he brought them over the last eight years was a complete sham. They HAVE to defend him. They HAVE to support them. I feel bad for the Giants fans. For instance, let's say someone reported tomorrow that Big Papi had been using HGH for the last three years. Know what I would do? Pooh-pooh the report. "No way. Couldn't be. They're full of ****." That's what I'd say. How else can you react? I'm getting depressed.”   

        Now, of course we at BPS have been saying this for well over a year, except with “when someone reports that” instead of “let’s say someone reported.”  But other than that, boy, I couldn’t have said it better.  Glad to see someone is finally starting to get it.  Now if someone were to report tomorrow that Giambi and Sheffield used steroids…..well, he would probably be fired for getting to the party about two years too late.  And he would probably be met with a yawn and a “no kidding.” 

        The magic number continues to creep down.  Even though it’s the stupidest thing in the world, I have to admit it’s fun to watch.  I don’t apologize for that….

          I’m sitting in the blue room (where the trusty Dell is located) at the moment, tapping away on the keys and listening to Sterling and Waldman on the radio.  The Yanks and Mariners are tied at 3 in the top of the 6th.  It was another sunny day in the city today, so after work I took the bus out to the in-laws in Staten Island to meet the Mrs. and splash around in the pool.  I was reading the Post on the express bus out to S.I., and I read that the Mariners have lost their lost 11 games.  Didn’t know that.  Great.  They’re going to be so due it’s ridiculous.  [Make that 5-3 Yanks, as John Sterling just jumped through the radio calling Allie Boy’s bomb deep to left.  Someone named Eric O’Flaherty is pitching, and they don’t even have a picture of him for the gamecast.  Now it’s first and second with one out for the good guys.]  I was also expecting a big time let down after the big series in Beantown.  How do you not let down?  That had to be absolutely exhausting for everybody.  It was exhausting for me and I was watching the whole thing *ss-on-couch. 

         So the Ferocious Lion has been cleared to start hitting off a tee.  Carl Pavano is starting in Columbus this Friday night.  And I’m not sure what this means, but Gary Sheffield is swinging a bat under water.  So let’s take a look at the lineup for a second.  I’m figuring there is always going to be one man out.  Figure Torre is going to be careful not to overload The Ferocious Lion or Sheffield right out of the gate, while trying to be mindful that they need at-bats to get back to form.  Along with those guys, the other guy in the rotation for left field and DH is Melky.  Then you’ve potentially got some starts at first for Sheffield to rest Giambi, even though Craig Wilson is a pretty good fit for that.  Then Bernie and Wilson need to be mixed in as well.  But when you start to piece together that line-up, there are no weaknesses.  Posada would probably be the weakest hitter in the line-up, but Torre would probably bat Cano last to get some speed on the bases preceding Damon and Jeter.  So we’re looking at Damon, Jeter, Abreu, Giambi, Allie-boy, The Ferocious Lion, Sheffield, Posada, and Cano.  Ladies and gentlemen, there you have it…

         I had lunch in midtown today with Big Willie, Grossman, Vino, and Stevie DC.  All Met fans, other than Vino and me.  Mets fans are in a funny place these days.  I was watching the Mets game with Big Joe (father-in-law) tonight.  [Jaret Wright just got Betancourt to pop up to end the sixth.  Yanks still up 5-3.  I’m not even sure if it’s cool to watch this anymore, but the Red Sox are losing 3-2 in the seventh.]  The Mets were down 7-6 in the bottom of the ninth, and I was assuring Big Joe they were going to win 8-7.  I just didn’t see the Cards winning this game.  I said it was going to take five batters.  It only took three….  But Met fans are skeptical these days.  I think it’s the sitting around and waiting that’s getting to them.  Not to mention the questions about the health of the rotation and some key players.  This is the way I see it.  The Mets are an excellent team.  Sure, they haven’t played a truly meaningful game in about three months, but when they did play those games in the beginning of the year, they had an uncanny ability to pull off wins.  And tonight was as close to a meaningful game as they’re going to get, playing the Cardinals.  And they pulled off a walk-off win in the bottom of the ninth.  This is the 2006 Mets.  They have magic.  They will be dangerous.  I know, you can’t be too impressed with the Cardinals.  They aren’t that good either.  As a matter of fact, they have the exact same record as the Toronto Blue Jays, who are completely off the map in the AL.  But that’s life in the National League.  As I’ve said, much to the consternation of Met fans, the Mets will walk into the World Series.  I understand they don’t want to get ahead of themselves, but there is nothing stopping them.  That’s the reality.  And from there on in, they just need to unleash the magic to win four games out of seven.  That’s it.  The talk is that they will be big underdogs in the World Series.  I don’t know about “big,” but I guess it’s true that they will be underdogs.  But not by much.  Because that team knows how to win.  [I seem to be on a bit of a roller coaster here.  The M’s just intentionally walked Allie boy to load the bases with one out, and Posada hit into a double play.  Meanwhile, the Red Sox have tied their game up.  Things seem to be tilting south.]

          Rocco, that was a great link.  I don’t ever get tired of that stuff.  Umair, I don’t know if I made my point clearly.  My comments about the Yankees mortgaging their future were all sarcastically facetious.  It’s funny to me that everyone is so quick to dismiss the Yankee farm.  Everyone says the Yankee system is dry because they mortgaged the whole thing, and yet they can still pull out three young players like Wang, Cano, and Melky to make significant contributions.  Nick, I was afraid to go back and read that link.  I was so big on Chacon.  Whoops….   Raoul, that’s what you get with Manny.  The guy hits in the stratosphere against the Yanks, but then he pulls his usual Manny act every once in a while.  Who the h*ll knows with that guy.  And by the way, I commend you for being a good sport, dude, not hesitating to jump right on and post after all the dust had settled.  [I smelled this coming.  Ten minutes ago the Yanks had bases juiced with one out and a two run lead, while the Red Sox were losing.  Now it’s a tie game here and down in Anaheim.  The law of averages is casting a long shadow over this game.  Seattle has to win sometime.] 

       That’s it.  You can’t win them all.  6-5 Seattle on a walk-off.

         The Mrs. wasn’t playing around.  We were headed to Bryant Park in midtown to watch the outdoor showing of Rocky, and she came prepared.  Unlike the Riverside Park movies on the pier, Bryant Park was all about the picnic (yup – picnic – you think I apologize for that?).  She had the picnic basket and everything.  Good stuff, too.  Some sort of cheese and olives to kick things off, followed by pecan crusted chicken fingers with honey mustard dipping sauce and some pasta salad.  And some Dr. Pepper to wash it down.  Yes, the doctor was in.  So we’re watching the movie, eating Twizzlers, and the song starts to rip, right as Rocky starts his daybreak jog through Philly.  As Rocky makes his way through the neighborhood, the Mrs. points up and says, “Isn’t that McHale?”  That it was.  My Wifflemania teammate, McHale, was sprinting right past me, obviously on a beer run.  He later told me he started jumping up and down with the beer, Rocky-style, when he got back.

        Speaking of jumping up and down Rocky-style in victory, where do I start?  I had no idea this was coming.  I thought the Red Sox had some major vulnerabilities without Varitek, and the entire staff, bullpen and starters, was loaded with guys who were too green to have been tested yet.  And the Yankees had improved what seemed like exponentially after the deadline deals.  But I think this hit everyone like a ton of bricks.

        I made the point yesterday, and I’ll repeat it today.  The Yankees are not this much better than the Red Sox.  This was a bit of a polarization.  It does show you how tough the Yanks can be, though.  Last year, I used a word to describe what I felt the ’98 Yanks embodied, and what I admitted the early-season ’05 Red Sox showed flashes of being.  Relentless.  That is what the Yankees wore all over their shirtsleeves on this glorious summer weekend in Boston.  They never stopped coming after you.  They just kept marching and marching.  The Abreu deal really gave this lineup another deck.  I’m not sure if anyone had a good gauge on what this guy was capable of adding to a lineup, as he had been wallowing in Philly for so long.  He is the perfect complement to the rest of the all-star brigade.  Patient and opportunistic.  Giambi’s batting eye, without quite the power but with speed on the base paths.  Even the Wilson deal gave the team a significant upgrade, as a professional hitter is plugged in to the backup/alternate first base position.  Corey Lidle has won two of his four starts, and has only given up three runs in the games he has lost.  Brian Cashman needs to be commended.  He is right on top of the page when the story of this weekend is written. 

        The one thing that bugs me about the Yankees is that they buy all of their championships.  It’s not fair.  After all, at any given time you might have Wang, Posada, Cano, Melky, Bernie, and Jeter on the field at the same time.  Whoops.  Wait a second.  Those are all home grown guys.  Can that be right?  Six of nine players on the field could be home grown Yankees?  Believe it….  The story of the 90’s was that nobody did the “business of baseball” better than the Yankees.  The popular legend has it that the Yankees of the 2000’s lost their religion a bit, and had done nothing but buy high-priced talent and mortgage their future all over the map.  Funny how revisionist history starts to creep in.  Look at the facts, guys…  The more things change, the more they stay the same.

         So Mike Sherry called me today while listening to the game in his car, and told me that the Boston fans were booing the Olde Towne team today.  You know what I say to that?  Sounds about right.  That’s what fans do when they’re disappointed in their team.  Or a player.  They boo.  Not all of them.  Lots of fans have different philosophies about booing and everything else.  The more I see in this world, the more I always come back to a fairly simple, logical conclusion.  People are the same everywhere.  I have given up on trying to paint Yankee fans a certain way as opposed to Red Sox fans as opposed to Mets fans, and vice versa all the way around.  Every team has all types of fans.  A team that isn’t often competitive, or that is situated in a  part of the country that doesn’t have sports as part of their DNA, might be a lot less fervent about the teams they support, but passionate fans come in all shapes and sizes.  All “evidence” about certain fans all being a certain way is almost entirely anecdotal and predictable.  Of course you’re going to feel the sting of the obnoxious Yankee fans if you are a Red Sox fan and vice versa.  They’re going to get you when you’re vulnerable, i.e., after a tough loss or series, after everybody has been tweaking everybody else.  And by definition, the guy who wins more often is going to seem like the bigger blister.  Fan generalizations are always going to be in the eye of the beholder. 

        Things look bleak for the Red Sox right now.  But there is a long way to go.  Do I think they have a realistic chance to steal the division title from the Yankees?  No.  Does that mean it can’t happen?  Of course we all know that anything can, especially when these two teams are involved.  The Yankees have a seven game lead in the loss column.  And being that they have now won the season series, you can effectively make it eight, because a tie would go to the Yankees.  And the Yankees, who are finally relatively healthy, are at the top of their game.  The Red Sox are not going to close any of their talent gaps any time soon. 

        So maybe I can try to put things into perspective for the fans of both teams.  The bad news for the Red Sox fans is that this is not just another series, and it’s not one from which you can “move on.”  This one will cling to you for years.  Baseball, like history, stops every so often to mark itself in time, to create a legacy, to cut a pattern for future generations to follow.  And there are place marks to sketch the way.  The Boston Massacre in 1978 was one of those markers.  This series follows it closely in lockstep.  Now they will talk about Boston Massacre I and II.  Every time the Yankees go into Fenway late in the season with everything on the line, you can be sure you’ll hear about this past weekend.  Of course, the consolation for Red Sox fans is that the Yankees ’04 collapse will forever serve as the marker for any playoff series that starts 0-3.  You can bet that any series in which one team wins the first three games will feature a story or an announcer that will bring up the ’04 Yankees.  It’s our cross to bear.  Not a lot you can do about it. 

          That being said, like anything else, baseball draws parallel rhythms to everyday life.  I try and be as realistic as I can be.  I root for the Yankees, but they’re not always the best team.  When I say they’re going to win because they’re the best team, it’s because I believe they’re the best team, and I’m going to position it that way.  And I’ll usually make some attempt to support it with facts.  I’ve been saying for two years that this Yankee team, when healthy, is the most talented team.  If I think we’re in big trouble but can’t explain why, i.e. another playoff series with the Angels, the team I like to call kryptonite, I’ll say so.  And then there are the times when you tip your hat to the other team as the favorite, the more talented group, and then you come out and root like h*ll for a miracle.  After all, there’s always hope.

        Sean started things early.  He called me a little after noon.  “Dude, what’s the over/under on the number of earned runs for Mussina minus the number of errors Allie makes behind him?”  “Good question,” I said.  “Here’s the way I see it going down.  Three earned for Moose, one more unearned because of an error by Allie.  So three minus one – I’m saying two.”  “Okay, dude.  I’ll check you later.” Many hours of splashing around in Big Joe’s pool and a barbeque later, Acc text messages me.  It was the eighth inning.  “What do you think,” he said.  My reply:  “I still think we might have a dagger for Papelbon.”  I said the same to Big Joe (father-in-law) who was sitting right next to me out in his screen house.  He was nodding his head before I even finished the sentence.  “I think so too,” he said.  Fast forward again about an hour and change.  We did, indeed, have a dagger for Papelbon, as the Captain showed again why anyone who underestimates him should be kicked right where he’s standing.  But Big HGH got a lucky bounce over the Giambino, who should have made the play anyway, and there was Ortiz and Manny standing on base ready for a home-plate jump-up-and-down-fest.  I shot a text message to Acc, as he and I had been steadily exchanging messages from about the 5th inning on.  “Enjoy this game while you can, because it’s going to be over in about four minutes.”  The big boy surprised me with his reply.  “Mo will do it.”  You have to understand something about the big boy.  He doesn’t make predictions, optimistic or otherwise.  He feels like he’s jinxing things.  But here he was sticking his neck out, with two on and none out, no less.  So Youkilis tries to bunt them over, and Mo was his usual lightning bolt-self off the mound, making the throw to third.  Jon Miller and Joe Morgan, doing the game on ESPN, focused on the fact that Francona was asking Youkilis to bunt, something he doesn’t often do, and he should have seen this coming because he hasn’t sacrificed since he was in the minors, etc.  What they missed was the “Mo factor.”  I’m sure Sterling and Waldman made this point, and the YES broadcasters make it all the time.  It is this.  Mo Rivera is one of the greatest fielding pitchers out there, and the Yankees always say that the guy could play any position on the field, including centerfield or shortstop.  Bunting against Rivera is extra risky for just that reason.  And it wasn’t a bad bunt, either.  It wasn’t a great one, but it wasn’t a bad one.  But it was rendered moot when Jorge Posada drippy-fingered Mo’s next pitch, and the runners moved up anyway.  That’s when Mo got tough.  Wow.  Money, money, money.  After Posada redeemed himself with a Pesky Pole dagger, the phone rang.  Big Joe (The Mrs. and I had come back to Brooklyn as the eighth was starting).  “I love this HD.  Are you looking at the faces of these Red Sox fans?  They look like they’re at a funeral.”  Acc called it, that crazy b*stard. 

         Let’s start with this.  The Yankees are a better team than the Boston Red Sox.  I say that with utmost confidence.  But they’re not this much better.  I wasn’t expecting this, obviously.  On Friday I wrote that I prove myself wrong pretty much every day.  Well, strike another one up on the board.  I said three of five.  The media was, even before tonight’s game, calling this the “Boston Massacre Part II.”  I guess a true account of history would probably call this part III, but I’m not here to quibble.  You couldn’t have asked for a more all-encompassing definition of victory over the last four days.  Three complete bludgeonings and then a knife through the heart.  And I am as stunned as anyone.  This team is as dangerous as any I’ve seen in a long time.  You try not to get too juiced, as it was only three days ago (four when most of you are reading this) that the Yankees dropped their second in a row at home to lose a series to the lowly Orioles.  But call it a blip, I guess.  The Yankees this weekend demonstrated everything that they have become with the acquisition of Abreu.  No pitcher is immune to their poison.  It starts with the first pitch, and by the fifth inning or so, pitches hemorrhaging from the starter’s arm, they’ve got you right where they want you.  And then they strike.  It helps when you can scrape the opponent’s weakness brutally raw.  Why didn’t Theo Epstein make any deals?  Nothing.  Not a one.  Sure, he got Javy Lopez and Eric Hinske after the deadline, but that was only because he had two injuries.  Before that he thought he was set.  Whoops.  No lefthanders in the bullpen to face all of the Yankee left-handed bats.  Not until they called up the one guy in triple A they were hoping could so the job.  He was last seen walking the only guy he faced tonight.  Theo keeps claiming he didn’t want to “mortgage the farm.”  Don’t be a ******, Theo.  No one knows for sure what their farm looks like.  Just two years ago everyone was sounding the death knell for the Yankees because they had absolutely no talent left in their farm system.  They finally went and mortgaged the whole thing for the big veteran stars, they said.  Well, go ask Jonathan Papelbon, Tito Francona and Ozzie Guillen if they think maybe Chien-Ming Wang, Robbie Cano, and Melky Cabrera are for real.  Point is, if you have a need, Theo, fill it.  Now.  You have a great team.  Don’t waste it by giving up an opportunity to win now.  In two or three years, some of the best young players will not have been on anyone’s radar screen either.  You never know.  The season’s not over, but you may have cost a very good team a shot at a championship because you didn’t want to part with Manny Delcarmen or Craig Hansen.  I hope they turn out to be better than what I have seen so far.  For your sake.

         I was splashing around in Big Joe’s pool today when I heard his neighbor, “Lenny,” start talking to me over the fence, half-a-face style like “Wilson” from the old show Home Improvement.  Here’s the deal with Lenny.  Nice, nice guy, but I can’t take him.  He’s a huge Mets fan, but he’s one of these guys who claims to “also root for the Yankees.”  He’s never rooted for the Yankees a day in his life.  And he’s about 70, so that’s a lot of days.  He’s a huge Yankee-hater, but bills himself as a guy who “also roots for the Yankees” just to give himself credibility when he proceeds to crush everything about the Yankees for about ten straight minutes.  The minute you call him out on it, he’ll immediately back up and say, “No, don’t get me wrong, I root for them, I’m just saying…”  Now, I know all fans get this from time to time.  Especially fans of teams with rivals.  But I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Yankee fans have to deal with this most of all, because there is so much hatred boiling out there for the Yankees.  Annoying. 

         Speaking of which, I read Lupica in the News today for the first time in a long time.  What a loser.  The Yankees are in the middle of a huge series at Fenway, and are pulling off one of the most impressive performances on the big stage, and what does this jack*ss write a two-page article about?  That Jeter and Allie Boy don’t get along.  Are you kidding me, dude?  Complete with supposed “interviews” with four unnamed players whom he asked to describe the relationship between Allie Boy and Jeter.  Three seemed to not give him the answer he was looking for, and one supposedly said, “Chilly.”  Good lord Mike, why do you care?  Why is that important?  Are you so bitter and hateful towards everything about the Yankees that this is what you stoop to?  What is the point?  The Yankees are playing ridiculous baseball right now, and this is what you think baseball fans need to know?  Dude, come to grips with it, you whiny little man.  The Yankees are never going away, and they will never stop being the premier baseball team and the premier baseball story in this town.

         Four down, one to go.  Worth noting that if the Red Sox don’t win all 5 games remaining with the Yanks, they can’t win the season series, which means you might as well tack another game on to the Yankee lead, because a tie will go to the Yanks.  Again.  Man.  This has been absolutely nuts.  What’s next?

         It had been too long.  I got a text message early on talking about Damon’s bomb, but it had been radio silence for the better part of an hour.  I wasn’t at work today, so I had to pull the internet up on the cell phone to get the story.  Not good.  The Yankees were getting banasticrated in the 6th.  Click it off, put it back in your pocket, and don’t look at it for the rest of the day.  And so it was…

         Sometimes I wish I wasn’t such an obsessed psycho.  When I was at the game last night, Tony Sherry was doing a running commentary on my misery while the Yankees were still sinking into their 3-0 hole.  Chris Woy still talks about the night at the Stadium a few years ago when we were watching the Yankees get no-hit by Bartolo Colon until Luis Polonia bailed us out with one out in the eighth.  I was ready to jump over the wall and go after Colon myself.  When the Yanks are losing, I truly am not the guy you want to be around.  But I know there’s more to going to a ballgame with your boys than just waiting for a win.  I just have trouble remembering it sometimes.  So every now and then you have to take a step back and enjoy things for what they are.  Like last night, for instance.  Sure, I was an angry desperado all night, but there were a few moments.  For instance…….You have to love The Incredible Sal.  First of all, his music when he comes to the plate is Slow Ride by Fog Hat.  How do you not love that mustachioed fat-*ss walking up to the plate to Slow Ride?  Spectacular.  When he came up to hit for the second time, the diamond-vision showed what was probably a picture of him from a few years ago, when he was the Yankee bullpen catcher.  No mustache.  About three pitches later there had been a mustache electronically scribbled on him.  Fantastic.  Ladies and gentlemen; The Incredible Sal.  The other winner was when the Yankees were getting to Loewen in the sixth.  I was watching the pitch count all night to see when we could get him out of there, and by the sixth the bullpen was busy and he was hanging on by a thread.  After glancing at the bullpen announcement on the board, I turned to Tony and said, "This is what I’m talking about.  They’re going to send somebody named Todd Williams in.”  “Hmmph,” Tony scoffed.  “He went to Covert…”  Now most of you aren’t going to have any clue what’s funny about that, but I guarantee the kids from the Rock are falling off their chairs right now…

         I have to wonder about Melky Cabrera.  You have to love his youth and his electricity, but the most intriguing thing about him is how he has succeeded in New York at such a young age.  And the most impressive thing to Yankee fans, probably, is how he seems to continually come up clutch.  That’s not an easy thing to do, as many Yankees can tell you.  But you rarely hear about him.  Lastings Milledge is on the other side of town being named in potential deals for Roy Oswalt and Barry Zito.  Nobody seems to be asking for or talking about Melky.  And they’re the exact same age, 21.  Milledge has had a rough time playing the outfield and he is currently hitting .220.  Melky is hitting .292 and is currently first in the American League, third in the Major Leagues in outfield assists, with a few notable circus catches to his credit, one an over the wall game-saver against Boston.  Now don’t get me wrong.  I’m not pining for Melky to get traded, but the trades you have heard for Melky involved guys like Reggie Sanders.  I’m just curious that nobody came calling.  Is nobody interested in a 21 year-old kid hitting .292 for the Yankees, playing sick D and coming up clutch?  I’m no scout, of course, and I get that Milledge is generally accepted to have exponentially more potential, but I wonder if no one remembers the first few chapters of Michael Lewis’s book Moneyball.  This is where it is explained that Billy Beane was always accepted to be a can’t-miss prospect, yet a guy he played alongside who was never a prospect, Lenny Dykstra, turned out to be the real deal in the end.  What do I know?  Not much.  I’m not saying Milledge won’t be good.  I’m just wondering why nobody else is excited about the Melk-Man as Yankee fans are. 

         Speaking of which, it might be time to start thinking about what this team is going to look like come the end of September.  Michael Kay made a comment the other day to the effect that it’s going to be hard for Joe Torre to take Melky out of this line-up when the Ferocious Lion comes back.  Good point.  Much has been made of the Sheffield-to-first scenario, but there are going to be some odd-men out.  It won’t be an issue in September, as the rosters will be expanded, but it will be an issue come October, if all goes as expected, and I don’t even want to get into next year.  Worth noting that the Ferocious Lion had a couple of unimpressive doctor reports in a row, and will be probably not be back until mid-September.  That doesn’t give him a lot of time to get right.  And by that time the minor league seasons are over, so he won’t be able to play in rehab games.  Nor Sheffield.  But of the two of them, I think Sheffield could probably show up tomorrow and start smashing people’s lives.  The Lion needs some time to get in a groove.  It’s a nice problem to have, but I bet it’s interfering with Joe Torre’s ability to digest his capellini.

         I don’t have a lot of predictions for this weekend.  I prove how little I know just about every day.  I was with you guys today.  I thought the Yankees were going to blow Baltimore’s doors off.  But you know my position.  I’m thinking this series goes 3-2, and they come back and split 4 in September at the Stadium.  It’s relevant because whoever wins that third game this weekend will probably win the season series, which is currently tied at five.  And that’s relevant because of exactly what happened last year, i.e. a tie-breaker.  I know I’m making a lot of assumptions here, but history’s on my side.  And, as always, I could be way off….

         As usual, I will be lazily taking the weekend off from BPS.  Most of you guys know I generally post Monday – Friday, the idea being everybody will have something to do to ease into your workday.  So by Sunday night’s post I expect we will have seen some intense stuff.  Big plays, big moments, a blow-out or two, and five games deeper into the season.  And it’s Yankees/Red Sox.  Excitement for four straight days.  Something to look forward to.  See you Monday…   

         I did it.  It was my fault.  Unfortunately, I didn’t realize it until it was too late.  Tony Sherry called me about 6 o’clock.  “I flew in, dude.  No traffic.  Meet me in the usual spot in about 15 minutes.”  “Okay.  See you there, dude.”  As I strolled down Wall Street towards the “usual place,” the Yankee clubhouse store at the Seaport, he called me back with his brother on the line.  But Mike was clipping out on his cell, so we hung it up.  When I got to the car, I made the fateful mistake.  Instead of changing into my shorts and Yankee gear right away, I figured I would do it later.  The difference between Tony, me, and Acc going to the Stadium is the parking.  Acc uses the lot across from the bat.  Tony uses the lot across from the parking garage on River Ave.  Me, I haven’t parked in a lot around the Stadium in my life.  If you know the secret spots on the street, you’re in business.  And you get out a lot quicker, too.  But since Tony was driving us tonight, the next thing I knew we were pulling into the lot and there was a line of cars behind us.  Now, I’m not particularly afraid to drop trou in front of the South Bronx, but the line of cars behind us was pretty anxious, so I figured instead I would just put on the Mickey Mantle shirt (I wore the Bernie shirt on Monday with the Mrs. – tactical error – it would have been especially appropriate tonight) and the Yankee cap.  I was wearing a pair of tan slacks from work, so I figured it wouldn’t look too stupid if I just kept those on with the gear.  They were slacks, not Dockers or something like that, so it was a little goofy, but I figured no big deal.  But I made one glaring omission in my decision, and I noticed it when we about fifteen feet away from the car.  I should have turned around at that exact moment.  But I didn’t.  Bad move.  Tony noticed it the same time I did.  “You know what the one weird part of that outfit is?”  “Yup,” I conceded.  I didn’t need to be told.  But Tony told me anyway.  “The pants don’t look too bad with the gear, but those bright black shiny shoes with the Yankee gear make you look like a cross between Frankenstein and Ben Franklin.”   The shoes.  What a disaster.  I looked like a total knucklehead with gear up top and slacks and shiny black shoes from the belt down.  I was immediately concerned.  “This may be it, dude.  I may have done it to us before we even walk into the Stadium.”  And of course, I had.  My fault.  My own laziness in not moving quickly enough with the gear cost us a W.  I learned my lesson, boys.  It won’t happen again…

         The Yanks lost for a few reasons.  First, I don’t want to kill Lidle.  You give up three runs to the Orioles on any given night; you’ll win 80% of the time.  He just picked the one weird night where three was too much.  But you can’t walk in a run with two outs.  Two on and two outs, and he walks two straight batters.  Inexcusable.  That was the difference in the game.  Again, you’d like to think it would be easily overcome, and I think normally it would.  But unfortunately, the “can’t beat the kids we don’t know syndrome” bit them again.  Suzyn Waldman passed along two interesting comments in the post game.  First, she said that Torre acknowledged that he uses Jeter as the bellwether as to whether or not the team is seeing the ball well against lefties.  The Yankees generally hit lefties well, and Jeter always gets good looks.  Even if he’s not getting his hits on any given day, he generally sees the ball well.  He said Jeter wasn’t getting good swings tonight, so it was clear to him that the team couldn’t solve Loewen.  The other thing was  in answer to a comment Suzyn made where she asked a member of the Yankee organization why the Yankees haven’t touched Loewen in two starts this year, but the Red Sox knocked him out in the third inning.  The Yankee official replied that the Red Sox want to know why they are completely powerless against Scott Kazmir, but the Yankees knock him all over the place.  You just never know.

         Another key reason the O’s won was the ability to make the pitch every single time they desperately needed to make it.  Aside from Bobby Abreu and Jason Giambi walking, the O’s were able to squeak out of jams after putting people in scoring position and running the count full all night long.  Give them credit.  But the last reason?  Hey, it never hurts to have a little luck.  The Yankees had the tying run in scoring position every inning from the sixth on, but they couldn’t get it done.  They smashed about five or six at’em balls in this game.  The biggest of course, is the rope that Bernie crushed with two on and one out in the eighth.  That thing was a game tie-er, and probably winner, had it been one foot to the left or to the right.  Instead it was a bang-bang line-out double play.  Devastating.

         With Bernie up in the fifth, Tony Sherry yelled out, “443!”  Then Bernie took a pitch.  Then Tony yelled it out again.  It took me a second to figure out what he was talking about.  Then I realized it was the double record.  And of course on the next pitch Bernie smoked one right past us into the left field corner.  Number 443.  Only Gehrig is ahead of him as a Yankee.  It’s pretty remarkable that has more doubles than Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio.  Well done, Bernabe.

         So this just means the Yanks need to take care of business tomorrow afternoon.  Just for kicks, I would like to go into Boston three up in the loss column.  We’ll see what happens from there.  Here’s hoping Jaret Wright can continue his winning ways. 

         Acc called me a couple of times during the game.  Little did he know that I had taken the express bus straight to Staten Island to meet the Mrs, who was honing her barbeque skills at her parents’ house.  By the time I got to S.I. and changed into my togs, the Mrs. was throwing the corn on the grill and the Yanks were in the third inning.  They had nothing against Bedard.  My first thought was that Moose was going to be his usual solid self, and Bedard was going to have one of those games.  The Red Sox already had a one run lead at home against the Tigers, and I figured that one was going to go the wrong way, walk-off or otherwise. 

        But I had a responsibility to do my part.  So I was splashing around in Big Joe’s pool, trying to figure out if the Yanks did better when I was on one end of the pool vs. the other, when Millar did it.  I hate the guy from his Red Sox days, I’ll admit.  But thinking about it, I love that I hate him.  He spent the better part of his career in Boston getting beat by the Yankees.  All three years in the division standings, one getting knocked out of the playoffs, and the last one coughing up a lead down the stretch to lose the division and get swept out of the playoffs.  But he’s annoying because he won one.  And that’s the beauty of being a Yankee fan.  The Yankees have won 26 championships since 1923.  The Red Sox have won one.  But the fact that we have the luxury of being p*ssed because a team has won as much as one championship speaks to the unparalleled success of the Yankees.  Probably also speaks to the arrogance that others find so maddening.  I see where they’re coming from.  I never said they had to like it. 

        As the Mrs. put the chicken, cous cous (believe it – cous cous), and corn on the table, I shut the game off.  The Mrs. was telling me to go ahead and leave it on, as she always does, but I feel like a jerk if I keep the game on while we’re eating dinner.  Mostly because I am a restless, edgy psycho when I’m watching the game.  She would be trying to tell me about eating lunch with her friend Ann-Marie and her new baby and I would interrupt her to scream, “Dammit, Melky!  Why are you swinging at ball 3 and ball 4?!?!”  I am just a total clown that way.  So the best thing to do was to turn the game off and hope for the best.  When we finally turned it back on it was 3-0 O’s, but the Yanks had bases juiced with nobody out.  Who was up?  Who else?  Allie-boy.  Single.  Came through.  Huge.  And bases still juiced with nobody out.  So I got a little jacked up before they b*tched out. 

        I didn’t realize until the post-game highlights that Allie had also booted yet another ball at third to cough up the third run.  And I did get a chance to see him pop up with one out and the go-ahead run on third.  And yes, they booed him.  Although it was not that nuts; you had to listen carefully to make it out on the TV.  Michael Kay had a few good stats during the game, and the Allie-boy one was telling.  He is the second-worst in the league, in terms of percentage, at getting a runner in from third with less than two outs.  Interesting.  So now he’s got something to work on….

        Incidentally, the other cool stat was that Robbie Cano, All-star second baseman, is hitting .188 lifetime with the bases loaded.  “A case of a young player trying to do too much,” said Kay.  Good stuff.  Even better because he pulled it out right before Robbie whiffed with the bases juiced and one out.

        How psyched is Melky Cabrera to be on this team and playing and contributing every day with his boy Robbie Cano?  He bounces around smiling like a kid who just got off the “Lightning Loops” at Six Flags Great Adventure.  Unless the kid is me, in which case I’m looking for the nearest bucket to puke in.  But I don’t apologize for that.  It’s fun to watch those guys, like it was fun to watch Reggie Willits run straight into the wall trying to catch Jeter’s bomb yesterday, because he just got called up from triple-A and was giving it absolutely everything he had. 

        Mypster, keep it going, dude.  I’m a ho*ker for comments.  Let’s see….Johan Santana… oh yes.  You’re talking about the guy whose Twins have lost three of the four games he’s started against the Yankees in the playoffs.  Now I got it.  Back when he was the Cy Young winner, no less.  I can’t remember how many times in ’03 and ’04 we heard that the Yankees weren’t going to compete because those great young pitchers are just too tough.  Yawn.  I’m starting to see where you’re going askew.  You seem to be falling for what the BPS has on many an occasion proven to be the oldest and silliest myth in baseball, that “good pitching beats good hitting.”  Don’t be a ******.  False.  Go ask the Braves of the 90’s who had an untouchable staff, but couldn’t beat the Yankees, or anybody else whose pitching wasn’t even close.  Go ask the A’s of the late 90’s, early 00’s.  Always could pitch the lights out.  Couldn’t ever win a playoff series.  Go ask the Angels of 2002, who had mediocre (if that) pitching but scored 8 runs a game and beat everyone’s brains in to win the World Series.  There is only one rule, dude.  Good baseball teams beat not-as-good baseball teams.  Except when they don’t.  That’s why it’s baseball.   Even if you look at this year.  The top two teams in runs scored?  The White Sox and Yankees (adjusted for games played).  The top two teams in ERA?  The Tigers (fine) and the fearsome Colorado Rockies.  And the second best AL team in ERA is the Angels, who were all of three games over .500 and tied for second in a four-team division.  And those stats hold true for the last few years.  The ERA leaders are all over the map, but the top two teams in runs scored always make the playoffs.  So don’t believe all that you’ve been force-fed, Myp.

        Still can’t believe the Red Sox dropped this game tonight.  I boldly declared the Red Sox would win two games against Detroit, and I will gladly wear the goat horns for that one.  Looks like the lead can be no worse than two in the loss column going into the five-gamer at Fenway.  It won’t stop Ortiz from hitting about ten bombs in that series, however.  I’m still having trouble looking at any team with a losing record on the road by late August as a serious contender.

        Sean, your boy got hosed again tonight.  The runs came a few batters too late for the Moose.  He deserved better.  Triple J, get mlb.tv.

        Tony Sherry and me in section 24 tomorrow (Wednesday) night.  Would be nice to see Lidle bounce back. We’ll try and bring another one home.

         It’s on.  At least according to Tony Sherry.  I tried to confirm with Mikey Juice, but he wasn’t answering his phone.  I got the news from Tony when I spoke to him today on the phone.  “I thought you guys were waiting until Labor Day?”  “We were going to, but I can’t take it anymore.  I can barely walk.”  “What did Juice say?”  “I just decided this morning without talking to anybody, and Juice happened to call me this afternoon and said that when he went to the doctor to get some medicine, he made him get on the scale.  Not good. So we both just happened to do it on the same day.”  The deal was, or was supposed to be, that they were going to each lay out $1,000, and whoever lost the most weight between Labor Day and the Christmastime din-din fest would walk away with the cash.  But apparently they both jumped the gun.  I called Juice with Tony on the line to see if I could figure out a way to turn this back into some sort of contest.  After all, I always enjoy a good contest.  Also got on the phone to hammer out some of the details of the 2nd annual Wifflemania at Acc-lestick Park with Acc.  More to follow on both, of course.

         The Mrs. and me, in section 24, bringing it home.  It got hairy for a little bit, but I really felt like this one was going to tilt our way.  No boos for A-Rod tonight.  Seems to me those have dwindled down to just about zero.  But I’m honest about it.  If they pop up, I’ll report it.  Of course, after he delivered the game winning RBI it was all sunshine, lollipops and skittles.  Randall stepped up and handed in his homework tonight, too.  Loved to see Abreu bunt, loved even more to see how excited he was about it.  Loved beating the Angels, while marveling that, even tonight, they caught a bunch of little breaks that have become their signature against the Yanks.  But they gave us one huge break.  How does Mike Scoscia not use Yankee-destroyer Garret Anderson in this game?  Pinch hitting Curtis Pride instead of Anderson?  I don’t get it.  Is he hurt?

         We were sitting in front of two jack*ss Met fans tonight.  I have no issue with Met fans, generally, but one of the guys wouldn’t shut up, and he was a cesspool of mis-information.  A couple of things really irked me.  First, he said that Mickey Mantle was the only guy to hit one out of Yankee Stadium.  Wrong.  He hit the façade.  And that was before they lifted the façade.  No one has ever hit one out, and no one is going to hit one out the way it is now.  The other idiotic thing he said was a bit different.  This is actually something that is confusing a lot of people.  He said that this weekend’s series in Boston is going to decide the division.  Let me reiterate what the BPS says every year.  Barring a situation like last year when they went to tie-breakers, the head-to-head matchup never decides the division.  They have nine games remaining, and here’s how it’s going to go: somebody is going to win five, and somebody is going to win four.  Shrink it down to this weekend.  Somebody is going to win three, and somebody is going to win two.  People have to realize how unusual it would be for one team to come in and take four of five.  As a matter of fact, it makes even more sense with five of the games coming at once, because even if one team were to pull off three of the first four, you would have to believe they were due to lose one.  It’s just too likely that it ends up 3-2.  So, bottom line, you have to win the other games, which makes this next series with Baltimore just as if not more important.  It will be interesting, though, if the matchups hold up and Randall faces Beckett.  The over-hyped, under-performed bowl.  Their stats are eerily similar this season.  At least Randall can underachieve knowing that he’s 42 and has a Cooperstown Plaque in the shop, having the copper mullet re-touched.  To date, all Beckett can do is look back to the World Series in which he was 1-1, yet still somehow ended up with the MVP.

         Myp, I’m glad you came back in.  I will excuse the lack of comments today because it probably took everybody all of their free time just to read the thing, let alone respond. 

         Again, the Twins.  I have to tell you.  It sounds like you’re not so much saying that the Twins are better than the Yankees than that you would rather face the Yankees than the Twins (who the Yankees have beaten in the playoffs two of the last three years).  Okay.  I’d rather face pretty much anybody other than the Angels, who are only three games over .500.  You still didn’t offer anything other concrete to support your statement.  We encourage you to share, because you’re pretty much the only one saying that one.  It’s kind of out there.  But we’re always willing to listen.

        I won’t do a whole lot more on the White Sox/Yankees, but I will make one clarification, as I’m not sure my point was clear.  The point of the comparison was not really to demonstrate that the Yankees were the better team, the point of the exercise was to prove the BPS point that, in this instance, the White Sox were fortunate to have pulled off two of three in Chicago.  Reason being that when you get out-hit and out-pitched in every major statistical category over the course of the season series, including the one that you won, consider yourselves fortunate to win even the two. 

        The Yanks are not better because of six games.  The Yanks are better because they have shown they can win consistently.  They wear four rings for a reason, and they have made the playoffs every year for the last 11 years with a core group.  There are lots of one-hit wonders.  The Red Sox, the Angels, D-Backs, etc.  The White Sox are a collection of journeymen who had one year in which everything came together.  I know it’s not what you want to hear, and you no doubt will continue to protest, but I would expect nothing less.  That’s your team and you’re going to think the most highly of them, as you should.  The BPS has nothing against the White Sox.  We were rooting for them all the way against Boston last year.  I don’t think anybody has anything against the White Sox.  It’s not like they have a lot of natural rivals, as far as I know.  Maybe the Tigers?  At least nothing serious.  They went almost 100 years without seriously contending.  The Tigers at least got a couple.  In any case, they’re pretty harmless.  If it makes you feel any better, we might be on a collision course in the playoffs.  Should be fun here at BPS.  As for not having anything against the Yanks – dude, everybody has something against the Yanks.  They are everybody’s enemy.  They are not just winners; they are the winners everyone else is measured against.  They are the Yankees.

         I looked around as I approached 3rd Avenue from 95th Street.  It was a nice, sunny Saturday afternoon in Brooklyn; not too hot, but just hot enough not to mistake it for anything but summer.  I was getting back into the gym after a bit of a layoff.  It had probably been a month and a half since I had been a regular, but I was taking the all-important first step back in.  I had an old-school radio headpiece in, listening to Waldman and Sterling.  John Sterling was calling the action, and the Yanks had a comfortable 5-1 lead.  As I strolled past the deli and CVS, I shook my head.  John Sterling had just announced that Boston had just come back from a 7-3 deficit to tie their game at 7-7.  Being that the game was at Fenway, it was over, as far as I was concerned.  And even though the Yanks were winning, I knew they were going to lose Sunday, and Boston was without a doubt going to sweep.  So we were staring at losing two games in the standings this weekend.  Funny how three of those games were even or yet to be played, but I would have bet good money on the exact outcome of all three.  And I’m sure just about every Yankee fan alive would have been right next to me.

         On paper, this was a treacherous six-game stretch for the Yanks.  Three games against the White Sox on the road and three against Anaheim while Boston was playing three against both Kansas City and the O’s.  This had “Boston leaps right back into it” written all over it.  The Yanks actually have four against the Angels, but since Boston switches opponents, I was keeping it to the weekend.  The way I had it drawn up, the Yanks, barring a miracle, would take two of three from Chicago and lose two of three to the Angels.  Boston would take two of three from KC and either two of three from the O’s or sweep them.  Well, in the end the result was the same, but we came at it a bit differently.  Chicago, thanks to Mr. Konerko, got their miracle, and Boston dumped all three in KC.  So I had the Yanks losing either one or two games.  They ended up losing one.  Can’t complain, I guess.  This had the potential to be much worse.

It really is a mystery, this Anaheim Angel anathema.  John Sterling was rhapsodizing about it all weekend, as well he should.  They own the Yankees.  Sterling made a good point on the radio today, as I sat and listened on the beach at my mom’s cabana at Lido on Long Island.  They’re only three games over .500 (now four), so they’re getting beat an awful lot by somebody.  Yup.  Just not the Yanks.  There’s a lot involved, of course.  Chone Figgins hits .400 lifetime against the Yanks, .500 the last two seasons.  This is a guy hitting .264 on the year, mind you.  And he’s a monster when he gets on base.  Bengie Molina hit three homeruns in five games against the Yanks in the playoffs last year.  He averages about 11 home runs a season.  What can you do?  It’s just one of those things.  But there are also more concrete reasons.  They run an awful lot and they take chances on the base paths.  You don’t see that all that often.  It’s disruptive, particularly when your most dangerous base runner hits.150 points above his career average.  The ability of their pitchers to throw strikes is another reason.  The Yankees will bleed you to death if you don’t get the ball over the plate.  And they do, for the most part.  And all-in, they’re a pretty good team.  So give them some credit.  But they’re not this good.  Sometimes you just can’t explain it.  You know, like the Red Sox going 86 years without a World Series.

         The BPS has always asked questions about how the schedule is created.  I know MLB (along with the NFL, NBA, and NHL, I should add) keeps the schedule-making process a closely guarded secret.  Obviously there are some extreme sensitivities.  Every team wants the Yankees to play as many games as possible in their park, because those games are automatic sellouts, meaning more money for the team, town, etc.  But the more interesting aspect is how MLB arranges things.  I have heard some people say that the real reason for the switch to the unbalanced schedule was to give MLB more leeway to make subtle manipulations to the schedule.  The way things stand now, any team can play any other non-division team 6, 7 9, or 10 times.  Often divisions are won and lost by a game or two at the end.  The balance of who a team plays 6 times and who they play ten times makes a huge difference.  No one but MLB knows how they cut these up, but everyone agrees that it isn’t random.  We have heard ad nauseam that the Angels are the only team with a winning record against Joe Torre’s Yankees.  Is it a coincidence that the Yankees and Angels have played the maximum ten times every year for the last three years?  I don’t know.  The BPS always cites the schedule makers for the reason the Red Sox have started almost every single season in first place for the last 9 years, and every year they fall into second around July/August, and that’s where they end up.  Is it coincidence?  Maybe.  But the schedule tells you so much about the season.  I don’t know how MLB operates.  But it would be tempting for MLB, don’t you think?  The Yankees are more talented than the Red Sox every year.  And every year they are destined for first.  As we have said many times, it’s in MLB’s best interests to keep the race interesting for as long as possible.  If they can front-load Boston with cream-puffs early on and have them jump in front, they create more interest, and with it more revenue dollars.  Maybe I’m nuts, but it happens every single year.  I do know that teams are sensitive to the schedule.  The Mets often complain that they have to play the Yankees six times and nobody else in the NL does.  They don’t complain too loud, because they’re getting sellouts, but in a competitive year their schedule is going to be tougher.  The Yankees play the Angels ten times this year.  The Angels were the division winner last year.  Boston only plays them six times.  The Mariners came in last place in the division last year.  By a lot.  The Red Sox play them ten times.  The Yankees play them six.  I have no idea what’s at play, but a playoff team playing the last place team in the division four more games than the first place team?  A game or two, fine.  But four games?  I don’t know what the dynamic is.  But I’d love to know.  The Yankees are battling the Red Sox right now.  We’ve cited the schedule many times as the difference maker.  Consider also that to date, the Yankees have played three extra against the Mets while the Sox were bashing the rest of the woeful NL’s brains in, three extra games against Chicago and one extra against Detroit, and you can see that the Yankees not only have a better record, they’ve traveled a tougher road to get there.  You do what you have to do, I guess, but again, I’d love to know.

         So, it looks like I’ve awakened the sleeping White Sox fans.  Welcome back, mypster.  I must confess, my dissatisfaction at the comment production last week pushed me to stir the pot a little.  I figured some bombastic language might bring back some of the old White Sox contributors; mypster, Eric, etc.  Although Eric did comment after the series in NY, to his credit.

         Mypster, love the passion, bro.  I love that you took the time to come on in and offer some clear thoughts as to the status of your team.  As always, feel free to stop bye any time you want.  And I’ve read every one of your comments very carefully.  I’m not going to lie to you, dude, your credibility has to take a bit of a dent here.  First of all, you’re right.  People can manipulate lots of things with stats.  Grossman, Vino, JJ, Big Willie, the Lt and I had to read a book in B-School called How to Lie with Stats by Darrell Huff.  But don’t fall into the trap of thinking they’re meaningless or useless.  For instance, the Royals have a lower batting average, higher ERA, less runs scored, etc, etc. than your White Sox.  By a nautical mile.  Anybody who knows baseball would tell you, then, that a wide margin like that would probably mean that they are not as good, and their record would probably reflect that.  And they would be right, of course, with strikingly high probability.   
 
         With that as backdrop, let’s look at the Yanks/White Sox series this year.  Forget for a moment that the Yanks won four of six, which is the all-important stat.  You have offered that the stats are meaningless.  “If we had just scored 30 runs a game off you in the Bronx,” you said, “we would have won every game.”  The flaw in your logic (and I don’t mean to demean your point, again, I’m psyched you took the time to make it, I’m only trying to have you make it a bit more salient) is that you’re hypothesizing.  Let’s stick to what actually did happen.  Let’s go to the numbers:

         To your point, dude, stats sometimes tell a strange story.  But these are pretty tough to argue.  You don’t like some of these stats, pick some others.  The Yankees are better in every single category.  These are the hitting stats, but as the pitching stats are the inverse, they look the same, trust me.  Sorry - there is one stat where the Sox walloped the Yankees, 4-0.  Caught stealing.  But maybe you don’t like that one….

         I agree with some of the things you said, Myp.  The point we at BPS were trying to make is that the numbers do tell a succinct story.  The differences in the numbers don’t just correlate to the series in the Bronx.  The Yankees also out-hit, out-slugged, and out-OBP’d the Sox in Chicago.  The conclusion, then, supported fully here, is that the White Sox did not do what was in their own control (pitching and hitting) well enough (read: better than the opponent) to win the series in Chicago.  They needed the Yankees, who out-hit and out-pitched them, according to every stat, to help them with the outlier stat – errors.  So they got that help and won the extra game.  Kudos to them.  Errors happen, and the win counts just as much in the standings.  But if you are trying to ascertain the better team, you have to calculate that those two unearned runs that gave the ChiSox the series aren’t going to come along and save you very often.  You want to throw out the crying about the umps’ calls, I’m with you.  We did say that the officiating was bad for both teams, so go ahead and chuck that one.  And from an analytical perspective, the Konerko miracle doesn’t represent anything unusual, either.  It’s just noteworthy because it was against Mo.  From an analytical perspective it was one bomb in the course of nine innings, so it wouldn’t represent an outlier to a fair Chi Sox win.       

         On a broader note, I think the other issue with your thought process is that you’re using the wrong baseline.  You’re comparing everything to last year’s White Sox.  What you’re not realizing, apparently, is that last year was an astronomical outlier year for the Sox.  This year they are more in line with the norm.  The baseline for a player’s performance is his career numbers.  The exception would be if a player is in the very early stages of his career and his career numbers haven’t yet materially formed.  The Tigers and Mets might be an example of that in 2006 with their young stars.  The Twins might also be an example.  The problem with the White Sox is that none of these guys are up and coming stars.  Look at the lineup.  Konerko, Thome, Dye, Pierzynski, Podsednik.  These guys are all at least 30 (Pierzynski turns 30 this year) and have been with at least three different teams.  These guys aren’t spring chickens, and they all have long track records.  It’s not like they all just got better.  Even Crede, the one guy you could argue has blossomed of late, is 28 and in his 7th year in the majors.  Iguchi is a baby, but he’s a career .280 hitter.  And on the other side, nobody on the starting staff has been in the majors for less than seven years except Contreras, who turns 35 this year.  They all have long and pretty spotty track records.  Everybody’s ERA this year is a lot closer to their career ERA than last year.  What all this means, myp, is I don’t think you realize what a fantastic anomaly you had in the White Sox last year.  Everybody was playing out of their minds compared to their career numbers.  And the heart of the lineup is still way out of synch with their career numbers.  It won’t continue.  It never does.  To compare any team to such a remarkable confluence of probability that was the 2005 White Sox would be ridiculous.

         But where I really have to knock you down, in terms of credibility, is your silly statement about the Twins.  Sorry, dude.  You have not done your homework.  The BPS is generally pretty straightforward about the Yanks.  We said last year that the Angels were a better bet to win the ALDS, and we acknowledged on many an occasion this year that the Yankees were not the best team in the AL East.  After the moves at the deadline, and after the injuries to key Red Sox players, they are.  And they’re better than the Tigers, Sox, and Twins, all of whom they beat up this year.  And will continue to beat up.  If it makes you feel better, I still think the White Sox win the Central, and I still don’t think the Tigers will make the playoffs.  The Red Sox will continue the AL East mastery over the AL Central this week, much the dismay of the BPS, by beating the Tigers by at least two of three.  The Yankees have already taken the season series, barring a 3 game sweep by the Tigers at the Stadium, which isn’t going to happen.  But the Twins?  There is simply nothing to back that up, and it’s a silly pretension.  Not your best work, dude.

         All-in, I couldn’t be more psyched that you took some time for us, myp.  Vive le difference, and lots of scores will be settled in October.  Most Yanks fans have an added skepticism about the Chi Sox because they didn’t beat the Yanks last year.  Tied the season series and didn’t face them in the playoffs.  Not their fault, of course, but they were the only AL team in the last 12 years that didn’t have to beat the Yanks in the playoffs to win the pennant.  Not a particularly meaningful tidbit, but it’s always in the back of our minds.   

         The Mrs. and I will be section 24 tomorrow night (Monday).  We know what we have to do.  I hope you guys have time at work on a Monday morning to read all of this.  Hey Ras, I hope this alleviated some of the “boredom”……

         I guess you have to expect it.  If you play six games against a very good, playoff contending team, you’re going to get a game like this.  I’ll start with this.  The Yankees are a better team than the White Sox.  That was pretty clear from watching these six games.  Of the White Sox two wins, there was the miracle game and there was this debacle tonight.  This is one of those games that you’re bound to get playing six games against a team.  Absolutely everything goes right for them.  First of all, the Yankees had one absolutely abysmal defensive inning.  You could argue that this would count against them as a “skill deficiency.”  Okay.  But it’s rare a team commits two errors in an inning.  Just happened to come at a fortuitous time for Chicago.  And it’s not even the errors.  Allie threw a double play ball into left field, Cabrera booted a ball to give up a run, and Cano couldn’t turn an easy double play.  That might be two errors, but its three extra outs.  And if you counted all the movement on the base paths, it was eight extra bases that were taken because of those misplays.  Three extra outs and eight extra bases is going to equal, well, four runs.  So they got four.  And that’s all they got.  They never seriously threatened after that.  Of course they were given the winning run, but that was the one that really has Mussina biting his nails right now.  As well it should.  He had Brian Anderson dead to rights, strike three, three outs, cue the commercial.  But Bill Miller inexplicably calls the pitch a ball.  That was such a strike it was embarrassing.  H*ll of a time to blow it, Bill.  That should have been the end of the inning.  Instead he gets a double and sneaks in to score the winning run on a bleeder off the end of the bat of Podsednik. 

        What an awful call by Miller.  He had an awful day.  He was terrible for both teams, without a doubt, but it cost the Yankees much more dearly.  The White Sox weren’t really threatening all game, and the one time they did it was as a direct result of Miller’s call.  The Yankees had men crawling all over the bases all day, stranding 15 base runners.  And every time somebody came up with men in scoring position and less than two out Bill Miller was there to call an insane strike to leave the batters completely clueless as to what was a strike.  A wide strike zone is one thing, but Miller called this game with the one big umpiring no-no.  Inconsistency.  On a few occasions the YES Broadcasters were commenting that sometimes consecutive pitches were in the exact same location and would be called two different ways.  Awful job by Miller.

        So it all broke right for the White Sox tonight.  The look on Matt Thornton’s face when Giambi flew out to the deepest part of the park in the eighth, one of two Yankees to do that, the other being Allie-boy, summed up the collective White Sox psyche on this night.  One big uncomfortable sigh of relief.  They didn’t deserve to win this game, probably, getting badly out-hit and allowing seven walks, but it will happen from time to time.  But not usually on the road.  So enjoy the home cooking while it lasts.

        So what is my impression of the White Sox?  They are a good team; among the elite of the major leagues.  But they have a few fatal flaws.  Here’s my problem with them.  Last year was a magical ride, and the waves that haven’t yet crashed, will.  YES showed a graphic wherein all of the White Sox starters with the exception of Contreras have an ERA of a full run higher this year than last, in some cases a lot more.  And the heart of the lineup has five guys playing way over their heads, with 2006 batting averages way over their career averages.  Konerko is 21 points over; Crede is 41 points over, Dye – 48, Pierzynski – 20, and Thome – 18.  That does not bode well for the White Sox.  Sooner or later these boys will come back to Earth, just like their starters did this year.  It’s a nice team, but they’re not in the same class as the Yankees.

        Great comment by Paul O’Neill on the broadcast tonight.  He said, “It’s funny how guys will use a keen eye to bring a count full when they’ve got two strikes on them, but once the count is full they swing at pitches out of the zone.”  The idea is that they’re trying to foul them off to ward off the k.  I absolutely could not agree more.  Paulie was talking about a Pierzynski at-bat against Proctor, but Jeter’s at-bat in the second was another great example. 

        Well the BPS was right about a couple of things.  We tortured Javy Vazquez all night (at least until he got yanked after throwing a million pitches through five) and the Yanks didn’t get Moose any run support.  Sean sent me a couple of furious text messages.  I don’t blame him.  It also wasn’t lost on him that Allie wrecked Moose last time out, too.  Moose deserved better.  He took it like a man, though.  Even as his defense betrayed him in spades, he didn’t openly show any frustration or anger.  But he would have had every right to. 

        I don’t need to talk about the Red Sox.  Their futility speaks for itself.

        So the Yankees are facing Joe Saunders tomorrow, a rookie with exactly three starts, all lights-out.  He’s Mike Scosia’s K-Rod for 2006.  I guess that means if the Angels make the playoffs he’ll make up another injury to one of his other pitchers so he illegally put him on the playoff roster, like he did with K-Rod in 2002.  But we all know what happens to the Yanks when they face a kid they don’t know.  As long as they throw strikes.  And this kid averages just over two walks a game.  And he plays for the Angels, who always give us fits.  My advice to anyone with tickets?  Give them to the in-laws or the neighbors.  Because this one is going to be a whole lot of nothing.

        So let me get this straight….the Red Sox got swept by the Royals?

         The Mrs. and I settled into our seats at about 8:30.  We were at Riverside Park out on the Hudson River pier, about to watch the outdoor screen presentation of On the Town, the 1949 classic with Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly. 

        The Mrs. had met me downtown around 6:45, and we went uptown to find a place to eat.  We settled on Niko’s on 75th and Broadway, which bills itself as “Mediterranean” cuisine, which basically meant it was an Italian/Greek place.  Not bad.  So when we finished dinner we stopped off at a newsstand for some Twizzlers, and we were off to the pier.

        Early in the movie, when Gene Kelly declares that he wants to meet the classy society dame, Miss Turnstiles, he tries to enlist his two sailor buddies to help find her somewhere in NYC.  “Chip,” Frank Sinatra’s character, (does anybody else have a hard time with the idea that Sinatra was running around with people calling him “Chip”?) is skeptical they can find her.  “There are four million women in this city,” he says, “The law of averages says that….” And at that point who else but Miss Turnstiles appears right in front of them.  Okay, I’m thinking to myself, there’s none other than Frank Sinatra coming out and throwing the law of averages right in my face.

        Regardless of what Frank said, I still hesitated to turn the game on when we got back in the car at the end of the movie.  I figured there was absolutely no way Boston was going to lose two in a row to the Royals, and the Yanks were going to be up against it in Chi-town.  So I was able to hold on until we pulled into our parking spot.  Then I figured I’d better flip it on and check the score before I went inside.  The game was just coming back from commercial, and the first thing I heard was John Sterling saying it was the bottom of the ninth.  Beautiful.  At worst we were tied.  The next thing he says is, “As Charles Dickens once said, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”  What the h*ll did that mean?  Of course I soon found out.  It meant blowing a 7 run lead.  But Mo was on the case, and before you knew it I ran inside, got into “position” in the loft, and we all know the rest.

        As Frank Sinatra, aka “Chip” foretold, the law of averages is only a concept.  And baseball games are baseball games; they aren’t math problems.  So they do have to play out their own way once in a while.  First, Randall had one of those games tonight.  It’s been a while, and they have gotten fewer and farther between over the years, but there he was tonight, in a pretty big game against a pretty good team, lighting up the Chicago night.  Second, the odds were against another closer vs. closer scenario tonight, but Joe Torre played the percentages with Mo last night anyway, taking him out after one inning of work.  Ozzie Guillen chose to burn his guy out and take the win.  At the end of the day, it worked out for both managers.  They both played correctly.  Torre had Mo to close this thing out tonight when he needed him, and the White Sox didn’t need Jenks anyway.  They might have, had the White Sox tied the game in the ninth, but they didn’t.  So both managers played the correct hand, and both ended up with a win.  And I knew they weren’t getting to Mo in the ninth, even when they had first and third for Thome.  A hit batter and a two out flair that wasn’t exactly scorched doesn’t equal getting to Rivera.  I was just waiting for Thome to break a bat and bounce out harmlessly.  Although Cano did make a nice play.  As for the offense, Cano has come back as a white hot gas, and Abreu continues to hit .465 in pinstripes.  Both hit branderklamps tonight, as did the Melk-man, who apparently felt bad that he left an insurance run and in another instance the winning run in scoring position last night.  And another good night from Allie boy.

        And what do you know… to continue the “kick the law of averages in the nuts” theme, Boston went and blew a lead in the bottom of the ninth against the Royals to lose their second in a row and fall three back to the Yanks, four in the loss column.  Wow.  Triple, strikeout, sac fly, double, single, goodnight Private Papelbon.  What’s that Private Papelbon?!  Another blown save in your foot locker?!  That’s 5 blown saves in your last 15 opportunities, Private Papelbon!! You’re supposed to be a Cy Young and MVP candidate!!  I guess you can’t be too hard on the guy.  But I think popular wisdom held true in his case.  Two months into a season is always too early to be anointing anybody the next Mariano Rivera.

        I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting this outcome today.  JD was the only one with the cajones to predict it.  Although Ras did note that Randall was due.  And Lucky called the Red Sox losing the series to the Royals.  That might have been an even bolder prediction.  And Nick was right, too.  Even though the score ended up 7-6, you can’t say this was a slugfest.  Just goes to show you, yet again, that I have no idea what I’m talking about.  Raoul, if it’s any consolation, the Yanks are still in the middle of a very tough stretch of games, and the Red Sox will get more than a few cracks at them.  They do seem to be in a bit of a funk, though.  I have to admit, they do seem like a different team without Varitek, regardless of whether or not he was hitting .240.  A leader like that makes a difference on the field.  And Umair, I’ll take the Orioles in the ALCS, if it’s all the same to everybody…

        So I guess the lesson learned tonight is this: even when something like the law of averages makes a ton of sense, when Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly tell you it’s going to be a bust, you throw it right in the bagnerol…  Seannie!  Your boy’s up!

        It’s the bottom of the eleventh inning as I type.  I’m not much of a “live blog” guy, so I’ll refrain from that.  I’m not even sure I know what it means.  I’ve been chatting with the big boy about every inning or so, and I already sent him a text message that said that I wasn’t particularly confident about the outcome of this game.  It’s so tough to win these things in extras on the road, especially when you give up a tying bomb in the ninth.  [Iguchi just led off with a base hit.  I’m guessing that’s the beginning of the end.  I’m not trying to be a big pessimist, but the law of averages is what it is.  The Yankees had the bottom of the order up in the top of the eleventh, and the White Sox have the thumpers coming up in the bottom.  When the Yankees didn’t score, this game was hanging from a thread.  So now we have to deal with Thome and Konerko.] 

         I have to give Ozzie Guillen credit.  He’s going for it.  He left Jenks in there for three innings to the tune of 38 pitches.  That means no Jenks for tomorrow.  Joe elected to bag Mo after one, keeping him fresh.  I don’t disagree with either move, I guess.  Odds are that tomorrow’s game won’t come down to the closers, and the odds are in favor of the game not coming down to bottom of the ninth and the Sox needing Jenks to close a one run lead.  And if it does, maybe they do it anyway.  [Now it’s first and second with no one out in the bottom of the eleventh.  Acc just sent me a text message:  “Night night.”  I have to agree.  The guillotine is hanging over Comiskey.]  I’m not sure you would have wanted to throw Mo out there for three innings anyway, which is what it would have taken.  [Well Konerko flied out, but there it is on the gamecast: Jermaine Dye – “in play – run scoring play.”  A base hit to center I guess….]

         So that’s that.  Tough loss for the Yanks, unbelievably huge win for the White Sox.  Yankee fans can take solace in the fact that the Red Sox lost to the Royals, or you can be p*ssed they didn’t gain another game.  Whatever you prefer.  In any case, they didn’t lose any ground, which is the goal.  If they keep doing that for the rest of the year, they win the AL East.  The Red Sox losing and the Twins winning made this a big game for the White Sox, and in all likelihood this game will be the decider for the series.  You figure they’ll most likely split the next two.  But you never know.

         Back to Ozzie’s gamble with Jenks.  He did the right thing, in my opinion.  He went for it.  Again, I always think it makes sense to play percentages.  Odds are the game will not come down to closers tomorrow; odds are tonight will turn out to be the deciding game in the series, etc.  It is also indicative of what a tremendous advantage the home team has in extra innings, especially in important games.  You can argue Torre also played the percentages.  Odds are the Yankees aren’t going to win this game, first of all.  Even if they were going to win, odds are that the Yankees won’t score a run before Mo maxes out.  So why burn him? 

         Looking ahead to the rest of the series, I like the matchup for Chicago tomorrow, and I love the matchup for the Yankees on Thursday.  But I liked the matchup for the Yankees tonight. 

        Tomorrow is Randall against Jon Garland.  It’s been a while since Randall had one of his lights-out games.  And I don’t expect one tomorrow.  The White Sox lineup is a solid lineup and they’re very comfortable at home.  I expect to see deep counts and balls flying around the ballpark.  And Chicago throws a lot of good righties at you.  Garland hasn’t exactly been a monster either.  He has one of those Josh Beckett-style deceptively good winning percentages with an awful 5 ERA.  Exactly half of his wins have come against Kansas City, Baltimore, Tampa Bay and the National League.  I suspect tomorrow will be a bit of a slugfest, and the home team usually wins slugfests.

         I love Moose against Javy Vazquez.  Love it.  Javy is not for real.  He has his moments, but usually not in big games, and usually not late in the year.  I suspect that one will be a low-scoring game, though, only because the Yanks never give Mo any run support, as Sean will attest.  But the good news is that low-scoring games don’t favor the home team nearly as much. 

         You can’t get greedy here (although Ras might disagree).  Although the goal is to win series’, you’re not going to win every series.  There are two games left here, and of course the Yanks could still pull it off, but it’s certainly not the end of the world if they don’t.  The Yanks are a tough out.  Nobody knows that better than the White Sox, who needed a miracle and needed to blow out their closer to win this game.  All the while the Red Sox blew a golden opportunity in Kansas City.   

         Six comments today, boys (now seven – JD late).  You guys sent me into single digits for the first time in a long time.  Thanks Ras, Petey Goods, Lucky, JD, and Happymeds.  I may have to start calling people out soon.  Good game, though.  See you tomorrow.

         There wasn’t a doubt in my mind.  Mikey Juice called me around 8:30 in the morning, and I wasn’t even going to pretend he didn’t wake me up.  But it was okay, because it needed to happen.  His first question was the most important, at least to him and everyone else in the group.  “Are we going to CJ’s when you guys get here?”  CJ’s is coffee shop in the Rock, and since Anthony Cheerios, Tony Sherry, and I were meeting him out there around ten, he was probably deciding whether to eat something big right then or wait for us.  “As far as I know, CJ’s is the plan, dude,” I growled, my voice still soggy with sleep.  “Just making sure.  What time are Tony and Anthony picking you up?”  “Well, Tony told me he was going to be here at 9.  That means he’s going to be here at 8:45, he’s going to have called me five times from downstairs at 8:53, and will be leaning on the horn by 8:57.”  As this conversation was happening, I later found out, Tony and Anthony were at Bake Ridge Bagels down the block, essentially killing time before it would even make sense to show up at my door, as they knew there would be no way I was going to be ready before 9, and more realistically 9:08 or so.  What can I say.  I’ve never been known as a particularly “prompt” guy, which has forever been the bane of the Sherry brothers’ existence.  They are notoriously, and sometimes irrationally, prompt. Today was the annual Kasey’s golf outing, and we were headed out to the Rock. 

        Our foursome was Tony Sherry, Anthony Cheerios, Mikey Juice, and me.  We were following Acc, Spiff, Brian Rumble, and Finny.  Sean and Petey Goods were also there representing the BPS crew.  Tony and Anthony can play.  Juice and I have our moments, but the consistency is just not there.   Big boy won the longest drive, and Tony got robbed on “closest to the line.”  I don’t even know who ended up winning.  There were about a hundred people or more involved in this thing, it seemed.  Good day.  We finally got out of there around 9:30pm or so, but just when we think we’re on our way back to Brooklyn, Mikey Juice, Tony and Anthony start daring each other to go into Nick’s Pizza.  I could only walk in there after them shaking my head, knowing that a “Quattro Fromaggio” pie would be way out of my league, at that point. Luckily they were closing, and a two-day gastro-hangover was averted.  I will admit, however, that a good deal of the ride back to Brooklyn consisted of Anthony and me trying to convince Tony to stop at Dunkin Donuts.  No dice…

        I was perusing the internet just now, and I noticed that the Yankees sat atop the ESPN Power Rankings.  That’s interesting.  They moved ahead of the Tigers, and frankly, ESPN cited all of the reasons I would cite as evidence.  The Yankees have been doggedly consistent, losing only one of their past 13 series, and the Yankees have shown that they beat everybody; good teams, bad teams, and contenders.  They made great deadline deals, probably the best in the majors.  And last but not least they have beaten the Tigers three of four, and it probably would have been four of four if not for Mo being unavailable for the last game and Farnsworth blowing the save.  Also interesting that there is only one NL team in the top nine. 

        Further to that point, an unfortunate truth is that of the six best records in baseball, two will not make the playoffs.  It still makes me wonder how nobody talks about how the current division system favors the inevitability of a hose job in the playoff races.  With each division cut to increase excitement around races comes a bigger opportunity for good teams to get left out because the talent throughout those divisions, or even the two leagues, isn’t balanced enough to support the system.  Superior teams like the defending champion White Sox would be left out if the season were to end today, and yet the NL Wild Card would still represent a playoff berth.  I think I have been on a few kickball teams back in gym class that could have walked away with this year’s NL Wild Card, a race that features only a couple of teams over .500.  The current division system was created to do two things.  It creates races, which increase excitement, and they create rivalries, which provide a reason to watch even when there is no race.  Yankees Red Sox is obvious, but a better example of this is the national media pushing the idea that there is some sort of Cubs/Cardinals rivalry.  I guess this is true, but the Cubs are team with just as big a “loser” identity as the Red Sox, and the Cardinals have far less cache than the Yankees.  So you’re talking about a rivalry that has won, what, one championship combined in the last 40 years?  But rivalries are held largely in the minds of the fans, and if the fans think they are important, they’ll show up to the games.  I guess this is exactly the type of thing MLB is looking to create. 

        The casualties in the system are the good teams in the more competitive divisions and leagues that end up on the outside.  The 2005 Cleveland Indians are probably the best example.  A good young team with an electric lineup that could flood a scoreboard with runs, the Indians were up-and-comers in ’05.  They mounted a valiant charge at the White Sox, who were running away with things early, and were eliminated from the wild-card race on the next to last day of the season.  They won 93 games and had nothing to show for it.  The 2005 Padres, on the other hand, a disgusting team who were at .500 with only a few games to play, got in by virtue of winning the NL West.  The Indians generated excitement, and a playoff run could have supercharged their fan-base, which was already starting to gear up.  Nobody cared about the Padres, and even people in San Diego realized they didn’t belong in the playoffs, so they generated no buzz.  One year later, the Indians have stumbled, and the team has jettisoned many of the pieces of that team, including Coco Crisp, Ben Broussard, Edourdo Perez, Bob Wickman, and Ronnie Belliard.  I have to believe if the Indians got an opportunity to appear in the playoffs, management wouldn’t have been so quick to jettison key parts to a promising young team.  A year later, the Padres still s*ck, and they might make the playoffs again anyway.  And still nobody will care.  The system can be counter-productive.  I don’t have a great answer.  I like the idea of ditching the unbalanced schedule.  Nineteen games against one team is excessive, and everybody playing everybody an equal amount of times might help prevent some teams from getting away with at least a wild-card berth they don’t deserve.  Any thoughts? 

        So the Yanks remain in first by two, three in the loss column.  Their journey into first place resembled my morning today, in a way.  They weren’t exactly prompt about getting to where they were going, but they’re going to have a h*ll of a good time now that they’re there.

         “I’m not getting anything except iced coffee.  It would instantly devastate my day.”  We were in Dunkin Donuts this morning at about 7:30 and Tony Sherry was belligerent.  I was insistent.  “Here’s what we’re going to do, dude.  We’re going to get munchkins, so we can sample a whole bunch of delicious donuts at once, rather than have to commit to just one or two.”  “Nope.  Did you just order hot tea?  You have to be kidding me.  Dude, even the cash register just showed a big question mark when the guy typed in ‘hot tea’.  Apparently it realizes that only a jack*ss would order hot tea when it’s 85 degrees with death-humidity.”  I saw his point.  But it didn’t stop me.  I’m not going to apologize for that.  Tea and donuts.  Couldn’t think of a better snack for the ride out to Acc’s.  Tea and donuts.  When we got to the big boy’s house we had to wait for Johnny Fantastic.  Generally, when you wait for Johnny Fantastic, it’s for one of three reasons.  One, he’s smoking butts on the hopper, two he’s fixing his hair, or three, he was out late with a stack of Heineken’s.  Since he just drilled his head into a crew-cut last week, we knew it wasn’t two.  Come to think of it, we all knew it was three without a lot of mental gymnastics.  Johnny F’s birthday is tomorrow (Monday) and Mrs. Fantastic organized us into a mini-golf outing for him.  I played pretty well.  And by well I mean I didn’t break any clubs.

         As we strolled into the clubhouse after the round I motioned to Acc that we were up 5-1 in the sixth.  Why did I bother?  Of course he already knew that.  I also told him that Boston was way up on Tampa Bay.  That was to be expected.  I figured both teams would take two of three.  Sweeps are so tough.  But it was as we were driving back to Brooklyn with Francis in the back “sleeping,” we heard some interesting news on the radio.  Tampa was mounting a gallant comeback.  Go get’em boys.  A little bit later the final was in.  The newscaster on ESPN radio sounded it like this: “Well; we have a final from Tampa Bay.  Julian Tavares, who is just awful, has just given up a walk-off home run to somebody named Greg Norton.  The Red Sox are in trouble.  The team seems to be coming apart at the wheels at exactly the wrong moment.”  Me, I’m not looking to get too ahead of myself.  But it wouldn’t be the first time the wheels came off the Red Sox in August.  It would be about the tenth time, actually.  In a row.  But I did think this guy was sounding the bell a bit early.  But I don’t disagree with him, either.  The Yankees are a better team right now, and they have more help and firepower on the way.  The Red Sox are now faced with the same prospect that the Yankees lived and breathed for three months.  Hang on for dear life.  But they are not as well equipped as the Yankees were.  The Yankees had returning veterans to lead the way.  The Red Sox have Manny.  Their offense has, predictable, cooled off in al the appropriate places, and the staff has one reliable starter, Curt “Look at Me” Schilling.  Then they have a guy in Beckett who Boston fans are slowly admitting is not the guy they’d hoped he’d be, at least not against anybody good, and not much else.  Timlin is 40 and looks like he has run out of gas, and everyone seems to have woken up to the fact that the top five teams in fielding percentage rarely make the playoffs, historically speaking.  Yes, Mr. Announcer, it does appear the Red Sox are in trouble.  Primarily because the Yankees are currently in first place by three games in the loss column. 

         The Yankees are poised right now.  The additions of Abreu, Wilson, and Lidle have all had an immediate and resounding impact.  This is a highly skilled, winning machine.  But I think the most important thing has been the steady hand of the Yankees as they have won series after series.  They might have improved the talent, but they already had an uncanny knack for winning with consistency.  They did suffer a pretty embarrassing one-hitter on Saturday.  Some of the BPS crew had to eat that one whole for the team.  And that game actually made me think.  The best playoff strategy against the Yankees, I think Lucky and I would agree, would probably be to keep your best ace, and then junk the rest of your starters and call up three of your best pitchers from the minors who can throw strikes.  You’ll make the Mighty Yankees look like little kids.

         How good are the Mets?  I figured I would bring up the cross-town rivals for a second, because Big Joe and I watched the Mets beat up on the Phils tonight.  The answer: Who knows?  Really.  The big issue with the Mets right now is that neither they nor anyone else really has a good grip on how good they are in comparison with the rest of the major leagues (read: AL).  Let’s start by being blunt.  Barring some freakish twist of circumstance, the Mets have already received their World Series credentials.  Sorry, Grossman, I know you may think I’m putting the whammy on your team, but it is what it is.  There is not another team in the National League that even approaches the Mets.  The Cardinals are the second-best team in the league, and as of yesterday they were exactly eight games over .500.  The Mets are completely dominating the league.  But what does that tell you?  For instance, the Mets had absolutely nothing on Saturday, yet the Phillies managed to kick the ball around and throw it away until the Mets had just enough to walk away with the win.  And even then they nearly blew it in the ninth if not for a nifty play by David Wright.  The Phillies handed that game to the Mets, and the Mets were there to accept it.  Were the Mets winning because they’re good or because the Phillies are terrible?  I don’t know.  So how good are they?  Here’s something nobody realizes.  If the Mets were in the AL Central they would be exactly one game away from fourth place.  Pretty surprising, if you’re not paying attention.  And that’s with playing highly inferior competition.  The tough part for Mets GM Omar Minaya is you never really know what you need.  Disregarding the fact that the Mets lost five of six to the Yanks and Boston when they last met, there are clearly some holes to fill.  But it’s also true that things never seem as urgent when they’re not being exposed night after night.  But with all of that said, any team would kill to be in their position.  Staring at a World Series berth since June with little or nothing to stop them.  Just get there, and anything can happen.

         Many thanks to all, particularly Lucky, but also Umair, Amber, Rocco, and Sally French Fries, for not being among those who put the “Weak” in week-end.  Ten comments?  We can do better.  The Yanks took another series and solidified their hold on first, and everybody’s MIA.  Dammit… 

         Big series in Chi-town this week.  We’re looking strong going in; I would love to keep up the momentum.  Chien-Ming the Merciless, first up.

         It was getting a little late in the afternoon, but I was still hoping to get outside for a little bit.  I always like to get outside during the day, even if it’s only for a ten-minute walk around the block.  I knew it was going to be a bit weird out there today, though, with the third straight day of 100 degrees waiting for me like a mugger.  I finally got out around 2 in the afternoon, and was immediately smacked in the face with the giant wet slap of heat and humidity.  The kind of heat that makes you laugh as you’re walking, and you’re not sure if it’s because it’s a strange feeling or because your mind is starting to melt into hysteria.  I had to think for a minute how far to go.  This was one of those days where you imagine the heat getting to you before you realize it, and before you know it you’re passed out on the sidewalk with people kicking you to the side as you cook from the inside out.  I decided to hit the closer Starbucks on Wall Street for an iced chai latte (still not going to apologize for that - they’re delicious).  As I walked I called Mike Sherry, who had called me earlier.  No answer.  So I called Tony Sherry.  “Hello.”  Standard Tony Sherry phone greeting.  Kind of strange in this day and age.  It was fine fifteen years ago when you were answering the phone at your house, without any idea of whether it was going to be the Daily News subscription guy or your grandma.  But I’m calling the kid’s cell phone.  He can see it’s me, but he still insists on a generic “hello.”  “What are you doing, dude.”  “Well, let me ask you a question,” he answered.  “Would it be the craziest thing in the world for me to go to a movie by myself right now, just for the air conditioning?”   “Not at all.  Me and your brother used to do it back in Queens all the time.  We saw Star Wars Phantom Menace like six nights in a row because our AC was broken.  At least we thought it was; we were actually just too stupid to realize we had blown the fuse to the AC.”  “I might do it.”  “Definitely do it, dude.”  He did it.  Superman Returns.  I hung up as I turned the corner of William Street onto Wall.  Weird.  There was a line out the door and down the block at Starbucks.  You have to be a complete idiot to want iced coffee that much to stand outside on a line down the block, I thought to myself.  I figured they must be giving something away free.  Another Starbucks was only a block away, as is always the case in NYC, so I turned down Broad Street to check it out.  Another monster line.  They had to be giving something away.  Even so, I still thought you’d have to be an idiot to want free iced coffee bad enough to stand on that line wilting in 100 degree pain.  That was it for me.  I still had that fear of keeling over on the sidewalk in the back of my head, so I decided to head back.  When I got back to work I checked the score of the game on mlb.com.  Good news:  6-1 good guys.  Abreu big game, Giambino big game back from the cramped leg, Wilson with more RBIs.  Allie-boy big game.  But the biggest story was probably Lidle.  Nice outing from that guy.  Great formula.  Keep the ball down and don’t give up the long ball.  Keep doing that and things will be handsome.  These Yankees will get you the runs.  I didn’t realize he won his fifth game in a row.  The Phillies traded a great second-half pitcher who was on a four-game winning streak?  That’s beautiful stuff.   

         No miracle for the Red Sox tonight.  Although I don’t think there was anybody in America (or Canada, JD and Umair) who didn’t think Big HGH and Manny both jacked those balls out.  I’ll say it again.  They are exciting.  You have to give them that.

         So Julien.  Welcome to the BPS.  I see you’ve met the boys.  Somebody should have warned you they bite.  It’s not that anybody has a problem with you stopping bye and sharing your opinion.  Throw a little tongue-in-cheek humor around from time to time like Raoul and the boys might actually take to you.  But you need to make sound arguments.  Sound bites like “no evidence whatsoever” and “baseless accusations” and “Jeter and Damon must be on juice too, because they’re hitting well” are failing to see the point being made.  The best way for me to illustrate it for you might be to ask you to replace Ortiz with McGwire or Sosa in your example.  Nobody has “evidence” or “proof” with them either.  Any accusations would be “baseless.”  Only they do have evidence.  Which would necessarily infer that it’s not baseless.  It’s not hard-caught red-handed (or red butt-cheeked) evidence, but circumstantial evidence.  Evidence nonetheless.  Sometimes things just don’t add up.  Everybody pretty much agrees that everybody who’s cleared 60 bombs in the last ten years has been a screaming juice-head.  With the only hard evidence being that against Bonds.  But just as in a court of law, you don’t always have an eyewitness.  Anybody want to stand up and be the guy that argues that McGwire and Sosa didn’t do juice?  You would certainly be able to hide behind the “no evidence” argument.  But nobody wants that job.  Because they generally figure that in this case they can probably ascertain the truth just by using their head.  Interestingly, the point of yesterday’s post was simply to point out that a member of the national media, who also happens to be an avid Red Sox fan, brought up the fact that the Ortiz/juice story was not without some substance.  And he gave you some examples of the evidence, and I gave you a bit more.  It’s there.  None of it is “Eureka” proof, but as Simmons himself said, “I would have been a complete homer if I didn’t bring it up.”  His obvious implication is that there is evidence, and therefore, an argument to be made.  You may choose not to believe it, as Simmons does, but I would ask you to give some reasons why.  To ignore the argument and claim there isn’t one only implies that you can’t offer a rebuttal.  The obvious knee-jerk reaction, and Simmons grabbed at it, as did Raoul, although I suspect with Raoul it was just to show a little solidarity with a fellow Sox fan, is to scream that all jealous Yankee fans think that anybody who’s hitting the ball hard is on juice.  It’s the easy rebuttal to make while trying to think of something more concrete, but it doesn’t hold any water.  Nobody has ever accused Manny of being on juice, or Varitek, or Schilling, etc.  Just Ortiz.  He’s the only one who has the telltale sketchy history and the burst-out-of-nowhere superstardom that we saw with Sosa and Giambi, combined with an overnight elevation of talent that we saw with McGwire, Bonds and Sheffield.  You just don’t go from a guy who gets cut after six years in the homer dome without ever having more than eighteen bombs to a guy who might challenge 60.  The similar stories that we have seen in the last ten years have all ended the same way.  Juice.  Which is why the “Boston Sports Guy” himself felt the need to bring it up.  Particularly when he acknowledges the other telltale signs like the enormous head and the expanding body.  Speaking of which, fat with no muscle?  Take a good look at him dude, and then compare him to Dom Deluise in Cannonball Run (Him doesn’t like it when you use his name, J.J.).  Then come back and tell me Ortiz is fat with no muscle.  In closing, dude, as the boys have pointed out, few people here at BPS ever try and deny that Giambi and Sheffield have used and continue to use the juice.  I’m the first guy to say, and have said many times here in the BPS, that I think Giambi and Sheffield are both still juicing their faces off.  So if you want to come in and make a cogent argument, by all means come on in.  I love that you’re passionate about your team.  You should be.  But try not to come in here all emotional, bro.  Because then we’re all going to dismiss you as a meathead. 

         Happymeds, bring a few back from Camden Yards for us, dude.  And save some dippin dots for Sundaypuncher Nick, me, Mikey Juice and the big boy.

         Sixth inning.  Phone rings.  Tony Sherry.  “When you look at this score (pause for effect) - do you understand how the craziest man in the world, Chien Ming Wang, constantly puts up zero after zero and nobody in the world knows who he is?”  It was a spectacular point.  Amazingly, he is a 13-4 starting pitcher with a 3.58 ERA on the most high-profile team in all of sports in the most high-profile town in all the world.  And nobody’s talking about him.  That is truly amazing.  Why?  Probably because he doesn’t speak a flicker of English and gives you about as much personality as Ted Koppel.  But I think the anonymity might be about to change.  Sportscenter apparently just woke up.  They showed a graphic that basically said Wang has been in zombie-freak mode since the all-star break.  Really?  You don’t say…..

         The Yankees are a better team than they were last weekend before the noise.  They are clicking all over town.  They won’t win every game.  They are going to lose, and they are going to have to continue to claw to the end.  But they look ready, ready, ready.  The Toronto Blue Jays are a good team.  A still-in-contention team.  They would be in first-place in the AL West and most of the NL (I don’t know why I even bothered including that).  This in spite of the fact that they have to play the Yankees and Red Sox a thousand times.  But as good as they are, the Yankees have been toying with them the last two games.  They are ruthless at the plate.  Taking pitches, fouling the ball off, capitalizing on mistakes.  This team is scary, boys.  No other way to say it.  No wonder Sheff is queuing up the Kumbaya.  He wants in.  I don’t blame him.  The sixth was a great example.  Bases juiced for Abreu with one out.  Already four runs in.  Pitchers sweating all over the Stadium.  Abreu eventually k’d for the second out.  Huge.  But he took it to 10 pitches, causing Scott Down to almost pass out on the mound.  And who’s up next?  Allie-boy.  Whoops.  Six runs in.  Scary.  And all this with Giambi getting a night off because he had a few cramps.  Poor guy.  Take it easy dude.  We got you covered.   

         And there go those Red Sox again.  Dial up another miracle.  Ironically, the trade deadline has worked out extremely favorably for them so far.  And they didn’t do anything.  There isn’t another team in baseball who can say that they have won two out of three since the deadline passed strictly because of deals made.  Not their deals, of course.  Their good fortune was the Indians trading away their closer, Bob Wickman.  I know they are living on borrowed miracles, but this one might have been the most egregious.  We’ve come to expect Big HGH to hit the huge bombs.  But the fill-in closer hitting two guys and walking one when he had two outs in the ninth with nobody on?  That is priceless.  I’ve said it before, and Umair touched on it with his comment.  The law of averages is going to get them.  You just don’t get an endless supply of those.  They are using them up to keep pace.  Three miracles in four games.  It doesn’t last, sadly.  All the while the Yankees have been steady as a rock, winning series after series after series.  They are the better team right now.  Period.

         Speaking of Big HGH, Grossman e-mailed me the blurb from Bill Simmons' ESPN page 2 article.  For anybody not familiar with Simmons, he was “The Boston Sports Guy” before he showed up on ESPN, and now he’s just “The Sports Guy.”  He claims he couldn’t use the Boston part because he moved to California.  Obviously the real reason is that, as an ESPN contributor, be would have had a major credibility problem if he kept “Boston” in there.  I’m not a big fan of his, as I find him generally to be a whiny, “why me” type of Red Sox fan.  But he did something pretty groundbreaking in this article.  The following is an excerpt:

“As for Big Papi, he's playing in a sport where every power hitter always comes under suspicion; his head is the size of an overpacked suitcase; his power stats keep getting better and better; and everyone seems content to attribute his home run jump to the fact that Tom Kelly was a m*ron for telling him to hit to all fields in Minnesota. He also has chance to become the first AL batter ever to hit 62 homers. Personally, I don't think there's a chance in h*ll that he's using anything. But you never know. And I would have been a complete homer if I didn't bring it up. Don't blame me, blame baseball, a sport that didn't care that players were compromising the game until it was too late. Now everyone is guilty until proven innocent. Good times.”

        Interesting that someone on that side of the wall finally acknowledged there might be a problem.  Atta boy.  Baby steps.  The first hurdle is admitting you “might” have a problem.  And if you really thought there was “no chance in h*ll that he’s using anything,” why did you feel the need to bring it up?

        Anybody notice how relaxed Allie-boy looks the last few days?  He and Jeter have been laughing and goofing around on the bench for the past two games, and the YES network flashed a hilarious Japanese-to-Spanish exchange from Melky and Wang in the dugout tonight.  Melky was talking; Wang wasn’t really getting it, so he settled for a good old-fashioned double-thumbs up.  I somehow zoned and missed it, but the Big Boy called and walked me through it.  He was still laughing.  The team is having fun, the Big Boy is having fun, Ralph Jr. got to enjoy his very first win in section 24, and dammit if we’re not having fun here at the BPS.

        Keep it going, Lidle.  Let’s see what you’ve got….

          “Bernie just hit a double and the Yankees took the lead.  Watch it downstairs.  It’s too hot upstairs.”  I didn’t walk in the door until about the 8th inning, and already the Mrs. was doing me a solid a couple of ways.  It was still hot as blazes outside, so I can only imagine how hot it was in the loft.  So it didn’t take me long to take her up on her offer.  And she was bearing good news.  Besides, if all went well it wouldn’t take too long for things to finish off right.  She said she still had to unpack her bag from vacation, so she wasn’t watching anything anyway.  So by the time I got on board the Yanks had things in control.

         And win they did, with contributions from Allie-Boy, Jeter, Abreu, and my man Bernabe Baseball.  Nicely done.  And a competent outing by Jaret Wright.  Exactly five innings.  Shocking. 

         There were a few major personnel developments over the last few days.  And some of them had nothing to do with trades.  The Red Sox, after sailing along with an injury-free line-up for the whole year (of course I’m not counting second-rate starting pitchers), have lost their captain, Jason Varitek, and Trot Nixon, who’s always good for a month on the DL.  Whoops.  I don’t root for injuries, but that’s going to make things difficult for them, without a doubt.  So not only did they not add anybody, they lost two starters.  And no, Red Sox fans, even Varitek and Nixon don’t add up to The Ferocious Lion and Sheffield.  The other major development for the AL contenders was the Mets losing Dioner Sanchez for the season.  The AL?  Correct.  Their NL opponent in the World Series just took a big blow.  They went out and got Roberto Hernandez, who can’t be counted on in the clutch.  They lost Nady, who was better than Endy Chavez, even though Chavez plays defense like few I’ve ever seen.  I did like the Oliver Perez move.  But I still think the move was to trade Milledge for Zito.  What is Minaya’s beef with that deal?  No sooner do the Mets make the deal to trade Nady than Milledge gets himself thrown out of a minor-league game for arguing balls and strikes and bumps the umpire, jeopardizing his immediate return to the majors.  You have to trade this kid.  He’s bad news.  I get it.  You got burned by Kazmir.  But blowing this is almost as bad.  It’s not like Cy Young winner Barry Zito is ever going to be accused of being Victor Zambrano.  We’re talking about Zito, dude.

          I’m hearing a lot of people gush about the Chacon for Wilson deal.  I don’t love Craig Wilson, but I hope I’m underestimating him.  The important thing for me is whether or not he contributes.  You can’t get too caught up in “the deal.”  The important question is whether or not this is going to make the team better.  It’s like the old adage of paying two dollars for a one dollar item you need versus paying one dollar for the two dollar item you don’t need.  The Yankees are usually the former.  The Wilson deal, to me, smacks a bit of the latter.  But again, I’ll give the guy a chance.  I love that he’s so excited to be here.  And, as always, I root for the laundry.   

          So I’m going to take a minute to enjoy this.  I know there’s a long way to go, and I know there is so much competition, and I know things will surely move around a lot in the next few days.  But boys, tonight is tonight.  And the Yankees are in first place.  Tomorrow night when Ralphie Boy brings Ralph Jr. to section 24 for his first Yankee game, the Yankee flag will fly lead left in the Bronx night.  Boston’s red flag will hang grimly to its right.  Not only are the Yanks in first place, but on this steamy August night they have the second best record in all of baseball.  Percentage points better than the Red Sox, the team all of the short-sighted broadcasters were penciling in to the AL East title.  Percentage points better than the electric, feel-good, domination story of the National League, the Mets.  Better than the World Champion White Sox.  Better than everybody except the Detroit Tigers, of all teams.  Tonight, if for only a little while perhaps, the Yankees have turned the world right side up.