"It's great to be young and a Yankee."

I don't know if I'll ever wrap my head around the fact that not everyone (in fact, most people) don't care about the Yankees. In my head, they're the center of the sports universe around which all other institutions revolve. But at the W&L/UVA party yesterday down at Hill Country BBQ, I was reminded that if it's not SEC, than very few southerners give a crap. As evidenced by the fact all the TVs there were showing ESPN World Series of Poker, pre-Preakness (Preëakness?). I had to beg, borrow, and kill to get the Yankee game turned on, and even this was an ordeal, because at first they put the Met game on, and then acted like that should suffice.

"Uhh, this isn't the Yankee game, it's the Mets game."

Exasperration/huffing and puffing, "Well, I don't know if I can put the Yankee game on."

"It's channel 53, if that helps."

"I don't understand, I just put the game on."

As if the request was for any NY sports game, and I was nitpicking. Roar.

Then between the 10th and 11th inning, I go to the bathroom and come back to see they've reverted to watching horses mill around a race track in the riveting 3 hours pre-game of the freakin Preakness (Freakness?). Which could only mean the game was over. Awesome. You come back to an unstirred room of people with the Yankee game off after it was in 11 innings, and it can only mean a loss.

I call my sis for the final score, sadly:

"AHHHH I JUST LOVE HIM!!!!"

"Huh."

"AROD!!!"

"Wait, what happened??"

"What the hell are you talking about? Did you not watch the game?"

"I was. They turned it off before the end."

Sneaky southerners. I leave for 5 minutes and they switch the channel on me. Next time I'll know better, that if I want to watch the game in its entirety, I bring a bed pan. That'll show em.

Anyways. Two walkoffs in a row! I had JUST said on Friday night that we needed that game, and that the next type of game we need is one where ARod, not Melky, gets the walkoff.

Other highlights from the day:

• Keith, who basically makes everything awesome always, brought me back a Yankee popcorn tin from the luxury box. Which means I have 2 YANKEE BUCKETS NOW!
• Beetlejuice was on.
• My sister and I were talking to a guy obsessed with zoos. Which was funny enough by itself, but made infinitely greater when he said, "You know that movie '50 Days of Dates? Or The First 50 Dates? What was it called? I don't know. But the point is, I know that walrus in it."
• Special thanks to NYSJ and Josh for assuring the gimp reached home safely.
• AND HERE COME THE YANKEES!! Great news.

Man, think how good they'd be if they got rid of Girardi. I'm not sure how I felt about Arod swinging with 2 on in the 11th. I mean, obviously, it paid off. But who wouldn't drop a bunt in that situation?? It worked out well yesterday, and I'm not complaining, but it does raise some questions about the managerial leadership on this team (and btw, I changed my mind, he doesn't remind me of Michael Scott, he's Toby! Holy crap, on Friday night's post game conference, it was just uncanny.)

Speaking of at-bat strategies, me and Laur got mired in an increasingly escalating argument about 3-0 counts. She thinks it's badass when someone swings on 3-0. I think it's dumb. (These assessments are precluding any kind of mitigating factors like "Oh it depends who's up/pitching." It's more of a general rule. 3-0. Yes or no.)

And I disagree 100%. (Well, 99%. I agree it can be badass. But so is punching your fist through a brick wall, doesn't mean I think you should necessarily give it the old college try.)

You got a team to think about. A GOOD hitter only hits 30% of the time. And if it's 3-0, the pitcher's up against the wall to throw a strike if he doesn't want you on base. And maybe he doesn't throw it exactly down the pipe, but he's not gonna dance around the strike zone too much. You see a strike at 3-0, you're probably gonna see another one at 3-1. And if not? Then you get a base. Plus, if nothing else, make him throw more pitchers for the sake of the guy on deck. I never swung at 3-0. Ever. And I was playing little league ball. Nor did I ever swing at the first pitch. Ever. My dad told me I was a good enough hitter that I could take a strike. I don't know if that's true, but I liked the dad that my dad thought so. Or told me he did, anyway. Plus, as a rule of thumb, parents are always right.

So there it is. Golden rules:
Don't swing at 3-0.
Parents are always right.
After that, everything else is cream cheese.

I love how this team picks up each other's slack. Like the batters help in the inning after a pitcher's bad inning. The pitching is determined for every single batter. One fielder makes a bad throw, another fielder evens it out the next play by knocking down what should have been a base hit. A month into the season, but this finally looks like a team. I guess all they needed was that overrated, overpaid, can't-hit-in-the-clutch, useless 3B to come back.

It'd be great if that guy could start pulling his weight.

I don't want to rely on in-the-park homeruns from Brett "Beepbeep!" Gardner all the time.

Or walkoffs from Melky.

Or game-tying dings from Teixiera.

2-out hits from Matsui.

Extra-base hits from Damon.

Oddly consistent OBP from the rookies.

Deep-inning showings from our rotation.

Improved work from our bullpen.

Now if only we could get Torre to come back home... (Sorry Girardi. You just aggravate me, and it's a cold day when I ever utter something derogatory about the boys. Maybe Girardi isn't Michael Scott OR Toby. Maybe he's the new jackass that was on The Office that was going to whip everyone into shape, but instead just threw a monkey wrench into the dynamic and made it very difficult to work.)

Just ignore him, Yankees. I love this team.