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

Live from Union Square...square...square...

At work, and I turn on the radio and "it's a long 3-run shot from Cruz!"

And there's no one on the Yankees named Cruz. Maybe there is in the bullpen actually, who can keep up. So....so far not impressed with the radio.

3-2, Rangers in the 3rd. The two best in the AL. I don't think there's much chance of this being a pitcher's duel, even with AJ on the mound. I hate these types of games, despite their indulgent fantasy merits. But sometimes I would rather see the Yankees win 1-0 and have only a smattering of hits through the game, then see them win 22-20. Watching opponents tee off on the Yanks is like riding on an old wooden roller coaster.

"Swing and a miss AND THE BAT FLIES 10-11 ROWS BACK INTO THE STANDS!" Jesus, Murphy.

And that was when I couldn't liveblog it anymore because the hits were just coming rapidfire. Both literally and metaphorically. It was like a carefully crafted mix CD--all these seemingly singular incidences that all fell within 1 themed silo. Or like an episode of the OC where within a 1-hr show, there'd be a murder, an eating disorder, homosexuality, manic depression, drug abuse, pregnancy, alcoholism, and rape.

I might have been able to keep up if a.) my attention to game wasn't sporadically interrupted with work, b.) the Yankees weren't playing like they were freebasing, and c.) I wasn't flying so low to the ground. I don't know when I'm going to come to terms with the reality that when you skip out on sleep, those hours don't just bow out, but rather stalk you with a vicious vengeance. The decision to stay out on Sunday night is chasing me down with butcher knives, and my scorned sleep is plotting unseemly revenge on toothpaste-juice shots bartender Kevin has made into an art form.

So in between bouts of literally dozing off at the helm, I summon my struggling faculties to make the following observations:

1.) Posada breaks the Yankees E-free streak with a throw that I can only assume was either the result of some 'Rookie of the Year'-esque tightening of the arm ligaments phenomenon post-DL stint that give you superhuman overthrow powers, or he thought Jeter was manning 2nd in the batter's eye. I almost expected Girardi to run out of the dugout like Tom Hanks in 'A League of Their Own.'

But hey, we've already nailed down the all-time record, it was no big deal. And like Ken Jennings'll tell you, you can't keep the streak alive forever. I wish it wasn't Posada that did it though, only because Sox fans inexplicably hate him. And I can 100% envision them pathetically revelling over his fault. Maybe if they do it enough, it'll make them less in 2nd place and the Yankees less in 1st.

2.) David Murphy took his cue from Posada when he decided to one-up the catcher by throwing his bat as far as he could. "Swing and a miss AND THE BAT FLIES 10-11 ROWS BACK INTO THE STANDS!" Murphy: 1, Posada: 0.

3.) Teixeira can't take it anymore. The mild mannered 1B with the most enviable disposition of any professional superstar, showed signs of a discernible flare. 2 HBPs and you can start to see the steam gently spewing out his ears. Is that how you wanna play it buddy? Cuz I'll play it like that, I'll like it like Lionel Ritchie baby, all night long. Which he did. Starting with a take-out slide back the eff off gorilla statement.

4.) 7 runs in the 4th blew the game open, including a hit from Alex Rodriguez that scored Jeter for the 1,500th time in his career. Which puts him in good company: Ruth, Mantle, Gehrig, (only other Yankees who hit the mark) and Sheffield, ARod, and Ken Griffey Jr., (only other active players with 1500 hits). Actually I don't get why runs are that meritous. Someone else brought you in. It's great for the team and all, but I feel like there's something very inker about it.

5.) Since ARod's return, the Yankees have won 18 of 24. It could always just be a coincidence, though.

6.) My Better Burger order arrives, and I go went downstairs to retrieve my chicken burger and return to my office reverberating with Sterling screaming about a "MONSTER SHOT FROM GODZILLA!! UPPER-DECKY!"

The score is about 923 to 3 now. I don't even know what's going on. Since my attention was redirected back and forth from the radio to work every 15 minutes, the last I knew the Yanks were done by 1 and then barely up. Now it's 9-3.

That's when I start to get nervous about the effect long working hours have--not knowing the time, or what day it is, or sometimes even what season. The only reason I can ever figure out the day of the week at all is solely by virtue of Jason's standard Tuesday status updates reminding us that there's karaoke and he'll be singing. I'm seriously extremely grateful for these yardsticks by which I can better determine where I am exactly in terms of the week.

7.) "And we come to the 5th.. I KNEW we'd get to the 5th." Was this a contested issue?

8.) AJ throws at Cruz's head to retaliate for both Tex hits. Or as any announcer worth his salt would say, "And AJ makes them pay for it."

(from ESPN.com)

"I got to pitch in," Burnett said. "Warnings are warnings, man. It doesn't bother me."

But Teixeira hinted there was more to it.

"I think there was a little message sent," he said.

And Suzyn Waldman LOVED it. "I have to say, I'm into it. We haven't seen this type of retaliation and aggression against someone who's wronged a Yankee...well, since the Clemens Era, really." TRUE STORY. Is there a single Yankee fan in existence who hasn't remarked at least 50 times in the past 5 years that we're going to see a black president before we see the Yankees depart from their rigorous committment to We-Take-The-High-Road-So-Bean-Away philosophy?

9.) It's about f'n time. I don't agree with a good amount of Girardi's managerial moves, but say what you will about him, he is devoid of the genteel, grandfatherly passivity that defined the Torre reign. And next to Torre's self-destructive, flummoxing use of the bullpen, this was topping this list of my gripes. Well played, AJ. I like a guy who can throw a pie one day and drill one the next. (There's a "that's what she said" in there, but I'm too tired to coax it out.)

10.) The Yanks now have the best record in the entire AL. Outstanding.

And so the Yanks take another from the robust Tex lineup. Keep up the aggression. Never underestimate the role of momentum, and with the looming Sox series in Fenway, NY cna't give anything away right now. (I can't even think about that series without getting heart palpitations over the assinine Arod jeers. And the best part? They think they're sll sticking it to us. ARoid has really lost a good chunk of its cache since ARoidless is still teeing off on the league.)

And unlike other years, this year's Yankees don't look or play scared.