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

I woke up this morning on my couch with all the lights on, tv on, and non-pajama clothes. Also, my laptop on my head. It had fallen off the couch's armrest and fell squarely on either side of my head, like a tent. I could have fallen asleep on my couch a million times, but that wouldn't have happened unless it was the first Monday after a long vacation. And such awakening was how I greeted today, a portentious sign if ever there was one for the fact that this Monday was going nowhere good.

Not for me, and not for the Yankees.

Day games throw me completely off during the week. During the weekends, they're ok, despite the everpresent dangers of not being fully awake for the first 3 innings. But on a Monday? The first day after a long holiday vacation? Nope. Not a fan of their work.

Because not only am I too busy at work on the horrifying first day back to even listen to the game, much less watch the gamecast, but I'm also now faced with the depressing realization that I don't have any Yankee baseball to watch tonight.

This wouldn't be so bad if they had won today, and then I'd be placated by the notion of lightly rooting for a Sox loss to bring NY back where they belong in the standings. But the idea of watching Boston play is now just too grim and lifeless a scenario for me to get into.

So today's viewing experience was a composite of gameday, the tv in the conference room before meetings started, and mostly my cell which updates/refreshes at the speed of a handicapped hippo.

Girardi tried to pull out his trusty ace in the hole move, but it might have been a little forced and premature, by blowing up over a blown call at 3rd about .07 seconds in the game. In his defense, it was a BS call, and Jeter's account of the play makes it even more understandable that hissy fits ensued:

Yankees manager Joe Girardi was ejected by umpire Marty Foster in the first inning after Derek Jeter was caught stealing third and argued. Replays showed Jeter reached around Scott Rolen's tag attempt and touched the base."I was told by the umpire that I didn't have to be tagged to be out," Jeter said.

Now THAT'S infuriating. It'd be like getting a speeding ticket for going 45 in a 55. And having the cop tell you that you didn't have to actually be speeding to be ticketed.

Admittedly, I couldn't actually see the plays live, but watching the replays make me almost happy that I don't have a tv in my office. Because the ludicrous call at 3rd wasn't where it ended in terms of officiating screw-ups.

New York also thought second base ump Wally Bell blew at least two calls. Bell ruled Aaron Hill safe when New York thought Jeter's throw beat him to second on Wells' grounder ahead of Rios' homer. Then the Yankees were convinced shortstop Marco Scutaro was off second when Hinske was called out on Brett Gardner's seventh-inning grounder.

However, the institution that is my Fandom is probably where umpires run to to yell "SANCTUARY!" Because I can't really think of a single time when I put that much weight on a call. I've seen my share of horrendously officiated games, in every sport. I've seen umps not just blow close calls, but just call black and white calls wrong. (And it doesn't get much more black and white than decreeing whether a coin landed HEADS or TAILS.)

I generally think it all evens out in the end. And it's a thankless job what those umps do, so they're bound to make a mistake now and then. We got some against us today. Tomorrow the Twins will be the ones who suffer. As usual.

So the Yanks didn't lose this on someone else maybe/maybe not screwing up calls. The Jays showed up today. Never underestimate the fear of the sweep.

I gotta hand it to the Jays' pitcher Ricky Romero. Watching the gamecast in the first inning, it looked like he was going to be yanked out in before 3 innings. Hit by pitch, wild pitches...I was picturing a "He Doesn't Have Control" Montage from Bull Durham. Or a "highlight reel" of Rick Ankiel's Greatest Hits-By-Pitches.

But no, Romero settled down and extended his scoreless inning streak to 24, til our new pinstriped boy Hinske knocked in a solo shot to make the score 4-1. Unfortunately Rios answered with a 3-run ding to put our deficit at 6. Which, even without watching the game live, reeked so strongly of another classic Yankee move. (Not to be confused with a Yankee Classic.) Chip away at the lead with a few solo shots, put a runner or 2 on base here and there. Go from "reducing the deficit" to "rallying" to "potentially staging a MOST improbable comeback here!"

And announcers are contractually obligated to say the following phrase no later than 5 seconds after the deficit has been reduced to 2 or less:

"And that homerun by ____ in the ___ inning is now looming large for the Yankees."


Other notes:

• Perhaps the Yanks should consider putting someone else up on the mound against the Jays. Pettite is 0-5 against them at home for some reason.
• Hideki is a beast. A very reliable, yet strangely untrustworthy-reliable beast.
• Joba needs to slow his roll. "It's a win at the end of the day," Chamberlain told reporters. "I didn't throw well at all, but at the end of the day, 10 to 8, the Yankees win. There's really not much to be mad about." Right. I suppose that I'm going to take this a bit worse than a normal person since I feel guilty and overly apologetic if I ask someone to borrow their pen. I like to see a little remorse, they don't need to repent with prayer and self-deprecation. But it'd be nice if they demonstrated they're disappointed in themselves and will do anything they can to right the ship.
• The line-up today was, uh, a real beehive of activity. Very interesting decisions there, Joe. I guess you know best though. Swisher in the 2spot? Huh? Then he bats 3-4. Cano 6th? 2-5. (Though I think Cano is going to get at least 2 hits no matter where he's batting these days.)

D Jeter SS	2	0	0	1	3	0	24	.314	.393
N Swisher 1B	4	0	3	2	1	0	19	.242	.367
M Teixeira DH	5	0	0	0	0	2	18	.273	.382
A Rodriguez 3B	4	0	1	0	0	1	13	.244	.412
J Posada C	5	1	1	0	0	2	14	.282	.364
R Cano 2B	5	2	2	0	0	2	21	.303	.335
M Cabrera LF-CF	4	1	1	0	0	0	17	.280	.339
b-H Matsui PH	1	0	1	2	0	0	5	.267	.362
C Ransom PR	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.180	.231
E Hinske RF	4	1	2	1	0	1	22	.500	.600
B Gardner CF	3	1	1	0	0	0	6	.278	.356
a-J Damon PH-LF