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

A lot going on today. A lot. So much that I am actually NOT getting involved in marathon drinking at a bar to kick off the first NFL Sunday. I need all my faculties about me to stop on top of everything going on. Plus, I'm pretty sure I need to get some ad concepting work done at some point today, and contrary to popular belief, alcohol isn't conducive to creative thinking about pharma campaign developments. Not for me, anyway.

So here's the day, broken into parts:

1.) Game 144: O'S @ YANKEES

The O's haven't swept the Yankees in the Bronx in 23 years. 23 YEARS. No way they're going to today. Not with my man CC (16-7, 3.40) dealing today.

I will be mortified beyond belief if they get swept by these cellar dwellars. And worse, not only will I be mortified, but I will be convinced the Yankees are never going to win another game. Would you call me an alarmist or no? I'm not Johnny Pessimist. The opposite actually. But what I AM is Johnny Superstitious. Not just a little stitious. Superstitious. And what if Jeter knocked out Lou's #1 spot and now all the ghosts are mad??

It would be the first time GNH has seen a 3-game sweep. (Wait, is that possible? How could that be? I mean, that's what ESPN is telling me, but we didn't win a game against the Sox for the first 8 tries. And they're telling me the Yanks haven't suffered a 3-game sweep at home all season? Sometimes I think ESPN's accuracy is on par with the Fun Trivia under the caps of the Snapple bottles.)

Round boy goes up against a pretty decent arm today, Jeremy Guthrie (10-13, 4.96). And the righty is on a little bit of a tear, as much as an Oriole can be anyway. 3-1 with a 1.33 ERA in his last 4 starts. But is that more threatening than CC's 1.75 ERA in his last 7 starts? Nah.

He beat us in the opener series at Camden, but has been fruitless against the Yanks in the 3 starts since then. As one commenter noted on my recap following the mess of a Toronto game last weekend:

[regarding the Yanks sweeping the Labor Day doubleheader] they seemed to be
ticked off after that joke last night and were taking it out on the Rays. 15-2,
that’s a pretty good stomping. I can picture it now “f%#!, who p#@$&* them
off? Toronto? Gee, thanks a lot.”

Ha. Well, I realllly hope that's the case today. Panic will certainly set in in Yankee Universe in we get swept. Because we've only got 6 up on the Sox now and for the next few days, the schedule ain't too pretty. It definitely was disheartening yesterday to hear Jeter be all, "let's not get ahead of ourselves here... we haven't won anything." If the Yankees eff this up, I will lose all faith in humanity and likely become a paled version of my former self.

Do you want that on your conscience, Yanks? DO YA?