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

It's been a few days, and we're still in Spring Training. I'm getting impatient. It's like the winter went by at a normal, tolerable pace...and now the last few weeks before the season starts are moving like my mom in a furniture store.

I briefly tabled the preseason games in favor of the ever-popular March Madness tournament. However, at this point, my bracket basically is just a list of teams that lost. Along with hitting a homerun in a softball game, creating a perfect bracket is one of the things I want to do before I'm 30. Soo...1 year left.

And 1 season left. It basically means I have to hit a homerun during this softball season since. Along these lines, I've been more or less salivating in Paragon Sports for the past 2 days, checking in on an Easton softball bat more than once a day, like it's a sick relative with visiting hours.

Or, more aptly, like I'm Wayne stalking his guitar:



Except instead of being denied Stairway, I'm being denied practice swings.

Tomorrow though. Tomorrow may be the day I bite the bullet and purchase this thing of beauty. I'm really bordering on obsessed with it. And, like Oscar Wilde say, the only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.

In other news:

• I inadvertantly informed Verizon of my weekend goals today, when I accidentally replied to a text message telling me to pay my bill, with "I wanna wear a birthday hat all night."

• The questions are spinning around the Yankee maelstrom: WHO WILL BE THE 5th STARTER? The fact that this is even a question really incenses me. Big time. It's like on par with the season of American Idol when Sanjaya managed to stick around for an offensive amount of time. Joba=Sanjaya. That's it. And Hughes is like Jennifer Hudson, some brilliant talent who somehow loses the popular vote and gets voted off the island. HOWEVAH, as far as losers go, she's done well for herself. Which just goes to show you: you can get by on smoke and mirrors and charm and politics for only so long. But sooner or later, all things will be equal, and substance trumps posture.

• And I believe that this is that time for Hughes. He will be named the 5th starter. (For the record, I didn't like this idea, at all. But I've been following him during preseason, and he's doing everything that Joba never has: cultivating a pitching repetoire. Honing his variety. MATURING.)

• That's the #1 difference between these two young relievers: poise and responsibility. Hughes took his lumps, went to the bullpen, and worked at it. Because outstanding. Now he wants in the rotation and he's doing everything he can to make that happen. He deserves it, and I predict he'll excel as a 5-guy. Think about it. Hughes as the last man in the rotation. Could be cinematic.

• The Red Sux lost today. Papelbon has been looking like crap. Pedroia's day to day with a wrist injury. All their ducks are in a row for April 4!

• Ichiro makes a catch reminiscent of Mays and while I'm the LAST person to ever downplay Spring Training, I gotta throw a "pump the breaks" on this one. PLENTY of better catches have been made than the one Ichiro made today. In regular season games.

• I just realized that almost all of my friends who support a team that isn't the Yankees, all claim their respective franchise boasts the best rotation in the league. Hmm. I'm skeptical. And I'm biased. Obviously the Yankees are the best. Their alleged competition has been argued by:

1.) An Atlanta fan, who cites the triumverate of Hudson, Lowe (?????), Jurrjens (valid), and Hanson

2.) Numerous Phillies fans, who have every right to flap their arms and scream "Halladay" at me in a manner not unlike this, can slow their roll when it comes to Cole Hamels and Joe Blanton.

3.) Mets fans, who...just, no. No. Santana. Sigh.

4.) Red Sox fans, who are just echoing their tune from last year. I wish they would shut up. Seriously. Like, not in a faceitous, "oh go kick rocks" type of way. Like a literal desire to have all of them stop making any kind of sound. That said, Lester is gold, Beckett's aight, and everyone else is without.

5.) A Cardinal fan, who can't decide whether to lionize his starters or his lineup, knowing that both are vulnerable to severely and improbably disappointing him.

• Regarding the Yankees, Granderson got contacts, continuing an ongoing tradition of our outfielders to have inexplicable vision ailments that seemed to escape their attention for 20 something years. Be careful, Curtis. Lay off the caffeine, it's hell for contact-wearers and wreaks havoc on eyesight.

• Speaking of dodging health bullets, I almost went into cardiac arrest today while catching up on twitter, "tweet" from Mark Feinsand from 2 days ago.

• That said, I'm clearly very behind on my news and blogging. All in good time. Come April 4, I'll be back like a hurricane, sleep be damned. But right now, I unfortunately must tend to the things that will likely fall by the wayside in about 11 days.

God, I can't wait.