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

This game had all the earmarks of exhausting from the get go. Perhaps the day on a whole did, too. After another long work day, me and my sis go to McDonald's and nervously discuss the ramifications of a small child being present there.

As we walked over, she said, "I honestly don't know what I'll do if there's a screaming kid running around in there." To us, that is the one thing that can push us over the edge when we're teetering on madness. And when we walked in to discover an almost empty McDonald's with no line, we were thrilled.

We place our order. Then a woman who made CC look svelte lards her way over and pitches your basic shit fit, something about how much they charged her for her soda. And she was demanding 78 cents back. She wanted to talk to the manager, etc.

While this was happening, a line develops and Laur and I stand off to the side patiently waiting for our food. The cantankerous blimp has upped her complaint to demanding 1.99 back. Then it was 2.58...

Laur: "Essentially at this point that woman is demanding the manager pay her for eating here."
CYC: "Where is our food?"

The entire crowd of diners had long been served, and as we watched the manager do his best to placate the brontosaurus, it became apparent that he had offered up our food, either as part of a plea bargain to get her out of there, or because her demands had been elevated to include not only cash refunds, but also the burgers and nuggets and fries of other patrons.

I'm not kidding.

A half hour later, we're mainlining our food. Laur decides to go up and get a snack wrap for the road. Except our seemingly simple order is compromised by a couple coming in trying to pay for a coffee with a $100 bill. The manager's called back into the fray. Lengthy discussions ensue. The snack wrap never materializes.

So basically we didn't get our food in the first place because some woman was insisting McDonald's pay her. We didn't get our food for a second time because some woman was insisting McDonald's accept her exorbitant tender.

It was quite a battle for something that should have been relatively painless.

NOT UNLIKE TONIGHT'S GAME.

The first inning alone lasted about as long as a college graduation ceremony, so it seemed appropriate when Kay introduces the Text Poll of the Game.

Was this some kind of portentious challenge? Like, "For those of you who said no, well then you may want to find alternate tv options, because this game ain't what you're looking for."

Back and forth went the score, and it felt like every time I looked up the bases were loaded. In fact, there were 19 walks in the game which is just utterly ridiculous.

Almost ridiculous as the fact my computer screen can't even accomodate all the Yankees used in this game. I have to scroll down to get the whole list.

17 different Yanks. 195 pitches. And just 1 extra inning. Why did this game feel so much arduous than it actually was?

And, ok, I know it went into extras and all, but 195 pitches is a lot. The Yanks were barely moving the bat at all, which was obviously the way to go seeing as the Arizona pitchers were walking people so much, it looked like me playing Nintendo Baseball Stars and deliberately hitting the "Lovely Ladies" team with pitches just so I could see them do their pixelated crying.

1-0
1-2
2-2
2-4
3-4
4-4
4-5
5-5
6-5

Nip and tuck all night, and the heros of the game were Arod (of course, of course) who never actually really got a hit, but still managed to have 2 huge ribbies, the tying ones in the 3rd and 9th. For some reason, after walking him all night, Zona decided to pitch to Arod in the final regular frame, despite the fact Cano had been a complete disaster with RISP for the entire day.

Arod's sac fly tied the game at 5, and you know AJ Hinch is thinking to himself, "WHAT! You can't win! Ya intentionally walk the guy, the next guy's gonna take you deep. You pitch to him, you're still in trouble. YOU try making decisions when faced with this lineup."

Another big ribbie came off the bat of Colin Curtis, who is adorable and I love him. He hit a rocket to first that knocked LaRoche off his feet and scored the tying run in the 6th.

There were a lot of hits to go around tonight, GGBG and Grandy with the lion's share of em. Posada struck out in a huge spot to end the inning, and I'm guessing that's doing nothing to mollify his clearly growing bitterness this season. I love Posada, but the guy's acting a little snippy lately. You know what it's like though?

Like Mighty Ducks 3, when veteran goalie Goldberg is replaced as starter by the new chick Julie the Cat. And Julie's quick and awesome, and Goldberg's really bitter about it. But then he comes in the final game and scores the winning goal as a defenseman. So, similarly, I think while Posada feels slighted now, his big Hero Glory Moment of 2010 is yet to come.

In terms of tonight's pitching...eh. The only truly remarkable thing was Joba's heat. I was literally astounded. 2 nights in a row of throwing 98 mph fastballs. Where the hell did this come from? Seriously. Keep it up, round boy. Whatever you're doing/eating, keep it up.

The other remarkable thing was the fact Mariano Rivera got himself into a bases loaded jam in the bottom of the 10th with no outs. After Grandy's go head solo shot in the top of the inning, I really thought the game was just about neatly wrapped up for us. I mean, Mo was coming in. Game's good as over, yeah?

Yeah, it's Arizona though. And this situation was nothing new for Mo. Yech. Ugh.

The stakes weren't quite as high as a WS game 7, though. And he managed to somehow get out of the inning with a W, instead of the worst loss of his life. So, that was good.

Speaking of blown saves...there's this.

So that's the realllly abbreviated version of the game. Of course, there are many key cogs missing from this recap. But it's 4am, and I haven't slept for more than 3 hours in weeks. I'm hitting a wall and there's only so much Pepsi I can drink before my teeth fall out.

On a final note, I gotta say that the NL--from what I've seen--is really tempermental. Between the Dbacks and the Stros, the players all seem as a whole very irritable. Bat breaking on pop-ups, etc. You guys need to all pump the brakes.

I mean, it's kind of like when chicks get pissed when their favorite celebrity-to-obsess-over-and-drool-upon gets engaged. Did you REALLY think success was a possibility?

Off day tomorrow, then Dodgers this weekend. Cue the media hype. Torre-Yankees reunion is gonna be on par with the Pistons-Pacers post-Malice @ the Palace reunion on Christmas Day.

Maybe YES will even make a cool graphic for it to denote the significance!

Great win tonight, Yanks. You made us all remember that above all else, we are who we are. And for the Yankees, that means a team that rallies. Well played, NY. Well played.