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

I don't usually combine posts, but the Yanks usually don't play double headers with their old timers, so I'm applying a little latitude to my self-imposed stringency. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Also, well, I had another weekend of battling wild fatigue. And this time I can't blame west coast games! Maybe I'm just plain old run down? Who knows. I just know that despite the fact I slept for about 6 straight hours at the beach yesterday, I still spent today about as sharp as a chewed up stick of Fruit Stripe gum.

So during those 6 hours on the beach, I was listening to the game but admittedly falling in and out of sleep. I know this because the guy on the beach chair nearby woke me up to remind me to flip. Which was hysterical because he wasn't waking me up to tell me to put sunblock on, but waking me up to tell me my tan is going to be uneven if I don't start being more strategic about my sleeping.

At this point I notice there's a bevy of messages about how AJ is bad.

I gotta give my friends credit, they all found very creative ways of relaying this message. My favorite being from Nate the NH Sox fan: "Burnett is a Red-Sox-caliber bum, in the vein of Manny Delcarmen."

I'm not really sure what happened here. I was too excited about the pics from the Old Timer's Game anyway, from "Anon."

Can we focus on that part? The Old Timer's Game part? The part that didn't make everyone angry and confused about whether we're supposed to champion AJ or not? Seriously, can he get ANY more f'n confusing? Bowno.



You have to admit that very few clubs are as categorically dedicated to honoring their legacy and history as the Yankees. WHICH IS NOT TO SAY OTHER TEAMS DON'T. But cmon, the Yankees are the Yankees. And I'm just saying that I love how they never forget that.

And my buddy Anon at the game...well, even though the Yanks lost, his interpretation of THAT GUY who invariably ends up sitting next to you (only when the Yankees lose, I've noticed) made me laugh out loud a lot. Honestly, I don't know if it's "every time this guy sits next to me the Yanks lose" or if it's "Every time the Yanks lose, this guy happens to be sitting next to me." I'm still ironing out the details, but for now, enjoy this very telegraphic documentation of this phenomenon.

Well played, Anon. Well f'n played.

The Yanks were laying the groundwork for what could have been a most unexpected and glorious comeback on this emotional afternoon, and while part of me was thinking, "Okay...okay...this makes sense. They're just getting ready to blow everyone's minds in front of their All Star vets."

I wonder if the Yanks sort of feel the same way I do when my dad would come to my softball games. Like a desperate need to have the game of my life in front of who I considered the greatest athlete to ever live. Of course dads love you no matter how you play, and Goose/Mattingly/Cone et al are just happy to be there, probably not happy to be considered old though, but whatever.

And I wonder if the Yanks were embarrassed to lose in front of them.

They shouldn't be.

Though they should be about letting Pena take 'em deep.

And about that time was when I started thinking the Yanks weren't going to make a comeback.

The chipping away at the deficit is par for the course, but usually so is derailing Tampa in the late innings.

So the Yanks lose 10-5, and it stinks.

Also sucks that AJ pulled a Kevin Brown and hurt his hands while slamming shit in frustration. Hey, we've all been there. But the difference, AJ, between me and you, is that I can kick a tv stand and break my toes because I don't have to play sports the next day and get paid for it.

YOU DO.

But I still like him for some reason. Even though he originally lied about where he got the cuts he came clean. "I was embarrassed of the whole situation and that's why once I calmed down I realized that, I'm an honest person so I don't need to make up a lie to hide something."

He's a hot head and he was sheepish and I like him. I'm not giving up hope on him.

And he seemed to go wayyyy beyond the call of duty in terms of apologizing to everyone. He was waiting in Girardi's office after the game, apologized to his team on Sunday, expressed the utmost remorse. I don't know. It's like how when someone screws up, the impact of their screw up is in direct proportion to their desire to make amends for it.

If someone spills a giant cup of coffee on me in the subway and starts apologizing profusely, offering to pay for dry cleaning, etc, I'm going to be more concerned about assuring them it's not a big deal and not to worry about it.

If someone spills half a cup of water on me and then looks at me like I shouldn't have gotten in the way of their splashing cup in the first place, I'm going to be out for blood and convinced that my shirt will never be able to be worn again.

Anyways, so there's that. Also, poor Yogi Berra had his own problems to worry about. He was absent from OTG because he slipped and fell at home.

And then there's Sunday's game. Chan Ho Park listed as the WP is just bizarre beyond the telling of it.

But then again, so is the fact our bullpen was the brilliant high point of the game.

The lowpoint? ANDY GETTING HURT.

What's with all this pulled groin stuff? Out at least a month. Argghhh. Mitre comes in to take his place. I guess when you think about it, the Yankee DL must be a pretty nice facility (I'm imagining it's an actual place rather than an intangible position), since most of our DL participants have come back pretty strong.

Arod, Grandy, Thames... they've been ok. So HOPEFULLY, Pettitte will be ok. We'll lose him for a month, and then he'll come back stronger than ever. (As I was leaving the bar tonight, my buddy Will says, "Hm. Maybe we couldn't used Cliff Lee after all." Which cracked me up, since all us Yankee fans were saying, "Bah! Where would we even put him!")

After a horrendous softball outing, I caught the 2nd half of the game and was thoroughly encouraged by the bullpen support. Thank God. For the last 2 games, our starters have been pulled before the 3rd inning, which only further adds credence to the idea that maybe there should just be PITCHERS, no specialties. And those pitchers pitch 3 innings a game.

Less possibility to get hurt, and less need for 100 semi-effective relievers.

And if takes you more than 3 innings to get going, well then you're just not a very good pitcher to begin with.

"It was a great job by the bullpen, especially after yesterday. You couldn't pick a worse day for me to go down," Pettitte said.

That doesn't make ANY sense, Andy. You could pick a worse day, absolutely. Barring the fact you could've picked the deciding game of the World Series to go down, you could've picked a day when the bullpen was completely INeffective, hence mandating the need for a longer, stronger outing.

All things considered, you picked a fine day to go down, when the bullpen was doing great. I'd prefer if you didn't rely on them in the future, though, since no one else does.

Chan Ho Park pitched 1 and a third hitless innings, and Mo used 1 pitch to get out of the 9th. The offense teed off on little superstar David Price. Cano had a triple, Posada a double, and Arod hit his 598th ding. Here we go. The elusive last 2 hrs before a milestone.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that he'll get both of them in a day game.

And our next 3 series are against the worst pitching teams in the AL, outside of the O's.

So concludes a winning series against an important team to have a winning series against. The Sox lost today, cancelling out their win yesterday. I continue to loathe them, in other news.

A girl at the bar tonight contended that I "secretly probably want to be a Red Sox fan." Fortunately, Will interceded. "I don't think you know what you're saying..."

The Yanks are off Monday then face the Halos for a 2-game set. In the rest of the league...the Cubs terrorize Halladay, so things were confusing. Lester and Halladay with losses? Jenks? Maybe the 2nd half of the season isn't going to be the Narnia-like matrix of pitching brilliance that punctuated the 1st half.

I mean, Chan Ho got a win. Nothing makes sense anymore.