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

My best buddy and frequent MVP-er Kev texted me that last night. The Yanks have won every game he's been at this year. I think he was something like 4-0. Until last night, that is.

"!!! Kevoff, I'm counting on you..." --CYC

Sigh.

The night started out so promising, too. I left work at 7pm. Was home by 7:30, with chicken hot dogs and buns in hand. Cherry coke. Powdered donuts. Life was good.

The Giants were playing the Jets.

The stars were aligning.

Everything happens for a reason.

And then...not so much.

The Yanks fell behind 2-0 early. The Tiggers are such a freaking pain in the ass. And you know who else is a jerk? The YES network for inexplicably treating its viewers to a shot of Damon going yard in game 7 of the ALCS in 2004.

WHO WANTS TO SEE THAT? NO ONE. NO ONE, I TELL YA. NO. ONE.

Grumble grumble.

So that wasn't so much good as it was aggravating.

Vasquez wasn't as sharp as one would have hoped. And Yankee fans weren't as forgiving as one would like them to be.

Well, I don't know. People may disagree with me on this one, but I really feel like he was getting crucified way earlier than necessary.

Granted, every single I time I flipped from the Jets/Gmen game to the Yank game, there were about 2938 men on base.

But c'mon, Yankee Stadium. Give the guy a little bit of a break. Personally, I am like the King of Unforgiving Nature. Once I decide I have it in for someone, that's it. End of story. There's almost nothing said person can do to get back in my good graces. And I'll admit, this isn't always fair or rational.

But I DO try to be somewhat objective.

I mean, I can still hate a person but give them credit when it's due. That's fair.

And I think with Javy, everyone is so ready to throw him under the bus, that we seem to be really overreacting here. Which, in all likelihood, stems from an understandable frustration over this listless, to be sure, state of affairs, our beloved Yanks seem to be in.

JESUS, PICK UP THE PACE, BOYS.

The Yanks had another error today, and perhaps we can blame Kay for this one. (Why not.) A few days ago, he's going on about how Jeter is going on his 51st error free game. Then the Yanks have 3 in one game. Then another one today.

Lifeless hitting is one thing. Errors are unforgivable in my book. I'm not kidding.

There's no greater indication of thoughtlessness, and a complete disregard for focus and effort than committing an error. I have practically a zero tolerance for them.

So you can boo Javy as much as you want, but really he only let in 2 runs. And the Tiggers actually left 12 men on base. So, yes, while he DID put men on every half a second, he managed to get out of it, no thanks to the rampant lack of support from the Bronx crowd.

Both teams took an absurd amount of pitches, considering it was a 3-1 game, in 9 innings. A combined 381 on the day. And a combined 13 BBs. Ridiculous.

Also a combined 13 hits.

Score 1-3.

I'm seeing a pattern.

Unlucky 13?

Let's see what our boy Arod did today...

Eh, nada.

Which is hardly significant since that pretty much mirrors what the rest of the team did, with the exception of Grandy, who went 3 for 3.

So this game was terrible. Kevoff's streak was broken. What should have been a nice night of hot dogs and Cherry Coke and Yankee winning, ended up being a night of me passing out on the couch, waking up with powdered sugar all over my face (Mariano Rivera licking it off, the weirdo), and a disappointing relinquishing of the 1st place spot.

The Rays aren't even SURGING.

They're coming into the top spot by virtue of the fact the Yanks are GIVING IT AWAY.

Ugh.

And while booing Javy isn't something I condone, the guillotine, on the other hand, is something I can start to get on board with.

Use your heads, Bombers. Those are those lumps 3 feet above your asses!

At least the Gmen won.

Not without bloodshed.

But semantics.