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

It's September, and I think the Yankees are realizing that if they want to repeat the title, they can't wait for the 2009 magic to fall in their laps. If last year's championship was Derek Jeter, this year's will have to be GGBG.

No mystique. Just grit.

That's how they played yesterday.

To be sure, mystique certainly could help in the upcoming month, when they play TB 7 times, Boston 6 times, and Texas and Toronto a few times in between.

The J's are a pain in the neck, and I feel like they walk around puffing their chests out way more than their record allows them to.

Snider put them on the board first, and YOU KNOW they were just thinking, heh heh stupid Yankees. They can't beat our slugging. No match for our long ball!

But their lead was very short lived.

In the bottom of the 1st, Tex doubled in GGBG, and Cano grounded out to score Grandy. 2-1.

Yanks to J's: "Yeah, we're just getting started, bitches."

In the bottom of the 2nd, Grandy doubles in Kearns and GGBG, and in the 3rd Not Quite Arod singles in Jorge.

Text from my buddy: "It's over. 4-1. Yankees got this."

Then the Js get a little hope. Sort of. In the 4th, ribbies from Hill and Macdonald make it 5-3.

"Ok, I guess it's not over."

Here's the thing. It became a question of, what's worth more? What's stronger? What will ultimately prevail in a battle of long ball vs small ball?

And did you ever think the Yankees would be in the SMALL BALL corner? Seriously.

I didn't. But I'm into it.

GGBG triples to score Eduardo "Who?" Nunez. Good God, GGBG is f'n lightening on the base paths. Unreal. I asked my buddy, "at their primes, who wins in a race of Reyes, Pierre, and GGBG?"

Still no verdict on that one, but it's reallllly hard to say anyone other than our boy Bret. Especially when he makes a garden variety single into a triple...and not only that but makes it to third so quickly that he basically has time to balance his checkbook and establish democracy in a 3rd world country before the ball is even back in the infield.

(I should note the following text from NFL Draft Guru Ross..."If you write about today's Yankee game, you MUST include something about Gardner's pants. When he slid into home, I swear they looked like shorts! His knees were exposed and I think Jeter was busting his balls about it in the dugout. Hysterical." HA! Awesome. Well played, Ross. Well played. You too, GGBG.)

The game was, for all "intensive purposes," over by the end of the 6th. After Grandy doubled in another run to make the game 7-3, the Yanks had sufficiently subdued the J's. A defeat which was both pragmatic and symbolic. They knocked out mini-star Morrow after 3 innings. I gotta give the guy some credit though. He did have a great year, and hey the Yanks are the Yanks.

(It's like that scene in Mean Girls when Regina can't fit into anything at the 0-2-4 dress store. So the sales woman says, "Maybe you should try Sears." Sorry, Morrow. Try the NL.)

"I think I exceeded a lot of expectations and I think I had a great year," Morrow said. "Kind of a transition year and I was looking to establish myself. After May, I think I had a great year and I could compete with anybody in the league. Before that, it was a lot of learning."

Meh. I guess.

In terms of OUR pitching, Supernova was pulled in the 5th and didn't get the win. I still can't decide how good this guy really is. Is he, in fact, Super? Or is he just smoke and mirrors? Honestly, my gut says the latter. But the reality is that perception IS reality.

So if they can't hit him, I don't care what the reason is. I just care that he keeps it up.

Four Yankees relievers combined for 4 1/3 hitless innings. Mo worked a perfect 9th. The other day, I heard one of the greatest things ever: "No matter what's going on in my life, no matter how bad things seem, when I see Mo come into the game, it's like a sign from God. Everything is going to be ok."

Man, truer words were NEVER spoken. Beautiful.

Tampa won last night too, so the Yanks keep their division lead. But really, all of this is just fodder. Filler. Because you know the season is going to be determined in the next month. No question. 7 games against TB. 6 against the Sux.

It's going to be exciting.

It's also going to make me insane.

I went to a psychic the other day. I always wanted to try that. She had no information on what I really wanted to know, which was how the Yankees were going to fare in the postseason. Nor could she provide information on the Giants 2010-11 season.

But she did tell me that I was going to have 2-3 children and that because of my high stress levels, they risk being unhealthy.

Well, that sucks.

Basically she's saying that I need to stop acting like a freebasing looney tune around the Fall Classic or my offspring is going to in turn be walking time bombs of high blood pressure.

This is something I will worry about in November.

Right now, I can't think any further than the last month of the regular season.

The anticipation is palpable.

Palpable, dangerous, and unassailably amazing.