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

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE YANKEES ON…the wild card. Woo!

So I’m hearing a lot of “Yeah, we don’t want to face Cliff Lee anyway!” but truth be told, I REALLY wanted the division. I wanted to show we weren’t gonna settle for anything. Also, I hate the Wild Card as a rule. Also, I WANTED HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE.

A lot.

But, you know what. We got the Wild Card, and we’re gonna embrace it, and we’re gonna embarrass the Twinkies in their new digs.

And the Red Sox, despite beating us up this weekend by virtue of the sheer endurance of it all, are going home. They’re doing nothing. See ya.

On Saturday Game #1, the Fox booth notes, “So this isn’t exactly what these 2 teams had in mind at the beginning of the season.” (What the “two teams had in mind” or what the Fox tv programmers had in mind?)

“Well the Yankees don’t really mind, but the Sox were kind of hoping for some dramatic head to head winner-take-all kind of weekend. But instead, they’re just going home.”

Yup. Just go home. You heard ‘em, Boston. Tell your story walking, as my dad would say.

After the game delay was drawn out for almost 4 hours on Friday night, it finally gets rescheduled for 9 on Saturday, which is so ridiculous for so many reasons. First of all, who in God’s name thought the game was actually going to end within a 4 hour time frame?

My sister was over on Saturday (I know, something new and different) and in the 9th inning I said, “Oh wow, it’s the 9th inning and it’s tied, and I didn’t even realize.”

“That’s because every Yankee fan knows the game never ends in the 9th. It’s like we’re conditioned to know the game is going well beyond the normal time constraints. Hey, FREE BASEBALL!”

“Yeah…but I mean, this is just game 1…we got another one tonight, and then tomorrow at 1:00.”

“Oh God, you’re right. There’s still like another 15 innings left of baseball today alone.”

Yep.

And that’s how it went.

We won game Game 1 in the 10th. We lost game two in similar fashion. I mean, 6 errors between the 2 teams? As my sis noted in text: “I guess they’re all pretty sleepy snoozer!”

Well, that. And also, our bullpen is contractually obligated to ensure the games go as long as humanly possible. So although the Yanks were up 6-4 and it looked pretty promising…nothing about the game ever made me feel like we had a good chance to take the W.

But I mean, cmon. Our pen was depleted. We had to be uber-conservative in who we pitched, and that amounted to runs being walked in, and scores getting tied up. I guess you can’t be too upset about it, even though the Rays won 7-0.

But Sunday’s game? Kind of disgusted me. (Until I found out the Rays ended up winning in 12.) I was watching when the Rays were losing 2-0, and I’m thinking, “This absolutely wouldn’t bother me if they Ray would just win.” But they were losing. They were rolling over and dying, and the Yanks were letting them take the division title anyway.

But the Rays ended up winning. So even if the Yanks won, it would’ve been for naught anyway. (Speaking of Rays, since they knew they were gonna win the division the second the Yanks lost, why did they go through all the trouble of winning the 12-inning marathon game with the Royals of all people. See that’s the point when you throw your David Carrs into the game. Surprised you and all your intellect didn’t know that, Maddon.

Even though they squeezed out a win today, the Rays rolled over and died this past week. (Sort of um like the Yanks did. I guess.)

And the Yanks never capitalized.

Today they gave up leads, as they are want to do, and ended up spending the last regular season game losing 8-4 to the Red Sux at Fenway.

“Who the hell is pitching for the Yanks?” I asked my buddy.

“Doba Moseley.”

FANTASTIC work. Doba? Brilliant. Pure gold. Nice work there, 88. Nice f’n work.

So here’s where we netted out after this weekend.

THE WILD CARD.

And on Wednesday it begins. Get ready, Minnesota.

The Champs are rolling into town.

28 is 11 wins away now.

Let’s get it started.