Wow that's an ominous sky, Al. Will there be baseball tonight?

I just hope we can go 8-2 over the next 10 and extend the lead a bit. Its gonna be tough. But I'm loving Ivan Nova right now. And color me over-aggressive but I'd love to see Brackman get the call over AJ. Could he really be worse?

Al, quick question - I ordered the Yankee Stadium memories book. Would it be too cornball of me to ask if I could send it to you (with a pre-paid envelope of course) to get it signed once I get it?

As President of the Anti-Manny club, I hereby declare I remain extra happpy Manny did not ever sign with The Yankees.
What a historic douche! I so enjoyed his exile out west and I am glad we missed him Chicago.
Go Mosely!

Brick hot here. 92 @ 7 pm.

Kay, Flaherty, and Tino. Oh my!

Too close for comfort.

Grrrr

booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Anyone else watching on MLB.tv?

Are you getting a WTF? display feed too?

[8] I have YES, and I'm still getting batting practice. The stupid guy on the mound is having trouble throwing strikes to boot. : (

Well, at least it wasn't a GiDP.

Le Sigh.

Ball 4, Robbie!

OW, MY BALLS!!!

Comeback!

RIPPER!

[12] Don't rub it!

STICK!!!

Swish crushed that. Sweet shot.

Swish!

[15] Nanook, is that you???

C'mon Cletus!

Well that's an easy text poll question.

My first inning was spent enjoying the Sterling experience so I am not exactly sure what happened. Should Crisp have caught Swisher's ball and how bad was Swisher's read on the DP?

TEX!!!

RIPPER!!!!

[22] I read Stick's double as clean all the way, though he probably should have stayed on the pop-out.

Ruh roh.

Woof. That was a real home run.

This is going to be a long one, isn't it?

I've multimedia-ed this game to death already. Radio, tv, online.

Anyway, I feel verrrrrry comfortable with a one run lead. I'm sure it will stand up.

Flash won't stand for that colored music.

Pena takes a very tough pitch and comes through!!!!!!!!!

Out of the 3rd basement!

The scrubs have been scrubtastic the last couple days.

I like to think we lit a fire under them.

Man, The Pitcher's Spot has been on fire since that article over at RAB!

Jeter has simply stopped going the other way...

Well, that was hit a little bit harder than some of the others.

It's not just that Jeter is gettting beat, that almost looked lost right there, just trying to put the ball in play and aim it for a hit.

Strange times for the aging Captain.

The playoff structure isn't going to change guys, so knock it off...

Oh dear, Jomerun Javy time ...

You know who I want in a game where a homer loses the lead?

Javy Vazquez.

What luck, to be able to see Javy Vazquez and Dustin Moseley both in one evening! It's like a double header.

I've got tickets for the next two nights ... anyone wanna join me?

Oh boy, Javy? I need a beer now.

Here's to some lucky loud outs and they get out of this thing with the lead intact.

Alex .... check your e-mail

[43] With the stuff Javy's throwing, something's going to be loud...

[45] It might be Mattpat screaming.

Well, *that* counts for something!

Nice play, Cap'n!

Exhale.

Genius move, bringing Javy Vazquez in with two men on. It turns out to be the perfect situation for him to thrive. Joe's psychological genius strikes again!

Instance #45,363 in which I am grateful we don't play on artificial turf

Jeter has the muscle memory!

[29] Colored music? Can you at least say race records?

I predict... Javy takes it to the ninth.

Nice play by the old man.

So, when Alex comes back, Cano is staying in the cleanup spot, right?

Fucking Rob.

Our team does have it's problems, but it's very easy to love some of these guys.

Tex needs the triple to complete the RING. Let's call up Stan Musial for inspiration!

Cahill not so special. Jet lag?

The A's are playing like the Yankees did the first day in Chicago last week.

This here fella bringeth tha cheese ...

[52] I don't think Rob cares one way or the other.

Hey, is anyone else finding that the Banter page is very slow loading?

STICK!!!!!!

[52] Girardi specifically stated ARod goes back to the cleanup spot. Might actually be better to have Robbie protecting ARod.

Swish Dog.

Swish says: cut me a big slice o' that cheese.

Ouch.

Fuck.

Youch!

Ah. Yes, we're familiar with THIS GUY CAN THROW 100MPH guy. We've met him before.

[60] I think "protection" is vastly over-rated.

I'd rather have my best hitter batting 4th.

THEY CALL HIM MR. THAMES!!!

DAG!!!!!!

Holy shit.
Thames. Holy shit. Who knew?

We needed one of these games.

Brian Cashman is much smarter right now than he was a few weeks ago. Marcus Thames raised Brian's IQ by about thirty points over the last few days.
Austin Kearns and Kerry Wood helped a little too.

Only Michael Kay.

Rodrigiuez is getting smacked around, he has no clue where the ball is going, but

HE'S THROWING 100!!!!!!

Who

Gives

A

Shit

We have four games against Oakland, right? So it would be a bonus to screw up their bullpen today.
Good start.

In 150 AB: .320, 10 HR, 28 RBI, .400, .560.
Wow. Definitely a warp in the time space continuum.
(How many word have a double U?)

How many times will Clemens throw himself under the bus?

If Roger admitted that he used steroids, wouldn't that confirm that he perjured himself? What the hell would he gain by admitting it?

[74]

In the Scrabble dictionary, there are 1,212 words of length 3-8 with 2 Us.

By numbers alone, I think our best lineup would be:

Gardner
A-Rod
Swisher
Cano
Teixeira
Thames
Posada
Granderson
Jeter

[74] Only vacuum comes to mind.

Clemens is schmegegge. He'll go down in flames and probably take many with him. A bad stain in the Yankee continuum.

[77] Oooh, you have a searchable Scrabble dictionary? Can I have one?

[79] Well, the correct answer was 1212, but we can also accept 1.
Anyway, you get extra credit for 'schmegegge'. Excellent word.

[80]

its part of a word study program called lexpert

http://poslfit.homeip.net/scrabble/lexpert.zip

Swish Dog looking fine.

[83]

alex ... check your e-mail again

Thanks, Diane. I'm a Mac person. I can borrow my wife's computer to try it out, but I probably won't use it much.

With Clemens in the news, I keep flashing back to that Suzyn moment when they compelled her to tout for the organization on TV, Radio, and to the crowd at OYS that Rog was coming back. Has to be a most painful wincing moment for her (it was for me).

Javy does well in these low pressure moments.

Ol' Jav is looking good tonight. He must be thinking, "No Way, wack ass Dustin Moseley should be starting over ME"

[87] I don't know, in consideration of the expectations and salary, Javy has done more damage than Dustin can ever do. Mosely actually did right himself tonight, and has pitched a couple of great games.

[87] Dustin is probably thinking, "How much does that chump make? And I'm getting what?"

Hey, what's Tino doing in there?

I feel better. It was strange watching Vazquez pitch so damn well.

oooh, javy mad....

However, Javy is going to get the W today. And I guess he deserves it, too.

Oh, no cycle opp for Teix! Oh well.

You know, I'm not one of these people that is going to retroactively hate Clemens for being on the Yanks (not saying anyone here is, I know plenty hated him during the moment). I liked the guy's attitude. Granted, I didn't know at the time that he was inspired in part by burning his balls, but OK.

For instance, I remember the Yanks were scheduled to start a rookie and the rookie pronounced himself too sick to start that day (it was the Cuban "prospect" that followed El Duque, Adrian Hernandez maybe?). Clemens was scheduled to start the next day, but he took the ball that day on three-days rest, pitched sort of ugly, but got the win and gave the team some innings they needed. Anyway, if he did use (and I hate to say it, but he likely did), I only feel sorry for him at this point for not seeing past his own arrogance. Sorry for the long post...

Jeez. 6 K for JV. Gotta give the money-sucking chump credit.

[95] Yeah, I know what you mean.
But he really didn't have to lie to Congress. He could have done what Andy did. Or what A-Rod did. Then it would have blown over.

Still, I know what you mean.

[95] No doubt he was a warrior, and never failed due to mental lapses or panic (insert AJ here), but what an ego-centric schmuck. He makes Schilling look like Albert Schweitzer.

He was the best of his generation, and to prolong the glory he probably used. Didn't need to, and his end game now makes the Yankees look bad, like "If you're not cheating, you're not trying hard enough".

[96] No, he didn't, and it was really stupid. And it's too bad Andy is involved, and the only reason I doubt Clemens is because of Andy.

Hard to believe Javier has 10 wins. I know 2 of them were basically "vultured." (The one out Boston win in relief and tonight.) But still.

[97] his end game now makes the Yankees look bad, like “If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying hard enough”.

How so? The Yankees weren't the only organization that employed "cheaters."

[99] Yes, the Yankees weren't alone, but to many the big bad Yankees cannot accept failure, so the expectations are to win at any cost. We fans, who know the organization don't accept that, and understatnd that the Yankees have always been the pinnacle of baseball (save the late '60's early 70's). You either know and love the Yankees, or hate them, there is no middle ground.