Over at New York magazine, Will Leitch weighs in on the latest Alex Rodriguez circus:

As we watch A-Rod’s tabloid excoriation across our tabloid media this week—He’s having an affair with Madonna! No, it’s only spiritual! He dates strippers and bodybuilders! He’s a bad dad!—it’s worth considering that the breakup that has landed A-Rod in his predicament isn’t necessarily the one with his wife, Cynthia; it’s the one he had with Scott Boras last October.

Over the past sixteen years, Boras was the one constant in A-Rod’s life. A-Rod’s job was simple: Hit baseballs a very long way. Boras, his agent, managed his money, public image, contract negotiations, you name it. Then, when negotiations with the Yankees went haywire, he dumped Boras, and Madonna’s longtime manager, Guy Oseary, was hired to remake A-Rod’s image. Which has happened now, spectacularly.

You can say that again.

Rob Neyer has a fine appreciation of Bobby Murcer’s career today at ESPN:

After playing briefly for the Yankees in 1965 and ’66, Murcer was one of the very few major leaguers drafted into the military during the Vietnam War. Inducted into the army during spring training in 1967, he missed all of that season and the next while serving as a radio operator. Murcer worried that his career was over, but would later tell author Philip Bashe, "What I thought was going to be a horrible experience was really a positive thing for me in the long run. I learned responsibility and, obviously, a little bit of discipline. When I got out I was ready to proceed with my baseball career on a much more mature level."

No kidding. Murcer, who had struggled in the majors before going into the army — understandably, considering that he’d been a 160-pound teenager — got off to a brilliant start in 1969. He homered on Opening Day and drove in three runs. He homered in his next game, too. When Murcer hurt his ankle in late May, he was leading the majors with 43 RBIs.

He cooled off after getting back into the lineup, but still led the club with 82 runs and 82 RBIs. Also that season, Murcer finally moved into Mantle’s old spot in center field. Murcer, like Mantle, had been a shortstop in the minors, and he’d stuck there during his first stints with the Yankees. But in 1969 they moved him to third base, an experiment that lasted five weeks and included 14 errors. He spent the next months in right field, and finally moved to center in late August; the transition was complete, and in 1972 Murcer won a Gold Glove (something Mantle never did).

In 1971, Murcer’s first great season (and his best), he played in his first of five straight All-Star Games. They didn’t all come with the Yankees, though. In 1974, Murcer became the highest-paid Yankee ever — his $120,000 salary topped the $100,000 earned by Joe DiMaggio and Mantle. But Murcer hit only 10 home runs in 1974, and shortly after the season the Yankees traded him to the Giants for Bobby Bonds.

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Andy Says:

"If we want to make the playoffs, we have to be better," said Pettitte, who took the loss Sunday. "We stink right now for the most part. As a team, we’ve kind of stunk it up here lately, so we need to play better."

…"We’ve got to find a way to put it all together for an extended period of time with our pitching and our hitting combined," Pettitte said. "It seems like right now, we’re feast or famine."
(N.Y. Daily News)

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Hustle Buck Tater.

The Blue Jays scored four runs off Andy Pettitte in the second inning yesterday, which was more than enough for Yankee-killer A.J. Burnett. The Yanks got a man as far as second just twice through the first eight innings and didn’t break through until Jason Giambi’s opposite-field solo homer off a tiring Burnett in the ninth inning. Jorge Posada followed Giambi with a single to bounce Burnett, but facing closer B.J. Ryan, Robinson Cano bounced into a double play to give Toronto a 4-1 victory in the game and a 2-1 victory in the series.

The Jays got their breakout inning going when Bobby Abreu completely misjudged a would-by fly out to right into a double. Abreu then spent the rest of the game making up for his blunder, but to no avail. Abreu led off the top of the fourth with a double, but the middle of the Yankee order couldn’t even get him to third base. With men on the corners in the bottom of the fourth inning, Marco Scutaro, whose three-run homer capped the Jay’s four-run second inning, lifted a foul ball to shallow right field. Abreu made an impressive ranging catch, whirled, and fired a strike to Posada to nail Scott Rolen attempting to score for an inning-saving double play. In his next at-bat, Abreu reached on an infield single and got to second on an Alex Rodriguez single, but was again stranded at the keystone.

Abreu was the only Yankee to reach second base all day other than Giambi on his ninth-inning home run. Peter Abraham reports that all but seven of the Yankees 32 plate appearances against Burnett were over within three pitches, four of them being three-pitch strike outs. Scutaro was the third opposing in the last week who failed to get down a bunt and then homered in the same at-bat.

The Yankees enter the break having scored 3.67 runs per game in their last 15 contests and 2.15 runs per game in 13 of those 15 games. They are six games behind the first-place Red Sox in the AL East and 5.5 games behind the second-place Tampa Bay Rays. They’re in fourth place in the Wild Card race behind the Rays, Twins (3 GB), and A’s (1 GB), the last of whom they will face in their first series after the break.

Meanwhile, the Futures Game was played back at the Stadium. For all of the promotion the All-Star Game and associated events have received in the past week or so, the Futures Game seemed to go completely unmentioned. The Tino Martinez-managed World team beat the U.S. squad 3-0. Yankee catching prospect Jesus Montero contributed a single in two at-bats.

With the Yankees offense scuffling, Joe Girardi finally made a meaningful tweak to his lineup yesterday, dropping struggling rookie leadoff man Brett Gardner to ninth in the order and moving everyone else up a spot. That meant Derek Jeter, who has hit a Jeter-esque .311/.385/.444 since June 1, leading off, Bobby Abreu batting second, Alex Rodriguez batting third, etcetera. His team responded by scoring nine-runs in the first four innings of the game, kick started by Jeter’s leadoff home run on the second pitch of the game. Tucked away at the bottom of the order, Gardner reached base four times in four trips, with a pair of singles, a pair of walks, a pair of runs scored, and three RBIs.

It worked so well, he’s doing it again today, though with Jorge Posada catching, Jason Giambi playing first base, and Wilson Betemit slipping into the eighth spot in place of yesterday’s catcher, Chad Moeller.

That lineup will look to give the Yankees a series victory heading into the All-Star break with a win against A.J. Burnett in today’s rubber game. Burnett is something of a Yankee killer. He beat them back on April 2, his only start against the Bombers this season, and is the only Blue Jay pitcher other than Roy Halladay to have defeated the Yankees this year. In fact, the only time the Yankees have beaten Burnett since he joined the Blue Jays came in September 2006.

The good news is that Burnett enters today’s game with a 6.91 ERA in last seven starts, has allowed 15 runs (13 earned) in his last two starts, and is pitching on three-day’s rest for just the third time in his career. He’ll face Andy Pettitte, who has a 1.82 ERA in last six starts (5-1) and is coming off eight shutout innings against Rays in which he looked absolutely dominant, allowing just four hits, three of them singles, and walking none.

The Yankees 9-4 win over the Blue Jays this afternoon, which featured Derek Jeter’s 200th career home run as well as Alex Rodriguez’s 537th career bomb (moving him past Mickey Mantle on the all-time list), was overshadowed by the news that Bobby Murcer has passed away.

Murcer was a solid star player for the Yankees during the late 60s and early 70s–good but never truly great–and later, a friendly voice in the broadcast booth. Murcer knocked a game-winning, pinch-hit homer over the right center field wall against the Orioles in September of 1981. I was at that game with my dad and my brother. I’ll never forget watching two drunk guys sitting down the row from us in the upper deck, chanting "Bob-by, Bob-by!" and then all hell breaking loose when Murcer hit the dinger.

George Carlin, now Bobby Murcer. It certainly hits a lot closer to home when you grew up watching and then listening to a guy. Sixty-two is too young, man.  At least he’s not in pain anymore.  Let’s hope he’s at peace.  I know it’s the natural order of things and all, but, good goosh, we’ve been talking an awful lot about death lately.

Time for a win.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees.

Yes, the Yankee offense has been less than inspired of late, but there ain’t much that even the best hitting teams can do when they face a buzz saw like Doc Halladay. The Blue Jays’ ace delivered a vintage performance on Friday night, throwing a complete-game, two-hit, shutout against the Yanks. Jays 5, Yanks zip. Joba Chamberlain pitched well, giving up three runs in 6.2 innings, striking out nine without a walk. Just one of those nights.

Rufus Ratus Johnson Brown, whatta ya gunna do when the rent comes round?

When Dustin McGowan hit the DL, the Yankees thought they were going to get through their final series of the first half without having to face any of the Blue Jays’ best pitchers, but now the Jays have Roy Halladay going tonight and A.J. Burnett going on Sunday. That’s not going to help the Yankees break out of their offensive funk. The Yankees have gone 4-2 against Toronto thus far this season, but their two losses came against Halladay and Burnett and saw the Yankees score a total of 5 runs.

The good news is that the Yanks have Joba Chamberlain and Andy Pettitte opposing those two. Pettitte, who faces Burnett on Sunday, has a 1.82 ERA and a 5-1 record over his last six starts, which includes his stinker against the Red Sox. Since pushing his pitch counts into the 80s with his start against the Astros, Chamberlain, who starts against Halladay tonight, has a 2.22 ERA with 29 Ks in 28 1/3 innings over five starts. The Yankees are 4-1 in those games, though Joba has gotten the decision just once due to the offense’s struggles.

Chamberlain’s only weakness since becoming a starter has been the base on balls, as he has a 5.08 BB/9 over those five starts and has thus only made it past the sixth inning once. That trend started with his first major league start, which came against the Blue Jays at the Stadium and saw the Toronto hitters exploit his pitch limit by taking an inordinate number of pitches. It will be interesting to see if the Jays’ approach differs tonight now that Joba’s no longer on an artificially-low pitch count.

As for Halladay, he’s 1-1 with a 3.46 ERA in two starts against the Yankees this season. He was out-dueled by Chien-Ming Wang on the rain-delayed Opening Day Night, and was the beneficiary of the Jay’s approach against Chamberlain in the start described above. Tonight could be the first of many unencumbered duels between these two AL East aces.

Jorge Posada is finally back behind the plate, as Jason Giambi returns to the lineup as the DH in the American League park, Wilson Betemit slips into Jose Molina’s spot in the lineup at first base, and Brett Gardner returns to the leadoff spot and left field.

If the Yanks can pull out two of three this weekend, it should give the team a boost heading into the break, even if they have to do it with pitching rather than hitting. The Jays have the third-worst offense in the AL and just lost Vernon Wells to the DL with a hamstring strain, so the opportunity is there, but the pressure is on Joba and Andy get it done.

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As I’ve watched the Yankees throughout the first half of 2008, I’ve come to the conclusion that they could use someone like Cliff Johnson. Of course, Cliff is 60 years old now, and probably not in condition to bend his knees behind the plate or swing a bat in anger. In actuality, I’m referring to the Cliff Johnson of roughly 30 years ago, when he gave the Yankees the kind of right-handed hitting and bench strength that this year’s Yankees so badly require.

For much of the 1970s, the Yankees tried to acquire some extra right-handed hitting. In 1973, they purchased Jim Ray Hart, who lasted only a calendar year as a platoon DH before it became obvious that he was washed up, in part because of his problems with drinking. After the season, the Bombers acquired switch-hitting Bill “Suds” Sudakis from the Texas Rangers. Sudakis succeeded in one thing—making headlines when he brawled with Sweet Lou Piniella during a road trip in Milwaukee. In the spring of 1974, the Yankees acquired Walt “No Neck” Williams as part of a larger deal with the White Sox. Williams made a splash, but mostly because of his unusual head-and-shoulders appearance. Later that season, the Yankees made a last-minute deal for Alex Johnson, followed by a December transaction that brought in Bob Oliver from Baltimore. Both players had once been highly productive; both players failed to last a full season at Shea Stadium.

In the spring of 1976, the Yankees gave Tommy Davis, one of my favorites, a look-see. He never made it into a game, released on the eve of Opening Day. Then came another favorite, Cesar Tovar, who was also one of Yankee manager Billy Martin’s preferred pets. Tovar could play anywhere, but unfortunately couldn’t hit anything—at least not any more. After the season, the Yankees appeared to have hit the jackpot with the perennially underrated Jimmy Wynn. But “The Toy Cannon” had little fodder remaining; he batted .143 in 77 at-bats and received the boot.

Still searching for a right-handed role-playing bat in 1977, the Yankees then pulled the trigger on a deal just before the June 15^th deadline. General manager Gabe Paul sent three extraneous minor leaguers—first baseman Dave Bergman, infielder Mike Fischlin, and lefty Randy Niemann—to the Houston Astros. In exchange, the Yankees received what they desperately needed on two different counts—a right-handed bat and a backup catcher. Cliff Johnson had finally come to town.

Coming to bat 142 times for the ’77 Yankees, Johnson provided exactly what Martin and Gabe Paul wanted. Heathcliff batted .296 with 12 home runs; more significantly, he slugged .606 and compiled a .405 on-base percentage. When the opponent threw a left-hander at the Yankees, Martin rightly found a place for Johnson in the lineup. Granted, Johnson wasn’t much of a catcher—at six-four and 240 pounds, he was clumsy and owned hands of stone—but he could play the position in short doses. He could also fill in at first base and the outfield corners (though he never did play in left or right field during his Yankee days). Most critically, Johnson could hit—swinging the bat better than any backup catcher the Yankees had featured since the salad days of Johnny Blanchard.

Johnson became an important part of the Yankees’ second-half surge that summer. He also devoured the Kansas City Royals’ pitching staff in the ALCS. In 16 at-bats, Johnson delivered six hits, swatted one home run, and slugged .733, helping the Yankees clinched the American League pennant in a wild five-game series. As far as June 15^th trade deadline deals were concerned, Johnson had become one of the best mid-season acquisitions in Yankee history.

The 1977 season turned out to be the peak of Johnson’s career in pinstripes. In 1978, the bottom fell out of his game. Losing his stroke in his continuing role as a spare part, Johnson batted .184 with only six home runs in 174 at-bats. He became a nonentity in the postseason, going hitless in three at-bats against the Royals and Los Angeles Dodgers. The following spring, Johnson became a liability in the clubhouse. In late April, he took offense at some playful ribbing from Goose Gossage and gave the Yankees’ relief ace a slap of his hand. That led to a full-scale wrestling match—and a tumble into the bathroom toilet stalls. Johnson escaped unharmed, but the Goose endured a torn ligament in his pitching thumb. He would miss the next three months of the 1979 season, which turned into a lost journey for the Yankees.

With that one incident, Johnson signed his Yankee death notice. Within two months, he was gone—shipped off to the Cleveland Indians in a bad deadline deal for a mediocre left-hander named Don Hood. (Hood was better than Billy Traber, though. Hood could have helped the 2008 Yankees, too.) Johnson would eventually resuscitate his career as a power-hitting DH and occasional catcher, and would later become a highly effective pinch-hitter for the Toronto Blue Jays, but his days as a Yankee had come to an ungracious end.

I wish it had turned out different for Johnson. I’ve always liked journeyman ballplayers who aren’t stars, but are still useful players—just like Johnson was. I remember how Phil Rizzuto used to playfully refer to him as “Heathcliff.” That wasn’t his real first name (it’s Clifford), just a clever-sounding nickname. Others called him “Topcat,” for reasons that remain a mystery to me to this day. Not surprisingly, Gossage described Johnson as a “lazy and worthless piece of crap” in his 2000 autobiography, ripping into Johnson for his tendency toward “moping around,” around the bullpen, where he allegedly refused to warm up pitchers from time to time. I read those descriptions with some sadness, mostly because they didn’t jell with the image I had of Johnson as a mammoth man who spoke softly but carried a big bat—literally.

Come back, Cliff Johnson. We could use someone like you in 2008.

Bruce Markusen writes “Cooperstown Confidential” for MLBlogs at MLB.com.

In a post-script to my wrap-up of Wednesday afternoon’s walk-off win against the Tampa Bay Rays, I expressed concern about the Yankees’ continued lack of offense, even through their recent four-game winning streak:

While the Yankees have won four games in a row, they have only averaged 3.5 runs scored over those four games and 3.63 runs per game over their last 11 contests. Setting aside their 18-run outburst against the Rangers a week ago, they’ve averaged 2.4 runs per game in ten of their last 11 games. Take out their two game-winning runs in extra innings, and they’ve scored just 2.2 runs per game during regulation in those ten games.

All of those numbers have gone down as a result of another weak showing last night, this one against Paul Maholm and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Bucs got on the board first when ninth-place hitter Jack Wilson led of the third inning by doubling off Mike Mussina and was later plated by a Freddy Sanchez single. Mussina would later single himself with two outs in the fifth inning and be moved to second by a Derek Jeter single before being stranded by a Bobby Abreu strikeout. Moose’s four-year-old son told him he’d hit better if he cuffed his pants high, and Mussina obliged on both accounts, but as always seems to be the case, the inning after the pitcher ran the bases, he gave up another run, though this one was hardly his fault.

In the bottom of the fifth, Wilson again led off with a hit. Nate McLouth then hit a double-play ball to second, but Derek Jeter’s relay throw tailed down and up the line, tipping off first baseman Jorge Posada’s outstretched glove to allow McLouth to reach safely. Posada was playing first in order to get his bat in the lineup against a lefty in a National League park (he went 1 for 4) while also allowing Mussina to pitch to his personal catcher, Jose Molina (Mussina allowed two runs in six innings). Posada didn’t make the most impressive stretch for the ball, which a more experienced infielder likely would have come up with. Still, a better throw from Jeter, who was in no way threatened by the charging baserunner, would have avoided that problem. Two pitches later, McLouth stole second and moved to third when Jose Molina’s throw skipped into center field. On the next pitch, Freddy Sanchez lifted a sac fly to give the Pirates a 2-0 lead.

The Yankees, meanwhile, had nothing going against Maholm. Derek Jeter led off the game with a single and the Yankees had men on the corners with two outs in the first, but Robinson Cano struck out on four pitches. Bobby Abreu walked and stole second with two outs in the third, but Alex Rodriguez flew out to strand him. Mussina and Jeter singled with two outs in the fifth, but Abreu struck out on three pitches.

That was it until the Yankees finally broke through, again with two outs, in the seventh. Justin Christian and pinch-hitter Wilson Betemit singled. Derek Jeter took a 2-2 pitch off the left foot to load the bases, and Wednesday’s hero Bobby Abreu tied the game with a single to right that plated Christian and Betemit. Alex Rodriguez ground out to end the inning, but the two-out rally seemed to signal a shift in the game.

Jose Veras shifted it back with just six pitches. Again Jack Wilson led off the inning by reaching base, this time walking on five pitches (though ball four looked like strike two). Nate McLouth followed by bunting a ball foul and then, like Carlos Peña the day before, crushing a home run to right field on a pitch in on his hands.

Christian drew a full-count walk against Pirates closer Damaso Marte in the ninth to bring Jason Giambi to the plate representing the tying run, but Giambi flew out at the end of a strong seven-pitch battle and Derek Jeter grounded out weakly to end the game and give the Pirates both a 4-2 win and a 2-1 series victory.

Tonight, the Yankees face Roy Halladay. Here’s hoping Joba Chamberlain has no-hit stuff. He may need it.

Pity the poor Pirates. A year ago it appeared that the Bucs were building a strong young rotation with Tom Gorzelanny and Ian Snell on top and Zach Duke and Paul Maholm in the middle. They then overhauled their management both in the front office and on the field in the hope of building around that quartet of young starters. This season, their offense has surged to become the fourth-best attack in the NL thanks to a career year from Xavier Nady (.321/.379/.537), breakout seasons from 27-year-old catcher Ryan Doumit (.318/.362/.568) and 26-year-old All-Star center fielder Nate McLouth (.286/.361/.540), and Jason Bay’s rebound from a 2007 season hampered by leg injuries. More recently, first baseman Adam LaRoche, a second-half performer to rival Robinson Cano, has joined in, hitting .365/.455/.662 since mid-June.

The problem is that their good young rotation has gone belly-up. Gorzellany lost his ability to throw strikes (6.26 BB/9 vs. 5.34 K/9) and has been sent back to the minors for reeducation sporting a 6.57 ERA, and Snell has been only mildly better (5.84 ERA, 5.34 BB/9, 6.55 K/9). That has more than erased the improvements made by Duke and tonight’s starter Maholm, and undermined the strong showing of both the offense and the back of the bullpen (which itself has been hurt by the recent injury to closer Matt Capps). Altogether, the Pirates pitching staff has the worst ERA in baseball.

Worse yet, of those breakout performers on offense, all but Bay stand a good chance to regress to their past level of performance as McLouth is the youngest of the quartet at 26. Just look at Freddy Sanchez, who won the batting title at age 28 in 2005 and is hitting .226/.253/.307 thus far this year. Oh, and Bay will be a free agent after the 2009 season.

So despite the new administration’s willingness to think outside of the box (witness rookie manager John Russell using Doug Mientkiewicz as a four-corners utility man and becoming the third NL Central manager to bat his pitcher eighth), any hope for a meaningful improvement in Pittsburgh has once again receded into the future.

Tonight’s game makes up for one rained out exactly two weeks ago after the Yanks and Bucs split the first two games of a three-game set and, neatly, rematches the two pitchers who started the game that was rained out with the Yankees leading 3-1 in the third inning. Having had that outing erased from his ledger, Paul Maholm has posted a 2.57 ERA in his last four starts and a 2.74 mark over his last seven, and hasn’t taken a loss since May 20. Mike Mussina is coming off his six crucial shutout innings against the Red Sox and has a 2.70 ERA in his last six starts with 30 Ks against just six walks and three homers in that span.

Jose Molina, who starts his sixth straight game behind the plate, continues his personal catching duties for Mike Mussina. Righty-hitting Justin Christian starts in left field over lefty Brett Gardner against the lefty Maholm. Christian bats eighth with the entire order shifting up a spot and Derek Jeter leading off. With no DH, Jorge Posada starts at first base with Jason Giambi looming as a late-game pinch-hitting option.

For what it’s worth, the Yankees outscored the Pirates 15-12 in the first two games of this broken three-game series, with the Pirates scoring all of their runs in Game One.

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Allen Barra pens the Voice cover story this week on New York’s two new baseball Stadiums.   

 Steven Goldman+Josh Gibson+Yankee Stadium= Good Banter.

Mariano Rivera: 42.3 innings, 4 walks, 50 strikeouts, 1.06 ERA.

‘Nuff Said. 

On “Support The ‘Stache” day at Yankee Stadium, Jason Giambi got the Yankees on the board in the bottom of the first with a two-out single that plated Derek Jeter from second base. Sidney Ponson then miraculously made that run hold up for five innings by stranding six baserunners (including three in the third inning) and erasing two others via a first-inning double-play and a caught stealing by Jose Molina, which ended the fifth.

Carlos Peña led of the sixth inning by trying to bunt his way on base, but his attempt rolled foul. Three pitches later, he launched a Ponson pitch into the bleachers in right center to tie the game at 1-1.

And so it remained, through a pair of perfect innings by Jose Veras and Kyle Farnsworth. In the seventh, Melky Cabrera led off with a single and was bunted to second by Jose Molina, but J.P. Howell relieved Edwin Jackson and struck out Brett Gardner and Derek Jeter to strand Cabrera. Mariano Rivera worked around a one-out walk in the ninth. In the bottom of the ninth, DH Jorge Posada led off with a walk and was pinch-run for by Justin Christian, who was then bunted to second by Robinson Cano. After Grant Balfour came on in relief of Howell, Christian stole third base, but Howell struck out Melky and got Molina to pop out to force extra innings.

Mo was perfect in the top of the tenth, and with one out in the bottom of the inning, Jeter worked an eight-pitch walk against Balfour. Bobby Abreu then fouled off four straight fastballs from Balfour, took a slider low for a ball, and then laced another slider into the gap in right center for a game-winning double, his first walk-off hit as a Yankee.

The Yankees thus swept the first-place Rays in their short two-game series and improved to 7-5 against Tampa Bay on the season. The Yanks played loosely and confidently in this series, as evidenced by their embracing Mustache Day (Joe Girardi conducted his entire post-game interview looking like this), and by class clowns Cano and Cabrera dumping a cooler of ice water over Abreu’s head as Kim Jones was preparing to conduct an on-field interview with him after the game.

With the sweep, the Yankees have pulled up to 6.5 games behind the Rays in the AL East. The Yanks are also just a game behind the Twins and a half game behind the A’s in the Wild Card race, though they still trail the Red Sox, who beat the Twins at Fenway today, by 4.5 games.

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I have a friend at work who has been goading me to grow a mustache for a few years now but my wife won’t have any of it.  I’ve never had a mustache, only a dirty upper-lip when I’m too lazy to shave for a few days.  In fact, I knew an Italian kid in the seventh grade who had to shave more then than I do today.  My father (pictured above in the late ’80s with his old friend Wally Hill), on the other hand, always wore a mustache.  It was as much a part of him as his nose.  There are only a few occasions I can remember when he didn’t have a ‘stache, and he looked odd, not himself, without it. 

Jason Giambi looks great with a mustache.  (So awful, it’s great, as Scott Rolen said.)  The greasier and scrubbier Giambi looks, the better, as far as I’m concerned.  (From Page 2, here is David Puner’s look at the great Yankee ‘staches of all-time.) Of course, Giambo’s mustache has caught on and become a real hit.  This afternoon, the Yankees are giving away fake black mustaches to the first 20,000 fans that pass through the turnstiles.

The Bombers are going to need more than an amusing promotional gimmick to survive another start from Sir Sidney Ponson.  It would be great for the Yanks to take another game from the first-place Rays, but I’m sorry if I’m not brimming with confidence in New York’s starting pitcher.

It could be a long, hot afternoon.  Let’s hope the ‘stache power kicks in for the home team and they roll to their fourth-consecutive win. The offense needs to get the Led out.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees! 

Check out this cool bit of technology from SI.com.