27 Outs Away From 27

The NY Yankees are 27 outs and Cliff Lee away from winning their 27th World Series. If the Yankees do win this title, the two plays that will forever be linked to this championship both involved Johnny Damon.

Game tied 4-4 in the top of the ninth, two outs and Brad Lidge on the mound. Johnny Damon had one of his biggest at bats of his career. (Funny how is other biggest AB was his grand slam in Game 7 for the Boston Red Sox in the 2004 ALCS.) Damon fought long and hard before finally driving a 3-2 pitch for a single. On the next pitch, Damon made one of the greatest plays of this World Series. Damon stole second base and then made the biggest heads up play in the history of the World Series. With no one covering third, Damon continued running and swiped third base.

This totally rattled Lidge, as he plunked Mark Teixeira to put runners on the corners for Alex Rodriquez.

A-Rod stepped up in the clutch on the biggest stage of the game. 2 weeks ago, that last sentence seem preposterous. A-Rod delivered with what he said was the biggest hit of his career. His go ahead RBI double put the Yankees on top on gave game's greatest closer the chance to put the Yankees up 3-1 in the series.

A-Rod only has 2 hits in the World Series, but his two hits maybe the two biggest hits of the series. His 2 run shot in Game 3 sparked the Yankees' bats as they ran away with Game 3. And last night's 2 out double was pure epic.

After A-Rod's homerun in Game 4, he was hit by a pitch twice. And then in his first at bat last night, Joe Blanton beamed A-Rod. That's dirty play by Charlie Manuel. If you're scared to pitch to A-Rod, intentionally walk him. You don't need to start anything but hitting him. And last night's play, the umpire warned both dugouts which basically meant that if C.C. Sabathia went a little too inside, he'd be thrown out. This is what the Phillies have resorted to.

The Phillies are a great team. They're defending champions. But the Yankees are the team coming up with the big plays in the clutch.

Joba Chamberlain came in the 8th inning and was looking like the Joba we all knew. He struck out the first 2 batters and got ahead of Pedro Feliz 1-2. But Feliz got a hold of a Joba fastball and sent it into the leftfield seats. Game tied 4-4. Joba went on to strike out the side, but it looked like his one mistake could have potentially lost the series.

Mariano Rivera has carried this team on his back. Last night was his 11th appearance in 13 of the Yankees' postseason games. In 14 1/3 innings, Rivera has 13 K's and a 0.63 ERA. Last night's 8 pitch save was his 39th career postseason save. He faced 3 batters last night, and not one ball left the infield. Mark Teixeira was responsible for all three put outs. In the last 2 games, Rivera has recorded 5 outs on 13 pitches. Can you say World Series MVP?

If the Yankees have the lead in the 7th inning tonight, does Girardi go to Rivera for a 9 out save?

The Yankees have a 3-1 series lead while Teixeira/A-Rod/Robinson Cano have a total of 5 hits! Hell, Andy Pettitte has as many hits in the series as Teixeira. But no matter how much Teixeira has struggled at the plate, his defense at first base has made up for his poor hitting.

What's been killing the Phillies? Ryan Howard is 3-17 in the series with 10 K's!

How Sweep It Is!

So much for 8-0.

It's safe to say these two bitter rivals are going in opposite directions.

The NY Yankees completed a 4 game sweep of the Boston Red Sox with a 5-2 win at Yankee Stadium. It was the first time in 24 years the Yankees had swept Boston in a 4 game series. And what a series it was.

Boston went 31 consecutive innings without scoring a run! At the New Yankee Stadium! I mean, you would think by accident someone in the Boston lineup would hit a homerun. Imagine if Boston wouldn't have got those 2 meaningless runs in the 9th inninng on Thursday's game? You could tack on another 4 innings.

Sunday night's series finale was another epic pitcher's duel, this time featuring Jon Lester and Andy Pettitte.

The game was scoreless until A-Rod hit a solo homerun in the bottom of the 7th to put New York up 1-0. It was the second time in three nights that A-Rod hit a homerun to break a scoreless game. On the year, A-Rod has 5 homeruns in the seventh inning or later.

With the score 1-0, you'd think that would have been enough. But the Red Sox finally! got on the board in the top half of 8th. Newly acquired Victor Martinez hit a 2 run homer off Phil Coke put the Sox up 2-0 and perhaps give Boston a pulse.

Of course it was Phil Coke on the mound to break up Boston's scoreless streak. Why did Joe Girardi not go to Phil Hughes?

But when you're hot, you're hot. In the bottom of the eighth, young phenom sensation Daniel Bard easily retired the first two Yankees and looked like Boston would escape with a win. But then back to back curtain calls by Damon and Teixeira and the stadium was electric. The Yankees ended up scoring a total of 4 runs in the inning all coming after 2 outs and no one on.

And then it was Mariano Rivera in the ninth and the game was over. Rivera hasn't allowed a run in the last 21.1 innings. He's converted 100 of his last 104 save opportunities. Yeah, that's why he's "The Sandman." Good night.

The Yankees have won 7 in a row, the Red Sox have lost 6 in a row. The lead has quickly shot up to 6 1/2. And the Red Sox are tied for the Wild Card and have many roster questions.

For the series, NY outscored Boston 25-8.
Out hit Boston 41-25.
Boston batted .174 for the series!

And Boston's strength, their bullpen, allowed 14 runs in 15.1 innings-a 8.34 ERA.

The one bright spot for the Red Sox, the Yankees only scored 1 run off Beckett and Lester. So Boston can still be a lethal team to face in the playoffs.

I don't think I've ever seen a Yankees' team play so loose and have so much fun. You watch the dugout and see all the smiles and dancing. Robinson Cano has his high five jump. Nick Swisher seems to have a personal handshake for every player. And the pie in the face routine brought on by A.J Burnett is priceless. I don't recall every seeing a Yankees team acting like this with Joe Torre.

The Yankees are now 18-5 since the All Star Break. They're 31-10 in the last 41 games. And they have the best record in baseball at 69-42. Yeah, it was a great weekend.

A-Rod After 17 Games

It has already been noted, after A-Rod's 5-5 day, his batting averaged mushroomed from .189 to .259.

In 17 games back, the Yankees are 13-4 with A-Rod. A-Rod has 17 RBI's and only 15 hits. 7 of his hits have left the field. And he's nearly drew as many walks as hits with 13 BB's.

And as for the Yankees's 19 hit parade yesterday, not one of them went the yard! Does that say something about the new Yankee stadium?

Ameriquest Field in Arlington is second in the AL to Yankee Stadium in homeruns per game. There have been 87 homeruns in the new Yankee Stadium, 3.78 a game in 24 games.

Ameriquest Field is averaging 2.90 homeruns a game, 61 total in 21 games...Hmmm....

Robinson Cano, Melky Cabrera and Johnny Damon are all batting over .300. You know it's just a matter of time before A-Rod and Mark Teixeira are there. And even the washed up Derek Jeter is currently batting .284 with a 9 game hit streak.

And the Yankees have also set a franchise record with 12 consecutive games without an error. I guess everyone's right when they say Jeter's defense is poor and he's losing his range at SS.

A-Rod "Pretty Accurate" On His Last 5 Hit Day

In his first game back in Arlington since confessing Texas as the scene of the crime, Alex Rodriquez was showered by boos and then went 5-5. A-Rod raised his average .70 points from .189 to .259.

After the game, A-Rod was asked about his 5 hit game. He said it felt good and claimed his last 5 hit game was also in Arlington against the Yankees. That would have meant his last 5 hit game was before 2004.

I guess that's "pretty accurate." So much for A-Rod's memory. His last 5 hit game was April 18, 2005 with the Yankees against Tampa Bay. A player doesn't have a 5 hit game everyday. I would think when a any player accomplishes such a feat, they never forget it.

But hell, A-Rod thought the period of his steroid usage, 2001-03 was "pretty accurate."

2 Days In A Row With No NBA

This seems like somewhat of a prelude to the dog days of summer. Two days straight with no NBA Playoffs. Good thing the Preakness is this afternoon.

Game 6 of the Lakers/Rockets series was the most watched basketball game ever on ESPN with 7.35 million viewers. If ESPN wants that trend to continue, they better hope they have the Lakers/Nuggets in the Conference Finals. Now that'll be a series.

As for the Magic/Celtics, I still think Boston is the better team. I don't know where everyone gets the idea that Orlando is better. Pierce, Allen and Rondo alone make Boston the better team. What, you like Howard, Turkoglu and Lewis?

The reason this series is going 7 is the fact that neither team has a bench. Which ever team can get double digits from their bench will win Game 7. Instead of Big Baby and Leon Powe coming of the bench for the Celtics, they have Brian Scalabrine.

RIP Wayman Tisdale. Tisdale put Oklahoma basketball on the map. That's two NBA legends lost in the past week.

MLB-The Yankees rallied for three runs in the 9th off Twins' closer Joe Nathan to win 5-4. Melky Cabrera won the game with a bases loaded walk off single. Cabrera has bounced back so far this year and is batting .330. As for Nathan, he had only given up 2 runs all season.

A-Rod played his first game at the new stadium and was 0-1 and drew 4 walks. He's now batting .136 since his return.

Brett Gardner had the first ever inside the park home run at the new stadium. Earlier in the day, Gardner had visited a girl at a children's hospital and promised her he would hit a home run. Remind you of Kramer telling the sick kid he'd have Paul O'Neil hit a home run for him?

Nick Swisher has cooled off, now batting .248.

The Yankees have now won 3 in a row and are 18-17, 4.5 games back.

Boston has lost 3 in a row leading Terry Francona to bench Big Papi. Wow! The Sox blew a 4-0 lead last night and lost 5-4 in Seattle.

Zach Greinke is now 7-1 with a .60 ERA as the Royal beat Baltimore 8-1 and are tied for first place in the Central. For his career, Greinke is 41-46 with 3.97 ERA. Did anyone see this guy coming? And could you imagine a Kansas City Royal starting the All Star Game for the AL?

I saw somebody's preseason college football top 25. Nebraska was 20th. Ole Miss was number 7! I would love to go to Oxford for a Gameday.

Boy is Ron Artest a dream player for the media or what. You have to watch this Lakers/Rockets series just to see what this guy will do next. I love how he stuck his tongue to Kobe.

Bulls/Celtics One for the Ages

If you haven't been watching the Bulls/Celtics series...

Six games. 4 overtimes. Series tied 3-3.

This series has it all. We've witnessed the coming out party for Rajon Rondo and Derrick Rose has premiere point guards in the NBA.

We've had nail bitting overtime games and last second three pointers.

Rondo putting in bad blood by nearly decapitating Brad Miller on his drive for the tying shot.

And what did the two teams do last night? Only a triple overtime ending after nearly 4 hours with the Bulls winning 128-127.

Not to mention Ray Allen going for 51! And Rondo adding more fuel to the fire with a skirmish with Kirk Hinrich. Not only has Rondo been the most valuable player for the Celtics in this series, now he's going to be regarded as a dirty player. Rondo could have easily been ejected last night because of the tussle with Hinrich.

The Bulls were up double digits in the first half, blew that lead. Then went up double digits again and the fourth quarter, blew that lead and somehow even got down by 8 points with under 5 minutes left to play. I don't know how they rebounded to tie the game and go to overtime!

Ray Allen hits a three to send the game into a third overtime. In the third OT, Joakim Noah steals the ball and dribbles down the court for a breakaway and one dunk that just electrified the crowd. How does Paul Pierce allow Noah to dribble the length of the court and punctuate it with a dunk?

By the time the game ended, the Blazers/Rockets game had already started the 3rd quarter.

Speaking of the Blazers/Rockets...

The Houston Rockets finally got rid of the first round hex and won their first playoff series since 1997.

The Portland Trailblazers just didn't have enough fire power. Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Alridge were the only real scoring threats throughout the series.

Greg Oden is looking like the incredible bust. Yeah, he's been injured and hasn't played much, but even when he plays, he doesn't look good. Thus, a bust. So far. Could you imagine this Portland team with Kevin Durant? That would be flat out sick!

For the entire series, Oden finished with 30 points, 24 rebounds and 29 fouls!

As for the Rockets? Congratulations! You now get Black Mamba and the Lakers. Actually, I think the Rockets match up decent with LA. Good enough to maybe take this series to 6 games. Ron Artest had problems with Brandon Roy, how do you think he'll stack up against the Black Dagger?

Houston's biggest weakness is probably at point guard. Aaron Brooks can show flashes of brilliance, but is too young and inconsistent. Kyle Lowry just can't shoot and is turnover prone.

No Superman, No Problem for Orlando...
What a no show by the 76ers. You're at home, an elimination game with the opposing team's best player out. Not just any player, Dwight Howard! The defensive player of the year! That's 20+ points, 14 boards and 3 blocks out of the game. Magic starter Courtney Lee was out too.

And Philadelphia gets beat 114-89! WTF!

When is the last time the Cleveland Cavaliers have played a game? Still waiting to see the who they'll sweep next, the Hawks/Heat.

Tampa's Matt Garza had a perfect game going into the 7th inning against the Red Sox. Tampa pummeled Boston 13-0. Tampa had 18 hits to Boston's lone one.

And Yankeeland?

After a 4 game losing skid and being swept at Fenway in one of the worst possible ways, the Yankees got a more than solid start from call up Phil Hughes and have won 3 in a row and are just 2 back in the division. Pretty good considering all the injuries and hoopla surrounding the team.

And speaking of hoopla...

A-Rod gets back to playing ball and hits a homerun, but that was hardly the biggest story involving Rodriguez. Selena Roberts' new book has already leaked new "allegations." The biggest concern is the whole "pitch tipping" A-Rod did with Texas. I have never heard such a thing. Selena Roberts is an extremely credible reporter and everything's she's printed has been true. But why in this book are sources not named? If A-Rod was pitch tipping, then who were the other players involved? If former Yankees claim they saw A-Rod taking roids while with the Yankees, how come these players aren't named?

It really makes me wonder just how much of MLB was juicing? Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic are really looking more dirty and corrupt, if possible.

I really think Big Papi and Jason Varitek were juicing. Look at how both players' numbers have dropped significantly the last couple years. Last year, Varitek struggled to bat above the Mendoza line. This year, Big Papi is batting .230 with no homeruns. Yeah, he probably does miss Manny batting behind him. And remember the summer of 2004 when Varitek jumped out of the catcher's box and went after A-Rod, ala Roger Clemens throwing the bat at Mike Piazza.

The Kansas City Royals' Zack Greinke is the first pitcher to go 5-0 this year. He gave up his first runs of the year the other night. His ERA is 0.50.

Yes, the season's young and now Greinke is on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Let's watch and see how this guy handles the pressure.

Another Sad Day For Baseball

I not quite sure where to start on this one. It is freakin huge! Overall, I'm not totally surprised. The most surprising aspect of this whole story, boy, Jose Canseco was actually right.

Major League Baseball is the overall biggest loser. In a way, they condone this and and play a major part of creating this "steroid era."

Think about it. MLB was destroyed with the 1994 strike which canceled the postseason. MLB turned their head as players were putting up superhuman numbers, but the ballparks were full and the money was coming in at a record pace.

MLB didn't test for steroids. Steroids weren't banned by the league even though they are illegal in the United States.

And now, they even failed to cover up their poster boy, savior of the steroid era in Alex Rodriquez.

I know, the players are as much to blame as the commissioner and MLB. But hey, if everyone else was juicing, why not, right? MLB wasn't testing. So the playing field was even.

What I don't understand is these players-Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, Clemens, A-Rod-were already great players and certain locks for the Hall of Fame with out PED's. All the PED's did for them was up their slugging percentage and blossom their homeruns, the latter what everyone pays money for.

Back to Canseco, he is considered the "Godfather" of steroids, ushering in the drug to the game and forever putting a cloud over this era. And lately, since Canseco went down, he's taken everyone down with him and of course profiting from this.

But hell, like I said before, the guy was actually right. And he claims that around 75% of MLB was juiced. That means about 18 of 25 players on every roster were using PED's. And rumor has it, Canseco has more juicy tales to come.

And so in 2003, MLB randomly and anonymously tested players and 104, about 5% tested positive, including A-Rod. That's like saying each roster had at least 3 guys juicing. How is A-Rod the only name which was leaked? Someone obviously had it out for him.

Think about it. Supposedly (I mean honestly, what the hell can we believe anymore) the tests were kept in Vegas with only a number on it. The names were kept separately in Southern California. That's a lot of work, sneaking around, whatever you will to put these two together.

So in all fairness, to A-Rod, the media, MLB it's fans and players who were clean, th the rest of these 103 players should be named and I believe they will be be revealed.

I'm not here to defend A-Rod. As everyone knows, I always lashed out on Barry Bonds. In fact, I was Barry Bonds fan back in his day with the Pirates. When he hit over .300, 30 homeruns and 100+ RBI's.

Like I said before, these players were already great hitters. All steroids did was help them hit the ball farther.

What separates A-Rod apart from Bonds, McGwire, Clemens, Sosa, Palmero. is the fact he confessed and apologized. That was the smartest thing for A-Rod to do, and to have Peter Gammons conduct the interview.

Also, these other guys were busted at the end of their careers. A-Rod has many years left to define his legacy. And since 2003, A-Rod claims to have been tested 8-10 times and blood tested for the World Baseball Classic.

Another big question from A-Rod's apology was his lashing out against Sports Illustrated writer Selena Roberts. A-Rod referred to Roberts as "this lady" and claims that she was stalking him. A-Rod than says she's been arrested for trespassing on his property and said he had a paper to prove it. Why did Peter Gammons not immediately ask to see the document?

If Roberts is coming out with a book on A-Rod and it seems she's been covering him for the last few years, I'm sure A-Rod knows exactly who she is and doesn't need to refer to her as "this lady."

What is the actual relationship between Roberts and A-Rod.

Like I said before, great ballplayers like A-Rod, Bonds, etc. never needed PED's to hit the ball or be the best, they already were.

A-Rod's numbers have been consistent throughout his entire career. In 1996, just his second season, A-Rod led MLB with a .358 average.

Lets look deeper into his numbers.
From 2001-03, the alleged steroid years for A-Rod:
161.7 games, .305 batting average, 52 homeruns, 131.7 RBI, .615 slugging %.

All other seasons:
149.2 games, .308 batting average, 39.2 homeruns, 119 RBI, .574 slugging %.

The batting average remained nearly the same, actually slightly better than his "Roid Years."

But what's another thing A-Rod, Sosa, Bonds and Palmero have in common-No Rings!

Of course Clemens picked up his two jumping on the ship for final 2 World Series Championships of the 90's dynasty.

And Big Mac got his only ring when he was just breaking in the league with Bash Brother Canseco.

Being a Yankees fan, I get a lot of "Your team's all on roids.", "Your team cheated." "Drugs are all over the Yankees' clubhouse.", etc.

Let's remember this. So far A-Rod was juicing with the Texas Rangers, supposedly not with the Yankees. Clemens started juicing with the Blue Jays. Giambi started with the A's, probably with Miguel Tejada.

So if you're gonna shout out the NY Yankees as juicers, you're a hypocrite. Whoever your team is, I'm sure their locker room was full of illegal drugs too.

So what does A-Rod do now? Have the best season of his career. That's the only way he can win back his fans, teammates, baseball and himself.

A-Rod has another 10 years to prove he's still one of the best. If he can't be in the Hall Of Fame, he really needs to start winning championships more than ever.

Yeah I feel cheated and am greatly upset about A-Rod. But I felt cheated befor this week.

Another look at the "Steroid Era."

By decade, here is the average number of total homeruns hit by overall MLB leader:

1970's - 43.5 homeruns
1980's - 41.9 homeruns
1990's - 52 homeruns
2000's - 54 homeruns

So yeah, steroids allowed players to hit more homeruns.

What else is amazing about this stat? In 1981, 4 players led the AL with 22 homeruns!

And Mike Schmidt was the most dominant homerun hitter of his era.

100 Years Later, Cubs Still Suck

"It's Gonna Happen!"

Yeah, maybe. It just depends on what you mean by "it."

This may be the dumbest, most annoying, most overused sign/slogan in sports today.
Every time you see/hear this phrase in regards to your favorite team, hit the panic button. I believe this was the same slogan for the Missouri football team last year.

If by "it," you mean higher gas prices, more hilarious Tina Fey/Sarah Palin impersonations or the Cubs having another October meltdown, well then duh!

After posting the best record in the NL this season, the Chicago Cubs pulled another traditional October by not showing up.

Hiroki Kuroda was able to tame the Cubs' mostly right handed lineup and the Dodgers had no problem sweeping the punchless Cubs. You knew it was over when Derek Lee K'd and threw his helmet to the ground. You could feel the team's frustration.

Chicago had many chances, but continued to shoot themselves in the foot. For the entire three game series, the Cubs were 5-28 with runners in scoring position. The defense contributed a total of 6 errors, including 4 in Game 2. The hard luck franchise has now lost 9 playoff games in a row dating back to the 2003 collapse against the Florida Marlins.

Alfonso Soriano finished the Series 1-14, .071 batting average. The past two years Soriano's 3-28 in 6 postseason loses for Chicago.

In 9 postseason series overall, Soriano is batting .213. Good thing the Cubs have him locked up through 2014.

Soriano's post season numbers make fellow All Stars Vladimir Guerrero and Alex Rodriquez look solid in the post season.

In 5 post season series', Guerrero is batting .250 with 1 HR and 7 RBI's in a total of 19 playoff games.

In this 2008 ALDS against Boston, Vlad has finally broken out of his post season slump batting .583 but has yet to drive in a run. Last night the Angels finally snapped an 11 game playoff losing streak against the Red Sox dating back to Donnie Moore and 1986.

The Angels have blown far too many chances stranding runners in scoring position. Anaheim has 36 hits and only 11 runs through 3 games.

As for A-Rod? In 10 Post season series', he's batting .279 with 7 HR and 17 RBI's in 39 total games.

Gettin A-Rod's Autograph!

I already wrote about my great weekend seeing the NY Yankees invade Houston and sweep the Astros.

Now I want to talk about what may have been one of the most exciting nights of my life. No, not the time at Scores in NYC.

So Friday night after the game I was hanging out at a friend's bar, Reserve 101, in downtown Houston. My buddy had told me the Yankees were staying across the street at the Four Seasons. So of course I made sure to bring a baseball and pen with me that night, just in case. I was also decked out in full Yankee gear; my Yankees hat and Rivera Jersey.

The bartender had tipped me off that Jeter, Posada and A-Rod were having dinner down the street at "The Strip House." Hilarious, huh. But no. "The Strip House" happens to be a steak house.



So I did what any other Yankee fan would do. I sprinted down the block to the joint expecting to see hundreds of fans waiting outside the door. I ended up seeing a dark restaurant and one guy standing outside. The guy informed me Jeter and Posada had just left and didn't sign anything, but A-Rod was still there.

Another guy and his hot, hispanic girlfriend showed up, with the same goal as me.
We decided when A-Rod came out, we'd use the guy's girl as bait.

We waited outside the place for about 30-45 minutes. Finally, a side door opened and out stepped A-Rod with the restaurant manager. A-Rod continued down the block to the Four Seasons.

We immediately ran up to A-Rod and I was the first to give him my ball. He had no problem signing it. I continued to walk next to A-Rod completely kissing his ass. I'm not even sure exactly what I said to him.

Let me tell you this, A-Rod is freaking huge! I'm over 6 feet and he towered over me.

I know at one point he looked at me and grabbed my shoulder to turn me around and said, "Oh! A Rivera jersey huh?" And we both smiled at each other.



Outside the hotel there was probably 50 autograph hawkers who waited outside all night. A-Rod signed about 5 balls.

I can understand why athletes don't sign for "hawkers", because all these guys are doing is looking to make a buck off Ebay.

I probably wouldn't have got his autograph had I not been dressed in Yankee gear.
I will never sell this ball.
I will be buried with this ball.

I can basically care less about celebrities other than certain professional athletes.
I worked in the restaurant industry for 5 years in NYC, so I received my share of celebrity experiences. But, dam! If there's one guy, one stud, that I'd love to meet and get an autograph, it doesn't get any better than A-Rod. Maybe Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Michael Jordan and definitely Carrie Underwood.

Out of curiosity, I did check out Ebay to see just how much the ball could be worth.

Yankees Sweep Astros In Houston

My biggest highlight since I've lived in Houston was this past weekend when the NY Yankees visited Minute Maid Park for a weekend interleague series. The weekend was filled with mostly positives, the lone negative being the Yankees possibly losing ace Chien-Ming Wang for the season.

Yankees fans shouldn't keep their heads down. Mussina got his 10th win of the season on Saturday, Joba pitched 6 strong innings on Friday, Andy Pettitte is Andy Pettitte and Darrell Rasner continues to pitch solid.



And a 3 game sweep in Houston put New York 4 games above .500 (37-33) and now 5 1/2 behind Boston. With all that being said, the Yanks as of now are minus a 5th slinger. Rumors already developing about the possibility of landing Cleveland pitcher C.C. Sabathia.

Back to the weekend. Friday night's game I had great seats, 5 rows behind the Yankees' on deck circle. Combine that with Nebraska native, flame thrower Joba Chamberlain making his third start and even Rudy Giuliani throwing out the first pitch, and you know it was set to be a memorable night. All this happening on Friday the 13th.

Still not quite sure why Giuliani made the trip all the way to Houston, maybe to strike some oil deal (no pun intended). Giuliani sat behind home plate with Astros' owner Drayton McLane. Rudy never hesitated to sign an autograph or pose for pictures.



The weather was also a sweltering 96 degrees all weekend, but never mind, Minute Maid Park had the roof closed in the AC blasting. Honestly, it must cost $5 million to cool that park down.

Friday's game was a total pitcher's duel. Not surprising with Joba on the mound, but the Stros' countering with former Yankee Shawn Chacon! This happened to be the one in every ten starts where Chacon actually looks good. Chacon limited the Yankees to just 3 hits in 6 1/3. But his pitch count reached the triple digits and he was pulled. In 2005 and 2006, Chacon actually looked decent in New York going 12-6 in his brief stay in pinstripes.

Watching Joba that close up was awesome! Yeah, he may not have his control down, reminiscent of "Wild Thing" Vaughn from Major League, but you can tell this guy will dominate the Majors for many years to come.

Chamberlain finished throwing 6 innings, allowing 6 hits, only 2 K's, and walking 4. Joba had 89 pitches and Girardi said he would have left him in another inning if he hadn't been forced to pinch hit 4 Joba in the 7th.

Being played in a National League Park, Joba was forced to hit, going 0-2 and striking out his first time up. This was the only time Joba looked out of character.
After striking out Brad Ausmus to end the 6th, Joba even did a fist pump.

Sitting so close to the Yanks' on deck circle, I was able to give all of them my vocal support. Especially Joba, Yelling "Go Huskers", "Nebraska represent", "Go Big Red", etc. And everytime, Joba turned around, smiled at me and tipped his helmet. What a fuckin stud. I later found out that Joba hears similar chants every park he goes to. Husker Nation baby!

Astros' manager Cecil Cooper tried to take advantage on Joba's windup by being aggressive on the base paths. The Astros stole 4 bases but were also thrown out a franchise record 4 times.



With the game tied 1-1 in the top of the 8th, Captain Derek Jeter led off with a tie breaking, game winning solo shot opposite field. Sweet! It was Jeter's 199th career homerun and after the game, Jeter had 259 career interleague hits, a MLB record.

The only other downer of the series was Mariano Rivera not appearing in any game. 2-1 in the bottom of the ninth, I looked out at the Yankee bullpen expecting to see one of my all time favorite Yankees stroll out with his patented, intimidating walk to close it out. Who did I see? Kyle Farnsworth! What a buzz kill. Apparently Rivera had pitched in 5 of the last 6 games for New York so Girardi gave him the night off.

Farnsworth closed it out and the Yankees took game 1, 2-1.



Saturday night's game, Mike Mussina gave up a three run homer to Carlos Lee in the first inning, but that was pretty much it. Moose got his 10th win of the year, and the Yankees won 8-4.

Sunday, my girlfriend and I spent Father's Day at Series Finale. The Yankees bat's were in full effected crushing the Astro's 13-0. Arod hit his 12th homer of the year, a moon shot to deep left. Of course, this was also the game Wang injured himself running the bases.

The only time Houston poised any threat was the bottom of third, two outs and runners at the corners. Miguel Tejada ripped one down the left field line and ARod (who probably muffs the play 9 times out of 10) made a dazzling play to rob Tejada and the Astros. Of course on such an exciting play like that, my emotions may have got the best of me and I immediatley jumped up and yelled. That was followed by a few fans telling me to Shh! and don't be so loud. WTF? I know I was in the opposing team's ballpark, but come on! Did I mention that at least 25% of the fans were wearing Yankees paraphernalia?

Astro's fans tell their own fans to "sit down, you're in the way," with the bases loaded and Lance "Big Puma" Berkman up at the plate. Weak!

Enjoy the pictures!

I'll start out with the Giambi Girls at Minute Maid Park.