We're #1
For a day, anyway. But the Yankees have overtaken the Orioles and the (boo, hiss) Red Sox and moved a half game into first place.
Let me be the first to say that, in some respects, they have no right to be there. Their pitching staff is a ramshackle joke. (Is there a less clutch, less pleasant human being alive than Kevin Brown? If you're going to be a jerk, you'd better at least be good.) The Yankees have an entire starting rotation on the disabled list. (And it's only costing them about $60 million.)
Watching Bernie Williams play the outfield reminds me of watching Michael Jordan in the minors. It's excruciating. You want someone to pat his hand and tell him everything's going to be okay.
Jason Giambi is having such a wonderful and unexpected resurgence that even some of my Yankee friends (you know who you are, ye of little faith) wonder if he isn't back on the juice.
And when one of these players gets hurt....the Yankee bench is thinner than Lindsey Lohan.
Nonetheless...here we are. Number one, baby.
I have previously referenced the classic football film, "The Replacements," so you'll know what I mean when I say, you gotta have heart. The Yankees, apparently, do. Heart is Gary Sheffield and A-Rod beating the Red Sox like a drum. It's Al Leiter coming up from the minors and pitching a gem. It's Jason Giambi bunting—bunting!—for a single. It's Ruben Sierra, the occasional DH, coming up big in the top of the 8th against Texas last night. It's Tanyon Sturtze, pitching as many innings as he can. And it's Mariano Rivera, with an ERA so low that Ed Klein has to look down to see it.
This Yankee team has driven me crazy at various times over the season...but I'm kinda starting to believe. I've been burned before with this bunch, oh yes. But pleaseGodpleaseGodpleaseGod...let us continue to kick some Red Sox ass.
P.S. Meanwhile, up in Boston,
Dan Shaughnessy is blaming Red Sox manager Terry Franconia. He writes: "The Sox have lost nine of their last 13 at Fenway and the manager with the World Series ring on his finger is suddenly sitting on the hot seat."
Silly Dan Shaughnessy. Don't you know you're the one to blame for the Sox's swoon? You're the guy who wrote that the Sox would win it going away, "like Secretariat in 1973." Your hubris has angered the gods of baseball.
Guess what, Boston? The Curse is back, and it's Dan Shaughnessy's fault.
