Costly Win for Yanks

As so often happens (although it didn't last year, as I was in attendance as the Yankees won), the Yankees lost on Old-Timers' Day, failing to do the legends proud in a 10-5 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. But yesterday, they bounced back, taking a 9-5 win that included Alex Rodriguez's 598th career home run. 598 down... 165 to go.

Andy Pettitte had to leave the game with a pulled groin. (What? Pettitte has a pulled groin? Not A-Rod? Not Johan Santana?)

He's on the Disabled List and will miss a month. And A.J. Burnett had another bad outing.

Suddenly, not getting Cliff Lee no longer looks like no big deal.

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The Yanks now lead the Rays by 3 games in the American League East, and the Boston Red Sox by 6 1/2 -- 7 in the AILC. (That's the All-Important Loss Column.) The Toronto Blue Jays trail by 11 1/2, and the Baltimore Orioles a whopping 29 back.

In the old days of single-division Leagues, a distance from 1st place that large was not all that uncommon, but in the Divisional Play era since 1969, especially in the 3-division era since 1994, being that far back at the end of the season isn't all that common; being that far back on July 19 is a disgrace.

In the AL Central, the Chicago White Sox lead the Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins by a game and a half each, although in the loss column the Tigers are 1 back and the Twins 2. The Kansas City Royals are 11 back, and the Cleveland Indians, who should be better than this, 12 1/2.

In the AL West, the Texas Rangers are 4 1/2 ahead of the Anaheim Angels (that's what they should still be calling themselves, anyway -- you don't see the Rangers calling themselves the Dallas Rangers of Arlington, do you?), 7 ahead of the Oakland Athletics, and 17 ahead of the dashed-hopes Seattle Mariners.

In the National League East, the Atlanta Braves lead the Mets by 5, the Phillies by 5 1/2 (but both by 5 in the loss column), the Florida Marlins by 9 1/2 and the Washington Nationals by 14.

In the NL Central, the St. Louis Cardinals lead the Cincinnati Reds by half a game, 1 in the loss column; the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers by 9 1/2 each, the Houston Astros by 14 and the perpetually pathetic Pittsburgh Pirates by a putrid 18 1/2.

In the NL West, the San Diego Padres have rebounded nicely, and now lead the Colorado Rockies by 4, the San Francisco Giants by 4 1/2 , the Los Angeles Dodgers by 5 1/2, and the Arizona Diamondbacks by 20 1/2.

So in the 6 Divisions, no 2nd-place team is more than 5 games back with 12 weeks to go. Good races.

Tampa Bay leads Boston by 3 1/2 for the AL Wild Card, Detroit and Minnesota by 6 1/2 each, and the Angels by 7. Colorado and Cincinnati are tied for the NL Wild Card (the Rockies a game ahead of the Reds in the loss column), San Francisco a half-game back, the Dodgers and Mets a game and a half back. Close races there, too.

It should be a good 2nd half.

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The Mets just barely avoided a sweep in San Francisco. Another performance by The Great Johan Santana was wasted as Francisco Rodriguez blew another save. A controversial play at the plate should have given the Giants the win, but the runner was incorrectly (the replay revealed) called out. The Mets won the game in the 10th, and K-Rod, still on the mound, celebrated the win like he usually does, like a complete ass.

Hey, K-Rod, it's good to be happy that your team won, but your team would have won an inning earlier if you hadn't fucked it up!

This is what happens when you love the glory, but you don't respect the game.

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James Gammon died at age 70. He played Lou Brown, manager of the Cleveland Indians, in the 1st 2 Major League movies.

"Hayes, you may run like Willie Mays, but you hit like Jack Shit!"

I was surprised to see that he was only 70 -- which means he was 48 when the 1st movie was filmed. Like Wilford Brimley, who played manager Pop Fisher in The Natural, he always seemed older.

It could have been worse: Major League, for many obvious reasons, was compared with a film released a few months earlier, Bull Durham, and the man who played that film's manager, Trey Wilson, died a few months after it came out. He was just short of his 51st birthday at the time.

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Better news: Yogi Berra, 85 years old, fell on Friday night, and was unable to attend Old-Timers' Day. But he was released from the hospital, apparently all right, and says he plans to attend the Baseball Hall of Fame's induction ceremony this coming weekend.

Going in are are former Expos and Cubs slugger Andre Dawson, former Royals and Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog, and longtime National League umpire Doug Harvey, who will thus become the only living ump in the Hall, several years after the last such ump, Al Barlick, died.