Forgetting What's Really Important In Sports

"This is what's great about sports. This is what the greatest thing about sports is: You play to win the game. Hello? You play to win the game!"
-- Herman Edwards

You don't play the game to seek out milestones. They're nice. But you gotta win.

When Derek Jeter got his 2,722nd career hit to become the all-time leader among Yankees, the Yankees lost.

Tonight, Derek led off the game with a double, career hit Number 2,998. And we were thinking tonight could be the night.

Tampa Bay Rays 5, Yankees 1. To make matters worse, on the last play of the game, the Yankees had men on 2nd and 3rd, and Jeter hit a weak grounder for the final out, and the game was thus closed by Rays pitcher...

Kyle Farnsworth? Kerosene Kyle? Not a Darn's Worth?!?

We can't even beat Kyle Fucking Farnsworth anymore?

There are times when I'm sorry about the profanity. This is not one of those times.

The only Yankee run came on a homer by Robinson Cano, his 15th of the season. Bartolo Colon (6-4) did not have it, not getting out of the 6th. Jeff Niemann (4-4), son of former Houston Astros pitcher Randy Niemann, was the winning pitcher for the Strays.

To make matters worse, the Boston Red Sox pounded the Baltimore Orioles, and now the Yankees are out of first place -- albeit tied with the Sox in the All-Important Loss Column.

Tomorrow night, Freddy Garcia starts against Jeremy Hellickson. (Who?) Who cares, just pound him.

Tonight, we all paid too much attention to the DJ3K story, and not enough to winning.

So here's what we need: Tomorrow night, Derek leads off with a hit, Number 2,999, and then we pour it on, and he comes up again in the inning, with the Yanks already 4 runs to the good, and then he hits it out, joining ex-teammate Wade Boggs (ironically, with the Rays when he did it) as the only players to join the 3,000 Hit club with a home run, and the Yankees cruised from there and win it 12-0.

Jeter hits 2998 2
Rivera saves 580 21
A-Rod homers 626 137
A-Rod hits 2762 238