A-Rod's 593rd Beats Bums

Yankees 2, L.A. Bums 1. Alex Rodriguez hit his 593rd career home run off Vicente Padilla, and, in a National League park (Walter O'Malley's Temple of Greed at Chavez Ravine), CC Sabathia took advantage of the NL's rule that pitchers have to come to bat, and plunked him, after Padilla had plunked Robinson Cano.

When he was Yankee manager, Joe Torre would never have let him do that. And I thought Joe "managed in the National League style."

Well, maybe not. After all, Frank Robinson, who certainly is no stranger to retribution in the pitcher-batter matchup or on the basepaths, never won a Pennant as a manager the way he did 4 times as a player.

Anyway, Joe is now the manager of the Dodgers, and in 2 seasons has won 2 NL Western Division titles, and might have won another Pennant or two, except that his hitting instructor is Don Mattingly, and The Curse of Donnie Baseball remains in effect: No team with Donnie Regular Season Baseball in uniform has ever won a Pennant.

The media is still discussing the rift between Torre and A-Rod, and saying that A-Rod's game-winning homer -- a clutch homer, to be sure -- is "A-Rod's revenge."

Talk about burying the lead. Why is nobody talking about how the Yankees got another piece of revenge for New York by beating the L.A. Bums, who never should've been allowed to continue with the name "Dodgers"?

If Joe Torre has disgraced himself in any way, it's by taking a job offered by that organization.

But I have noticed something: Neither Joe nor Alex said anything unkind about the other yesterday, before or after the game. Could it be that both are trying to stay above this sort of thing? In other words, Alex is being mature about this, and Joe is being... the man everybody but the A-Rod fanboys and fangirls thought Joe always was.

A.J. Burnett goes today, and he's been the team's biggest question mark lately. Here's hoping Dodger Stadium, a pitcher's park -- and its mound, often thought by players frustrated with losing to the Dodgers to be too high and too close to the plate? -- straighten him out.

Four hours until U.S.-Ghana. The winner takes on the Korea-Uruguay winner in the World Cup Quarterfinals. I actually think the U.S. could make it to the Semifinals, but that would most likely put them up against Brazil or the Netherlands, and then it would be bye-bye, Stars & Stripes. But that would still be our best finish ever, and I would gladly take it.

As long as none of our players did something stupid in the defeat. You know, like Wayne Rooney.