Bruce Froemming, Worst Umpire Who Ever Lived, 1939-2026

The worst umpire in baseball history has died.

And if you're thinking Joe West or Ángel Hernández, I can tell you, not only are those two schmucks still alive, but there was one who was even worse.

Bruce Neal Froemming was born on September 28, 1939 in Milwaukee. The Braves moving to Atlanta in 1965 was the worst thing that has ever happened to baseball in Milwaukee, but Froemming being born in Milwaukee was the worst thing there that ever happened to baseball.

After a brief semi-pro playing career, Froemming became the youngest umpire in professional baseball in 1958 at age 18, working his way up through the minor leagues to the Pacific Coast League, before joining the National League staff in April 1971.

On September 2, 1972, Milt Pappas of the Chicago Cubs pitched a no-hitter against the San Diego Padres, winning, 8-0. It should have been a perfect game. He had a 3-and-2 count on the last batter, pinch-hitter Larry Stahl. Then he threw what should have been called strike 3 on the outside corner. But Froemming, in his 2nd season, called ball 4, and ruined it.

Pappas freaked out, and yelled at Froemming, including a few Greek profanities. He got the next batter, Garry Jestadt, to keep the no-hitter, but it could have been so much more. After the game, he tried to be rational, approaching Froemming and saying, "Do you know how few umpires have called a perfect game? You could have been one of them."

Froemming said, "Milt, if I had called that last pitch a strike, I never would've been able to live with myself." Pappas lost it again, and said, "How the hell do you live with yourself with all the other lousy calls you make?" So, already, Froemming had a reputation of not being a good umpire.

The next day, at Wrigley Field, Froemming says he was "besieged" by the media. Years later, he justified his call, saying, "I'm an umpire, not a fan. I called what I saw."

Froemming never called a perfect game, but he was the 1st base umpire for Dennis Martínez's perfect game for the Montreal Expos against the Los Angeles Dodgers on July 28, 1991; and he did call more no-hitters than any umpire in MLB history: 11.

On October 7, 1977, Game 3 of the National League Championship Series was played at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Phillies led the Dodgers, 5-3 in the top of the 9th inning. They were 1 more out from winning, and needed just 1 more win for their 1st Pennant in 27 years, since the 1950 Whiz Kids.

The Dodgers benefited from what Philadelphia fans would consider a sickening turn of events. Pinch hitter Vic Davalillo, a 41-year-old Venezuelan outfielder who has already retired from baseball once, showed enough guts to lay down a drag bunt, at his age, with 2 strikes, and he beat it out. Another pinch-hitter, 39-year-old Dominican Manny Mota, hit a long drive to left field.

Ordinarily, Phils manager Danny Ozark would have sent Jerry Martin out to left for defensive purposes, in place of the powerful but defensively suspect Greg Luzinski. This time, he didn't, and the Bull could only trap the ball against the fence. (In fairness, I’ve seen the play several times, and I don’t think Martin would have caught it, either, especially since he was a bit shorter than the Bull.) Luzinski threw back to the infield, but Phils 2nd baseman Ted Sizemore mishandled it, Mota went to 3rd, and Davalillo scored. It was 5-4 Phils, with 2 out.

Then came one of the most brutal umpiring screwups ever. Remember, the Dodgers were still down to their last out. Davey Lopes' grounder hit a seam in the artificial turf, and caromed off Mike Schmidt's knee to Larry Bowa‚ and Froemming incorrectly ruled the shortstop's throw late. Instead of the game being over in Philly's favor, Mota scored the tying run. The Dodgers went on to win, 6-5, and won the Pennant the next day.

In Philadelphia, the game is known as Black Friday. Froemming's name is still mud there.

Froemming worked in the All-Star Games of 1975, 1986 and 2007, behind home plate for the last 2; behind home plate for the NL Wild-Card play-in games of 1998 and 1999; a record 9 Division Series; 10 League Championship Series, formerly a record; and 5 World Series: 1976, 1984, 1988, 1990 and 1995.

In Game 4 in 1976, he ejected Yankee manager Billy Martin, who was miked-up for the official World Series highlight film, and was caught repeatedly saying, "Don't you be intimidating me!" On July 24, 2004, Froemming was the home plate umpire who let Red Sox pitcher Bronson Arroyo get away with hitting Yankee Alex Rodriguez on purpose, and then, when A-Rod dared to curse Arroyo out, Sox catcher Jason Varitek get away with smashing his mitt into A-Rod's face. Froemming threw Varitek and A-Rod out, but let Arroyo continue, when he should have thrown both Sox players out and let A-Rod continue.

In 1986, he appeared in a commercial for McDonald's new burger, the McDLT. The burger flopped, not because of Froemming's endorsement, but because the environmental movement forced McDonald's to stop using styrofoam containers, and there was no other way to "keep the hot side hot, and the cool side cool."

Froemming was named as 1 of the NL's 6 crew chiefs in 1988, and remained a crew chief when the Leagues' umpiring crews were combined in 2000. In 2001, when Miller Park (now American Family Field) opened in his hometown of Milwaukee, he was the home plate umpire. He umpired in 5,163 regular-season games, 2nd all-time at the time he retired after the 2007 season; and a record 111 postseason games.

Unfortunately, his last series was the 2007 American League Division Series between the Yankees and the Cleveland Indians, for which he was the crew chief. This included Game 2, when a swarm of midges came in from Lake Erie, rendering conditions unplayable, but he ordered that play continue, costing the Yankees the lead and the game. He should have stopped the game, as if it was raining, or (as has happened in Cleveland) there was snow, or fog. But he couldn't resist screwing one more team over.

Bruce Froemming married Rosemarie Loch in 1957, and they had two sons, Steven and Kevin. He had 2 grandchildren.

He died this past Wednesday, February 25, 2026, at the age of 86, at a hospital in Milwaukee. He had fallen in his home in suburban Mequon, Wisconsin the previous day, and doctors determined that he had a brain bleed that they were unable to stop, because he was taking blood thinners.

In the end, he died due to his thin blood. But his thin skin made him a terrible umpire.

Milt Pappas, 1939-2016

Life can be good, or cruel, or just plain weird. It was all 3 to Milt Pappas.

Miltiades Stergios Papastergios was born on May 11, 1939 in Detroit. A son of Greek immigrants, his name would later be anglicized to Milton Stephen Pappas. He went to Cooley High School on Motown's West Side, and pitched them to Metropolitan League Championships in 1956 and 1957.

Other Cooley graduates of note include big league ballplayers Bill Roman and Joe Ginsberg; Detroit Tigers and Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch; basketball players Roy Tarpley and Willie Green; NFL players Terrence Mann, Chris Floyd and Lional Dalton; actresses Barbara Tarbuck and S. Epatha Merkerson; Anita Garian, the soprano voice backing up The Tokens on "The Lions Sleeps Tonight"; and James P. Hoffa, who, like his father James R., rose to become President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Black screenwriter Eric Monte based his film Cooley High on his alma mater in Chicago, which was named for a different man, and should not be confused with the legendary Detroit school, which was closed in 2010 due to declining enrollment. For the same reason, Chicago's Cooley Vocational High School was closed in 1979.

Milt was scouted by former Detroit Tigers pitcher Hal Newhouser, who was scouting for the Baltimore Orioles. The O's signed him, and he made his major league debut on August 10, 1957, just a few weeks after graduating from Detroit Cooley and less than 3 months after his 18th birthday. He pitched 2 innings of scoreless relief against the Yankees, allowing just 2 hits, singles to Mickey Mantle and Jerry Lumpe. Mantle and Enos Slaughter had already hit home runs, and the Yankees won, 6-3 at Memorial Stadium.

*

In 1958, Pappas became a regular in the rotation of a rising Oriole team. In 1959 and 1960, he won 15 games each season; in 1963 and 1964, 16 each. In 1962, and 1965, he was named to the American League All-Star Team; in '65, as starting pitcher in the All-Star Game in Minnesota.

On September 20, 1961, Pappas pitched for the Orioles at Memorial Stadium, hoping to stop the Yankees from clinching the Pennant. It was the 154th game of the season, and Roger Maris came into it with 58 home runs; if he hit his 60th to tie Babe Ruth's single-season record, or even if he hit his 61st to break it (it would have required 3), Commissioner Ford Frick would count it as official; if not, and the 60th (and the 61st) came later, it would count as a separate record. (There was never an asterisk.) Pappas didn't like that, and told the press he would pitch to Maris, and let the chips fall where they may. He did give up the 59th homer, and the Yankees did win to clinch the Pennant; but the 60th didn't come for another few days, also against the Orioles. The 61st came in the last game of the season.

It looked for a while as if Pappas would be remembered for that 59th homer and for being a good pitcher for the Orioles. But the Orioles thought they needed something to get them over the top, from contenders to champions. The Cincinnati Reds needed pitching. So on December 9, 1965, the Reds traded superstar Frank Robinson to the Orioles for Pappas, Jack Baldschun and Dick Simpson.

The trade soon became known as one of the most lopsided in baseball history. In the very next season, Robinson won the Triple Crown and the Most Valuable Player award, and led the Orioles to their 1st Pennant and World Championship. Meanwhile, Pappas won 12 for the Reds in '66 and 16 in '67, but they were in a transition period between their team that won the 1961 Pennant and nearly did so again in 1964, and the 1970s "Big Red Machine" that would win 4 Pennants in the decade.

In 1968, the Reds traded Pappas to the Atlanta Braves. Had he still been on the Reds' roster in 1970, they might have had a better chance in the World Series. Instead, they lost it, to Robinson and the Orioles, who also reached the Series in 1969 and 1971, although they lost both.

In 1969, the 1st year of Divisional play, the Braves won the National League Western Division, and Pappas made his only postseason appearance, pitching 3 innings of relief in an NL Championship Series that the Braves lost to the Mets. In 1970, the Braves traded Pappas to the Chicago Cubs. In 1971 and 1972, he won 17 games each season.

On September 2, 1972, Pappas pitched a no-hitter against the San Diego Padres, as the Cubs won, 8-0. It should have been a perfect game. He had a 3-and-2 count on the last batter, pinch-hitter Larry Stahl. Then he threw what should have been called strike 3 on the outside corner. But Bruce Froemming, in the 2nd season of a 37-year career that marks him as, in my opinion, the worst umpire ever, called ball 4, and ruined it.

Pappas freaked out, and yelled at Froemming, including a few Greek profanities. He got the next batter, Garry Jestadt, to keep the no-hitter, but it could have been so much more. After the game, he tried to be rational, approaching Froemming and saying, "Do you know how few umpires have called a perfect game? You could have been one of them."

Froemming said, "Milt, if I had called that last pitch a strike, I never would've been able to live with myself." Pappas lost it again, and said, "How the hell do you live with yourself with all the other lousy calls you make?"

Pappas had a poor season in 1973, and was released by the Cubs in spring training 1974. His career record was 209-164, with a 3.40 ERA, a 110 ERA+, and a 1.225 WHIP. He was the 1st pitcher to win 200 games in a career without ever having won at least 20 in a season -- or even 18.

He won 110 games in the American League, and 99 games in the National League. There are only 9 pitchers who've won at least 100 games in each League. In the reserve clause era, when it was harder for players to change teams, let alone Leagues, only 3 pitchers had done it: Cy Young, Al Orth and Jim Bunning. Milt Pappas nearly made it 4. Since the end of the reserve clause made it easier, the list has added Gaylord Perry, Nolan Ryan, Ferguson Jenkins, Dennis Martinez, Kevin Brown and Randy Johnson.

He was also a decent hitter for a pitcher, hitting 20 home runs during his career.

*

He stayed in Baltimore after retiring, and opened a restaurant, Milt Pappas' Scotch & Sirloin. After it failed, he moved to Wheaton, Illinois, hometown of football pioneer Red Grange, and not far from Chicago where he was still known. He worked for a liquor distributor, and sold building supplies.

He and his wife Carole had 2 children, Michelle and Steve. On September 11, 1982, Carole drove away from the house on an errand, and was never seen alive again. For 5 years, no one knew what happened to her. In 1987, workers draining a pond 4 blocks away found her 1980 Buick, with her still inside. The coroner guessed she had taken a wrong turn, and her death was ruled an accident.

In 1990, Pappas married Judi Bloome, a teacher, and moved to her nearby hometown of Beecher. They had a daughter, Alexandria Arlis. He lived to see 5 grandchildren.

In 2012, he was honored at Wrigley Field on the 40th Anniversary of his no-hitter. But the next year, he had his own car crash, and was hospitalized for several days. It's possible that he never recovered. Another blow was the death of his daughter Michelle last year.

Milt Pappas died yesterday at his home in Beecher, apparently from natural causes, He was 76.

He was a decent man and a very good pitcher, who deserves to be remembered for more than just being on the other end of a trade for a Hall-of-Famer, getting robbed of a perfect game, and living through the nightmare of a domestic mystery.

UPDATE: Pappas was cremated, so there is no gravesite.

Mike Dean: Worst Sports Official On the Planet

I'm glad the Yankees have won their last 2 games with an extra-inning walkoff homer by Robinson Cano and a brilliant combined one-hitter by Sergio Mitre and Chad Gaudin, with 10 runs of support.

But I have to rant about soccer for a moment. Or, if you prefer, "football."  Or "futbol."

It is just me, or does the bald head, the bare legs, the authoritarian manner and the just not giving a damn who gets hurt so long as he gets what he wants make anyone else think Mike Dean resembles Vladimir Putin?

Dean is a referee -- I'm being very, very loose with the language here -- in the English Premier League, the football league that is the most popular sports league on the planet. He's bald, he's blind, the worst official's kind.

And in a game between two of the Premiership's top four teams, Arsenal (for whom I root) and Manchester United (whom every Earthling with any taste loathes to an exceeding degree), at Old Trafford, Man U's ground where anyone in a home red shirt has never committed a foul, Dean handed the game to Man U in the most corrupt example of refereeing I've seen in my (admittedly brief) football-watching experience.

It was 1-0 to The Arsenal in the 2nd half, following a nice goal by the little Russian beast, Andrey Arshavin, when Wayne Rooney, a.k.a. Wooney, a.k.a. The Boy, a.k.a. Shrek, charged the box, and Arsenal goalkeeper Manuel Almunia reached for the ball to stop it.

It was a clean stop. And then Rooney made an obvious dive. And every Man U fan on the planet -- including those 12 or 14 who actually live in the City of Manchester -- knows it was a dive.

Dean called a foul on Almunia, and gave Rooney a penalty shot, which, of course, he converted. 1-1.

Abou Diaby literally made a boneheaded play, heading the ball into his own net to make it 2-1 ManUre. There's 3,519 miles between my perch here in Central Jersey and Arsenal's home ground at Ashburton Grove, and Diaby should be grateful for every one of them, because I wanted to end his life with my bare hands.

Having had 11 hours or so to calm down, I now only want to see him sold to another club. Any other club. Sell the bum to Tottenham if they'll take him. Preferably, a club far, far away. Melbourne Victory or something. (Just my luck, it'll end up being Red Bull New York. At least then, the distance between us will be only a few hundred feet, and I'll be able to tell the bum what I think of him in person.)

(UPDATE: Arsenal kept Diaby until 2015, ignoring his idiotic play and his constant injuries. He ended up at French club Olympique de Marseille.)

When Man U leads after 90 minutes, the refs will give about 12 seconds of injury time. When they are trailing, it's usually more like an hour and a half. In "honor" of their manager, Sir Alex Ferguson (knighted for having led Man U to a cheated-to Treble in 1999), this concept is known throughout the world as "Fergie Time."

But with Man U leading 2-1 at the end, 5 minutes were awarded. And Arsenal, who had so thoroughly dominated until the Rooney dive but had played like crap ever since, continued to play like crap in the added time.

But in the 95th minute, Robin van Persie, who has been total garbage so far this season despite being one of my favorite players last season, scored. 2-2, and Arsenal salvage a point they don't really deserve, but which Man U deserved even less, certainly not the 3 points they got for victory.

But Dean's seeing-eye dog barked, and, having been so properly signaled, Dean waved off the goal because William Gallas was offside. The hell he was.

(Ironically, on the subway on the way to the place where I watched the game, there was a blind man with a guide dog. But he wasn't a sports official. He would've been better at it than Dean.)

Arsene Wenger, like Joe Torre, hardly ever betrays emotion. He's not a Man of a Thousand Faces, he's a Man of One Face. Also like Torre, he tends to play hunches that usually work shockingly well, but sometimes blow up in his one face. And, also like Torre, he hardly ever argues with officials. This time, he told Dean off, and rightly so. About time his players see that he has their back when they've been stabbed therein by a lying bastard of a referee.

Those of you from England, who may have stumbled upon this blog by accident, thinking it is regularly about the game you call football, please forgive a baseball reference, but...

Mike Dean makes me think of Bruce Froemming. They don't look anything alike, but it doesn't matter. Thank God this blind lunkhead is now retired, but Froemming was the longest-serving and worst umpire in the game's history, 37 years.

In 1972, Milt Pappas of the Chicago Cubs was one out away from a perfect game -- no baserunners allowed. There was a three balls, two strikes count on the last batter, and Pappas put a pitch on the outside corner. Strike three, perfect game, immortality. Except Froemming said it was outside the strike zone, ball four, batter goes to first base. Pappas managed to get the next batter out to save the no-hitter, but the very rare and far greater accomplishment eluded him.

After the game, Pappas, a pretty good pitcher who won over 200 games in his career (but gets tarred as the man the Cincinnati Reds got in sending Hall-of-Famer Frank Robinson to the Baltimore Orioles) actually appealed to Froemming's ego. He said, "Bruce, do you know how many umpires have called a perfect game? You could have been one of them!"

Froemming: "Milt, if I'd called that pitch a strike, I never would have been able to live with myself."

Pappas: "How do you live with yourself with all the other lousy calls you make?"

This bum umpired for another 35 years. He even did a McDonald's commercial. If he were an English ref, we'd be telling him he ate all the pies.

Dean also officiated last year's match between Arsenal and arch-rival Tottenham Hotspur, sending off Emmanuel Eboue (which I understand based on Eboue's play and personality, but it was still a questionable call) and leaving an already injury-riddled Arsenal team to play 10 vs. 11 for what turned out to be, counting injury time, a full 60 minutes. Begging the question, how many Spurs does it take to beat 10 Arsenal? Answer: At least 13, because 12 wasn't enough: Final score, 0-0.

If there is a worse official on the planet, in any sport, than Mike Dean, I'll never believe it. Tim Tschida in baseball? Ed Hochuli in football? Any referee in a Devils-Rangers hockey game? Forget it: Dean is the worst, and I say this having only rooted for the team he screwed yesterday for a little more than a year.

Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame the Bugs

Go ahead, make your jokes about how much the Yankees' loss to the Indians is "bugging" me. But I am now old enough and mature enough of a Yankee fan to not blame the bugs.

Well, maybe I'm not enough of a Cub fan to blame the natural, or the supernatural.

At any rate, I cease my grumbling over another bad Yankee postseason loss to present to you...

The Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame the Lake Erie Midges for the Yankees Losing the 2007 American League Division Series

5. Fausto Carmona. The Indians' Game 2 starter had to pitch through the same swarm that Joba Chamberlain did, and was fine.

4. Chien-Ming Wang. He had nothing in either Game 1 or Game 4. He won 19 games for the 2nd year in a row, but the Sinker of Doom sank the Yankees this time.

3. Joe Torre. He should have started Andy Pettitte in Game 1 instead of Game 2, Phil Hughes in Game 2 instead of Pettitte, Wang in Game 3 instead of Roger Clemens, and Mike Mussina instead of Wang in Game 4.

And he should have told crew chief Bruce Froemming -- not just the longest-serving umpire ever, but possibly the worst -- that, because of the bugs, the field was unplayable and the game should be stopped until the bugs left, and that if Froemming wouldn't stop the game, he'd take the Yankees off the field, and, if forfeited, protest to the Commissioner. You know, the kind of thing Billy Martin would have done.

If this was his last series as Yankee manager -- and I'm still not ready to say that it should be -- he did not go out on anything resembling a high note. At least he went out better than, say, Roger Clemens. Or Tom Glavine.

2. The Yankee Bats. They got next to nothing in Game 1 and Game 2, and came up a day late and a dollar short in Game 4. Really, all they needed to do was get one more run in Game 2, and they would've been tied a game apiece going into Game 3. And then they would've been up 2 games to 1 going into Game 4. And then maybe the momentum would've been on their side, and then maybe we would be having Pettitte starting Game 1 at Fenway Park on Friday night.

1. The Indians Were Better. They led the American League Central for most of the season. They finished tied with the Boston Red Sox for the best record in baseball. And they led in all 4 games.

Sure, the Yankees won all 6 regular-season games between them. But the first 3, at Yankee Stadium, were very early on, before we realized what each team could do. And the last 3, at Jacobs Field, came when the Indians' best hitter, Travis Hafner, was on the disabled list. Hafner was a major factor in the series.

Throw in CC Sabathia surviving a shaky start in Game 1, Carmona pitching lights-out in Game 2, Paul Byrd pitching the game of his life in the biggest game of his career in Game 4, and the Cleveland bullpen not allowing a single run until late in Game 4, and you come to an inescapable conclusion:

The Yankees didn't get bugged, and they didn't choke. They got beat.

After all, if the Mets had made the Playoffs and lost the same way, few would think it was so bad. In fact, quite a few Met fans would have given a tooth or two to have their season end the way the Yankees' did, instead of they way their own did.

A-Rod and Other Bugs

Game 2 of the Yankees-Indians Division Series: That was a disgrace. The Indians aren't playing in that 85,000-seat airplane hangar right on Lake Erie anymore. They are in the heart of a major city, a mile inland. There is no excuse at all for what happened, no excuse at all.

A loss due to bugs? This is the sort of thing that happens to Boston, to Chicago, to Philly. In fact, things like this could be expected to happen in Cleveland, but to Cleveland.

When the Yankees lose in a big situation, there's rarely a bizarre element to it. This was bizarre. This was "curse material." (So what's the curse? A-Rod? Giambi? Matsui? Mussina? Mattingly, whose presence in uniform has always meant no Pennant?)

The umpires should have stopped the game for "unplayable conditions" as if it was raining, or (as has happened in Cleveland) there was snow, or fog. Surely, Billy Martin would have lodged an official protest. As would George Steinbrenner, a Cleveland native, who would have expected this, if he were still alive. Can we really be sure that he is?

But then, what do you expect? The crew chief is Bruce Froemming, the longest, uh, serving, and in my book worst, umpire who has ever lived. This guy deserves to be left alone in a room for 15 minutes with Milton Bradley. He is that bad of an ump. He screws up and lies so much, I half-expect Our Fearless Leader to appoint him U.S. Attorney General.

Andy Pettitte justified our faith in him. He was in trouble in every inning, and got out of every inning. I only heard that sixth on the radio, and I'm convinced I could hear John Sterling squirming. That inning should be replayed at every pitching clinic from big-league spring training down to Little League, to show every pitcher, and aspiring pitcher, on the planet that speed is one of the least important factors for a pitcher, that far more important are control and poise. We are right to worry about Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy and Joba Chamberlain in situations like this, because they haven't been tested. Andy is the test.

But I don't blame Joba. He was pitching under conditions that, as far as I know, no pitcher in the history of postseason play in Major League Baseball has ever had to face, and that goes back to the 1884 matchup of the National League Champion Providence Grays and the American Association Champion New York Metropolitans. (Like their much-later successors, known as the Mets for short. The Grays won, behind workhorse Charlie "Old Hoss" Radbourn.)

Joba lost his control inside that swarm, but he didn't lose his poise or his courage. And he took it like a man from the press. He's 22. He's more mature than a lot of ballplayers in their 30s prove to be. Whoever's managing this team next year, please, do not make him into a starter. He can be Mariano Rivera's successor.

(UPDATE: That paragraph looks pretty bad now. Joba was turned into a starter, an idea that failed, and he now seems like one of the least mature players in recent Yankee history.)

Speaking of Mo, he was fine against that good Tribe lineup on the road, knowing he didn't have a lead to work with. Contrast that with Trevor Hoffman, the all-time leader in saves, whose season-close was hideous. I don't care who retires first, or with more saves: Trevor doesn't get elected to the Hall of Fame before Mariano does.

Matsui: He's hurt. Keep him on the bench as a pinch-hitter, if that. Right now, Giambi is healthier and hitting better.

This should be the lineup for Game 3:

LF Damon
SS Jeter
RF Abreu
3B A-Rod
C Posada
2B Cano
DH Giambi
CF Cabrera
1B Mientkiewicz

Everybody needs to start hitting, not just Matsui.

*

And now, I come to the subject of A-Rod. All that talk, including my own, all year long, that we'd have faith in him in the postseason. And it is all falling to ashes again. If he got that hit in Game 2 with the winning run on second base, instead of striking out, we win 2-1, and the bugs become a footnote, and the poor hitting thus far is reduced to a minor concern. 

But no, he has to be the Morning Glory again, folding up before it gets dark.

Alex, this is it: If we lose this series, it is your (expletive deleted) fault! Forget every other flaw, it is A-Rod's fault if we lose!

(UPDATE: This was written before I decided, It's my blog, I can use profanity in it if I want.)

Win or lose in Game 3, this may just be the last time we see Roger Clemens pitch. No, no, really, we all may have to mean it this time. Unless we make a comeback, which is definitely possible. After all, Sabathia was shaky, and even if we do face Carmona again in this series (it could only be in Game 5), how can he pitch that well again, in a backs-to-the-wall game?

(UPDATE: This was before the Yankees signed CC Sabathia. We didn't like him then. We do now.)

Of course, one of these last 3 games could be the last time we see Alex Rodriguez in Pinstripes. If so, good riddance, and everything he did for the Yankees is just stats, nothing more. And that would then be what we should see of A-Rod in The Bronx: Nothing more.

Yes, I'm turning on him. I wouldn't, if he had turned on that 3-2 pitch from Carmona. It really is all about the postseason with this team.