Hanky Stein Crying Over Yankees Missing Playoffs

This should come to no surprise to anyone. Hank Steinbrenner is whining over Major League Baseball's playoff format the day after the Boston Red Sox officially eliminated the New York Yankees from the playoff race. "The biggest problem is the divisional setup in major league baseball. I didn't like it in the 1970s, and I hate it now," Steinbrenner wrote. "Baseball went to a multidivision setup to create more races, rivalries and excitement. But it isn't fair. You see it this season, with plenty of people in the media pointing out that Joe Torre and the Dodgers are going to the playoffs while we're not. I'm not sure how the Dodgers making the playoffs would keep the Yankees out in any format since their in a different league. Even if Major League Baseball still listed teams as a league instead of divisions, the Yankees would only have the fourth best record among American League teams and thats only by a half game over the Chicago White Sox. "I'm happy for Joe, but you have to compare the divisions and the competition," Steinbrenner wrote. "What if the Yankees finish the season with more wins than the Dodgers but the Dodgers make the playoffs? Does that make the Dodgers a better team? No." Again he's using an argument that wouldn't matter in any format. Steinbrenner also questioned the legitimacy of the Cardinals' 2006 title, noting that their 83 regular-season victories were two less than the Phillies' total, but because of the system, St. Louis reached the playoffs as NL Central champs while Philadelphia lost the wild card race to the Dodgers, who had 88 wins. "People will say the Cardinals were the best team because they won the World Series," Steinbrenner wrote. "Well, no, they weren't. They just got hot at the right time. They didn't even belong in the playoffs. And neither does a team from the N.L. West this season." Someone should ask Hanky if he should be taking shots at World Championship teams since the accomplishments of at least two of the Yankees recent Championships are tainted by steroids. Of course, the same could be said for the 2000 Yankees, who won the World Series that fall after registering just 87 wins to capture the AL East title. Four other teams in the AL had more victories that season, including a 90-win Indians team that missed the playoffs. Ahhh and one is tainted by Hanky's own logic.

Holy Curses

Construction worker entombs Red Sox shirt at new Yankees Stadium! A construction worker who is part of the crew building the new Yankee Stadium is a die hard Red Sox fan, and he may have locked the new stadium into a lifetime curse when he entombed a Red Sox shirt into the concrete in the visitors clubhouse last August. How serious is this? It was front page news in New York City Friday morning as the New York Post headline screamed "CURSES!" The Post story didn't name the construction employees who tipped them off because the employees were not authorized to speak to the media. The Workers say they fear that they unwittingly helped hex their beloved Bronx Bombers. ESPN, CNNSI, FoxSports and Yahoo Sports are all running the story on their websites.

Torre, Mattingly Heading To Dodgers

Joe Torre is expected to be introduced as early as Tuesday as the new manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Don Mattingly will join Torre as his bench coach. The move comes about 10 days after turning down a 1 year offer to remain with the Yankees, the offer included a option and included incetives based on playoff performance. Torre rejected that offer feeling he had earned the security of a multi year guaranteed deal. The Yankees on Monday formally offered the job to Joe Girardi bypassing Mattingly who many felt was the heir apparent to Torre. Girardi got a multi year guaranteed deal which seems to back up many peoples feelings that the Yankees purposely lowballed Torre knowing he wouldn't accept thus trying to look good in the fans eyes.

Don't Worry, Jon Lester Will Be All Right

Jon Lester returned to Boston in grand fashion tonight with a performance that should draw millions of Sox fans off the ledges of bridges from Maine to San Diego. Lester pitched seven strong innings allowing just two hits and a single run that was scored on a sacrafice fly. For most of the night it looked as though Boston would squander another solid performance by a starter trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the ninth. Manny Ramirez led off the ninth with a strike out, Mike Lowell followed him with a solo home run to tie the game and atleast guarantee extra innings. That however was not needed because after Kevin Youkilis struck out Jason Varitek doubled and was singled home by Coco Crisp for the game winner. Eric Gagne worked a solid ninth inning for the win, he struck out the side around a two-out double by Brendan Harris. With New Yorks loss Boston extended their American League East lead to five games. And here is the rest of it.

HOLD THE PRESSES: The Yankees Still Suck!

Just when everyone thought the "real" Yankees had finally arrived, the real Yankees have reemerged. Baltimore improved their record against the Yankees to 7-4 on the season with a complete beat down of the Bronx Bombers....errr perhaps that nickname won't work today. Behind a strong performance from Daniel Cabrera, New York was held to just two hits on the night and one of those was an infield single by Alex Rodriguez. The final score was 12-0

The Bronx Is Burning

As I sat here tonight surfing the web I came across an advertisement for a upcoming miniseries on ESPN called The Bronx Is Burning. I was interested if for no other reason then that could easily be a newspaper headline almost each day of the season thus far. As I began surfing the website for the series I became more interested, enough so that I will likely watch this 8-part series that debuts July 9 after the All Star game on ESPN. It didn't hurt ESPN's chances of me watching that a very underappreciated Oliver Platt stars as George Steinbrenner. Or that the usually entertaining John Turturro stars as Billy Martin. ESPN has a number of clips from the series up on the web here. I know a lot of you reading this probably have no interest in a series about the Yankees, but this looks to be an entertaining event when it premiers ina couple weeks. I of course will post my thoughts of The Bronx Is Burning after I watch it.