YANKS CLINCH

***YANKS 4, BOSTON 2***
An interesting game, even though I thought at first that I had turned on the movie, "Dumber and Dumber," but it turned out to be just Joe Morgan and Steve Phillips. Good pitching and good fielding by both teams, but the Yanks were able to get the big hit. Why is it that whenever some rare circumstance occurs, Nick Swisher is in the middle of it. He was called out for leaving 2nd too soon on a fly ball. Replays showed that the call was wrong (big surprise), but not to Joe Morgan. Oh no, he says Swisher's heel came off the bag "just a little bit," and the umpire saw it. On Baseball Tonight, after the game, John Kruk said from the angle he had, there is no way the umpire could see both the catch and Swisher at the same time. Ha! Joe Morgan could see everything; even from 300 feet away. If he's in the booth for the playoffs, maybe they'll turn his microphone off.
Then there was the argument that Posada and Damon should be playing. Posada's hurt and Damon has leg problems. Doesn't stop Joe Morgan, Mr. "I'm Always Right". Okay, I'm done now.
The best part of having the best record is getting to choose the format for the 1st series. They Yanks will have one hour after the opponent is known to pick a one-day off series or a two-day off. If the Detroit-Minnesota race goes the distance, a one-day off format will probably help the Yanks the most since the other team will have to use their best pitchers to try to get into the playoffs, while the Yankee staff will be rested and ready.

***ICHIRO GETS TOSSED***
For the first time ever in his career, including Japan, Ichiro was ejected from a game for arguing balls and strikes. Here's a guy who is a perennial batting leader, who rarely strikes out and knows the strike zone as well as any player in the game, and he argued a call. We didn't see the pitch, but who would you guess is right? Of course if you draw a line in the dirt to show where the pitch was, as Ichiro did, you're going to get booted for "showing up the umpire." This has got to stop. Former umpire Babe Pinelli, once said, "When you put on the blue suit, abuse is part of what you're paid for. I do everything I can to keep a player in the game, especially the stars, 'cause that's who the fans come to see." Obviously, a currently disregarded principle.