GOOD GAME...IF YOU'RE A YANKEE FAN

Final Score: 12-3

***THE GOOD***
Of course, the hitting and pitching was excellent, but I was impressed with one play. A Sox player hit a line drive up the middle with a man on first. Cano came from out of nowhere to knock it down. He then grabbed it and flipped it to Jeter to force the runner. Yesterday, I published a link about players not knowing how to play the game. This was a great example of the right way. Of the 30+ major league shortstops, I'll bet only 2 or 3 would have been at 2nd to get that toss. The rest would have stood and watched Cano run it down. Not Jeter, he was in the best position possible, which is the kind of thing that won't show up in any of these silly "fielding stats" that the numbers guys try to use. It's called 'being a winner.'

***THE BAD***
Poor Alexei Ramirez, The White Sox shortstop. It's one thing to go back to catch a pop up in short left field, it's another to make such a big production of waving off everyone in the park and then not even come close to catching it. He did everything but throw his glove at the left fielder to call him off. He might as well have, because he sure didn't need it. He also dropped an easy flip from the 2nd baseman, plus going 0-2 at bat.

***THE UGLY***
May I have the envelope, please. the winner is: Home plate umpire Dan Iassogna. He had a pretty tight strike zone, but he was consistent with it. He had a little set to with Sox catcher, A.J. Pierzynski and manager Ozzie Guillen, over some calls. What did Dan do wrong? Well:
1) He shouldn't have come out to stand next to AJ and point a finger at him while obviously arguing with him.
2) When Ozzie came out to protect his player, Dan shouldn't have pointed to AJ like it was his fault.
3) He shouldn't have thrown Ozzie out. He should have given him more leeway, because Dan had to know he was in the wrong.
He precipitated the whole outburst. AJ was trying to help his pitcher and didn't turn around and argue with the ump, which eliminated the ump's favorite complaint: "He showed me up." Even the crew chief, Dale Scott, didn't act too sympathetic toward Iassogna when he joined the crowd. Well, enough said. Everyone knows this is one of Picasner's "hot buttons."

***WE HAVE TO GET A LEASH ON MICHAEL KAY***
When anyone would get a hit to right field, which happens lot, especially with Derek Jeter, I was willing to overlook Michael Kay's description of it as "Jeter-ish," because he stopped using that term very quickly. Yesterday, however, he went way over the line. I do not want to hear that kind of hit described as "Jeterian," (pronounced Je-tear-ian) ever again.

On the other hand, my old friend Bob Matthews has invented a new nickname for David Ortiz which may be around for a while: "Big Pop-Up" Sorry, David.

CP-