AND YOU THOUGHT AJ WAS GONE

***YANKS WIN IN 12***
In a sloppy, sloppy game, the Yanks finally pulled it out in the 12th innining, thanks to a ground-rule double by Raul Ibanez, who is still not one of my favorite players. In the meantime, Freddy Garcia gave a great impression of AJ Burnett by throwing five wild pitches. Yeah, that's right, five. The best line of the night came from Kenny Singleton, who said, "(Catcher) Russell Martin is getting to personally know the fans behind home plate." Unlike AJ, however, Garcia somehow managed to keep NY in the game until the fifth, when Girardi finally pulled the plug.
Baltimore's rookie pitcher, Wei-Yin Chen, threw four great innings, sandwiched around two bad ones. The game might have ended sooner, but third base coach Robbie Thompson made a glaring error by sending Nick Swisher home from first on a double to left by Robinson Cano, in the 7th inning. With the score tied, no outs and the nos. 4-5-6 hitters coming to bat, it wasn't a good gamble. Plus, Nick had just been hit in the toe by a pitch, limped down to first and was obviously favoring his foot while on base. In George Steinbrenner's heyday, I'd be writing about Thompson's demotion to Double-A Trenton, right now. As Singleton commented, "If the runner can't score standing up in that situation, you don't send him."
There was concern that the Russell Martin-Robert Andino feud would escalate, but that never really happened. Martin had accused Andino of tipping pitches to the Oriole batters while on 2nd base, a baseball no-no, but both said it was over. Garcia did throw the ball over Nick Johnson's head, but with the control Freddy had exhibited, that might have happened even when Johnson was sitting on the bench.
But, a win is a win, Rivera got his first save and Jeter, his first homer.

***NOBODY SAID HE WAS A GENIUS***
We knew the "Ozzie -My Mouth Is Always Open- Guillen" act was moving to Miami, but who knew the initial performance would be Oscar-winning? ...and suspension-winning. At least the bar has been set: loving a Communist tyrant is worth five days.
ESPN televised the "I'm Sorry" press conference live at 10:30 AM yesterday, and interestingly, it was all in Spanish. So most of the nation had no opportunity to be further offended, just the Cubans living in Miami who were outraged to begin with. Even Miami sportswriter, Dan Lebatard, came out on the correct side of this issue.

***BOSTON CONTINUES TO STRUGGLE***
I don't care why or how, I'm just happy.

***OH, COME ON***
The Yankee bullpen will be short handed tonight. Rafael Soriano will be unavailable because he, I can't believe I'm saying this, broke a fingernail. What's next? "I can't make it tonight, Skip. I'm having a bad hair day."

One of my favorite, Brad Dickson, is on vacation, but there is still enough out there:
***THEY SAID IT***
"A new survey says Canadians rank number five among the happiest people in the world. Number one if you exclude Maple Leafs fans." -- RJ Currie
"The Yankees got off to an 0-3 start this season — their worst since 1998. Just for old times' sake, the ghost of George Steinbrenner tracked down the ghost of Billy Martin and fired him." -- Dwight Perry
"So who's to blame for 49-year-old Jamie Moyer's 0-1 start with the Rockies: The AARP magazine-cover jinx." -- Brad Dickson (Thank you Dwight)
"In reference to Tim Tebow's sermon on Sunday - Now there's rumors that the church has been talking to Peyton Manning." -- Jay Leno
"In a Masters practice round, Martin Kaymar scored a hole in one by skipping it off the pond. It was the most impressive water feat at Augusta since Tiger used to walk on it." -- Janice Hough
" I'm glad baseball is back. I was getting sick of paying only $2 for a beer." -- Jimmy Kimmel
"Syracuse's Fab Melo, ruled ineligible twice last season due to academic issues, announced he will enter the NBA draft. So sounds like next year Melo will be going to class about as much as he did this year." -- Stan Kegel

CP-