CAN IT GET ANY WORSE?

***ANOTHER LOSS ENDURED***
Not only are the losses piling up, but the Yanks continue to look worse with each defeat. The confidence is eroding, too. Down four runs with the bases loaded, the Yanks had Jeter at the plate. Regardless of how he had been hitting in the past, this was always the spot where Jeter would come through with the big hit. So when Derek fails,who can you look to? Unfortunately, no one. Not A-Rod, who seems to have found his power stroke, not the hot-hitting Cano nor the unbelievable Cervelli. They will all contribute and will sometimes come thru in those situations, but we have ALWAYS counted on Jeter. I'm not blaming the loss on him, the pitching staff really blew this one, but to get that swagger back, we need the captain.

***AN INTERESTING END TO THE RAMIREZ SITUATION***
Two Hall of Famers, Tony Perez & Andre Dawson, who work in the Marlin organization, took a hand in this situation with a meeting with Hanley. This from a Joe Capozzi story:

The door closed, and Andre Dawson looked directly into Hanley Ramirez's eyes.
"I'm not going to say a lot, because if you say the wrong … thing to me, then you might wind up on the floor on your rear end," Dawson said with Tony Perez standing by his side in a coach's office at Sun Life Stadium.

There was a lot more said, basically closing off every avenue of excuses that Hanley had tried to use. The end result was an apology by Ramirez to the manager, his teammates and the fans. We need more ambassadors like these two fellows.

***EVERYBODY HAS AN ANSWER***
A talent evaluator says Papelbon's mechanics are screwed up and he can't pitch effectively to the left side of the plate. Fine, now what's the problem with Chamberlain & Rivera?

***STRASBURG - A MAN IN A BOY'S GAME***
He pitched for Syracuse here in Rochester last night and the numbers were scary: 6+ innings, no runs and 9 strikeouts. He also received a standing-O. Vod had planned to go to the originally scheduled game which was rained out. If he and the Lovely Laura went to the make up game, maybe he'll give us a personal opinion.

***THE YANKS NEED TO SIGN A...DOCTOR***
Maybe more than one. The Nick Johnson List (formerly known as the DL) gets longer and longer. Besides President Nick, the list includes Curtis Granderson, Alfredo Aceves, and now, Jorge Posada. Not to mention the walking wounded: Nick Swisher and Marcus Thames. How bad is it? Thames rolled his ankle stepping on his OWN bat while running to first on a base hit. Reserve infielder Ramiro Pena, who is also the emergency catcher, filled in in right field. Girardi is not sure when Ramiro will be pitching, but you can bet it's coming if the bullpen keeps performing the way it has.
Girardi likes to say, "It is what it is," but now it's more like "It ISN'T what it is."

Sorry, still no humor.

CP-