Dave James

A win like this is more than welcome, the kind of thing that can be catalytic. The deadline deals Brian Cashman made are starting to pay dividends. Interesting stat. 14 times during Marino Rivera's career, he has had a runner on third base and no outs. Opponents record? 0-14 with 0 RBI's. Wow!

Cliff Lee is showing the Yankees tonight why they should have tried a little harder to put him in pinstripes. Five innings, three hits and seven K's. Boston is trouncing the Jays so we'll lose another game to them tonight putting them four back. Fortunately, Detroit beat the Rays earlier today, but before this is over, New York is going to be pushed to the limit by both these clubs. Assuming Texas wins tonight (a pretty safe assumption) that will be seven losses in the last 10 games. I hope the Yanks find whatever it is they're missing pretty soon or this is going to get ugly.

Quite a dust-up between the Reds and Cardinals tonight. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_8__dOlGRw

IMO, the title track is one of the very best songs of that entire era.

PM sent on Thad Jones Mosaic.

Can I supersize that for you?

The Day The Earth Stood Still "Patricia Neal has admitted in interviews that she was completely unaware during the filming that the film would turn out so well and become one of the great science-fiction classics of all time. She assumed it would be just another one of the then-current and rather trashy flying saucer films that were popular at the time, and she found it difficult to keep a straight face while saying her lines." My link Sort of ironic considering that this film is the one that many will most closely associate with her career.

Neal starred in my favorite sci-fi film ever, The Day The Earth Stood Still. She was also in one of my top 10 guilty pleasure films, Otto Preminger's In Harm's Way with John Wayne and Kirk Douglas. A class act in every respect.

This is going to sound like nit picking, but if Manny Delcarmen comes into the game tonight, have a look at what appears to be about a 12 inch piece of stringing leather hanging off the little finger of his glove. I'd think someone on the Yankees would call him out on this. When you're pitching, you're not supposed to have anything on your person that's potentially distracting to the hitter.

I'm assuming that this is the case based on my evaluation of the physics involved and the fact that all of us need sleep.

I listened to a few cuts from his new album on iTunes. Let's just say I'll be staying with the older material. If his name wasn't on the album cover, you would have no idea it was Gil Scott-Heron. The years and the tears have not been kind to his voice. A sad, sad story. When he was on his game in the '70's, there's no one I would rather have listened to.

Not that this discussion is worth perpetuating, but here's the entire piece. http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2010/08/01/2010-08-01_being_hugh_hefner_the_playboy_founder_dishes_on_his_love_for_blonds_viagra_and_m.html#ixzz0w1VlqYPe

If I recall correctly, Vazquez had a similar problem in the weeks leading up to his skipped start in Boston.

CNN is reporting that in a recent interview with the New York Daily News, Hugh Hefner said that women are sex objects. What a revelation. Next thing you know they'll be reporting that the Pope is Catholic, frog's asses are water tight and that Dolly Parton sleeps on her back.

Possible new record for a per CD asking price on eBay. Some guy in my home town for cryin' out loud, wants $400 for the 3-CD Thad Jones Mosaic. At $133.00 per disc, that's about as high as it gets. Hope he won't be too shocked when no one bites.

Looks like Lance Berkman has made his first impact on the Yankees since joining the team. Strangely enough, it's with his bat. The same bat that seems to have stayed behind when he left Houston last week. His batting practice line drive this morning plunked A-Rod squarely in the left shin causing enough damage to create a question if he and his .264 batting average will be able to take the field today. Thank you Lance. Another WTF moment. Joe Girardi says Javy Vazquez has a "dead arm". What this translates to was his inability to hit 90 MPH with his fastball in last night's game with the Sox. Apparently, velocity makes all the difference for Vazquez and his resurgence of late is directly tied to an increase in velocity. So, the question is, if he has a dead arm, why did he start the game last night? How is it they didn't know that beforehand?

Seems to me Girardi might have tweaked the rotation to avoid having Vazquez start the first game of this key series. Based on his performance tonight, and I use that term loosely, it appears that his recent outings were in no way indicative of a lasting and meaningful turnaround. Unfortunately, his hallmark has been and will continue to be unreliability. I've said all along that pitching is going to be the downfall of this edition of the Yankees and I've seen nothing of late that would cause me to reconsider.

Reason #470: Kevin Youklis is out for the season. Thumb surgery.

Lon, I forgot to include your birthday present.

Nice piece on the Jamal Mosaic from Marc Myers' Jazz Wax blog. I love his description of Oscar Peterson: http://www.jazzwax.com/

Lon, Looks like you logged a good 55th. Here's to many more in the future. I'm just glad to see things going better for you these last couple of years.

Boy I hope that loosens things up. The Yanks could stand to start a winning streak. If there's a better team to do it against than the Red Sox, I don't know who it would be. David, thanks for posting those calls. As you know, I'm a huge fan of both Kay and Sterling.

Is it possible for a team to get old all at once? Over the last week, the old guard position players (Jeter, Posada and A-Rod) have all but disappeared. The idea of paying A-Rod $25 million for this kind of production is ludicrous. He's hitting .264, with just 16 home runs. Wow. At this point, I'd say the Yanks have a 50/50 chance of being overtaken by the Red Sox. If they were to miss the playoffs, I hope some heads will roll. Too bad The Boss isn't still around and in full possession of his faculties. If he'd seen these last 10 games, he'd have gone off like a suitcase nuke.

Looks like reports of the death of A.J. Burnett have not been greatly exaggerated. He's blown up against the Blue Jays tonight giving up seven runs, all earned, eight hits and two home runs in just 4 2/3 innings. Anyone who thinks the Yankees aren't going to pay dearly for standing pat in the pitching department are sadly mistaken.

When I was about nine years old, The Bride of Frankenstein put me on ice for about three days. Sleeping with the lights on...the whole nine yards. Of late, one movie I thought had some real moments was The Grudge.