• Only on YES can a horribly ineffective Andy Pettitte be spun into a gamer, a competitor, and a warrior. Even as our eyes and the box score told us otherwise, the YES-men never ceased heaping on the praise for Andy last night. They were more than willing to blame it all on Pudge, who was ‘tired’, ‘drained’, etc…. But if he was so weary and ill-prepared, shouldn’t Molina have started instead?

• Say what you will about Farnsworth (and we’ve said a lot over the last couple years) but at least he was a somewhat proven arm in the bullpen. At least he had some big-game experience. Sure he would wilt at times. But aside from Rivera, where are the other proven arms for the stretch run? Max Kellerman will take them over K-Rod but we’ll take experience over the hyped mid-season numbers every time.

• This brings us to the last point which is that, although the Yankees were big winners at the trading deadline, their greatest need (starting pitching) went unmet.

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After their second truly solid week of baseball in ‘08, it seems that everyone is convinced that a) the Yankees are the best team in the AL East and b) the Rays are done. True, the Dunkin’ Donuts spokesman threw well in Boston and yes, the Yanks certainly pillaged from the Pirates. But now that the surge has put the Bombers back in contention, let’s see where they go from here. Pardon the skepticism, but they’ve played badly for a lot longer than they’ve played well throughout this season. So let’s see if the surge is the latest in a series of recent second-half comebacks or just another teaser in a season that has been inundated with them.

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• It was supposed to be touching but it played out like a scene from a mafia movie. Steinbrenner rolls up in the Boss Mobile and all his cronies surround him and began to kiss him on the cheek. Sure it beats that Melky chest bump, but still…

• From the smartest fans in baseball, we were expecting nothing less than the incessant booing of Red Sox players. (Never mind the fact that fans were effectively cheering against their own league and home-field advantage.). But cursing and threatening the families of Red Sox players (Youkilis & Papelbon) during the parade, that’s something we did not anticipate.

• “The 2008 All-Star Game was one of the greatest experiences in my life and in franchise history,” says a proud Boss. And just think, A-Rod couldn’t even make it through the first nine innings.

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Let’s get this straight…. Jorge Posada is upset with A.J. Burnett for pumping his fist after a strikeout? This, from the guy who catches Joba Chamberlain? Amazing.

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• If Yankee Universe believed that A-Rod and Cynthia had a happy marriage as late as a few months ago, then why shouldn’t they believe that Giambi’s sudden ability to hit home runs again is due to the facial hair? You didn’t expect them to hand out free syringes at the Stadium yesterday, did you?

• If YES is going to jump all over guys like Jose Reyes for blatant acts of immaturity, shouldn’t something be said about Yankee players celebrating yesterday as if they’d just won the Super Bowl?

• Hal Steinbrenner may not make the headlines. But his ability to speak in normal, non-combative language shows that Hank is strictly a tabloid invention.

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Not one full year into his epic contract and A-Rod has become a bore. Whatever happened to the good old days when there was the cold war with Jeter, the rock at Central Park, the occasional bush-league play? Tweaking A-Rod used to be a bad habit. Now it’s become a national past time. The muscular strippers, Madonna, Lenny Kravitz… Is this really going to be A-Rod’s Yankee legacy? And once again, shame on YES for taking what had to be one of baseball’s most infamously horrific marriages and giving it their patented fairytale spin on the ‘Yesterdays’ program. From the happy couple’s first meeting at the gym to the delivery room mishaps, YES did its absolute best to keep the Yankee Universe faithful right where it wants them: in ignorant bliss.

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• It’s just fine for A-Rod to run around with Madonna or the mystery blond or any other muscle-bound female for that matter. But why did YES, knowing of Rodriguez’s penchant for mid-season philandering, have to try to build him up into such a family guy on their ‘Yesterdays’ program? Even if only a few of these rumors are legit, we certainly could have done without the Mrs. Rodriguez interview. Using the mother of his children to try and humanize the guy is simply disgraceful.

• At what point do we take what Kevin Kernan has deemed a ‘Yankees power outage’ and began to look for explanations outside of the game? In light of the Mitchell Report and the ensuing baseball-wide power outage, shouldn’t the notion of the ‘Clean Game Effect’ at least be considered? And while we’re at it, shouldn’t we be at the point now where the talking heads can openly discuss whether Giambi’s latest power surge is due to something other than a thong or mustache?

• If A-Rod chooses to pass on the home-run derby, so be it. It’s his silly ‘dutiful solider’ explanation that is noteworthy. A player from any other team would simply decline and go about his business. But A-Rod proclaims, “My responsibility is to the New York Yankees. I need my swing to be at its best.” Maybe by offering up such tripe, he can someday attain ‘true Yankee’ status amongst the loyal. But in the meantime, with no real statistics to back up his claim that his swing could be negatively affected, he comes across as just another selfish ballplayer without any loyalty to the game that has made him a star.

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