New York Yankees

Ernie Harwell passed away this week. Everyone remembered him for his class and his announcing.

Harwell was an announcer who was objective. He credited the opposing player if he hit well or pitched well.

Twins TV play-by-play announcer Dick Bremer mentioned a nice story about Harwell the other day. Harwell expressed his appreciation to Joe Mays for shutting out the Tigers.

“Play ground. By the swings. 3 o’clock. Be there or…”

No matter where you sat on the whole brewhaha involving A’s pitcher Dallas Braden and the man we love to hate, a.k.a. Alex Rodriguez, this is pretty much what one has to hear every time the young hurler opens his mouth.

Which is quite often.

Andy Pettitte wasn't too pleased when he found out the Yankees decided he would skip his next start. Here are the quotes from Mark Feinsand:

When I posted that video of Dallas Braden where he basically threatened to fight A-Rod, I wondered how A-Rod's teammates would feel about his comments. Well, now we know:

You think Boston had a bad day on Friday because the Red Sox, Bruins and Celtics lost? You think the two blow out losses at home is what really hurt?

You think not closing out a team and moving on to the conference finals is what everyone will remember?

Oh, those were just the tipping points. In fact, those heart-wrenching defeats actually triggered so much more.

Panic is setting in.

Flip and find out how bad it really got....

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I am mad as hell right now.

After the way Josh Beckett tried to injure three Yankees tonight, I almost hope Mike Cameron sneezes and his fractured ribs puncture his lungs.

Or maybe I'd almost feel better if Joe Girardi gave struggling Javier Vazquez a chance to boost his fortunes with the team's fans and work on his control at the same time. Give him a surprise start to open the next game in this series and let him aim at every Red Sox head he faces until he's tossed, thus sparing the regular starter disciplinary action.

Almost, but not quite.

Joe Girardi refused to endorse Javier Vazquez. This was in response to his lousy outing last Saturday afternoon.

Not surprisingly, Girardi skipped Vazquez's turn last night. The Yankees manager realized Boston was not the place for Vazquez to fix his mechanical issues.

The beleaguered Yankee starter will start Tuesday evening against the Tigers.

The Tigers are salivating at that thought. Even the Twins feel optimistic about their chances against Vazquez when they play at New York next weekend.

The Yankees have won four straight, but their arch rivals, the Red Sox, have also won four in a row to climb back over .500 for the first time since beating New York on Opening Night to go 1-0.

That was the only game Boston won in the three-game series, and the Sox went on a huge slide from there, hitting rock bottom on May 2, when they fell to 11-14 after being swept by the last-place Orioles.

But Terry Francona's bunch bounced back by scoring 36 runs in a four-game sweep of the Angels.