Stories Normally Told When The Time Is Right

With 61 games left to play and August in our sights, it's a good time to be a Yankees fan.

We've won 11 of 13 coming out of the All-Star break. Our offense is clicking. Our starting pitching has been able to bend and not break, and at times, even look something close to dominant. Our bullpen has quietly become spectacular--Alfredo Aceves and Phil Coke expect to get outs and usually do, Phil Hughes is now officially the 8th inning bridge, and Mo is Mo.

We've done all of this while navigating some pretty nasty bumps in the road--losing Chien-Ming Wang for the season is big. Brian Bruney was supposed to be an arm we could count on and hasn't been the same since coming off the DL. A-Rod is only hitting .250 (but is still hitting home runs, driving in runs, and most importantly, getting on base). Losing Brett Gardner to a broken thumb could prove to be costly, but we'll wait and see.

But when the dust settles on all of that, you look up and see that we're now 3.5 games up on the Red Sox and one game off the pace for best record in MLB. Take into account the fact that we've lost to the Sox 8 times already this season, and you start to put in perspective just how well this team has been playing.

All that being said, I thought it was important to highlight two small stories I saw on Twitter this morning--both by Yankees beat writer for the The Star-Ledger Marc Carig--because neither are the type of story you'd see written if times weren't as good for the Bombers.

Here's the first, which is just a small wrap up of the time that George "Big Stein" Steinbrenner spent with the team yesterday--his first in a while.

It's amazing to think how much George Steinbrenner has changed his public persona in the last ten years. And I'm okay with that too. Nobody (except for maybe the Little Caesar's guy) has done more for a sports franchise then George Steinbrenner. Payroll issues aside, I'm sure there are plenty of fans of small-market teams out there who wish he was their owner.

What gets me the most are the quotes by some of the Yankees regarding him and his presence. You don't hear those kinds of things about just anyone.

The second piece is about CC Sabathia and Carl Crawford coming together for an event to get the "play baseball" message out to minority youth.

Before yesterday's game, they spoke to about 200 inner-city youth, and the fact that both are highly talented Black athletes, in a game where Black influence is waning, is really important. So often we're told that the modern athlete only cares about one thing--his paycheck--and even worse is insinuated about the modern Black athlete. But when two of the game's biggest stars come together and take time out to try and make a difference in a group of children's lives, we don't give nearly enough kudos--myself included.

So here's to you, CC and Carl, and Marc Carig, on a job well done.

Go Yanks.


More soon.

JS