What Kills Me

is the complacency. After a truly inexcusable loss against a bad team and a bad pitcher, The yankees were full of self-satisfaction last night. Torre talked about how much he liked where the team was. Damon spoke of how well they played and how they'd been unlucky. No, I'm sorry, you should be pissed off at losing such a game. that way you come out playing harder adn hopefully better the next day. Now they are in the midst of getting blown out by the O's and losing a home series to this bullshit team--and right before going to Fenway. at the very moment they seem so damn happy with themselves, and in part because of their happiness, their season is in real jeopardy. We all know Joda is not much of a field tactician, but it is in this regard we can see his rep as a leader, motivator and all-around wise man is similarly overblown. When the Tigers lost a get-awy game early this season, showing little effort o concentration, Leyland let them know in no uns=certain terms that professionals don't play that way, ever. Joda thinks his veterans are above such reprimands, and maybe they are, but that only means he has to find other means of communicating the same basic point. No loss is satisfactory; no bad loss is the least bit acceptable. The only appropriate response to a bad loss is renewed determination that it damn well won't happen again. we can call this the "What would Paulie think, what would Paulie say, what would Paulie do" rule. One invokes it once the Jeter doctrine--no win matters if you lose the next day--has been seriously breached.

Ten strikeouts against one of the league's very worst pitchers; two errors (AROD's making errors at such a clip, they have to charge his to Jeter), and numerous free passes issued by Jared Wright (at one point he walked them around the bases and then threw a wild pitch to give up another one). A spectacularly ugly effort over 2 days that let's Boston right back in without them doing anything in particular.