AFTER THE YANKEES FINALLY WON A GAME LAST NIGHT,

Slow Joe was heard to say, "Hopefully this will start something because they are certainly capable." He seem to find the Yankees competence to be soem sort of compensation for their performance instead of the aggravating factor that it is.

Well today they were back at it, relying ona competence they see no particular need to demonstrate and they went down yet again, in the ugly manner of yesterday's afternoon game, i.e. without so much as an offensive whimper. Abreu did nothing, Giambi did nothing, Matsui managed to kill two rallies with twin double play balls, Cano did almost nothing, Cabrera did nothing, even Posada did nothing. Di Salvo wasn't very good, but a stellar job by the bullpen, keyed believe it or not, by Ron Villone, kept the Yankees in the game right up to the point that the bats frittered it away altogether.

I don't know what Mattingly does as bench coach; I suspect nothing at all. Since status quo Joe only follows the most conventional wisdonn, the most hidebound orthodoxy, in every decision he makes, I don't see that he needs a whole lot of affirmation from his underlings or that he pays much heed to any dissent from that quarter. That being said, Mattingly needs to be "demoted" to a more useful post, batting instructor, at least for all those left-handed hitters I just listed, who are having terrrible years (and you can include Damon as well). Cano has gone from being Rod Carew to being Larry Bowa; Cabrera has gone from being sufficiently dangerous at the plate to warrant getting his glove and legs on the field, to being a huge offensive liability. Matsui has lost all his pop and abreu all his consistency. It's time to find out if Kevin Long is the bane I suspect him of being.

In any event, that is the last advice I will be dispensing for awhile. This team is barely worth following, hardly worth watching and definitely not worth blogging. The Yankees have elected to waste a huge amount of money on the dim possibility of a Rocket-resuscitation. I propose to waste no more of my time on this team until and unless that possibility becomes a reality somewhere down the road. It is one thing to be losing, which can be analyzed and repaired; it's another thing to be dead, which can only be dissected. Right now this team is just dead and I'm too disgusted with their fetid corpse to dissect them anymore.