New York Yankees

I'm not a guy who enjoys dogging Joe Girardi, not in the least bit possible.

I love supporting him, even when people question every little decision he makes when the Yankees lose games.

Being the manager in New York isn't a piece of cake, and Girardi seems to handle the pressure well.

People tend to forget it is only his second year managing.

Alright praise time over, time to get down to my first real criticism of an in-game move by the Yankee skipper.

We are not quite mid-way through the season and Alex Rodiguez is less than two months removed from his time on the disabled list, and nowhere near removed from the media's flaming maw.

We're just about halfway through the MLB season. The Yankees and Red Sox are having their perennial fight for the top of the American League East (and the Rays are catching up too). The Tigers, White Sox, and Twins are all duking it out while the Angels and the Rangers are swapping punches.

Then you have the National League.

In last night’s 2009 Subway Series finale at Citi Field in Queens, the New York Yankees defeated the New York Metropolitans, 4-2, to capture five out of the six games played between the cross-town rivals this year.

Derek Jeter is now back in the Yankees' lineup after missing two games due to fever, headache, and a cough.

The flu bug isn't out of the clubhouse, however. It has claimed another victiim—Johnny Damon.

Damon missed Saturday night's 5-0 win due to his symptoms, and looked sluggish again on Sunday.

Manager Joe Girardi said Saturday that several Yankees have been sick lately, including Melky Cabrera, pitchers Chieng-Ming Wang and Phil Hughes, and second baseman Robinson Cano, but everyone except for Damon has been available in the Yankees/Mets series.

Thank you once again, Bud Selig. Twelve years ago, you gave baseball fans across the country, and especially in the New York/New Jersey market, something to watch every June and July: inter-league play.

$200-plus million is a lot of money. And yes, there is a point to this rather obvious statement.

The transfer fees agreed to by Real Madrid last week for Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka were stunners, even by the inflated standards of world football. 

Real's approach for much of the past decade has been the signing of veritable dream teams of world-renowned talents, known as "galacticos."  Names like Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo, Luis Figo, Raul, Roberto Carlos, David Beckham, and now Kaka and Cristiano.

This past week the Braves played a three-game series against the Yankees in Atlanta. As expected, the stands where split about 50-50. After all, New York has a large following.

The amount of visiting team fans is not my complaint. It's the unbelievable lack of respect that the fans showed during the games that upset me. 

It is important to point out that I do not wish to pin this on just Yankees fans. I know these people are all over and no team is exempt from a variety of disgraceful followers.

When Derek Jeter woke up in his Trump Plaza penthouse this morning, he officially (and unbelievably) began the 35th year of his insanely awesome life.

A first-round selection in the 1992 draft, Jeter has been nothing less than the face of the New York Yankees since 1996 when, at 21, he captured the American League Rookie of the Year award and a World Series title.

When Derek Jeter woke up in his Trump Plaza penthouse this morning, he officially (and unbelievably) began the 35th year of his insanely awesome life.