World Series

It was an up and down night for the Yankees last night as they beat the Royals 10-4 , but not before making it interesting as they only blew open the game in the bottom of the eigth inning.

Here are some notes:

Ruben Amaro must make an immediate, high-impact trade to salvage the Philadelphia Phillies' underwhelming season and his own reputation as a general manager.   The off season trade of Cliff Lee has upset many fans, and the team he has assembled is floundering, currently slightly over the .500 mark.  Furthermore, Amaro's attitude is not endearing fans.

After the announcement of Kendrick's demotion, The Philadelphia Inquirer 's Matt Gelb's posted this on his blog:

The Yankees won an exciting one today. The final score was 10-6, but the Yankees had a 6-0 lead at one point. The Angels came back to make it 6-5, then the Yanks jumped ahead to 10-5, and by that point, there wasn’t enough time for another comeback.

Here are some notes:

MLB's second-half of the season is officially in full swing

Thus far, in 2010 is proving to be one for the books. With so many tight division races, fans will have plenty of excitement to keep them occupied.

Of the Yankees’ remaining 74 games of the 2010 regular-season schedule, 13 are against the Tampa Bay Rays. That’s nearly 18% of all remaining games for the Yankees against the rival best team in baseball. The first of those showdowns between the two powerhouses begins today.

For a snapshot of where we are today, July 16, the AL East Standings look like this:

Much will be made of the Yankees’ terrific victory over the Tampa Bay Rays in the first game after the All-Star Break. There was the somber aspect of the first game since Steinbrenner’s death. There were the dramatic back-to-back shots from Robbie Cano and Jorge Posada to tie the game in the 6th. There were the heroic hits from Nick Swisher–first, the game-tying dinger to lead off the 8th and then the game-winning single in the 9th.

Since 2003, the league that wins the All-Star game opens the World Series at home, which means that if a seventh game is necessary, the result of a July exhibition game determines where the deciding game of the World Series is played.

Eliminating the times that the World Series was decided by a best five out of nine series, the World Series has gone to a seventh game 35 times.

The home team has won 18 times or 51.4 percent of the time.

For the first time in 14 seasons, the NL finally won the All-Star game 3-1. They displayed a great show of pitching, defense, and just an all-around great performance.

It will be the first time an NL team has home field advantage since the Diamondbacks had it back in 2001. The only problem is, it's not going to help them win the World Series this year.

The AL will reign as World Series Champions and here are five reasons why.

Begin Slideshow

I drive a Honda CRV.

It might be the first of its kind; it could be the prototype. There is nothing modern about it. The only gauge I have measures gas; mileage stacks up via flipping digits, and mechanical failures are indicated when the appropriate circle lights up red.

Some people call them idiot lights. That’s because when they glow, idiots wait a few weeks to see if they’ll go out—all by themselves.

I think Ruben Amaro Jr. has a few on. The problem is there’s one that won’t go out all by itself.

Mike Axisa of River Ave Blues came up with a crazy idea for a trade that I don’t think is so crazy: Javier Vazquez to the Phillies for Jayson Werth . Furthermore, the trade would open up a spot in the rotation for the Yankees to land Cliff Lee .