Fan News

Since the Yankees swept that early-August series against the Red Sox, they have had a very comfortable lead in the AL East that has allowed manager Joe Girardi to run the team with comfort most managers wish they had.

Maybe their lead is comfortable in the east, but the race for the best record in the American League is on. Even with a five-game lead over the Angels, there's a lot at stake here because the Angels own the Yankees, 6-19 since 2005, in their home ball park.

My weekly take on the Tigers, also known simply and affectionately as “MMM.”

Week of 9/7-13: 1-5

This week: 9/14: TOR; 9/15-17: KC; 9/18-20: at Min

Goat of the Week

The bullpen sprang its first major leak of the season.

I'll be honest, when the Giants signed Brad Penny on Aug. 31, I wasn't thinking he could recreate what he did the last time he was considered a legitimate major-league pitcher when he first strapped on the orange and black.

Not only was his time in Boston a complete disaster, his 2008 in sunny SoCal wasn't exactly something you want to remember either.

Even though I missed a week in documenting the race for Bryce Harper, not much has changed atop the leaderboard. To check out the Harper standings from two weeks ago, click here.

Without further ado, here are the current standings in the race for Bryce Harper:

Panic!

John Smoltz is hurt. Chris Carpenter has lost his “A” game. Ryan Franklin has morphed into a bad Brad Lidge slash Jason Isringhausen clone. Kyle Lohse is complacent after signing a big contract. The defense is poor. The hitting is worse. It’s time to stop the season right now and put this team out of it’s misery. We can’t let them perform any longer. We simply do not want the youth of America exposed to such blatant acts of cruelty. The kids, why doesn’t anybody ever think about the kids!

Easy, people. Easy.

The Chicago Cubs took the rubber game of their three-game weekend set with Cincinnati Sunday, winning 5-2.  Derrek Lee had three hits, including his 32nd home run of the season, and scored twice.

Ted Lilly got the win for Chicago, his team-leading 12th, after tossing six shutout innings.  Lilly threw 119 pitches, a season high.  He allowed six hits, two walks, and struck out seven.  The outing lowered his 2009 ERA to 3.05, a career best.

With all the hoopla surrounding the onslaught of the National Football League's Opening Weekend as well as a couple huge college football games, the San Francisco Giants' weekend series with the Los Angeles Dodgers flew almost completely off the radar.

In truth, I don't really have a beef with that—the return of such monsters as well as the renewal of storied college rivalries merit every drop of ink they got.

Now that Derek Jeter has finally passed Lou Gehrig as the franchise's all-time hit leader and the Yankees have completed an easy 17-game stretch against four teams with tee times this October, it's time for New York to come back down to earth and focus on the playoffs.

And what better way to do that than to face the second-best team in the league and recent Yankee nemesis, the Los Angeles Angels.

New York and L.A. could be headed for another postseason clash and the Bombers need to prove to themselves and the rest of the world that they can beat the Angels.

It's hard to believe that it's already mid-September.

School has started, college and pro football games have begun, and before you know it, the trees will be leaf-less and it will be time to carve some turkey.

While much of the sports coverage begins to shift this time of year to the beginning of football season, there is still plenty of great baseball left during this final month to satisfy even the most die-hard baseball fan. Unless, of course, you're a fan of the New York Mets.

Sept. 11, 2009 will be a day to go down in the history books for the Yankees and the entire MLB.

This is because it is the day that Derek Jeter broke the Yankees' all-time hitting record. Jeter surpassed Yankee legend Lou Gehrig to become the Bombers' career hit king.

He tied the Iron Horse on Wednesday, Sept. 9, against the Tampa Bay Rays. After an off-day on Thursday, the Yanks began their series against the Baltimore Orioles.