Hear No Drivel, Read No Drivel, Speak No Drivel

Humor is never quite as free-flowing and funny as when things aren't going well. (See the dearth of good comedy at Misery Loves Company these days for an example.)

Last night's Yankees-Mariners game featured a blown call at first base in the ninth inning that enabled the Yankes to come back and win. Horrible call, in fact. And the Seattle fans were up in arms, with angry blurts like:

"Toughest five outs in baseball are the bottom of the 9th in Yankee Stadium."

"Was that the ref from the Super Bowl?"

And this image (and the play wasn't nearly this close).

Unfortunately, laughing at the poor M's fans didn't offset my nausea that the YES booth induced. Ugh. Upon seeing the replay of the botched call -- and trust me, even live action was obvious -- Jim Kaat remarked that it "definitely was a tie." Unfortunately for Kaat, the timing was such that a half-second after he said it, another replay -- slowed down and zoomed in -- showed Jorge Posada's cleat a good three feet from the bag when the ball reached Richie Sexson's mitt. It was a huge deal that the broadcast team then acknowledged, in two seconds of garbled stammer, that the ump had blown the call; then they immediately moved on to praise the Yankees' heroics for playing ball in the rain, never to mention this transgression again.

Of course, the Yankees came back and won. They're a better team and should be given credit. In fact, they're good enough on their own merit and don't need a trio of propagandizers to inflate their legacy. The New York Yankees have been doing this a while now. I think it's time to push them out of the nest and let them stand on their own 50 feet, guys. They don't need your fact-skewing, rah-rah reminders, and blind homerism any more.

Oh, nor the drippy melodrama. Michael Kay's call as Melky Cabrera closed out the game with a big fly:

". . . and a child shall lead them . . ."

Nice booth for you, TJ.