My word, these are the longest 4 days of my life.  Josh Hamiltion managed to get me thru Monday, and the All-Star game from Tuesday into Wednesday, but my god last night and tonight are tough ones:  4 consecutive days without Yankees' baseball.  I can barely manage, good thing the All-Star game was at least at The Stadium.  I thought the old girl held up pretty well.

For those of you who, like me, need some sort of baseball fix, please keep your eyes out for ESPN's Greatest Moments in Yankee Stadium.  It was on last night and hopefully will be again for those who missed it.  It was a great show, displaying not only the greatest Yankees' moments but those of all sports, politics, music, etc.  It was a very enjoyable hour of television, and even some of my Red Sox fan family members thought so.  Check it out.

Speaking of The Stadium, she and my beloved Bombers will play host to Oakland starting tomorrow night to kick off the second "half."  To me, that begs this question:  Can the Yanks win 68% of their games down the stretch?  (67 games remaining, 45 wins, 22 losses, 67.2% winning percentage would equal 95 wins on the year.)  Isnt 95 wins just about what it takes to win this division year in and year out?  Perhaps more importantly, will the Rays' slide continue and can the Yanks surpass the Twins and A's in the Wild Card?  No hope is lost, but this appears to be our best shot en route to #27...although it wouldnt be the first time the Sox played .500 ball in the second half to fall from grace.

Well, Moose takes the bump against the A's tomorrow night, and it cant come fast enough.

Go Yanks!

Typically athletes grab our attention with their on field performances and we shape our impressions of "their real persona" from that.  I am barely old enough to remember Bobby Murcer on the field with Don Mattingly, so my perception of his persona is not misguided by his on field abilities.  I came to "know" Bobby Murcer from his "glory days" in the broadcast booth, and I have to say I cant imagine him being anything different then what came thru the TV.  Naive, perhaps, but I doubt I am alone in my estimation of Mr. Murcer as a gentleman.

Imagine this:  Roger Maris was the reigning AL MVP when he came to the Bombers in '61, and was vilified by his own home towners for keeping Mickey from the top of the home run heap.  That said, Bobby Murcer succeeded Mickey and became a fan favorite.  How do you take over for the Mick and win the crowd?  Truly remarkable, both in performance and personality.  The good guys lost another one yesterday, Bobby Murcer, dead at 62.

While I doubt Mr. Murcer would ever use any terminal language in announcing the apparent collapse of the Rays, it certainly appears their slide is well under way.  The Sox have cut the lead to a tiny half game and my beloved Bombers are perched 5 more back.  It is certainly heating up to be another Midnight Blue & Red Socked dog fight, one that Mr. Murcer would surely have enjoyed.

I am sure Cito Gaston and JP Riccardi have orchestrated some sort of moment of silence for today's series finale in Toronto, and my guess is Bobby Murcer is entirely too humble to believe it is in his memory.  I just dusted off my autographed picture of Mr. Murcer throwing paws during a brawl at Fenway during the early '70's...It was cool to look at yesterday, now it's even more special.

Go Yanks!