Back At .500, And More On Clemens

Another night, another win against Texas. Yankees go for the sweep tomorrow, and their starting pitching is looking great.

I'm not too frustrated with the Yankees success. Again, they'll kill teams with lousy pitching. And Texas is bad.

The good news is, there are two hot teams in the Central. The Indians have put it together following that awful series against the Yankees, and the bats of Peralta, Pronk, and Barfield have been heating up. The Tigers have been red-hot, although I wonder how the Zumaya injury will affect them. Rodney is pretty solid, too, so I wouldn't worry about them.

Why do I bring this up? Because if Boston stays hot and the wild card comes out of the Central - we've got ourselves a Yankee-free October!

- I'm tired of people talking about how the preferential treatment of Clemens goes against the Yankee way. Shut up with the aura and mystique (and I love Schilling's line back in '01 World Series). The Yankee way was gone when they replaced a warrior like O'Neill with one of the biggest jerks to ever play the game, Raul Mondesi. The Yankee way was gone when Steinbrenner wanted to ruin the game and put Montreal and Minnesota out of business. The Yankee way was gone when Kevin Brown punched the wall. So give it up already.

- And by the way, you will not see me complain about the Clemens signing ruining the parity of the game. Not when the mid-market Brewers have the best record in the game. Not after the Red Sox shelled out $100 million for Matsuzaka. Not when only 5 teams came into spring training with no shot at the playoffs. Baseball's system still needs some work, but we've come a long way since the late 90's.

I will say this: one Yankee fan told me he'd love for the Yankees to sign Johan Santana when he becomes a free agent. If that happens, I think I'll be watching the NHL playoffs this time of year.