THE YANKEES ARE COMING, THE YANKEES ARE COMING!!!!!!

Based on the coverage of the Yankees on the WWL (among other outlets), you'd think it was a similar situation to the British. It however, is not. As those Yankees are still 8 games out as of this morning. And despite finally playing up to their potential their only the 4th best team in the American League AT BEST. In reality they're probably closer to 6th.

Anyhow....

I've grown to expect the over-coverage of the Yankees and even the Red Sox for that matter. But generally they've been atop the AL East or at the very least, within 5 games or so. Yet as soon as they'd won 4 in a row according to "expert" (I use that as loosely as possible) Steve Phillips, the Tigers should be worried, as the current leader of the wild card. This to me is an absolute joke. Were about 70 games into the season and you think teams should be worried about who's behind them in the standings? Are you serious? Baseball is a game of ups and downs, they plays 162 games for a reason. To offset such slumps and so on. To make sure, in the end, the best teams make the playoffs. Not the team who gets hot for a month and contends when they'll get destroyed come playoff time (I'm looking at you Mariners).

I understand that New York and Boston are bigger markets than Detroit, Cleveland, Oakland etc. And that ratings make the world go 'round. But at some point the top teams outside of those two places deserve to lead Baseball Tonight and SC without one of their pitchers having to toss a no-no.

I guess I'm just tired of it. Until the Yanks are within a game or two I'd rather it wasn't discussed at all. I don't hear the WWL talking about how many games out the Twins are in the Central. Let alone how close the A's are in the West. And Steve Phillips isn't telling the Mets to worry about the Phillies. Or the Brewers to worry about..uh.. well, you get the point.

I've gone and forgotten exactly where I was going with all of this but the point is: it needs to stop. The glorification of second place is a joke. And the over-coverage of everything Yankees is exactly why so many of us hate them. So knock it off, dammit!

Otherwise flash this at the beginning of BT each night:

Why Mute Is Necessary: Swin Cash

I've been meaning to chime on this for weeks but as I only manage to catch NBA Fastbreak once a week at best I kept forgetting. I'm not sure if the WWL hired Swin Cash to show they were open to female analysts on male sports or not. But her first appearance (as far as I know) on NBA Fastbreak coincided with Stacy Dales first appearance on College Gameday. While Dales was solid, Swin Cash was, and is horrible. She's worse than John Kruk and Sean Salisbury combined. Cash finds it necessary to emphasize every other word she says. I've never in my life heard anyone speak the way she does. I unfortunately cannot find any clips of her talking online, and I have no doubt that's not a coincidence.

If NBA Fastbreak was recorded by a stenographer (as illogical as that is) it would look something like this:

In order! To get the! Ball to the! Post! You! Must! Pass it! Yes! Pass It! I! Said! Pass it! Yes!

I find myself wishing the WNBA season would start. Something I would have never expected to wish for.

Thank You, Swin Cash, for reminding us all "Why Mute Is Necessary"!