A-Rod Flips Cashman The Bird

Today, finally some good news coming out of the Bronx for us Yankee haters. Alex Rodriguez will not negotiate a contract extension with the Yanks during the season. As much as I dislike the Yankees, I like A-Rod, and I always have. He's a fantastic all-around player and he's taking the right stance in this situation. Especially when you consider other pending Yankee Free Agents Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera. If A-Rod wasn't on the insane pace he is, the Yanks wouldn't even be considering this move. And his failure to cooperate with the is a win for the baseball fan who's tired of hearing about his lack of "true pinstripes". In honor of A-Rod's likely departure from underachieving cash machine I've cooked up a few other things I wouldn't mind seeing happen to the Bronx Bombers.

- The Yankees are eliminated from playoff contention by mid-August forcing the WWL to give up on the "can they still make it" Fact or Fiction segments.

- Johnny Damon is caught cross-dressing in Hoboken, finally explaining why he throws like a girl.

- Derek Jeter is photographed with a Transsexual entering his car outside a nightclub in Tampa Bay. It immediately hits "wwtdd.com" Ala the Beverly Hills Mayor on Entourage. The NY faithful simultaneously throw up.

- Carl Pavano finds health and returns to the rotation. He posts a 1-13 record with a 12.45 ERA before being traded to the Dodgers where he gets it together and closes 5-0 with a .67 ERA. And leads the Dodgers into the World Series, Jeff Weaver blushes.

- Chien-Ming Wang demands to be traded.

- It turns out Bobby Abreu is actually 49 years old. Julio Franco is absolutely devastated.

- George Steinbrenner finally fires a few people. Becky, formerly of marketing files a lawsuit claiming Cashman touched her.

- Jason Giambi names Brian Cashman as his supplier in his interview with George Mitchell.

To be honest I wouldn't necessarily like to see all or any of this happen. But, maybe it it did ESPN would quit shoving the Yanks and their playoff chances down our throats. Okay, fine. I'd like to see most of this happen. Maybe I am that much of an ass-hole. Or maybe I'm annoyed? Who knows.

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: