Waste a pitch. If you don't waste a pitch, you waste four hours of our time. And I didn't even have to sit out in the cold rain. Somebody tell Papelbon. 0-2, 9th inning, two outs, tied, WASTE A PICTH. Every time. Varitek: Stand up, put the glove on the ground, or put it a foot outside.

It's good to know that the Yanks--remember, playing in "their World Series"--have to work that hard just to get within 12.5 of us.

I actually had a pen near me tonight (a kind that glows blue when you press the button), so I took some "notes." So, instead of from memory, like ususal, here we go:

In-crowd shot by ESPN caught Lucchino walking up aisle. Kind of like Speilberg catching the shooting star in Jaws. Later, on a shot of A-Rod walking to the dugout, we saw Lucchino again in the crowd, which is common, but, like the second shooting star in Jaws, just made it that much more cosmic. (Miller and Morgan didn't notice Larry either time.)

Morgan being Mor--, uh, I'll just say "stupid": 1. What's his (and Fox's, yesterday) problem with Manny playing shallow? Doesn't he see that huge wall behind Manny? Being back against it doesn't help, as any ball above a certain height is impossible to catch. Morgan even said, "with him being shallow, he can only catch a ball hit right near him." Say what? Would he be able to get to balls farther from him if he started off in a different place?

2. On the ball that hit the top of the scoreboard and bounced straight up (note: I predicted this would happen tonight, although I said it would be a Pedroia hit--you can ask my girlfriend), it seemed to me Manny could've scored from first, what with the extra time the ball was in the air after it hit the wall. Of course, we never knew how much of chance he had, because ESPN never showed Manny, only a shot of Cano at second, waiting for a throw that had no chance of getting Lowell. But did my ears deceive me or did Morgan say that the extra time the ball stayed in the air made it so that Manny didn't have a chance to score? If he did, he would've been saying the opposite of the truth, but I'm not sure he did.

3. I am sure that when Manny slid head-first into second, Morgan said he's never seen Manny do that before. I don't expect Morgan to watch every game played by every team. But a tiny bit of research going into the game would've allowed Joe to witness Manny doing the head first slide, for he's done it several times in this series alone. Did he even watch any highlights from the last two games? What kills me more than the fact that he'd never seen it before is the way he then reiterated it, laughingly: "I've certainly never seen that from Manny!" Just another occurrance of a national announcer telling the world that Manny doesn't normally play with passion, and that this example of it is therefore comical.

When they gave a stat about Guidry's '78 season, the graphic showed us only that he went 12-2 during the final 70 or so games, in which the Yanks' comeback (followed by final week choke, followed by one-game playoff win due to Lou Piniella getting a sign from god and Mickey Rivers' corked bat) occurred. Now, they were trying to do this to show that he did extra-well during the key part of the season. Like, if a guy is 15-13, but did awesome against a certain team, you'd show that he was, say, 4-0 against them to show that in a specific situation, he came through. But Guidry, as Jon Miller told us, went 25-3 that year! 12-2 would actually represent a stretch that was worse than his season totals, as he went 13-1 the rest of the time. So putting up the graphic they did says to me, "In 1978, Ron Guidry, shown here, pitched worse when it mattered than when it didn't." Of course, I realize he pitched awesome all season, but it's little things like this that bug me.

Kind of like how in baseball-related commercials, there will be things that are obvious goofs to any fan of the game. Example one: Current commercial where they show a close-up of first base, with feet running toward it from home. Words on screen say something about a player turning his ankle when "rounding first." Yet he's running straight at the bag like he's about to run through it, as opposed to rounding it. Example two: One of those "real men of genius" radio spots, where they talk about the guy who goes all out for a foul ball, in the "bleachers." Any bleachers there are in the majors are gonna be in fair territory. They should've said "stands," or if they had to say bleachers, say "home run ball." There are many other examples, but those are two current ones to watch for.

Graphic tonight said Yanks have lost 12 leads this season. Not 12 blown games, but 12 times when they had the lead, and then lost that lead at any point in the game. And five of those, including three yesterday, have been against the Sox. That's an amazing percentage to me.

One graphic, again, if i saw it correctly, said "1B Johnny Damon," as if he were playing first at the time, when he clearly wasn't. Maybe they just messed it up since they were talking about him playing first in the future, since he's crippled.

About standing ovations and curtain calls: We all know that at Yankee Stadium, if you tie your shoes correctly, you'll be asked to come out of the dugout and tip your hat to the crowd. They have cheapened this stuff greatly. It's no wonder Wayne Tolleson has two plaques in Monument Park. So, I'd just like to point out yet another reason why Sox fans are better than Yanks fans: The standing O Josh got tonight after a fine performance. The guy's done great all year, after a crappy '06, then came off a recent injury and tonight went into the seventh, threw 117 pitches, kept his team close enough so that they were able to get him a lead, which he left the game with, against the rival club. Granted, four earned runs were given up, but two came in on a weak chopper to third, and the fans knew this. It was the type of gutty performance standing ovations are reserved for at Fenway, and I'd hope any other ballpark. But at Yankee Stadium, I've seen some lately that were beyond questionable. Then again, they are desperate in The Bronx. And don't get me started on curtain calls. Youk got one the other day, and he had to hit an inside-the-park homer to get it. Again, these things are supposed to be for extra-special things. Hit one to the short porch at the Toilet, and you're probably getting a curtain call.

TJ by the cameras tonight, as mentioned above, and on a few fly balls where they fooled everyone by showing just the ball. Uh, if we see a ball with only sky behind it, we have no idea where it's going to land. And on the pitch where Lugo struck out, where Pettitte yelled in pain: For some reason, they thought it would be to give the wide angle, showing Wily Mo leading off second, because they were talking about him possibly stealing signs. (Hey, he must've been telling Lugo what to do, because he swung and missed for strike three!) On the pitch, they were zooming in, making it hard to watch. I hate that crap. It's times like that when I blame the cameras for the result of the play.

Like on Pedroia's fly ball that Abreu accidentally caught, bringing back shades of the aforementioned Piniella play, they gave us the "behind-the-plate" view of the pitch. I hate it. I can't tell where the ball's going, how high it is, etc. And when you're, uh, weird, like me, you need that classic view on each pitch to be able to properly root, and therefore will positive things to happen. Without that, I'm lost in the woods. And even when bad camera angles result in good plays, well, I still feel like they "ruined the fun" for me. No more of that artsy crap, please. Save it for replays.

TJ by Miller when he implied Pap went to the pen in the offseason because "he didn't want to start." Look, we know he'd rather be the closer, but that wasn't the reason he was put back there. Now the world thinks he didn't want to do what he was told to do, when in fact he always has.

On Papi's triple, they never showed him running the bases. On the play at the plate with Lugo, we didn't see a replay until much later in the game, and it wasn't a close-up, nor was it analyzed by the announcers. Lugo did lots wrong tonight. He got lucky when he got picked off. I'm trusting that dude less and less.

Good job by Wily Mo backing up Coco on the ball of the center field wall.

Really nice job by Jeemer getting out of a man on third, no outs jam. Terrible job by him for getting into it, and allowing the tying run to score, in the first place. Nice job by Pedroia all around. I love seeing him up there.

I wish Youk had taken more time after getting hit in the ninth, to make Mo think more.

I hate the Sunday night loss--no late-night talk shows to ease the pain before bed. Not much "pain," though, when I think about this lead we've got, and about all the negatives the Yanks have going for them.

One last thing (unless I figure out what my scrawled "30/30" means...). When A-Rod reached on that chopper to Lowell that scored two, what the hell did he do after he crossed first? He put both arms in the air. Later, on a highlight show on NECN, they said "A-Rod thought he was out..." I don't know, that was just weird. Freakin' A-Rod. Waste a goddamn pitch next time, Pap.