There should be a book about all the cheap ways the Yanks have found to win games over the years. (Or a pamphlet on the games they've legitimately won in the last 30 years.) They've outdone themselves yet again today, winning on a weird play where Abreu loses a ball in the sun, drops it, but still tries to force the runner out at second. He overthrows the bag, but A-Rod gets ball and throws to second, and somehow they still get the guy out. Before the next batter has a chance to hit, the guy on first gets caught stealing. To end the game. Yanks win by 1. I can't wait till they tear that stadium down so none of these visiting teams will shit their pants at the site of it anymore. (Hey, isn't it cool to say that knowing that, finally, they actually are gonna tear it down?)

Of course, the good news is that their blind-ass luck only carries them TO October these days, not THROUGH it.

This morning on Outside the Lines, there was a piece about little kids learning "mixed martial arts," and then a discussion. Featured in the discussion is Dan Doyle, who runs the Institute for International Sport--their publishing arm is Hall of Fame Press, who are putting out Dirty Water. Unlike the guy he's debating, he doesn't use the "laugh at everything the other person says" method. I think teaching kids to beat the crap out of each other is ridiculous. The parents of these kids must be the people who swing their door open without looking when they park their car, assuming they're the only person in the world, and talk on a cell phone while driving/walking, slowing them (and everyone behind them) down to a crawl because they're wrapped up in their own shitty, shitty world and for some reason can't wait like ten minutes to call someone to talk about bullshit.

Sox at Angels, 6:05.