It is a pretty famous joke that, when President Kennedy said “Ich bin ein Berliner”, meaning to say he was in league with the people of Berlin, he actually said, in German, “I am a jelly doughnut.” Supposedly, “Berliner” means “product of Berlin”, not “resident of Berlin”. But why should “product of Berlin” mean, necessarily, “jelly doughnut”? I should ask the Word Nerds(www.wordnerds.org), since one of them is a German teacher.

I have always wondered about the “wage gap” between men and women. They say it exists, and I have no real reason to doubt that it does, other than my life experience. First of all, why would women put up with it? If someone is doing literally the same work as you are, why would you settle for anything less than what you’re entitled to? I’ve always worked in workplaces that are more straightforward-you have a license, you’re hired. Raises and promotions were generally based on time served. So I don’t know at all what its like to work at a place where things are more fluid.
I wonder about the “same job” part, too? Is it really the same job? Really? Are you contributing as much to the bottom line than the other person who comes in an hour before you and leaves three hours after? Yes, women have to have babies, and that isn’t their fault, but, as Jack Welsh once said in an interview, isn’t that your problem? The interviewer asked the former head of GE and business demigod what he thought about employee work/life balance, and he said, “Isn’t that the employee’s problem?” And, in a brutal, bottom line way, isn’t it? The corporation exists to make money-anything that detracts from that is a waste of time, isn’t it? We can talk all we want about human values and other claptrap, but in the real world where mortgages need to be paid, those things simply don’t matter. And all our posturing to the contrary (I don’t actually HOLD this view, I am merely brought to it by the force of logic) doesn’t matter either.

We have a serious chance of losing this series today, with Wang facing Tavarez, and then stumbling into games against Oakland and Seattle next week. As high as the high of winning is, the dread of losing is worse. I guess that’s why I don’t gamble.

Alexander Cockburn, in the Nation, had an intriguing comment about global warming. Apparently, he’s a skeptic, but he makes the following point: during the Great Depression, global economic activity shrunk, naturally. Yet, while carbon emissions shrunk, atmospheric carbon did not. There sounds like there is a flaw in that reasoning, but I don’t know what it is. I will have to look.

The whole Gary Thorne/bloody sock thing is still hanging around. Foolishness. Everyone involved says its blood, except for Thorne and a few retrograde Yankee diehards who want to forget that 2004 ever occured.
Yet the story lingers. Sigh.

I was about to type, “Boy, Ortiz seems to be in a slump,” and bang, he hits a first inning homer for a 1-0 Boston lead.

2-0 now, top 3, after a Crisp triple and a Cora groundout. Is it possible we can pull this thing out?

And then the inning ends on a 2-3-1 double play. Chopped in front of the plate, catcher to first to get one out, then back home to get a runner coming home. Happens all the time.

Now its 2nd and 3rd, no out, bottom of the third. I knew this smoke and mirrors crap wouldn’t last.
3 run homer for Doug Misspelling. Oh, poop. 3-2 Yankees.

XM keeps running this promo for the Tony Kornheiser show in which he is talking to a guest, probably a political reporter, after bragging about how he could talk about anything, not just sports, and asking her what happened in the Gonzales affair. If he’s trying to be Imus, he better start doing his homework.

It is funny to hear John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman telling Yankee fans not to panic, that its a long season, etc, which is usually something Red Sox fans have to be told.

Interesting stat about Tavarez-second pass through a batting order, hitters, on average, are Ty Cobb in his prime. Nice. Good choice to start the finale.

But Alex Cora hit a 2 run homer, and now we’re back up, 4-3. Two homers off of Wang-Wow!
Homers in the same game from Cora and Misspelling? I think the world is about to come to an end.

After 5, still 4-3 Boston. Maybe we can pull this off.

Memo to the citizens of New Jersey: you do not live in Abu Dhabi. The first semi warm day in May is not a reason to wear a tank top and shorts. In addition, sports bras are not acceptable outerwear in public. That is all.

2 on, 0 out, 6th inning, Okajima pitching-HUGE strikeouts of Abreu and Giambi. Awesome.
Now 4-3 in the 7th. We might have a chance here. TRIPLE for Cora. He is KILLING the Yankees. Shades of Al Nipper. Mediocre everywhere but Yankee Stadium.

Now 5-3 Boston, bottom 7, which is a lot better than 4-3. And beats hell out of 3-2 Yankees.
Still 5-3 after 7. Hideki Okajima for President!

Ortiz is hitting into double plays at a Jim Riceian pace.

Ortiz single, then a Manny homer-7-3 Boston. Wow. Dancing in the streets.

What do you do about continued bullpen exhaustion on the part of the Yankees, Waldman asks?
You lose, Sterling replies. Yup.
This Yankee team is going to hit, no doubt about it. But they are starting to remind me of that Laker team that had Shaq, Kobe, Gary Payton, and Karl Malone. Scary on paper, scary on the tabletop, but in real life, too often hurt and inconsistent to win consistently.

If Manny starts hitting, and Ortiz continues, and the pitching holds up, this team could be very special.

Homer from Captain Terrific, and now its 7-4. If ARod hit one like that, they’d probably boo him.

I say again, this lineup is going to heat up at some point and make teams look silly. Although I can’t say I’m not enjoying their struggles, at least from a tactical perspective.


Bottom 9-Boston 7, New York 4-Giambi hits a ringing double off of Pap. Man can still turn around a fastball.


The Congress has sent the President the war spending bill with a timeline. He says he’ll veto it. I hope he does, and the Congress keeps sending it back to him. Everyone knows this war has been lost except him.

Strikeout of Matsui. 1 out.
Posada groundout. 2 out.
Cano groundout, Boston wins 2 of 3, 5 of 6 on the season. Wow.
Awesome.
We COULD pull it out, it turns out!

RIP, Josh Hancock