PLAYOFF PREVIEW?

Actually, I think not. If the Yanks could steal 7 bases in one game against Varitek, what will the Angels do?
***YANKS 9, RED SOX 5***
A few random thoughts:
**A-Rod does seem a little more relaxed this year. There is a lot of conjecture as to why, but I'll just take the hits, especially that home run.
**Perhaps Matsui deserves more than just a little credit for getting A-Rod some good pitches to hit. I am continually amazed at how well he handles lefties.
**Varitek looks like it's all over for him. Not only did the Yanks run wild, but he did not catch pitches cleanly all night. Neither did Posada, but not nearly as bad as Varitek.
**I don't think using Martinez as the catcher will help too much. He gave a great imitation of Jason Giambi trying to throw A-Rod out on a pickoff play.
**Speaking of which, I'm not sure how the scorer can award A-Rod a stolen base on a called balk. Once the balk is committed (and of course, called), the play is dead. Seems like home town scoring to me.
**Matsui missed a great chance when he got hung up between 3rd and home. There's Varitek standing ON the base line as Matsui ran by him. Veer over and run into him and it's obstruction all the way and Matsui would be allowed to score. Oh, well.
**Damon hasn't been hitting and messed up another play in the field last night. Do you think he might have sealed his fate for next year?
**If the Yanks win today, I don't think we'll recognize either team on Sunday with all the 'scrubs' that will be playing.

***ATTENDANCE IS DOWN***
Well, it usually is this time of year, however... Picasner & wife attended a game in Milwaukee in the beginning of the month and the stadium was over 98% full. The next night in Minneapolis, we were among 19,000 fans (40% capacity) who watched the Twins beat the White Sox. The Twins were still in the race, the Brewers, not really but you couldn't tell by the attendance.

By the way, do Brewer fans like to party? In just the parking lot we were in (and there are two that are bigger), I estimated about 5000 fans with no tickets, tailgating. Radios, coolers, deck chairs, elaborate gas grills and balls of all kinds, well, I wondered if actually going into the game was the right choice. It looked like a lot more fun out there. They even gave prizes to the tailgaters that they showed on the stadium screen.

We bypassed going to a Pirate game on the way home and we shouldn't have. With just 3000 fans actually in the stadium the other night, we may have missed a chance to watch the game from the Pirate dugout. Oh, well.