Another Legend Passes

After a great victory which included two Yankee rookies homering in the same inning for the first time since 1929, the Yankee family was saddened by the death of yet another icon, former catcher and manager Ralph Houk. Houk spent 8 seasons with the Yankees as a backup to Hall of Famer Yogi Berra, and then had a successful career as a manager. Houk debuted as skipper of the Yanks in 1961, leading the team to his first of two consecutive World Championships. He won the American League pennant in all of his three seasons in his first stint as Yankee manager. Houk would then go on to pilot the Yankees again from 1966 until 1973, when he quit after the last game of the regular season. This is the third major passing that the Yankees have experienced in a week and a half.

On to today's game, the Yankees picked up a much needed victory over the L.A. Angels, and another game on the hapless Boston Red Sox. Javier Vazquez was great for four innings, and then a complete disaster after that. Although he wasn't good overall, he wasn't terrible. For a change, the offense and the bullpen bailed him out. Vazquez has lacked run support all season, and in his last start before the All Star Break, Vazquez left the game with a 1-0 lead after seven innings until Joba Chamberlain coughed it up in Seattle. Today, he left with a 6-5 lead and got some help.

Today, I witnessed one of the most interesting at bats I've ever seen in my life. Brett Gardner was ejected from the game in the seventh inning after complaining about an 0-1 strike call. He really did not deserve to be tossed, and Joe Girardi almost was given the gate for the second straight game. Once again, MLB umpires are on too much of a power trip and are ruining baseball. But the Yankees found a way to stick it to Paul Emmel: Colin Curtis. In the middle of someone else's at bat, Curtis stepped up, ran the count to 3-2, and hit his first big league homer. Earlier in the inning, Juan Miranda went deep. Curtis and Miranda were the first Yankee rookies to homer in the same inning since Lyn Lary and Sam Byrd in 1929.

The Yankees host the Royals for four games starting Thursday night, when CC Sabathia takes on Bruce Chen. You don't want to call these games "must-wins," especially with the Yankees still atop the AL East, but there is absolutely no reason that anything less than three out of four victories would be acceptable. On Saturday, Kyle Davies will take on Sergio Mitre. Davies, you'll remember, served up A-Rod's 500th homer back in 2007. If anything, at least Davies will have a chance to be the answer to an interesting trivia question, as will Colin Curtis after today.