Pitching, in good form

CC Sabathia tossed a shutout through seven innings today to lead the Yankees past the Detroit Tigers 2-1. Sabathia has the best ERA of all New York starters (3.66) and is the first one to nine wins (9-6).

Melky Cabrera legged out a key single that allowed New York to win the game by a run, which is ironic since his spot on the team has been on and off with speedster Brett Gardner.

Meanwhile, Derek Jeter is third in the American League with a .325 batting average, and Mark Teixeira is third in homers (22) and fourth RBIs (66).

Boston dropped a game today, bringing the Yankees within two of the division leaders.

Other Yankees Posts

Back from the break

The Yankees came back from the All-Star break in style, winning 5-3 over the Detroit Tigers.

Google hieroglyphics

An interesting look at some of Google's more strange logos, courtesy of Slate.

Yikes...Michael Jackson, hair on fire

The video of when Michael Jackson's hair caught on fire while he was filming a Pepsi commercial has surfaced on the Web (see it with an article at USAToday.com). This has drawn immediate questions about Jackson's painkiller use, etc., but all I have to say is, how do you not know when your head is on fire? And apparently his dance moves put out the flames. Yikes.

Maybe it was the Holy Spirit coming and anointing him.

Becks

Imagine how big the David Beckham saga would be if soccer were bigger in the U.S.

I'm not going to weigh in on my feelings about Becks just yet, but here's a quick highlight of what has happened in the past couple weeks.

Sports Illustrated ran a feature that showed Beckham as a self-serving, bad (American) teammate wherein he was criticized by top American soccer player Landon Donovan; Beckham got mad at Donovan; Beckham came back to the L.A. Galaxy; and Grant Wahl talked about his book, which was excerpted in the original SI article.

The next few weeks will be crucial to see how Nick-and-Jessica, er, Becks-and-Landon, patch up their relationship.

Enough about those "highly paid" Yankees

Whine about the Yankees' incredible spending power if you will, but remember that it's veterans who have risen through the system (Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada) and low-paid or young players (Brett Gardner, Melky Cabrera, Robinson Cano, Cody Ransom) who are doing most of the work.

Right now, it's the top of the sixth, and the Yankees are beating the Twins 6-4. Ransom and Gardner have two RBIs apiece and Jeter has another.

The only place you can really get away with whining about all that money buys? Half of the starting rotation (CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett) and the No. 3 hole (Mark Teixeira), I guess. But still, the rotation is building on Yankee veteran Andy Pettitte, and New York-raised Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes.

A lot of money has been spent, but that's not necessarily where the wins are coming from.

Check out the Yankees' payroll here. With the exception of the aforementioned veterans, who deserve a pretty buck after spending their entire career in New York, the Yankees' big contributors for the days are all making regular MLB money. Cut out the ridiculously paid guys (Sabathia, Alex Rodriguez, Burnett, etc.), and the Yankees would still have a contending team.

Other Yankees Posts

Why marriage matters...sort of

Time's recent cover story about why marriage matters was interesting, well-written and a good read altogether. But I'd like to think that marriage is more important than just because there may be kids involved (could there be a higher calling for this human race than to reproduce effectively?). Read the article here.