A good morning, a good afternoon or a good evening to you friends - whichever of the three apply. Welcome to the pre-All-Star edition of "The Gospel." I have a few things I want to discuss with you this week, including my plans for the All-Star Game. So let's not beat around the bush - let's get going.

Let's begin with the series against the Detroit Tigers. On Monday night, after leaving Shea with their tails between their legs (myself included since I was there on Sunday,) you had to figure the Bombers were going to take out their anger on somebody. And they did - four Yankee homeruns off Tiger pitching, and a very good effort by Jon Lieber. I do want to make a comment about Esteban Yan - I don't believe he should have been thrown out. For what? What did he do that was so terrible? All he did was try to send a message to opposing hitters that he's not going to let them mess around. Back in the old days pitchers always did that - Bob Gibson, Don Drysdale, Sandy Koufax, etc. But you notice - whenever they do it to the Yankees, nobody else cries about it. Now when Clemens hit Piazza (I can't wait to see that N.L. battery this coming Tuesday), they were all shocked and disgusted. No, Clemens should have just been a good little boy and let Piazza take his pitch all the way to Connecticut. Boy how silly we were to think that Clemens should announce his presence with authority! But anyway, that was Monday (I hate games on Monday night, especially since they make me rush the Gospel.) Now Tuesday and Wednesday were simply an atrocity. Mike Mussina and Brad Halsey - the latter is back in the minors, thank God - each got ripped to hell. The only difference was that on Thursday the Yankees actually looked as if they were going to make another comeback. Well they tried but they fell short, and the joke called the Detroit Tigers take two of three at the Stadium. Meanwhile the Red Sox are pounding on the Oakland A's and slowly creeping up.

Now onto the four games with the Devil Rays. I do just want to take this opportunity to welcome all you Devil Rays fans back to reality. The D-Rays will be going to the same postseason the Tigers will be going to - none! It was a four-game sweep, yet for some reason it didn't feel like one. I mean the first game Jose Contreras looked just the way he did when he pitched on June 27 against the Mets - untouchable. In the second game I thought this one would be a loss for sure - but the offense proved me wrong - thank you Lord! Now the ninth scared the dickens out of me. Mariano comes in to pitch with a 5-3 lead - Julio Lugo leads off with a double to straightaway center. Ok that's not normal - Mariano giving up a leadoff double. Then the Crime Dog, Fred McGriff grounds out but sacrifices Lugo to third with one out. Now Toby Hall is up. Ok, we need a big out! Pop up in foul territory, playable - two out! Ok, sigh of relief, only one out to go. Geoff Blum's the hitter - wrong - Tino pinch hits for him. Damn if he homers here the game's tied! Well he singled in Lugo, and now it's 5-4 with two outs. All right, come on, let's get this overwith! Being the slow runner that he is, Lou Pinella pinch runs Damian Rolls at first. Now Carl Crawford is up and he hits a slow roller to second, Miguel Cairo can't get the out since Crawford runs so fast he'd hit himself with a linedrive up the middle sliding into second. So now it's first and second, two out and the tying run is in scoring position! Then Jose Cruz Jr. is up and you know he is a Yankee killer. Well Mariano walks him. Oh dear God what is this! Now Rocco Baldelli is up with the bags juiced and two out against the best closer in the game. He goes to a three and two count! Oh my God, this is not going to happen. Mariano is not going to walk Baldelli - is he? *Biting finger nails* The three-two - popped up! Get this Jason, get this! GET IT! Got it! Game over. Saturday was Old Timers' Day. I enjoyed watching the ceremonies - especially Diana Munson coming out to throw the ceremonial first pitch. I'm going to write a little bit about Thurman Munson for the August 1/2 Gospel, which is about three weeks from now - by then it will be 25 years since his death. Is it just me, or does Kevin Maas still look the same? He's 39 yet he hasn't changed that much - I could be wrong. For those of you kids who didn't follow the Yankees in the early 90's - Kevin Maas hit 10 homeruns in his first 77 Major League at-bats back in 1990. He finished with 21 that season, but he never hit more than 23 in a season for the rest of his career (I still remember him going 90 AB's without going deep back in '91). If you remember what Shane Spencer was like when he came up back in '98, that's exactly what Kevin Maas was like. For the past two to three years I've gotten a big kick out of seeing Bobby Murcer up there - he's now gone through three batting instructors - Jason Giambi, Hideki Matsui and now A-Rod. Alex, your fate is sealed bro, you're fired. And how about Luis Sojo going deep? That was a lot of fun - there's no Old Timers' Day anywhere like there is at Yankee Stadium. Gee I wonder why? Anyway, on to the modern-day game. I had a feeling this was going to be a win, even though it didn't look good early on. It's tied at two in the seventh - then with out one, Hideki Matsui singles, Miguel Cairo singles and Matsui goes to third. Then Kenny Lofton walks against reliever Jesus Colome, now it's bases loaded with out one. Now Bernie comes up and he grounds right back to the pitcher, out at home, now it's two outs. This could turn out to be a wasted inning. WRONG! Derek Jeter hits a double that scores all three - the good'ol Merry-Go-Round - and now it's 5-2 Yanks. Another runs scored thanks to Aubrey Huff's ineptitude at third base. Final score is 6-3, now it's three of three. I had heard Saturday night that El Duque was going to be called up from Columbus - and he had pitched ok down there with the Clippers. He wasn't exactly Tom Seaver dwn there, but he wasn't terrible either. So there he is on Sunday, number 26 with the socks up to the knee. And if he's going to pitch that way this season - we could be in good shape. Five Yankee homers, and a good outing by Orlando Hernandez, not too bad. In addition - now Jose Contreras has somebody to chat with about life back home. I was pretty satisfied with the results this week - although the Tigers series could have been better. All right, let's talk about something else now.

I want to tell you my plans for the All-Star Game. Until Yankee Stadium holds one - I will not watch it. What am I going to watch it for? To see Yankee players get treated like criminals by the jealous and biased vipers sitting in the stands? Just imagine if Cal Ripken Jr. had played a portion of his career as a Yankee, or forget that, let's imagine him breaking the consecutive games streak as a Yankee. He would have gotten booed loudly at every single ballpark he played in! So I don't know how I'm going to follow the game - maybe I'll have the TV on mute - although at 8PM I will be taping something on a different channel.

Another thing I'm angry about is Jason Giambi being voted in to start at first base. "But wait, he's a Yankee," so what? This game isn't a popularity contest you idiot! This is a game that, before 2003, should have represented the best players in the game today. Since 2003, this is a battle between both leagues to see who will get to host four of the seven games in the World Series. Yeah I know, Yankees had the advantage last year and lost - big deal! Look at 2001 and '02 - who won those seventh games? The home team! As a matter of fact - the home team has won the last eight seventh games of the World Series (last home team to lose was the '79 Orioles - good for them!) Unless you're the Boston Red Sox or the Baltimore Orioles - you have a great advantage when you host a seventh game of a World Series - you have the home crowd behind you and you have the final turn at bat in a very close game. Eventually the fans are going to lose the vote - and they'll deserve to! I only voted for the A.L.; I didn't bother voting at all for the N.L. since as a Yankee fan I want to see the American League have the home field. That's all I'm going to say about that. Let's move on to the last topic of this week.

I want to talk about our favorite play-by-play man - Michael Kay. All right, maybe our second - John Sterling is still number one. I was glad to see him move to the TV side with guys like Ken Singleton, Jim Kaat and Bobby Murcer. And now you have Joe Girardi and Paul O'Neill do a few games. Ever since 2002, I have absolutely enjoyed listening to the TV side of the Yankee broadcasts, especially since Tim McCarver will never ever do another Yankee game unless it's a national game. Hiring Tim McCarver to do a Yankee game is like hiring David Duke to speak at an NAACP rally or hiring Louis Farrakhan to speak at a pro-Israel rally. You have no idea what a delight it is to have Kay join that former MSG team.

Now I did have one issue to raise up - you ever notice how he asks the ex-ballplayers about their playing days? He'll ask Singleton and Murcer a question when it comes to a turn at-bat and he'll ask Kitty a question when it comes to pitching. "Ken when you faced a knuckleballer, how did you approach him?" "Kitty how does someone pitch to a batter in cold weather?" I'm still waiting for him to ask questions such as "Bobby when you were staying in hotels on road trips, how many groupies would you have over in one night?" "Kenny did you ever fantasize about hiring a hit man to kill Ron Guidry so you wouldn't have to face him?" I would have died hearing him with Phil Rizzuto!

KAY: "So Scooter what did it feel like trying to bunt against somebody like Bob Feller?"

RIZZUTO: "Holy Cow I'll tell ya, that huckleberry used to throw me inside so much I thought he was going to turn me into Swiss cheese. Hey Murcer, where's that cannoli I asked for?"

Classic, classic stuff! One more issue - you notice how he enjoys showing off his Fordham education? Broadcasters will sometimes use big words - Kay will use them every 5 minutes! I went to St. John's, and we always destroy Fordham at basketball - it's never even a contest. But I use big words sometimes as well, but I do not bombard you with them - do I? But like I said, I'd rather have him with that team that a slimeball like McCarver any day of the week. Mr. Steinbrenner, what were you thinking? See you next week friends!