Good morning, good afternoon or good evening to you friends. Welcome to the first August edition of The Gospel According to "L". Today - August 2, 2004 is a tragic anniversary, and we will discuss that in detail later on. We will also be discussing the series in Toronto and against Baltimore, plus I want to talk a little bit about the trade deadline. I did want to talk about Jason Giambi this week, but I will not have much room, so we'll save Giambi for another Gospel. In the words of Bob Grant - let's be heard!

Before I begin with baseball matters - I want to inform you of something. If you are a New York Ranger fan, like myself, my Rangers' website has opened for business. Broadway on Ice will essentially be the Ranger version of L.O.T.M. Yanks. I also write a weekly op/ed piece called The View From "Broadway", which is that site's version of "The Gospel." In case you haven't noticed, the site is linked twice on this website - once on the left-hand menu bar, and at the bottom of the home page (the huge white banner.) If you're a Yankee fan and you like this website, then if you are a Ranger fan, you will enjoy "Broadway," so come on and visit - hopefully we will have an NHL season. Now let's get on to business.

Let's start off with the three game series in Toronto. I repeat what I have said in previous Gospels - I hate having the Yankees play on a Monday night. This Monday was even worse since I wanted to catch the 60-minute Iron man match on Monday Night RAW. It's a shame I do not have a picture-in-picture TV. What I want to know is how often do you see Mariano Rivera blow two saves in a row? The last time I remember him giving away games like this was back in July of 1999. I know last season he blew four out of six, but one the playoffs came around he was his old self. It's better that he does this now instead of in game seven of a playoff series. And at least it did turn into a Yankee win. But just think - if Gary Sheffield doesn't drive in that extra run in the ninth - that would have been a walk-off win for the Blue Jays. Thankfully Tony Clark gets the big hit in the tenth and the Bombers escape with the win. Tuesday's game looked a little bit like last Wednesday's game at the Stadium against the Jays. El Duque and Ted Lilly started, and it was a very close game. When Orlando Hernandez left the game with the hammy problem, I thought to myself "we need to get another starter - even if it's not Randy Johnson." I'll speak more about that later on. Thankfully he was fine enough to pitch his next start. But anyway, it's 2-1 Jays until the eighth. Then A-Rod hits the sac fly to bring in Bernie and move Derek Jeter to third, and now we're tied up. Then Jorgie Posada is up - boom, here comes the boom! All of a sudden - Yanks lead by three. Then Bernie goes boom in the ninth, and then Gary Sheffield hits one that could have landed in Winnipeg. A minor Toronto threat in the ninth was no biggie, and the Bombers take the first two. Final game of the series and again we see an extra frame. Come on let's win this son of a b**ch in nine! Jon Lieber pitched a beauty, but the Bombers - as was the case when he pitched for the Diamondbacks - couldn't score against Miguel Batista. They did lead 2-0, but the Jays score one in the seventh and one in the eighth and we're tied at two. Then comes the tenth - and Scott Proctor (I'm still waiting for his 100 MPH fastball) serves one up to Vernon Wells - game over - dream of a sweep killed just like that. This was a series the Yankees could have easily swept, but it didn't happen, and Meat Loaf said it best - two out of three ain't bad.

Now back home for the Orioles. How fitting that Jose Contreras' final start as a Yankee was an atrocity. Seven runs and eight hits all with one out short of seven innings. On paper it looked like an automatic Yankee win - after all Sidney Ponson was starting, and since '99 the Bombers have used him as a BP pitcher. Yet Thursday he looks like Tom Seaver going the distance, walking nobody and punching out five. If that's not embarrassing, then the term embarrassing has no meaning. Friday night, I didn't know what to think. Kevin Brown was going to make his first start in ages, and in his three minor league appearances he wasn't great. Yet his only mistake was the gopherball he served up to B.J. Surhoff (like I've said to you in the past, this guy should have played at least one season with his hometown Yankees) back in the third. Then A-Rod brings in two - one on a homerun, and that's all that was necessary. That was the same night we were told Jason Giambi has a benign tumor and is going on the DL. I was going to write that Giambi should sit out the rest of the season, but now it looks like he'll be ok come at least September. Saturday's game was the A-Rod show. He steals home in the fourth and hits a long long bomb to the bullpen in the fifth. Meanwhile the O's scored all their three runs in the sixth on sac flies and a wild pitch. All but one of their runs were scored via unorthodox methods, yet the Yankees only score one run via a steal of home. Finally we have Sunday's game - that was living proof that the Yankee bullpen could be burning out. Scott Proctor comes in, gets nobody out, but gives up a smash, and I mean a smash to Miguel Tejada. He's got a great arm, yet from what I've seen, he loves to throw his fastball repeatedly. Does he even have other pitches? The first thing you're taught as a pitcher - you need to develop at least one or two more pitches because hitters can time a fastball; especially Major League hitters. So then Mariano was needed to get the final three outs, and he did. The good part - he could have a shot of breaking Bobby Thigpen's 1990 57-save record. The bad part - his arm might not make it to October if this keeps up. The same goes for Flash Gordon and Paul Quantrill; although Quantrill is a sinkerballer, so he could be used in a high capacity. However Gordon is a power pitcher, and when power pitchers lose arm strength, they lose speed on their pitches and they risk rotator cuff injuries. Now I'm going to spend more time on the deadline deals later on. Right now I want to get on with this week's anniversary topic.

I want to now talk about the tragic anniversary that befalls this date. Twenty-five years ago - on August 2, 1979 - Yankee catcher Thurman Munson was killed in a plane crash in Canton, OH. The Bombers had just finished playing a game in Chicago against the White Sox, and since the following day would be an off-day, Thurman - an experienced pilot - wanted to fly home to be with his wife and children. Bobby Murcer and Lou Pinella were the last Yankee teammates to see him alive. Then came the news later on that Thurman's plane had crashed short of the runway. What possessed him to fly an advanced aircraft like that is beyond me. Before Daryl Kile died two years ago, Thurman was the last active Major League to die during a Major League season. The last I could remember were three Cleveland Indians all dying in '93 - Steve Olin and Tim Crews in the boating accident, and Cliff Young in an auto crash. However Olin and Crews were killed during spring training and Young was killed after the '93 season. All three of those guys were relief pitchers, Thurman Munson was the Yankee catcher and the team captain. I'm not saying the three Tribe pitchers' deaths are insignificant compared to Thurman's, however this really was a blow to the franchise.

I was only a year-old when this happened, I do not even remember anybody in my family ever giving me details. Then again, most of my family members have this disease that makes them all become Met fans. It's not their fault, sometimes it happens. Speaking of Met fans, you never ever hear about this in the media. On August 2, 1979, the Mets were playing a doubleheader with the Phillies at Shea. When the news of Thurman Munson's death was announced, from accounts that a good friend gave me, some of the fans there began cheering. Hell the '79 Mets (who were managed by Joe Torre) gave their fans nothing to cheer about that whole season, so what the hell, the Yankees' star player is killed, now Met fans have something to cheer about. What sick people. If I had my way I'd round up all the so-called fans who were at Shea that day and I'd gas them one-by-one! Trust me the world would be a better place.

I remember a guy telling me that Lee Mazzilli went back to the dugout with tears in his eyes when he heard the news. Yet the fans of the team he played for were cheering the news. When have you ever heard about that in any documentary? Nowhere! Some thing you will only find out here! Things others don't want you to know you will find out here! But now getting back to Thurman's death - I can still remember having tears roll down my face watching Thurman Munson's Yankeeography. John Sterling and the YES Network did a great job with that - it's no wonder Yankeeography was nominated for an emmy. Even seeing the eulogies of Pinella and Murcer brings tears to one's eyes, as does the first home game since the burial with Murcer driving in all five runs to beat Baltimore. Yet it's amazing, the Bombers went to the ALCS the following season and got swept by Kansas City, and in 1981, the made it back to the World Series and lost to the Dodgers in six. Until 1995, no Yankee team made it back to the postseason. That tells you a little something doesn't it? All right now let's finish this with the trade deadline.

You talk about insane. The Dodgers trade Guillermo Mota and Paul Lo Duca to the Marlins, the Red Sox traded Nomar Garciaparra to the Cubs, and the Yankees were only able to get Esteban Loaiza. I just died laughing when I found out Nomah was going to Chicago (so now he's "Nomer".) Funny - the Yankees have Jeter and A-Rod, and now the Sox have nobody! And on Saturday night, it was Orlando Cabrera's error that cost the Red Sox the game in Minnesota! I heard the bastards on ESPN News ask why the Yankees didn't go after Doug Mientkiewicz. As you know Giambi's coming back soon, Tony Clark's done a good job, and John Olerud will soon become the 87^th player to play for both the Mets and Yankees. Had Giambi needed to miss the rest of the season with his ailment, then you would have seen somebody like Mientkiewicz (no disrespect to Polish people, but I hate these long names) would have been sought out by Cashman and Steinbrenner.

Now about Randy Johnson. As you know the Big Unit will remain a D-Back for the rest of the season. This makes me happy and I will tell you why. Just imagine if the Angels or Red Sox were able to land him. At least if he isn't going to be a Yankee, at least he will be able to do no damage against them come October. The D-Backs' season ended before the Coyotes' or Suns' did. Now the Bombers did get Loaiza from the White Sox for Jose Contreras. Honestly I shed no tears over Contreras leaving. He's got his life back together, there should have been no excuses for him to be pitching as poorly as he did. Compared to the pressure of being on a small float in a Shark-infested Sea, pitching against the Red Sox should have been a godsend. But it wasn't, so now he's gone. And we get Esteban Loaiza from the White Sox, which surprised me. The ChiSox are in a pennant race in the central, and all of a sudden they give up one of their top pitchers? I know they got Freddy Garcia now, but to give up Loaiza? That seemed a little funny to me, although I keep hearing about his devastating cutter. I don't know if I'm too happy with this deal, but if Loaiza can turn into another 1995 David Cone, then I won't complain one bit! Friends I'll see you next week.