Good morning, good afternoon or good evening to you my friends - whichever applies at the current time. Welcome to yet another edition of The Gospel According to "L". I was hoping this would be the final time I'd have to hurry one for Sunday - but Major League Baseball has screwed me over. This week we're going to talk about the six games in KC and the big three in the Boogie Down Bronx with the foreign invaders from the People's Republic of Massachusetts, as well as some other topics of importance - so let's cut the BS and get on with it.

Let's begin with the three games in Kansas City, Kansas City here I come. I'm going to Kansas City baby, all right enough singing. We begin with the Monday night massacre. All I can remember was the Yankees being ahead 3-2 in the bottom of the fifth, then Brad Halsey allows two men to get on with nobody out. Tanyon Sturtze then comes in to relieve Halsey. Let me tell you - Halsey is nowhere near ready for the Big Leagues, as I have mentioned to you many times. If he ever is ready for the show, it might be with an NL club. Anyway, Sturtze comes in and allows Abraham Nunez to reach on a bunt loading up the bags. We're in some trouble now! Then a walk to Ken Harvey ties the game and a wild pitch puts KC up 4-3, and then a balk makes it 5-3. This is sick! Then they intentionally walk the lefty hitter - Matt Stairs so now it's first and third with two out. Then up comes the rookie John Buck and smacks one over the left field fence and all of a sudden - the laughingstock Royals lead it 8-3. I decided to switch between the game and RAW on Spike TV. When I turn back to YES, it's 12-3 Kansas City! What the hell happened! They scored ten runs in the fifth inning! Well, after RAW was over I turn back to YES and I see it's now 17-4 Royals. I told you last week the Royals could not be taken lightly - they make be garbage but they also have nothing to lose. Joe Torre made that mistake - but obviously he learned on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Tuesday night Jason Giambi comes back and Mike Mussina pitches another beauty - eight innings, zero runs, three hits, one walk and eleven K's! As for the Giambino - he hit one deep his first at-bat, but it went nowhere except the glove of Abe Nunez. To this date Giambi still hasn't gotten a base hit. I'll tell you something - if he doesn't get another hit all season long, he's going to regret ever coming back at all this season. Now we come to Wednesday afternoon - that was another one to enjoy. Javier Vazquez finally decided he was going to pitch the way he was meant to pitch when Cashman traded Nick Johnson to get him. He pitched another shutout - seven innings, three hits, four walks and seven punchouts. All year long it's been either pitch well or get smacked around. This guy is an enigma, I'm telling you. But if we can do nothing but win come the ALDS and beyond - then I'll be happy. What I enjoyed seeing most was the bomb Derek Jeter hit back in the sixth inning. For those of you that didn't see it - it landed between the waterfall and the video board in left-centerfield. That baby could have gone all the way to Des Moines that's how well it was hit. Since when does somebody like Jeter have that kind of power? I would have expected somebody like Gary Sheffield or even Tony Clark to hit one that far - but the captain? That was gorgeous! If it wasn't for Monday night this would have been a great series - especially with the way Mussina and Vazquez pitched and with Boston coming to the Bronx for three.

Speaking of which - now it's time to review the big three with the number two team in the A.L. East - some team known as the Sox or something like that. I have to admit - I was nervous from the first pitch on. When Johnny Damon smacked that homer to the tier level in right - I thought it was going to suck the life right out of the Yankees. Then after the two rain delays we get back to baseball. In the bottom of the fourth the Yanks get a run on an RBI groundout by Jorge Posada and the game is tied at one. Then John Olerud smacks one towards the Bronx County courthouse and now it's 2-1 Bombers. The bullpen held this lead until the ninth and I thought this one was in the bag. We're going to take a 4½-game lead tonight - WRONG! Then comes the top of the ninth with Mariano Rivera in to pitch. He walks the leadoff man, Trot Nixon. All right, maybe a double play will get us out of this mess. Now Dave Roberts comes in to pinch run and he can run! Jason Varitek swings at strike three, Roberts takes off and he steals second. It was basically a sacrifice without the ball even being hit. Well now Kevin Millar's up to hit - and he gets plunked by a pitch. All right this isn't funny let's end this now! Now Gabe Kapler comes in to pinch run, and apparently he's developed his leg muscles as well as every other muscle in his body, therefore he's going to have to be watched. Then Orlando Cabrera gets himself a base hit and it ties the damn game up at three! This truly sucks! We had this game won and now mental errors have ended that chance for now. Then thankfully the rookie Kevin Youkilis (I feel a Chris Berman reference to Tiny Tim coming in the future) strikes out so now there's two out with Keith Foulke warming up in the bullpen and Johnny Damon coming to the plate. Damon comes in, he swings and it's one of those dying quails that puts Boston up 3-2! That's how it stayed until Olerud struck out. This one really depressed me- the Bombers had this game won yet they blew it! It wasn't because the lead is now down to 2½, but because the Sox got themselves some confidence. The last thing you want to give your opponent is the thought that they can beat you. Well at least we thought they had more confidence. Then comes Saturday and the rout was on baby! What I loved most about this game was that everything that piece of human sewage Tim McCarver said came out wrong! "The Red Sox infield has improved; the Yankees one weakness is their rotation" - or something to that extent. The Red Sox infield collapsed, although they were only charged with one error, and Jon Lieber pitched a no-hitter into the seventh inning! The only negative to me was when Derek Lowe was taken out after A'Rod's groundball single hit his ankle - but thankfully the Bombers did do some damage against Terry Adams, Ramiro Mendoza and Mike "Halloween" Myers - his pitching is scary. Did you notice how McCarver and the other animal, Thom Brennamen acted as if they were in mourning because the Sox got their behinds handed to them. Unfortunately we have to put up with this nasty network until 2007, then hopefully we'll go back to having NBC and ABC doing games - the way it should be! Now we get to Sunday - another one to enjoy. I'll tell you this much - once Gary Sheffield took Pedro into the left field stands - I thought to myself this will be a good day for us. In the fifth and sixth innings Mike Mussina nearly gave it away - but he knows how to get out of these jams, and he did just that. To get one of baseball's most dangerous hitters, Manny Ramirez, to pop up to end a big threat in the fifth just shows you what kind of pitcher the Moose really is. You wonder if not being able to score in the fifth or sixth demoralized the Sox - I mean the Yanks did put up five more runs - two of them thanks to Jorgie and another two thanks to Miguel Cairo. That ended Pedro's day and any chance to "Sawx" had to win this game. Pedro Martinez is nowhere near the pitcher he was way back in the day - he's lost velocity on his fastball, so now his changeup - which is still good - can easily be spotted. At least that's what logic tells you - I could be wrong on that. Some teams still cannot hit him - that could be his intimidating demeanor - that could also be that he has just a bit left in him. Whatever he has left in him - the Bombers didn't see it today, thank God! To think - if Mariano doesn't have a rare moment on Friday night - this would have been a sweep, the Yankees would be up 5½, and the magic number would be down to eight. However the lead is only 4½, and the magic number is 10. And we do this again next week - only in a different venue. Now let's move on.

I want to now talk a bit about what happened earlier this week in Oakland. On Monday night the Texas Rangers' bullpen got into a shouting match with some A's fans, and it ended up with reliever Frank Francisco throwing a chair into the stands - injuring the wife of one of the idiots talking trash in the stands. What surprised me is that I thought A's fans would only save this kind of trash talk for the Yankees - I didn't think they'd reserve this for a team like the Rangers.

I love how Craig Bueno, the idiot in the stands, said, "it's an American tradition." Funny, when it's done by Yankee fans at Yankee Stadium it's always evil. Isn't that why you vile bastards hate Yankee fans? Because we're so vulgar and "mean?" Yet it's ok when other fans do it - as long as it's not Yankee fans. Just imagine if this happened when the Yankees were in Oakland - you would see an entire Sportscenter dedicated to it, ESPN News would spend 45 of 60 minutes talking about it, the two animals on 'FAN - Francesa and Russo would spend five hours talking about it, Jim Rome would spend 2½ hours talking about it! Well, you get the picture! But since it was the Texas Rangers you only saw maybe one or two days of coverage. But my friends - Yankee fans are the most violent of all, what a joke!

Now I'm not going to defend what Frankie did - I mean you have no right to injure an innocent bystander. Now if the fan had gotten violent with Doug Brocail, Frank Francisco, or whoever else was in that bullpen (believe it or not, Jeff Nelson wanted nothing to do with that), then I would have condoned the chair being thrown - but only in self-defense. "Oh but Cat that's going too far" - if your life or physical health is in jeopardy you have no time to rationalize! You're not going to say "oh but I shouldn't throw this chair, I should do this or that," the longer you spend thinking about this the more time you give your aggressor to hurt you. I only wish our pitchers had that much guts, but they use their heads and arms instead. A day or two ago he was suspended for the rest of the season, which I thought was kind of liberal - the Rangers aren't going to the playoffs, give him maybe the first ten games in 2005 too. One thing I'd like to do is move every bullpen in baseball beyond the field of play and not too close to the fans. Remember what happened to David Wells in 1998 when that animal in Cleveland insulted his dead mother? That sick son of a b**ch deserved a bullet in the head, nevermind a chair. Another thing I'd do is limit beer! If you want to get wasted go to a bar or buy a bottle of booze! Don't do it at a ballgame, especially if you have to drive home! Yankee Stadium's bleachers are the only place that has banned beer - nobody else has learned, they still make the same mistakes. Well now a fan gets busted open so maybe that will change. Ok that's all I'm going to say on that issue.

I want to finish of by kind of predicting what will happen this October. After seeing the Bombers beat the Red Sox two of three, I'm sure you are a bit more optimistic - I know I am. Now the Yankees will probably win the East and face either Oakland or Minnesota in round one. The A's and Twins are not easy opponents - you remember what happened at the Metrodome last month. You've got Brad Radke and Johan Santana - the latter is baseball's best lefty, maybe second to Randy Johnson. And you know the A's have their big three - Hudson, Mulder & Zito - and then you thrown in Rich Harden. Now the Angels are still in the race for the West, and I would only like to see them again if the Bombers could get themselves some revenge for 2002 the way they did against Seattle in 2000 and Cleveland in '98.

You'll have Mike Mussina, El Duque, Jon Lieber and Javier Vazquez in the rotation - and maybe Kevin Brown. The way the first three have been pitching recently that could play very well to the Yankees' advantage. Then again, they could begin to struggle again. This October will be full of surprises - I'll tell you right now! If they do make the World Series - you have very good teams in the National League - the St. Louis Cardinals for one. They have an explosive offense with guys like Albert Pujols, Scott Rolen, Jim Edmonds, Larry Walker, Edgar Renteria, Tony Womack, etc. And their starters have had a good year - Jeff Suppan (15-7, 3.99), Woody Williams (10-7, 3.92), Chris Carpenter (15-5, 3.46), Jason Marquis (14-5, 3.66). Then you have a pretty good bullpen - Jason Isringhausen has 42 saves, lefty Steve Kline, who is currently on the DL, has a 1.86 ERA, the other lefty Ray King has a 2.47 ERA and lefties only hit .152 against him. You also have the Cubs with Kerry Wood, Mark Prior, Greg Maddux, Carlos Zambrano, etc. Houston could also get into the wild card with Clemens, Oswalt, etc. I won't even mention the Braves, Marlins or the Dodgers - hell we've already seen the latter two. My point is that if the Yankees make it out of the ALCS, they better be prepared to play in the World Series - otherwise the result will be the same as last season. Now who knows - maybe they'll surprise everybody and win it all, maybe they'll fall short again, or maybe they won't even make it out of the first round. Either way - this playoff season will be unpredictable. See you next week friends.