the shrewdness of apes

the lure of baseball proved too strong this morning and so i found myself hauling my tired ass from the bed to the couch at 5am to watch the Yankees and the Devil Rays play the first real game of the year. the dog, having tried unsuccessfully to cough something up for 5 minutes, knew an opportunity when he saw one and claimed my abandoned spot on the bed.

ESPN2's broadcast was pre-empted leaving me with only the abhorrent YES Network showing the game. in retrospect i should have turned on the radio, but Ken Singleton was decent as usual and Joe Girardi didn't embarass himself in his broadcast debut, making several interesting comments about the umpiring. Michael Kay needs to have his lungs sucked out by a tornado though.

at any rate, my decision looked bad when Giambi (who doesn't look much different from last year at all, despite so much having been made of his supposed weight loss) muscled one over the left field fence for a 2 run homer in the first. and the Yankees still had Sheffield and Posada coming up. but Victor Zambrano settled down and pitched really well for 6 innings, even striking out A-Rod twice looking. Toby Hall's bloop single tied it, and eventually the Devil Rays ran away with an 8-3 victory. i have to admit that i dozed off around the 4th inning and i missed Jose Cruz's homer in the 6th, but saw the other runs score that inning. the rest of the game i was in and out, satisfied to know the Yankees would lose at least 1 game this year. i don't think i'll get up for tomorrow's game, much as i'd like the see kevin brown implode.

oh yeah, and the "Ricoh" advertisements that were on the Yankees jerseys and batting helmets were a travesty. i'm glad they have such a healthy appreciation for the sanctity of the pinstripes and what they mean to millions of their fans.