Captain Clutch and Burnett the Burner (Yanks 7 Rays 2)

If you're a Yankee hater and you're looking for more reasons to indulge and wallow in your self-pity for losing against the Yanks so badly and for so long, there's no need to google the words "Yankees suck" or "pinstripes make me barf.org ". The ultimate Yankee hate site is none other than the NY Times.

Yesterday Tyler Kepner, who has built a career out of writing ugly, misleading, and ultimately hateful reports of Yankee games (presumably for his Mets fan following, who, by the way, have demonstrated over the years a peculiar lack of knowledge about baseball) called the Yankees, in terms of how they compare with the Rays, "inferior". "Evidence of inferiority stared (the Yankees) in the face", Kepner declared yesterday after the 15-5 loss.

Maybe AJ Burnett and Derek Jeter read that little slice of baloney. First Burnett utterly manhandled one of the best hitting clubs in MLB. We see no-hitters and near-no-hitters from time to time, but almost never against a defending AL pennant-winning lineup. It was a remarkable thumping.

And yet, the Rays made it interesting. Garza kept the game respectable, and finally the Rays managed a couple of runs to tie it. The Trop was rocking, the Rays were rolling, and the game looked to be slipping away from the Yankees.

Then came the Captain.

First he hit the game winning single. It was vintage Jeter, slowing the game down, fouling balls off, taking close pitches for balls and then strutting around in circles before slowing stepping back into the batters box. And then devastating the opposition.

But he wasn't done. In his next at-bat, with a look on his face that said, "You raise your banners one night and give yourselves rings the next? Are you kidding me? Here's what I think of that..." Jeter blasted a majestic 3 run home run, crushing the Rays' hopes and sending their fans slouching towards the exits. And all the way around the bases and into the dugout, he never cracked a smile. THAT'S Yankee baseball.

Today's article by Kepner was subdued. Apparently unable to acknowledge Yankee superiority when he sees it, he quotes Evan Longoria instead: "'give credit where credit is due.'" Whatever, dude.

The NY Times has a long tradition of despising the Yankees, with a determination to drawing attention to their miscues while downplaying or even ignoring their successes. To my knowledge that tradition was interrupted only in the late 90's by Buster Olney, who wrote respectable, even admiring reports and analysis of Yankee games. We miss his balanced commentary very much. Below is what I think is his best article. After the Yankees won the 1998 World Series, Olney laid out all the evidence for why the 1998 Yankees (and by extension the 1998-2001 Yankees) were the greatest team in baseball history. Enjoy!