Yankenfreude

Doug Mientkiewicz throws up consonants in his own mouth a little trying to spell his own name while Melky Cabrera realizes his nickname isn't as cool as Mookie as the Yankees don't get to the World Series for the sixth straight year*. (In case you missed out, they lost in 2001, too.)

Suddenly it became clear to folks that it's A-Rod's odd new batting grip for the playoffs that keeps him from hitting as well as he does during the regular season.

Seriously, as a Mets fan there's only one thing almost as good as a Mets win--a Yankee loss. A lot of that ill-will comes from the era when I grew up, when rooting for the Mets might not have been hard, but seeing them win certainly was. Even in 1973 they were barely above .500 and more the poster children for the phrase "anything can happen in a short series" than anything else (it helped they had a rotation of Seaver, Matlack, Koosman, and a surprisingly good George Stone that year, too). In the meantime the Yanks went on that late 1970s run that people still can't shut-up about, to the point where poor John Turturro has to wear funny ears.

So I must admit I enjoyed watching the Yanks lose tonight. Sorry. I'm mean.

But I was right when I said Chien Mien-Wang in English means Tom Glavine--he even hit the last batter he faced tonight. What's more, the MLB.com ticker at the time he left the game had the headline: "Wang gets chance to show true ability." I guess it all went wang for the Yankees tonight.

*CORRECTION: OK, the Yanks did get to the 2003 World Series, which they lost to the Florida Marlins. What's more, they saw something they liked in that series, and it's name was Pavano.