Nobody cares. Write about the Mets.

"The Yankees scored nine runs and made it a nice, easy night for Ivan Nova, who is about twice the starting pitcher A.J. Burnett is right now."

A little late to the Nova party, but, whatever. He's just 11-4, 3.85 ERA. Starting pitcher for the Yankees. Who play in New York.

Lupica is the Last Person on Earth who thought Burnett was the Yankees' #2 starter.


"The game was also noteworthy for another reason: The Yankees got back over .500 against teams with winning records in the American League this season."

Wow.

If you add in today's win, the Yankees are two games over .500 against winning teams in the AL.

Which means the Yankees are 10 games over .500 against non-Boston winning teams in the AL.

I'm suddenly optimistic. I really didn't think the Yankees were playing that well against good teams.


"Of course these numbers from the regular season of 2011 are more than somewhat skewed because our kids are 2-10 against the Red Sox this season. Now in our company town, this really isn't supposed to matter because of two things, as far as I can tell reading and listening:

Twenty-three years ago – 23 – the Mets beat up on the Dodgers during the regular season and only lost to them once and still got beat by the Dodgers, seven games, in the National League Championship Series that year. I mention that stat a lot myself, even though I never assume because the Dodgers got hit by lightning one time that you can practically expect something like that to happen in the playoffs because it happened in '88."

You.

Are.

Lying.

Naturally, some people bring up the '88 Dodgers as the prime example of the relative meaningless of regular season records.

It's the prime example, but hardly the only example.

"Something like that" happens in the playoffs every year.


"Here's the deal: You either think these Red Sox-Yankees games matter in the regular season, or you don't. If not, lose the hype and buildup forever. If we're going to talk about The Rivalry and the history and how it's the best thing going in baseball and maybe all pro sports, then just because the story doesn't come out the way it's supposed to – that means from New York's way of thinking – means that these games are such trifles that they practically shouldn't be counted in the standings. It doesn't work that way."

When I was a youngster, I remember the guy on WPIX hyping up the weekend series with the Mariners. The awful Mariners were describes as "pesky." This was one of my first lessons in PR-speak.

Lupica seems to be complaining that the Yankee PR machine is engaging in PR.

Everyone else is hyper-worried about the Yankees. Worried about Sabathia, Mariano, the Red Sox, ARod's hip, Colon, Garcia, Burnett, etc.


"And by the way? I was never one of the people who thought that the Red Sox were going to run and hide in the AL East because they signed Adrian Gonzalez and during the regular season. The idea that those signings, the Red Sox spending for one winter the way the Yankees usually do, turned the Yankees into $200 million underdogs is as ridiculous now as it was then. I never think the Yankees are big underdogs to anybody starting the season, and that includes the Phillies after the they sign Cliff Lee."

I never thought the Yankees were underdogs, either, by the way.

But I didn't use a newspaper column to say, "I told ya so," because (a) I don't have a newspaper column, and (b) I am post-pubescent.