I concede the Yankees made a mistake.

My only points of contention:

1) The old Yankee Stadium was often quiet and desolate.

2) The boisterous fans have little effect on the way the players play.

Take a deep breath. Eighteen games over .500 and a 6.5 game lead.

Very bad loss. But that's why you build up a big lead in the first place.

The Orioles are an inferior team who beat the Yankees by playing the game properly.

This is disconcerting, especially when the Yankees put on another display of solo HRs while showing an inability to hit situationally; and they lost another one-run game; and their pitcher kicked a ground ball that should have been a ground out ...

But it's still better to be 6.5 games up rather than 6.5 games back.

That's just math.

I'm going to go ahead and pencil in Mike Baxter.

"Jason Bay likely will have until the conclusion of this road trip to show the Mets he deserves to keep his everyday job.

A day after manager Terry Collins told The Post he is considering Mike Baxter for primary left-field duties, a club source yesterday said Bay probably has another week to try and show team brass something."

Unlikely that Bay will start hitting in the next week.

Unlikely that Mike Baxter is going to be any good, either, but ... he couldn't be worse.


"Collins placed Bay in last night’s lineup against Diamondbacks right-hander Ian Kennedy, and he went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in the 6-3 loss to worsen his rut to 4-for-35 (.114) since returning from his most recent disabled-list stint."

Probably the best thing for Bay is to get injured again. That way, the fans will forget about his bad season. You know, a tragedy makes him more sympathetic to the fans. A physical injury is probably the luckiest thing that can ever happen to a professional athlete.

Angels try to buy World Series title with mercenaries.

Zack Grienke may disrupt clubhouse chemistry and, ummm, the Angels hit too many homeruns:

"You think anybody is going to want to play the Angels in a short series now that they’ve added Zack Greinke?

Because I kind of don’t."

The Mets.

The Mets would rather play the Angels in a short playoff series than finish 25 games out of first place.


If Alex Rodriguez was really lucky, maybe he'd be attacked by flesh-eating bacteria:

"Alex Rodriguez called it a 'tough break' when he broke his hand the other night, hit by a King Felix Hernandez pitch.

Actually, it was a great break.

Because when he comes back, whenever he comes back, when he starts a new season that will take him through the playoffs, A-Rod has a chance to make THAT season the one Yankee fans remember.

Not the ordinary season he was having right before he turned 37."

Wow.

Mike Lupica is really a dick.


Look, I know ARod's season has been quite bad in some respects: RBIs, hitting with RISP, etc. "Ordinary," if you wish.

But it wasn't so bad that a broken hand is better.

That's a demented way of looking at things.

So if you see a furry creature with a permanent grin, extremely large head, and green and orange hair ...

... check the back of his uniform to make sure it's number 97.

You'd hate to get the police involved if you spotted the wrong furry creature with a permanent grin, extremely large head, and green and orange hair:

"He was picked up while heading toward downtown Boston with what's described as a furry creature with a permanent grin, extremely large head, and green and orange hair, wearing a number 97 uniform."

Geez, the Yankees and their fans really dislike Dave Winfield.

I'm amazed that the Ichiro uniform number "debate" doesn't even mention the fact that Ichiro is wearing the number of Yankee HOFer Dave Winfield.

As the Mets slide to .500, we're forced to avert our gaze away from the Mets and towards the Yankees.

Yankees are good, Rangers are good, Tigers are good. Though these observations may seem obvious, Mike Lupica explores the situation more deeply and concludes the Yankees might not win the World Series:

"But even the way the Yankees have scored and even the way they have hit home runs so far, you wonder if they really are thinking about adding another outfielder, if they do want some version — maybe even a better one — than Brett Gardner, gone for the year, but a guy who could get on base and scratch out the kind of run that doesn’t require 'high, far, gone.'

A Shane Victorino, you hear that name a lot these days. Or maybe a grinder like David DeJesus of Cubs."

David Dejesus of Cubs hits throws fields ball. Shane Victorino name hear lot.

For what it's worth, those guys are not better than Brett Gardner.


"Or maybe, in this season when they keep hitting balls out of sight, wouldn’t it be ironic that what they really do need is a guy who just sprays the ball around?"

Right. The Sac Fly from the Imaginary Player.

Nick Swisher is going to strike out with two on and two out in the late innings of a tight playoff game. Shane Victorino totally would have hit a sac fly.


Speaking of Imaginary Land:

"You can talk about 20 different things that have happened to the Red Sox this year, but if Josh Beckett and Jon Lester don’t pitch like scrubs, the Red Sox are fighting it out with the Yankees for the division."

Get Pulitzer on the telephone.

If I understand correctly, New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica has finally cracked the code.

If you take a bad baseball team with bad players, but exchange those bad players for good players, the end result is a better baseball team.

Eureka!

I remember Pedro Astacio.

I totally knew that Johan Santana would struggle after the no-hitter. I told ya so. Or maybe I didn't ever say it, but I totally thought it, so it's the same thing.

Will Derek Jeter be the Nadia Comaneci of baseball?

I say it's time for this tradition to end and Jeter is a good guy to do it.

Speaking of Nadia Comaneci, Henry Mancini is punk rock to me.

Lineup

"What an awesome situation," Rodriguez said. "We just came up a little short."

"We."


Since the beginning of the season, I thought it was unwise for ARod to bat #3 or #4. It's probably past time to move him.

But it's also not particularly clear how to optimize the lineup or who would be a suitable cleanup replacement.

Of course he's not ARod 2007, but he's not that bad. You move Cano to #4? You move Swisher to #3? What's the big difference?

I mean, as an example, the following lineup makes sense: Jeter, Swisher, Cano, Granderson, Teixeira, ARod ... but what's the big difference?

You put the lefties back to back, that could be a small problem; you re-arrange speed, that probably makes little difference; everybody has power ... what's the difference?


It sure seems like ARod is fixated on Bonds's HR record -- a goal which is oddly worth something like $30 million in his contract -- and he is simply never going to adjust to become a .300 line drive hitter who trades warning track flies for singles and doubles.

Felz stat of the day.

In 205 at-bats in the 2012 baseball season, Russell Martin has a batting average of .176 and an on-base percentage of .296.

... says the man who writes about grown men chasing a ball around a field.

"The next several days will be polluted with chatter about whether or not R.A. Dickey should be the National League's All-Star starting pitcher, and that will be nearly as obnoxious as the agonizing last year over Derek Jeter's Miami mini-vacation."

I don't have any recollection of the Derek Jeter mini-vacation from last year's All Star break.


"Since baseball is yammering about this manufactured issue, we'll register a vote here: Whatever. Who cares? Doesn't matter one way or the other."

Agreed.


"We would prefer, when we think of Dickey, to celebrate the process that delivered him to this sublime place, and to circle back as often as possible to the issues of sexual abuse that he raised this spring - a more important contribution to the sports world than any of the 12 wins he brought into Thursday's no-decision against the Phillies and Cole Hamels, or the inning he will pitch next Tuesday in Kansas City."

You want to circle back as often as possible to the issues of sexual abuse?


"Despite allowing 11 hits and five runs in seven innings Thursday, Dickey's numbers argue that he does, although National League manager Tony LaRussa sounded unconvinced during a Thursday conference call. He might prefer to assign the knuckleballer to a veteran catcher in the middle innings, and start Matt Cain, Stephen Strasburg, or someone else instead."

You're yammering about a manufactured issue.


"Zoom out, though, from those pointless particulars. All-Star debates (like their annoying cousins, MVP, Cy Young and Hall of Fame arguments) are distractions from sports discussions of greater depth, and Dickey's emergence as a sensation this year came as a result of moment-to-moment mindfulness, not external rewards like this."

Depth!

Circling back to discuss serious issues of child sexual abuse!

Let's do it, man. I'm ready.

"Beyond that, there is the issue that should arise more often when Dickey is discussed, his revelation in a March memoir that he was sexually abused as a child. Published just months after the Penn State scandal opened a raw topic thread in sports, Dickey became a prominent face stumping for the removal of shame and taboos.

Privately, the pitcher suspects that his personal catharsis this year was related to his professional one. Freed of secrets, he could be more of a man-in-full while competing; sure enough, he soon saw the pitch that required nearly a half-decade of development land on a new plateau.

The liberating effect of revealing sexual abuse, though, does not make for an easy fan tweet or MLB Network talking point. Sports consumers looking to the games as an escape from harsh realities, rather than a valuable window into them, will want to argue Dickey vs. Cain vs. Strasburg instead.

That will be a waste. Let us not cheapen this story by caring about whether the guy pitches the first or third or fifth inning next Tuesday. Let us display the courage that Dickey himself showed by delving into the real discussions, the difficult ones."

Was that it?

Was that your deep dive into R.A. Dickey's psyche?


Let's zoom out, shall we?

Compared to child sexual abuse, the starter of the All Star Game is unimportant ... and so is the All Star Game ... and so is R.A. Dickey's performance on the baseball field in 2012 ... and so is baseball ...


Wow. Perspective is kind of a bummer. Let's zoom in again and leave the psychoanalysis to the psychoanalysts.

Yankee fans watch the Yankees, Met fans watch the Mets, Franklin & Bash fans watch Franklin & Bash.

"They are not the best baseball team in town, but they are the best show.

In many ways, their flaws are what make them so much fun to watch every night."

If flaws make a team fun, the Yankees are very fun.

Mostly fun when runners are in scoring position or when their second baseman is trying to catch a throw from the catcher.


"They don’t do this methodically, or in ways that are devoid of emotion. On the contrary, the Mets wear it all on their sleeves, showing anguish when they fail, and jubilation when they succeed. They’ve come up with this way of playing — and winning — that’s infectious."

It really is amazing that the Yankees are supposedly devoid of emotion.

Remember Collins and the Mets talking trash before the second leg of the Subway Series? The chicken Yankees couldn't hit HRs at CitiField?

Remember how the Mets won Game One and took a 2-zip lead into the seventh inning of Game Two? With Dickey pitching Game Three?

At that moment, you thought the Mets were going to sweep the series, am I right?

Well, which team came back? Led by Ibanez, Cano, Swisher, the bullpen ... the Yankees weren't playing with emotion?


This article is typical of a relentless and weird "either/or" theme in NY sports coverage. As if the fans are impartial observers who wait 80 games to pick their team and then commit emotionally to the best story.


Jeff Bradley can't find a storyline for the Yankees? Let me help him out. Here are some ingredients from Wednesday's game:


July 4.

Steinbrenner's birthday.

USA's birthday.

John Sterling's birthday.

Righetti's no-hitter anniversary.

Phelps vs. Price.

Dual no-hitter through 4 innings.

Kyle Farnsworth, Kyle Farnsworth, Kyle Farnsworth, Kyle Farnsworth.

Yankees have lost 9 in a row in Tampa.

Robotic ARod bases-loaded walk on a full count.

Emotionless Robinson Cano with a go-ahead, 8th-inning. bases-loaded single.

David Robertson.

Rafael Soriano

Mariano Rivera injury.


You're the professional writer. Take those ingredients and make a yummy cupcake.

In other words, do your job.

Which I'm supposing is a sportswriter instead of a PR hack for the Mets.

The players who never took steroids can say anything they want about the players who took steroids.

"It's when Jackson is plunging into touchy issues that some of the Reggie of old emerges; the only difference is that the star no longer has as big a stage. Over a plate of seafood at an oceanside restaurant in Monterey, he casually mentions that he plans to bring up the issue of undeserving members of the Hall of Fame at the next members-only dinner in Cooperstown. He believes that the Baseball Writers Association of America, whose members vote for the Hall, have adopted too low a standard. 'I didn't see Kirby Puckett as a Hall of Famer,' he says. 'I didn't see Gary Carter as a Hall of Famer. I didn't see Don Sutton as a Hall of Famer. I didn't see Phil Niekro as a Hall of Famer. As much as I like Jim Rice, I'm not so sure he's a Hall of Famer.' What about Bert Blyleven? 'No. No, no, no, no,' Jackson says. 'Blyleven wasn't even the dominant pitcher of his era -- it was Jack Morris.' "

Reggie is a .262 career hitter.


"He isn't silent on the subject of steroids in baseball either. Jackson makes no secret of his displeasure that since his retirement in 1987, he has been passed on the home run list by seven players, five of whom, Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro and Sammy Sosa, have been linked to performance-enhancing drugs. 'I don't think the fans really count them, and I agree,' he says. 'I believe that Hank Aaron is the home run king, not Barry Bonds, as great a player as Bonds was.' Jackson was a supporter of Bonds (who is a distant cousin) as recently as 2007, when he said, 'They tried to get this guy more than anybody ... and they've got nothing on him.' But he says now that the volume of evidence against Bonds is so great that he has changed his mind.

And A-Rod? 'Al's a very good friend,' Jackson says. 'But I think there are real questions about his numbers. As much as I like him, what he admitted about his usage does cloud some of his records.' "

Fair enough. As long as you are consistent, you are one of the few who can claim the moral high ground.

"There is only one player in that category for whom he might make an exception. 'The question is going to be a guy like Andy Pettitte, who admitted that he got involved for a while, but who is so universally respected in the game. I think he'll get in, but there will be a lot of [members] who won't go.' Would Reggie? Jackson takes a deep breath. 'He's an awfully good friend,' he says. 'I've known Andy since he was 20. I'll leave it there.' "

Weak.

Blame oozed.

"Blame oozed from one wall of the Yankees’ clubhouse to the other last night.

Standing on the left side of the somber room was Mark Teixeira, shouldering the blame for a 4-3 loss to the Rays in front of 21,742 at Tropicana Field.

Across from Teixeira, David Robertson pointed the finger at himself."

Blame oozed from one wall of the New York Post newsroom to the other last night.

George A. King III sought refuge in his usual spot, sitting awkwardly in front of a flickering monitor. George always preferred a typewriter to a computer; a taxi cab to a limousine; a double scotch to an appletini.

He allowed his mind to wander for a moment, dreamily recalling the sweet release of a double scotch.

No ice, of course, "rocks are for quarries," his old man always used to say. Just like his old man before him, and his old man before him, all the way back to the Old Country.


George had dutifully interviewed the muscular, sweaty baseball players in the postgame locker room.

The first baseman tried to take the blame, the reliever tried to take the blame, maybe the manager tried to take the blame, too.

But did they understand blame?

Don't do it, George. Don't do this to yourself.


But what if they found out the truth?

What if the County decided to dig deeper into his tax records?


Keep it together, George. The only person who can betray you now is yourself. Everyone else who knows is already gone.


Blame.

Guilt.

Shame.

All of them, oozing like living things, flooding the newsroom. A wild animal attack will kill you quickly, but these animals only kill you slowly.


George did what he always did.

He sighed deeply, snuck a swallow from his flask, and tick-tacked away at the keyboard.

Maybe one more column will keep the demons at bay for one more day.