HAPPY BIRTHDAY HUGGYBEAR!

I've been trying to have some fun with this blog doing contests and all... what do I get? Nada. We've had two participants in our current Yankee trivia contest happening live on Twitter. The World Cup reference contest? No participants...

Happy birthday to Phil "Huggybear" Hughes. A young man, Hughes has lead this team throughout this season. Disregard the cliche, he's finally stepped up to the plate this season. He's a serious contender to win the Cy Young if he keeps up this pace.

I completely hate these Hughes Rules. They're sooooooooooo dumb. They didn't work with Joba "The Pizza Hut" Chamberlain and Huggybear is way better than him. We need him now. We're in the midst of a tight pennant race. He's our best pitcher. It's a bad logistical decision to take him out for a series of games. Come on Joey Braces. What are you thinkin'? We need wins. Wins are important.

Topic 2: Beating the Diamondbacks

We should take 3 out of 3 from a team as dismal as the Diamondbacks. I mean, come on, what is a Diamondback. But you know why we didn't break out the brooms? A-FREAKING-J-FREAKING BURNETT. I'm still furious about this. He's sooooo bad. Some say we should trade him. Go ahead, type "Burnett for" into Google. Look at the suggestions. He's worth, according to Google, carmel. Carmel. That's what we have pitching for us. Carmel is pitching for us. Thats right friends.

But seriously, we couldn't get jack for AJ. If we're lucky, the Metros would take him off our hands.

So. If you can get three things out of this post, here they are:

1. Have fun with us. Off day twitter trivia contests and blog post contests. Win magical prizes.

2. The Huggybear rules are dumb.

3. I hate AJ. He's dumb and worth carmel.

I HATE the West Coast

Full disclosure: I am an old lady. Always have been. Always will be. My mom referred to me as her "little old lady" as a child and she still does.

I am happiest when I have a routine. I don't really like surprises. I have a hard time dresssing youthfully. I tend to notice trends as they're ending. And most importantly, I go to bed and wake up early.

So this series against the Diamondbacks is killing me. With games that don't start until 9:30 or 10, I barely make it through the first inning. It's embarrassing. I'm writing this during the first inning on Wednesday and I can barely keep my eyes open.

I barely noticed that Vasquez almost just pelted someone. At least I think that's what happened. I'm not entirely sure.

As an aside, I have an excuse for being so tired. I have to be at work at 7, so by 10 I'm normally pretty wiped.

What I'm trying to say is: I hate west coast series. And it doesn't end with the Diamondbacks. We're off to LA soon. I'm never going to see a full game again. Or at least it feels that way.

I don't really hate the west coast (in spite of what the title says). We went to California once. It was lovely, but I had a really hard time with the time change. So I slept most of the time. We went to Dodger stadium while we were out there. It's true what they say say: it does have a HUGE parking lot.

I guess my real issue is with time changes. Not so much the west coast. (Fun fact: China is all on one time zone.)

In other news, Mike and I are mounting a campaign to get Swisher on the All-Star team. He may not be the best, but you have to smile when you see him. He's always smiling.

I'm going to end this before I fall asleep.

How are we actually in first?

Ok. Here's a scavenger hunt for y'all. Open up your newspaper to the Sports Section. Find the baseball standings. What team is in first place in the American League East? The New York Yankees. While I am truly overjoyed by this, I have to wonder how this happened.

Have you watched this team lately? We've been playing like garbage, similar to how North Korea looked against Portugal. I see two key reasons as to why we are in first:

First off, Andy Pettite and Phil Hughes have been indomitable lions this year. They have a combined 18 wins and 3 losses. Hughes is third in ESPN's Cy Young Tracker (behind Price and Bucholtz). Pettite is 4th. Both these pitchers are rolling. They're the Super Eagles of this squad.

Second, Robbie Cano. Don't Ya Know? Cano is on a tear this season. His BA is about .25 points higher than anybody in the majors. First in the AL in hits, second in the Majors to Martin Prado on Atlanta. He's driving the car known as the Yankee offense right now. He's batting like the Celestial Blue Sky.

See...we really shouldn't be in first place. I'm a huge Yankee fan, but come on:

We have AJ. He's tanking fast. Last six starts? 2-4, 6.55 ERA, a WHIP over 1.5, and not too statistically, he can't get people out on two outs. We've got nothing on the top. Jeter is struggling, Tex started slow, but hopefully will get up soon and A-Rod just isn't crushing it this season. We need these guys to get going soon.

We're not going be in first for long without a third of our line up hitting and a two fifths of our rotation pitching like garbage. Especially since we have the Red Sox Fury and the Bafana of the Rays slowly gaining on us.

World Cup Contest:

I will give a prize to the first person who can name all the World Cup References in this post. In order to win, you must comment the references on this post. There are 5 of them.

Other notes:

Vote Nick Swisher to the All-Star team. He needs all the support he can get. Vote here early and often.

AJ looked like crap yesterday. No two ways of saying it.

GO TEAM USA TOMORROW IN THEIR GAME.

Liz, learn some practicality

YANKEE FANS LIKE THE YANKEES. WE HAVE NO INTEREST IN YOUNGER SIBLINGS TAKING MORE RISK. WE WANT TO HEAR ABOUT TEX'S MONSTER SERIES AGAINST THE NEW YORK "JAYVEE" METROPOLITANS.

Fear not Yankee fans, for I, Mike, am here. I will analyze the heck out of everything about this "Tex Message" to Yankee fans that he is still alive.

For those of you who did not hear about Marky Mark's Monster weekend, he single handedly destroyed the Metros. A two run shot yesterday to put away New York's JV team and a grand salami today, absolutly wrecking Johan Santana.

While I've said this about 3 times this season, Tex is back. I said it after his 3 home run game against the Evil Empire. I said it when he hit a big 3 run home run a few weeks back against Cleveland. But now, I think things are going to turn around Big Mark.

Things have been changing for Mark "Legs" Teixeira since his 5 strikeout game against Toronto on June 5th. That game was a travesty. Since then, his OBP is up above his career average, and the desired .400 mark. His BA, while below his career average, is about .05 higher than this season's average. Since June 5th, his slugging percentage is up an astonishing .15 points, to .549. These numbers don't even include today's game, which he slammed the Mets on his own.

So, can everybody shut up about Tex crashing? He's fine. It was an extended slow start that will bring his finial numbers down. But I think he's going to go on a thrash for the rest of the season. Look for some pretty good things from Mark Man for the rest of the year.

Mark, I know you're a techno-phobe (similar to Liz). But we have some questions for you. How long are your legs? Also, send us a picture?

Risky Business

First, lets celebrate the 2-1 series against the Mets. Teixeira's grand slam was a beautiful, beautiful thing.

But I really want to discuss this article in the New York Times a month ago, about a study conducted about siblings and risk. It describes a study by Frank J. Sulloway and Richard L. Zweigenhaft for the current issue of Personality and Social Psychology Review.

The two wanted to see if siblings acted differently with regard to risk given their birth order. They used MLB siblings as they're data group. The article reads, "Given how younger siblings have been shown to take more risks than their older counterparts — perhaps originally to fight for food, now for parental attention — Drs. Sulloway and Zweigenhaft examined whether the phenomenon might persist to the point that baseball-playing brothers would try to steal bases at significantly different rates."

Their findings supported their hypothesis. In over 90 percent of baseball siblings, the younger brother tried to steal more bases than his brother. They also controlled for overall skill.

Anecdotally, it's totally true that younger siblings take bigger risks. I'm a complete perfectionist, who spends hours antagonizing over simple decisions. Seriously, it will take me a minimum of twenty minutes to decide whether or not I want whip cream on my waffles if we go out for breakfast. Mike can attest to this. We went out for Indian last night and it was a huge deal that I ordered something I'd never gotten before. This is a risk for me.

Mike, on the other hand, dives head first in situations. I don't want to say he does things blindly, but he's much more likely take a risk than I am.

If you put both of us on first base, there's no doubt in my mind that he'd steal and I'd wait. It's just the way we are.

The researchers offer up possible explanations for this behavior in younger siblings, such as "originally fighting for food, [and] now for parental attention."

In my case, my risk-averse nature has nothing to do with fear of losing food or parental attention. And everything to do with a fear of failure. I don't want to screw up, so I take the safe track.

Mike, I'm interested to know what you think about this article.