It’s called HIBERNATION

Liz and I took an extended nap on our blog. We hibernate. Don't discriminate against us for being bear-esque.

Now, onto the real story of this post: baseball, in any way, shape or form. So, in about 4 hours, we will have about 1 month left in the season. Shall we all go back and look at our predictions? What's that? You threw yours out? Well, I wrote an English dialogue in April about baseball (and, as Suzyn Waldman would say, how you can't predict it). Suzyn is totally right. My April predictions look about as good as those ugly show dogs. Shall we review?

American League East:
Prediction: Yankees win, Rays second and Wild Card
Currently: Yankees lead, Rays second and wild card

Notes: Shockingly accurate. If both of tonight's scores hold, the Yankees will have a 1 game lead on the Rays entering September. With any luck, we can take at least 4 games from them out of the remaining six (3 in the Bronx, 3 in the Trop). And, not to toot my own horn, but props to me for the lack of the Red Sox. I think its safe to say that with their loss on Sunday to Tampa that they are officially done.

AL Central

Prediction: Twins win in a landslide, Tigers hold their own for a while and then crash.
Currently: Twins lead by 4 games over Chi-Town.

Notes: So, it's not going to be a landslide as I projected. But the Twinkies should hold on to this. Man-Ram-Cheat will help and make the race interesting, but he's not contest for the M and M Brothers (Mauer and Morneau) in Minnesota. Also, Detroit collapsed (sounds familiar, doesn't it?)

AL West:

Prediction: Mariners win. Angels a close second. "Forget about the Rangers"
Currently: Rangers running away and hiding. Nobody else even has a shot.

Notes: Well John, you just can't predict baseball.

NL East

Prediction: Phils win, Bravos second and Wild Card. Mets have a down year.
Currently: Bravos on top by a lot. Phils fighting for the Card.

Notes: Got the Metros right, didn't I? But both the Phils and the Braves are primed for a long Playoff run (that is, if they both get in)

NL Central

Prediction: Cardinals run away and hide early. No contest.
Currently: Reds are wrecking everybody.

Notes: Really? This was my most confident pick. Where did Cincy come from? Joey Votto is a champion. I would not want to touch him in a dark alley, or a light alley, or a light street. I'm a bit afraid of him. And he could win the Triple Crown.

NL West

Prediction: Giants win behind the Freak.
Currently: Padres winning behind stellar pitching. Giants in the WC hunt.

Notes: Can anybody predict this division? It changes every day who's going to win. I gotta say, SD is not going to fair well in the post season. They lack offense.

So. Predicting baseball. You just can't do it.

General notes:

Really sorry for the extended break. Hope you all are doing well.

The Yankees have actually not played well lately. But that's ok. We're still winning.

Marcus Thames? WTF?

Robbie Cano might actually win the MVP if the Tigers and Miggy Cabrera keep tanking.

Sabathia deserves the Cy Young. Burnett deserves the Worst Pitcher ever award.

It's time to get rid of Cervelli. Montero is ready. Let's get real Joey Braces and CMoney.

Screw Roger Clemens. (The video keeps the Suzyn Waldman theme going)

Some cool stuff:

Follow these tweeps (if you're on twitter): @EatSleepYankees, @JustFollowYanks and @AnaMariana42.

Until next time, my friends.

I HATE LEBRON JAMES MORE THAN THE BOSTON RED SOX

LEBRON JAMES. YOU ARE NOW PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE. BEYOND KEVIN YOUKILUS. BEYOND DUSTIN PEDROIA. BEYOND REGGIE MILLER, TOM BRADY, ALL OF THEM. YOU SUCK.

For you non basketball people, let me put how this feels for a Knicks fan in baseball terms. Joe Mauer is a free agent. He's a hometown boy, strongly considering resigning with the Twinkies. But, the Yankees, Angels, Phillies, Cubs and Marlins are also in the running. So, up and down, up and down. He decides to announce on live television. The day before the announcement, the Yankees are the favorites. All the fans are very excited. Overjoyed persay. People still think that the Twins are in the running. So, the announcement rolls around and BAM! He signs with the Florida Marlins. Why?

Sure, we got Amar'e. But, using the previous scenario, thats like getting Josh Hamilton. Sure, he's good, but he's not Joe Mauer. Amar'e is no Lebron James.

Lebron, we've been through enough. It's been 10 years of misery. We survived Isiah. We survived Renaldo Balkman. We deserved you. Every other team has done well in the last decade. Except us. The Heat won a championship. The Nyets made the finals. Your Cavs made the finals. The Bulls have made the playoffs. Ok. The Clippers haven't been so hot either. But Isiah makes up for that. You made a bad decision.

This whole Heat thing? Not gonna work. As tweeter @YankeeMegInPHL stated ""Bosh, you never pass to me. Wade, make him pass to me!!!! PASS IT TO ME!!!!!" - LeBron" Thats how it's gonna end up. It just can't work. The day the Knicks beat them I will laugh. I will sing. I will cry.

Let me say this. I am a Knicks fan. I am down with the Orange and the Blue. I will not give up. Lebron James 2010: Change We CAN'T Believe In. However, Carmelo Anthony 2011: Change we CAN Believe in.

This is a Yankees blog. So here's a bit of Yankee analysis:

We just threw out Ichiro. Hasn't happened in years. So suck it.

Swisharoo made the All-Star team! YESSIREE! SWISH, if you're reading this, I love you.

Liz and I mailed a bunch of letters looking for signed stuff to raffle off. Letters to Mo, Po, Andy, CC, Gardy, Cervelli, Paul O'Neill, Bernie, Jeter, and Swisho. Who do we get stuff from? BTW: all the money from the raffle goes to the Donna M. Crandall foundation, a great local organization. Wanna donate? Email us @ back2backbelly2belly@gmail.com.

Jeter, A-Rod, Mo, Cano, Pettite and Carsten Charles to the ASG. Biggest Snub: AJ. He's soooooooo good. Nah. For real: Joey Votto. Glad he got in on final vote.

Player of the month (June): Cano. Winner. Great month. Honorable mentions: CC, Tex, A-Rod, Gardy

Goat of the Month (June): AJ. Tankin'. Sinkin' like a rock. Honorable Mention: Dave Eiland

I love Brett Gardiner. He's a class act.

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.

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.

An open letter to AJ Burnett

Dear AJ Burnett,

Stop sucking so much. You are far and away the worst pitcher on the staff. Even Javier Vazquez is better than you. Well, heres the deal. Either suck all the time, or pitch well all the time. No more necessary prayers for you to pitch well. Just do it. We shouldn't have to ask you. You get paid way more than my 8.50 an hour. You make 565 times what I make in an hour PER PITCH. Pitch like you do.

You're berserk. Watching you pitch in 3 different games is like watching Clint Eastwood's The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Your last three starts (not counting tonights dreadful game against my sister's love affair: The Phillies): 1-2, 13 runs allowed (11 earned), an ERA of nearly 5, with 4 hit batters! These are in "Low Pressure" games (.89 aLI, below the league average of 1). These are Joba "The Warrior" Chamberlain numbers. Not 16 million dollars per year numbers.

AJ. Step it up. We want more rings. We can't do it without you. Well, thats a lie. We can. But things would be alot easier for us if you would just pitch well.

Love,

Yankee Fans all over the world

PS. Tonight was ugly, and it sparked me to write this letter.