Fragile athletes, virgin pitchers and dangerous pies

First off, I'm a little peeved the Yankees' pie celebration has been unashamedly stolen by the rest of the league. Sure, the Yankees weren't the first pie people, but they rejuvenated the activity ... now word comes that the Marlins have banned pies because a player blew out a knee. Really?

Let's recap some other idiotic baseball boo boos:
Sammy Sosa's sneeze
Carl Pavano's everything, leading to a bad bum
Various wall punchers .. two Yankees on that list, Kevin Brown and now AJ Burnett
Kendry Morales jumping on home plate and breaking both his legs and his spine and killing six children in the crowd
Chris Coughlan tears a knee delivering the aforementioned pie

Tangential to this is Nats phenom Steven Strasburg was scratched from his start. Nothing major is wrong with him, but what is up with these fragile pitchers/players? Guys just shouldn't break down this easily.

I've watched two full Yankees games in the last two days. This is more uncommon than you might think.

That said, watching the Yankees swing helplessly at the pitches of a guy they've never seen is getting old. Last night it was Josh Tomlin, 25, making his first start. He went 7-plus and was helped by miscues, errors and some bad luck for the Yankees.

CC's start was good enough to get a win, but apparently not when so nobody kid is on the bump making a lineup full of stars and vets look like clowns. Argh. Maybe Girardi should bench every guy with more than a season of service the next time a rookie goes against them.

Flat brim should be outlawed.

This is the last time I say "Oh good, it's the Royals. And Bruce Chen. Yanks will score 15 tonight."

A win's a win but ...

So, Pettitte is injured, Hughes is shaky, Burnett needs anger management and Vasquez's puss, which is becoming Moyeruesque, is making the second half of the season and 2.5 game lead look awfully grim.

Oh, and the bullpen is a mess — only Robertson and Rivera appear capable of getting outs. Logan eats innings, but they're usually junk innings, Chamberlain looks like he's throwing BP. I'm not even sure who else is out there. Catino Mobley, Dwayne Johnson ... oh, Dustin Moseley. And then Park and Gaudin.

Granted, this is/was the Angels, and they always give the Yanks fits, no matter what kind of a team they field.

And now Ralph Houk is dead. When Sheppard and Steinbrenner died, I was asked who's next, and answer was obvious, but I didn't want to say. Then he fell before the old-timers' game and I thought, great, "I killed Yogi." But it looks as if the third was Houk, 90, who won 1,600+ games as a big league manager. Impressive.

Thanks Hideki

That didn't take long.

I actually said "That's too high."

Sadly, no responded, "Who gives a sh*t? It's gone."

Back from the break

I went to bed last night thinking the Yanks were in control. I'm gonna keep on thinking that, despite gagging up an 8-run loss like a cat with a bathing fetish.

As for this afternoon's game, Erik Aybar just killed the Angels with the decision to steal (try) third with 1 out and a 2-2 count on Bobby Abreu. Javy Vasquez couldn't get anyone out, couldn't get a swinging strike and was teetering on the brink of — you guessed it — going all cat-like with a 6-0 lead.

But Aybar gets caught and Javy gets the batter, survives — for now — at 6-3.

And Mike Scoscia is wearing the WTF face.

Good thing the Yanks won't need home field advantage to win the World Series.