*The Yanks won their ninth in a row last night, and they did it the hard way. Joba took a liner off the knee in the first, and had to be pulled post haste. Our bullpen somehow managed to keep the decent Oriole lineup to four runs, and our bats continued to serve. This is a fearsome squad right now. Matsui and Sweet Robbie both homered last night, Melky had a good game, and at the moment none of our hitters are in a real slump. Ironically, A-Rod is the one premier Yankee who's not quite in his groove, but his frequent home runs atone for the poor average.
I'll be at the Stadium tonight when we go for ten in a row against Philly (AJ vs. Myers), and I'm heading up Sunday as well (CC vs. Hamels).
*Another thriller in the Denver-LA series last night, with the Nuggets grinding for 48 minutes and achieving the coveted road win. But man oh man, it did not come easy; Kobe played like a demented monomaniac hellbent on snatching a win. He was so good at the end that, even though I'm not his biggest fan, I eventually had that dopey smile on my face that says "I know this performance is improbable, and it feels like I'm watching a movie instead of real life, and I know the increased expectations that coincide with the increased difficulty are absurd and contradictory, but at this point the ball splashing the net is 100% expected, and I can't help but grin."
Or something to that effect.
Still, when things finally went sour, Kobe's reaction was to sneer in frustration, cover his head with his jersey, and stalk off by himself. A ten foot radius of empty space surrounded him, and you got the feeling that if a teammate ran up with consolation on the mind, he'd be angrily dismissed. The fact that no one even tried says a lot.
Pure and simple, the Lakers are a dictatorship. It remains to be seen whether a championship can be brewed from that formula. Where Jordan was a stern but fair king, and Lebron is a benevolent people's champion, Kobe is a despot. Like Lenin turning his wrath on Trotsky after the Bolshie revolution, he chased Shaq out of town so he could be the undisputed alpha dog (unlike Shaq, Trotsky was assassinated in Mexico). The coup d'etat succeeded, but the promise of utopia has not come to pass; in a tyrannical state, it rarely does.
*I'll be writing an obnoxiously long piece on the French Open next week, but for now, let me state for the record that my excitement is in the lunar phase for the resumption of major season in tennis. Here's hoping we get at least one more Nadal-Federer final this summer.
*I'm now going to plug a new blog I started today. It's a humor joint, completely unrelated to supports, but maybe enjoyable even so. The gist of the blog is that I write bizarre (and hopefully funny) craigslist ads offering rooms for rent here in NYC, and I post the ads and some of the responses. Enjoy it while you can, as I'm not 100% sure of the legality, and the venture might be nipped in the bud. If I go to prison, I'll let you know on this blog. You can find the new stuff here:
Craigslist Capers
*Seth Curry Saves Duke respects national holidays, which is code for "I'm going to sleep until 3pm Monday, and will not be updating against until Tuesday." Have a great long weekend.
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