Quick Sports Roundup

The Monk hasn't posted on the Yankees in awhile and with good reason. Right now, they're basically on cruise control because they're 10.5 ahead of the Red Sox and are simply attempting to ensure that Brown, Mooooooooooose, Vazquez and (probably) El Duque are ready for the playoffs and that Rivera's and Gordon's arms don't fall off.

But games like today's drive me nuts: Torre had a 3-2 lead with Brown at 89 pitches. One out, runner on second, Ichiro up. Torre should have let Brown fight his way through the inning; instead, he opted for the so-so lefty pitcher against lefty hitter, instead of the solid righty Brown. Result: walk. Then Quantrill gives up three straight hits and the whole game goes in the tank. Stop managing by "the book," Joe, it got you in trouble in the WS last year, and not managing by the book got to this team to a couple of championships (1996, 2000) that it won without being the best team going into the playoffs.

As for other items:

(1) The notion that Mark Mulder is the leading candidate for AL Cy Young is tiresome and, at this point, ridiculous. Mulder's ERA is a weak 3.71 and has been trending upward over the last month. So he leads in wins, it means little considering certain far superior candidates. First, Johan Santana of the Twins has been the best starting pitcher this year. He leads in best batting average against -- opponents hit only .205 off him, 27 points lower than second-place and 40 points better than Mulder's -- and leads the league in strikeouts and is second in ERA. Second, there's this misplaced concept that starters should win. But in the AL, no starter who qualifies for the ERA title (one IP per game played by his team) has an ERA under 3. Meanwhile, Joe Nathan has had a phenomenal year so far -- ERA around 0.85, 33/34 in save opportunities. For that matter, Mariano Rivera is having a better year than any starters (40/43 saves, 1.48 ERA); but Nathan has stabilized the Twins' bullpen and the Twinkies have been . . . saved by the excellent season he's had. The Cy Young Award ought to go to the pitching MVP, and in the AL this year, Nathan's it.

(2) Check out those patrons dressed up as empty seats in the Olympics. Other than the swimming venue, everything is empty or dang close. Check out how desperate the International Olympic Committee is to get butts in the seats here.

(3) I'm not watching that much of the Olympics coverage, but I watch the swimming races. Every time NBC cuts away and shows an Athens shot, the network essentially shows the same things time and again: the Parthenon and other parts of the Acropolis or the Temple of Jupiter ruins. Why? Athens is shockingly charmless with a few parks and the ruins and the rest of the city is tons of 3-5 story squareish and colorless apartment buildings -- legacy of too much socialist government over the past 60 years. I've been there and every person who tells you that you only need to spend a couple of nights in Athens if you go to Greece is absolutely right.