Blowhard, fall hard

As Yankees owner Hank Steinbrenner continues to tell the world he's going to buy CC Sabathia and any other pitcher with a pulse, and invest in research aimed at bringing Babe Ruth back from the dead for the stretch run, the Phillies, Red Sox and pretty much every other team that's been more successful than the fallen empire quietly goes about their business.

The Inquirer has a story and column package today reminding us that mega-deals like the one CC will get rarely guarantee parades. To quote Bob Ford:

In the end, Eric Bruntlett and Joe Blanton can trump CC Sabathia sometimes, and Matt Stairs and Scott Eyre can mean more than Manny Ramirez. Not always, but occasionally. If you are lucky enough, and patient enough.

In past years, a headline like "Phillies' Amaro in no hurry to spend money" would be the kiss of death for a rookie general manager in Philadelphia. But it's the same approach, which had been questioned if not criticized until last month, of Pat Gillick.

Hank's winter bluster has been greeted by ... by ... by... crickets? Theo Epstein and the crew do their best to keep things quiet when retooling the roster. They have a track record, so let Hank crow, knowing he'll have to eat it again next September.

All right, things aren't so quiet out of Boston this morning. I assume management is responsible for this Manny Ramirez leak during the first weekend of unfettered free agency. Cue damage control from Scott Boras:

The bottom line is he was never suspended and there was never cause for suspension. The fact is the intent to suspend is not a suspension.

That settles that. Lavish money on him and don't worry about his antics. Manny, meet Hank; Hank, meet Manny.

Wave that white Hank-y

Less than two weeks after the Yankees' brass popped open champagne to celebrate Manny Ramirez being shipped off to Los Angeles, Hank Steinbrenner is already saying wait 'till next year.

We're going to win it next year. If we need to add a top veteran pitcher, we'll do that. We'll do whatever we need to do. Next year we'll be extremely dangerous.

He said that Tuesday when the Empire was five games behind the Red Sox for the wild card with about a quarter of the season left to play. Hank says it's because the 2008 Yankees have been decimated by injuries more than any other squad in history. I really feel sorry for the $200 million men, especially when the low-budget, first-place Rays have lost Evan Longoria and Carl Crawford to injuries this week.

I have complimented the Yankees for making Joba Chamberlain a starter, but can we see him pitch, I don't know, maybe one full season before proclaiming him the most dominating starter in baseball? What an idiot. (Hank, not Joba.)

Red Sox: They were on ESPN tonight, but we didn't notice until the top of the 9th. I missed out on watching Jon Lester give up three earned on seven hits and a walk with six strikeouts in 7 1/3 innings. Lester improved to 11-4 as the Red Sox beat the Rangers 8-4.

Mike Lowell was placed on the DL again. The Rays are waiting for a phone call from John Henry to concede the division.

Competitors: The Twins beat the Yankees (although according to Hank, the Twins' opponent tonight is irrelevant), and the Rays and White Sox are winning.

NL: The Phillies lead the Dodgers 6-1 in the 2nd. Ryan Howard, Greg Dobbs (not pinch-hitting) and Jayson Werth have each hit two-run homers. Mets won; Marlins lost.

All tied up with one to go

Not pictured is Ryan Howard's fourth strikeout to lead off the 9th against Jonathan Papelbon, who also struck out the next two batters to close out Jon Lester's 3-0 win. The Red Sox-Phillies series is tied at one. The decisive game, a Businessperson's Special, is tomorrow at 1:05.

Tonight's story was Lester, who like Cole Hamels last night, showed how a good young lefty can dominate even the best of offenses. He tossed seven shutout innings with a walk, six hits and five strikeouts.

It looked like it would be a short night for the venerable Jamie Moyer, as the Red Sox rolled up his pitch count thanks to five walks. (Christine thinks the umps weren't calling strikes for him.) But the cagey pitcher managed to last five innings, yielding only two runs.

Not much to speak of from the Red Sox bats. Coco Crisp hit a two-run homer in the 2nd and scored the third run in the 6th. Led by his two stolen bases, the Red Sox tied a club record with six, including one by the dreamy Sean Casey. It's not what you think: Look closely at his scoreboard photo above. It's not the typical game face or smart-ass grin that typically graces the big screen. No, it's puppy dogs and rainbows. He looks head over heels or something.

Observations from the stands: We were still higher than usual, but aligned nearly directly behind home plate. ... The field looked a bit better, but you could still see the Jimmy Buffett remnants. ... They're no Hooters, but the Dartmouth Cords did a good job with the National Anthem. ... In the 1st, J.D. Drew had a good strategy, hitting a grounder right at Ryan Howard, who promptly coughed it up. But it bounced right toward Chase Utley, who retired Drew 3-4-3. ... After Jimmy Rollins grounded out on the first pitch in the bottom of the 1st, Shane Victorino bunted his first pitch for a single. "What the hell is he doing?" Christine said before she even knew he'd be safe. Utley then made up for it with an 11-pitch fly out. ... We saw a guy in an old-school Expos hat. I guess all Expos hats are old school. ... Pat Burrell likes newspaper word jumbles, according to the "Ask the Phillies" segment that runs between innings. ... After a leadoff walk by J-Roll in the 6th, Mike Lowell speared a liner from Victorino and was able to double off Rollins at first. ... After Hideki Okajima struck out Chase Utley to end the 8th, I did a little fist pump. Christine punched me. ... Before the 9th, they showed Jon Runyan of the Eagles on the scoreboard to pump up the crowd. Didn't work.

Also ineffective was the Phanatic's attempt to spoof Papelbon by breaking out his Riverdance shtick. When the "umpire" ripped off his uniform to show off his kilt and join the dance, Christine thought it explained why the Red Sox seemed to get all the calls tonight.

The fans bugged us more than usual tonight. No one can stay seated during a game. I understand getting up once or twice, but people were getting up once or twice an inning with no regard to whether a pitch was about to happen. I think I missed 25 percent of the pitches in the game because people were standing in the way. "Why do we go to games again," mused Christine, who was also aggravated by some obnoxious Phillies teenagers sitting behind us. They came to "beat up some Red Sox fans" but showed their mettle by taunting Jacoby Ellsbury after he was caught stealing in the 9th and Papelbon for striking out Howard because "he's the easiest guy in the world to strike out." I won't mention the crude things they said.

Odds and ends: It seems Bartolo Colon, headed to the 15-day DL, tweaked his back Monday when he struck out so poorly his helmet fell off. There's more ammo for Hank Steinbrenner's crusade to bring the DH to the National League. And listening to the Mets game on the way home, the announcers said there was already some incident with Jose Reyes and Jerry Manuel. Details fuzzy at the moment.

The new face of evil

It seems that much of Red Sox Nation is in a tizzy over our new foil, Hank Steinbrenner, profiled in the New York Times magazine this week.

Why? Yes, he is obnoxious, speaks out-of-turn and has little regard for reality or humility. But I love him.

Who cares if he's dismissive of the Sox success in recent years or the Empire's futility? It'll be fun to watch him eat his pompous words. At least he speaks directly, not through crafted statements that his father dealt, prompting me to wonder whether the elder Steinbrenner is truly alive or propped up like some bad Weekend at Bernie's sequel. And Hank will remind people that, in baseball, true evil resides in New York, not Boston.

{Ha! I'm sure that's what Red Sox Nation is hoping for, but it won't happen. This latest barb seems so contrived and orchestrated. It seems like both teams want to have the mindset of 10 years ago, with the Yankees as the evil overlords and the Red Sox as the battling underlings. But, as Greg points out below, it's not like that anymore. You can't pretend it's like that anymore.

I think the majority of baseball is bored by these teams, and really, who cares about these rivalries anyway? No one outside of the fans. No one gets psyched about the Phillies-Mets or Cardinals-Cubs except for their fans. And I wouldn't expect anyone else to care about them. Hopefully ESPN and other national news outlets realize this as well and stop hyping the New York-Boston rivalry. Because guess what -- no one cares.}

Other than A-Rod, who's scorned by both Yankee haters and lovers, individually there's not much to hate about this version of the Empire. Cue Hank:

For his part, Hank betrays no worry about the competition in the American League, whether it’s the Cleveland Indians, who eliminated the Yankees last year; the Detroit Tigers, who added Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis this winter; or, above all, the Red Sox, who have not only won the World Series twice in the last four years but are arguably becoming a national phenomenon. “Red Sox Nation?” Hank says. “What a bunch of [expletive] that is. That was a creation of the Red Sox and ESPN, which is filled with Red Sox fans. Go anywhere in America and you won’t see Red Sox hats and jackets, you’ll see Yankee hats and jackets. This is a Yankee country. We’re going to put the Yankees back on top and restore the universe to order.

I guess ol' Hank never watched Sportscenter before 2004 when you couldn't see a Red Sox highlight without a gratuitous shot of Babe Ruth, Billy Buckner or Bucky Dent. And as the Dirt Dogs reminded us, the nation first appeared in the Boston Globe during the 1986 World Series when the Sox weren't hated as they are now.

Here are two key points from the New York Times profile that Sox fans, and Hank, should remember:

--The Yankees are eight years removed from their last world championship, but it’s hard not to regard the new stadium, with its over-the-top evocation of Yankee mythology, as an in-your-face assertion of Yankee might, a pointed and — depending on your perspective — either desperate or reassuring reminder that the team is less a baseball club than an American institution.

--It’s worth noting that the foundation of Joe Torre’s dynasty was built during the years of Steinbrenner’s ban, from 1990 to 1993. And today’s team, which includes a good deal of young, homegrown talent, was put together over the past few years, while Cashman was in charge.

So let the son pipe off now, for soon he'll be just like his old man, paying a team $200 million to go out in the first round of the playoffs every year.

Etc: Dan Shaughnessy has a surprisingly good take on this situation today.

Game on: Christine's psyched for the first televised spring training game today. {Who are they playing? The Yankees. Who is pitching? Adam Eaton. Ugh.}