You Can Hate Me Now...But I Won't Stop Now and I Can't Stop Now...You Can Hate Me Nowww!!!

Yankee fans, if you ever wondered why the baseball world hates us....tonight was exhibit A as to why.

This was a classic Torre giveaway game. Wang had a mediocre start and the Yanks couldn't touch Hudson for seven innings. Rather than bring out the big guns to minimize the damage, Torre opts for a struggling Villone and TJ "String" Beam. They promptly allow the lead to expand to five. Torre has this "Hey, if we win, fine. I want nothing to do with it" look on the bench. The Royals would continue to be the spoilers of the AL playoff race.

What happened in the eighth inning was straight ignorant. Just wrong. There was nothing cheap about it. It was assasin-type efficiency. They turned a well pitched game by the Royals into a farce in a half hour. This was Bret Hart putting Steve Austin into a sharpshooter, getting him to tap out, but not letting go until he passed out from the pain. This was Sonny Corleone getting caught at the toll booth. This was Ali carrying Floyd Patterson for 12 rounds just so he could punish him for calling him Cassius Clay.

They turned a potentially huge win for the Royals into a mind-numbing beatdown. 7-5 would have sufficient to get their point across. You win the game after being down four, but it's not as if a six spot is unprecedented.

10 runs is Bill Munny shooting Little Bill, pissing on his grave and nailing his wife.

But this is what the Yankees are supposed to do. People are going to hate you anyway so you might as well give them a reason. Pile on whenever you can. Let the field know there are a no giveaway innings. That unless Torre takes everyone out, if your pitching is lacking, it will be exposed eventually.

How awful must it have been for the Royals to watch that, on top of hearing "Let's go Bernie" and "MVP, MVP!" chants for Williams and Jeter during that rally. I could care less. I giggled like a school-girl watching.

I'm loving the approach of this team. This doesn't come from the manager. Torre was shocked at what happened...shaking his head in astonishment during the post-game. This is a team on a mission. With purpose. Yeah, I know it's KC. But this is what the teams in the late nineties used to do to bad pitching. No breaks. No giveaways. Feast on the weak, break even or better with the good teams, you win a 100 games. It'll be hard to do that this year because Torre is determined to sit guys as soon as everything is locked up. But they might try in spite of their manager.

The test to my theory is what Moose and Unit do in their starts. If they can keep the line going, it'll be interesting to see what approach they take in B'More. The O's have been playing the Yanks tough this year. I'm anxious to see if the Yanks can put an extended win streak together to wrap up the division with a couple of weeks to go and put the infidels out their misery.

Heads up, I'm going to start writing on my Imperial Sports Page tomorrow. I have an interesting rant to start things off. I'm also helping Brooklyn Mets Fan with a new page he's starting called Brooklyn Giants Fan. I'll keep you posted on when we start.