Tech Deals of the Week (5/30-6/5)

Nope... I didn't kill this weekly feature. I seriously haven't come across any good deals in the weekly fliers for that long. And there hasn't bee anything great online either. NewEgg and CompUSA have just been rotating the same items week after week until they deplete the stock really. But this week, there are some items at Radio Shack worth looking at...

Toshiba Portable DVD Burner for $49.99
This is the compact version popular for use with Netbooks. It's a must-have if you want to watch DVDs on the go or if you need to backup files for the driveless netbook class computers. $50 is the standard online sale price. It's rare for a store to have it.

Gigaware Webcam for $9.99
This is a basic webcam that actually comes out pretty clear and seems to require less light than other equivalent models.

Gigaware Optical Mouse for $14.99
A basic optical mouse that's a great netbook accessory. It has a stow-away dongle and comes in black, blue or red to match your system.

Gigaware Notebook Fan for $12.99
The Summer is here and laptops need to stay cool, especially if kept on for a long time. This fan will help you get the most out of your CPU by keeping temperatures down.

Disloyal They Are

In a recent interview, Dwayne Wade called the Bulls a disloyal organization. Maybe he was trying to downplay his possible move over there next season, but even as a Bulls fan, I can't say anything to defend that. It's the one factor that could screw the Bulls in getting a top player. While they have the history and the dynasty, it was well known that Jordan and Pippen did not get along with the Jerrys. Their clashes and disagreements caused Jordan to retire twice and give up a potential 8-10 championships. Since Jordan left for good, the Bulls have gone through the same routine of getting a close-to-championship level team only to dump good players too soon... Elton Brand... Jamal Crawford and most recently Ben Gordon. These were all players that had potential to be a component of a top team. Brand was good enough to build around. If LeBron came over, would he be able to finish his career there or would he get dumped if he failed the first year? Would he be given the role-players he wanted? Jordan demanded his Bulls stay intact, yet teammates kept getting traded.

So Lebron & Wade have to weight out the options here. The starting lineup is a the plus and the front office is a con.

Urine Testing

I think every large office needs to add urine testing to their applications. I don't mean testing for drugs or even analyzing the samples at all. Testing needs to be done for bathroom etiquette. All too often, I see our men's room in bad shape. There are employees all over that are slobs deep down and have bad aim. Especially at the end of the day, people are in a rush and just fire off and rush out. It's pretty gross and I wonder if that's the way these people are at home. As part of the hiring process, HR should have a model restroom used for testing. It starts out clean for every applicant. As he/she waits to be interviewed, have him/her drink some water and use the restroom. Then have someone check the results after. Poor aim and leaving a mess is not only a gross lifestyle, but it could also offer insight into how the applicant would perform work-related tasks. Someone who isn't considerate of others in the Men's room will likely act the same way in office life.

Weekend Sports Wrapup

Subway Series
The Mets took the first series this year as the Yankees starting pitching starts to look shaky. Ironically, after Vasquez's win, Hughes & CC dropped their games on Saturday & Sunday respectively. Hughes gave up 4 runs on 8 hits in his 5-3 loss. Park continued to give up runs in his relief. The Yankees made a short threat in the 8th, but couldn't get enough hits and were not effective against K-Rod. Sabathia was terrible, giving up 10 hits and 6 runs, but Sunday's game featured a better comeback attempt. The Yankees scored 3 runs in the 9th to bring the game within 2. A bad call at first base determined the game though. Replay showed that Gardner not only beat out a throw, but the Mets first baseman slipped off the bag. That gave the Yankees their second out. The out didn't allow them to get to Canop, who I believe would've knocked in the tying run. But in the end, it really shouldn't have come to the 9th inning. The Yankees offensive came alive too late into the game. The Mets deserved to win this one.

French Open
Nothing exciting here yet as only a few games were played on Sunday when Roland Garros kicked off. Soderling, the runner-up last year advanced. On the women's side, Venus and Kuznetsova won their games on opening day. Most of the other notable players were up today. No surprises. Federer, Murray, Isner, Djokovic, Gonzalez and Monfils advanced for the men's draw. Serena, Jankovic, Li, Wozniacki, Dementieva and Ivanovic advanced for the women's. It was good to see Ivanovic start out the round of 128 with a sharp game. She has dropped so much in the rankings after being at the top 2 years ago.

NBA Playoffs
Yup... it's still going on despite the competition with LeBron James rumors. Phoenix kept the series exciting by winning 118-109 against the Lakers to make it 1-2. Stoudemire put up a whopping 42 pts/11 rebs to help the Suns pull away from a close game in the 4th quarter. One the East, the Celtics continue to shock the world as they went up 3-0 against the seemingly better Orlando Magic.

LeBron
Now onto the real NBA news. Talk of LeBron James continues. Before the elimination from round 1, the Bulls weren't really even in the talks. Everyone was looking at Wade. Now, there's so much about James that's surfacing. The latest was an interview with President Obama as he talked to Marv Albert in a TNT interview. He mentioned the Bulls solid core with Rose and Noah and how he could see LeBron playing there. If LeBron didn't see potential in Cleveland, Chicago is definitely a change for the better. Make it happen, Mr. President!

Subway Series Begins

The Subway Series started last night as both teams were coming in on bad notes. The Yankees lost 1 of 2 against the Sox and then got swept out of 2 games against the best team in the MLB, the Rays. The Mets came out of a game where they got an in-the-park homer and triple play but found a way to lose. The Mets have several players slumping. Wright is in a strikeout funk and Bay isn't providing the homerun power they brought him in for. The Yankees are getting injured left and right and are playing with several bench guys.

The Yankees sent Javier Vasquez out there in Game 1 and it was a perfect opportunity for redemption because it was an NL team. He played in that league last year and was also coming off a great pitching performance where he lost a duel. Last night's game ended up being a pitcher's duel as he went 6 inning without giving up a run. The last 2 games really helped out Vasquez's ERA. The Yankees had trouble figuring out Mets' Takahashi who also did not give up a run. It was only until the relief came in that Yankees rookie Russo smacked a nice opposite field hit to score 2 runs.

Yankees win... the Yankees win!

Subway Tales: Weekend All-Stars

The weekend subway cars always have more interesting characters because they're not the normal suits who populate the weekday rush trains. All of these were in the same car as I this morning:

Wrong Side
Diagonally across from me, a woman was having a banana for breakfast. We all know what it's like to have a banana opened up on the train... the scent gets everywhere. Sitting diagonally across, I was a good 7 feet away, but the scent was 100%. That's not the weird part though as banana eaters are a normal subway type. She didn't open the fruit from the stem, but from the side with nothing sticking out. That's like beating an egg with a spoon!

MTA First Class
2 MTA workers sat at the other side of the train. They were average sized people, but they took up 4 seats as they sat relaxed. Their bags were all over the place and they were laid back as if sitting in a living room. Apparently if you work for the MTA, you can break all of the subway rules.

Teaching the Young
A father and son sat by the door. They were obviously father and son because they looked alike and were both wearing the same outfit, ready to go to the gym. The kid was about 14 years old. A nice looking girl walked out of the train. She was maybe 16-18. The father noticed and was not shy about staring at her as she walked out the door. And he continued to look out the window as she walked down the platform and the stairs! Then he whispered something to the kid who shared the found visual treasure. Good job Dad! Just don't tell Mom!

A Good Distraction

Today, I walked by the area with that annoying project manager that creates many inefficiencies for our department. I was checking out a colleague's computer nearby when I overheard a marketing person talking to him about a task. It was something that involved taking some screenshots and modifying a few of them for mockups. Had the marketing person come to the developers in IT, we would've put that together in minutes. The PM kind of panicked and being super proud, accepted the task. Of course he made it dramatic, like it would take him all day to do it. I thought in my mind, "Great! We have this guy out of our hair for a day!" So while his own productivity was wasted on a simple task, it increased productivity for an entire department. A good distraction!

Before the Big Fight

Here's a funny video of Chris Romulo and trainer before the big fight...

FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHT - watch more funny videos

Weekend Sports Wrapup

Yankees
The Yankees got another series under their belt, taking 2 of 3 from the Twins. I missed the Friday game because of FNF, but still followed it on my cellphone. A-Rod hit a grand slam in the 7th to seal the deal. The Saturday game was yet another strong performance by Andy Pettitte for a 7-1 win. This was a guy that was expected to be a contributor when they brought him aboard last year, yet he's one of their best. But the weekend didn't end well when the Twins came from behind to win the last game. It was a real fluke as Mark Teixiera missed a high line drive... Joba loaded the bases... Rivera walked in a run and then gave up a grand slam. The chances of those 3 things happening in the same inning are almost zero.

NBA
Noah said that the Bulls were going to shock the world, but it's the Celtics that are doing it in this Playoffs. They knocked off the best team in the NBA and proved it wasn't a fluke by taking the first game against an all-star Magic team. Boston came out to a great start, leading by 15 almost immediately. the Magic kept closing the gap, but the Celtics kept pulling away. At the start of the 4th quarter, it still looked like a blowout, but the Magic came almost all the way back and only lost by 4. Orlando really needs to get it together and they need a lot more from Dwight Howard. Hopefully Game 1 was a wakeup call to them that they need to take the Celtics more seriously than the Hawks.

Tennis
Everyone's getting warmed up for the French Open and Nadal looked great at the warm up as he defeated Federer 6-4, 7-6(5) in the Madrid finals. Roland Garros is 5 days away and everyone's already talking about a Nadal-Federer final... again. This time it seems like Nadal is fully recovered and 100%. We'll know for sure if we see these 2 superstars work their way up flawlessly again. It's been a while since we've seen them both at a major in top shape. I'd like to see another 2008 Wimbledon-like match.

It's Stupid Time!

As Sam Smith said, "it's officially stupid time" after the Cavs lost to the Celtics earlier in the week. The playoffs aren't over yet. There are still 4 teams out there competing for the championship. I think it's the Lakers, Suns, Magic and Celtics... right? Who cares? Like I said at the beginning of the season, this one was in the crapper from the start. Teams were all making moves to prepare for 2010/2011. So after the Celtics knocked the Cavs off, it significantly lowered the chances of LeBron returning to Cleveland, at least in the eyes of most fans. So... what are the choices?

Knicks
With NY, he'll be in one of the biggest basketball cities in the NBA. He'll make the most money here. So if he's greedy, this will be his choice. There's the least chance of a ring because the Knicks don't quite have it together yet. They have the money to build a team, but that only gives them the numbers on paper... not the chemistry. In my opinion, it's too much of a risk... if the ring is the goal.

Nets
As bad as they were this year, the pieces they have may seem appealing. They have a top point guard in Harris and potentially a top center in Brook Lopez + money to build. I feel it's less of a risk than the Knicks because they at least have 2 major pieces in place already.

Bulls
James already said he would not wear #23 next year... a hint? The Bulls have a solid core already. James would be in the lineup with Rose, Hinrich, Deng and Noah. If Hinrich becomes part of a package deal, there's even room for Wade. With or without Wade though, just adding James puts the Bulls in championship contention already. I think this is the best, safest place for James to go if not Cleveland. The core and chemistry are more valuable than high numbers on paper. In recent years, the Bulls have made the playoffs all but one time and with no superstars.

Miami
Riley is intent on keeping Wade. In order to seal the deal, he has to get James here. This would pair the 2 best players in the NBA and make the greatest 2-man team since Jordan and Pippen. The disadvantage? No good role-players.

Friday Night Fights

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Please visit the Picasa album by clicking above. Comments for each fight are on individual photos in the album.

Boxing
I didn't take pictures of the boxing matches, so I'll comment on those 2 here. I usually take breaks for these, but the 2 at this event were actually pretty good. Tyrone Lucky got the decision over Lasheem Richardson. Lucky showed a nice variety of moves that made the match exciting. He was good with his counters and was just much faster than his opponent. The second match between Angel Garcia and Jimmy Martinez was more lopsided as Garcia kept landing hard combos. If they weren't fighting with head gear, the KO would've come early in the 1st instead of 2nd.

Fight of the Night
With this all-star lineup and all matches living up to their name, it was hard to pick a fight of the night. The Martinez/Kwiatkowski and Romulo/Hinds matches were nice, but not close. Tarrant/Hillman could be the winner as far as Muay Thai display. My vote goes to Greskieweicz/Hasanov though. It was short, but very action-packed. It wasn't close, but the guy that was winning on points did not win the match, which is why I think this is the winner.

Friday Night Fights Results

Last night's FNF had to be one of the best ever. The all-star cast did not disappoint one bit. All of the big fights they promoited lived upo to their names. I'll get into the details when I post photos, but here are the results for now:

- Tyrone Lucky def Lasheem Richardson (dec. - 3rd rd.)
- Chris Aquino def Duq-Ahn Quoc (unanimous dec. - 3rd rd.)*
- Deirdre Sinico def Wendy Lau (unanimous dec. - 3rd rd.)*
- Angel Garcia def Jimmy Martinez (TKO - 2nd rd.)
- Julio Arce def Jeff Chan (unanimous dec. - 3rd rd.)*
- Philip LeGrand def Gary Gilchrest (unanimous dec. - 3rd rd.)*
- Andy Singh def Eric Ruiz (unanimous dec. - 5th rd.)*
- Liam Tarrant def Kyle Hillman (unanimous dec. - 5th rd.)*
- Joseph Valtenelli def Max Chen (KO - 1st rd.)
- Eddie Martinez def Chris Kwiatkowski (unanimous dec. - 5th rd.)*
- Justin Greskiewicz def Turan Hasanov (KO - 3rd rd.)
- Chris Romulo def. Sean Hinds (dec. - 5th rd.)*

The venue was the Lexington Armoury, which had the largest, most comfortable space. But the acoustics are terrible and I couldn't understand what the ring announcer was saying most of the time. Please let me know if any of these results are wrong. I definitely got the winners, but not sure if some decisions were unanimous and if some KOs were actually TKOs.

* Definitely sure about these results

Last Game on CLE?

Did LeBron James play his last game in Cleveland on Tuesday? That could very much come true if the Cavs don't do something about this series that's slipping away. They were expected to win on Tuesday, but got blown out 120-88 and went down 3-2. Many think James will stay in Cleveland, especially after the regular season they put together. The chemistry was there. They had depth. They were expected to win. If they don't, there's a good chance James will go elsewhere. So as a Bulls fan, what do I want? If James wins a championship, he'll surely stay in Cleveland and the Bulls would pursue Wade. If James gets ousted, Chicago would be a great alternative. He would stay in the Central Division, close to his home. With a supporting cast of Rose, Hinrich, Deng and Noah, I think it makes a stronger team than the Cavs now. Yet I want the Cavs to win because they're the only team that can beat the Lakers. I'll just look at the positives either way.

I'm watching Game 6 now and it's pretty close, although I feel the momentum is in the Celtics favor. They seem to be playing more comfortably. James is getting his points, but it seems like he's really working for them.

Split

Due to a rainout on Tuesday, the Yankees had a doubleheader yesterday. The offense pretty much fell asleep until the 9th inning of the night game. During the afternoon, Vasquez finally came out with a strong performance... good enough for a win. But it turned out to be a pitcher's duel where the Yankees only produced 4 hits. In the night game, Hughes pitched another gem, going 7 innings, giving up 5 hits and no runs. This was a pitcher's duel as well with the Yankees leading 2-0 for most of the game. In the 9th inning, the bats finally came alive after a long 2-game day as they scores 6 runs. In the final inning, it turned from a pitcher's duel to a blowout victory. Chamberlain had the 8th and Rivera had the 9th in a non-save situation since he hadn't pitched in a while.

It was tough luck that Vasquez got no run support in a much needed win for his confidence. Hopefully he realized he did a good job and comes back strong next time. Hughes remained undefeated with his win.

Sword of Azrael: Times Square

Death by Fire x2

Faisal Shahzad gets 2 of these penalties. First, from my point of view the death penalty should be carried out based on intent. He was planning to kill a lot of people. A bomb, no matter how weak, will hit many targets in a crowded Times Square on a weekend. The rules should not ease up just because the man failed.

Second, from the Pakistani Taliban's point of view, this man should be executed for failure! They spent 10 years training this clown and he made stupid mistakes. He left his keys locked in the car... and the bomb failed. If you spend 10 years on any task, you should carry it out successfully. I wonder if he was heading out to Pakistan because that should be the last place he tries to escape to!

All joking aside, we should be thankful nothing happened. And also a big thanks to the 2 vendors who alerted the police, Duane Jackson and Lance Orton Sr. NY is too big a city for the cops to cover, so we all have to look out for things like this. True heroes.

Pepsi Refresh Project & MLB

This is a pretty good new commercial with Pepsi & the MLB. The camera shots are very game-like. I wonder if the scenes were acted out or lip-synced...

Boston Saves Face

After blowout victories by the Yankees & Cavaliers on Friday & Saturday, both the Red Sox & Celtics bounced back on Sunday. The Red Sox blew out the Yankees in Sunday night's game 9-3. It was AJ Burnett's worst game of the year and his first defeat. 8 of the 9 earned runs were his. One was an error. Statistically, he has not pitched well as a Yankee in Fenway Park, which is odd because he was nearly invincible there as a Blue Jay. It's even more odd because you can't blame it on NY & Yankees pressure like with Vasquez because AJ has pitched well this year and OK last year. Lester also did a good job on pitching, giving up 2 runs on 4 hits.

In basketball, the Celtics evened things up 2-2 against the Cavs. The game was somewhat close throughout, although the Celtics did finally get a double-digit lead on the Cavs. It felt like they were in control of most of the game as well. James had a good game, though not as explosive on the scoring... 22 pts/9 rebs/8 asts. All starters had double digits, but they just needed a little more. James needs to get 30 pts per night and Williams needs to get around 20. For the Celtics, Rondo was the hero, putting up a triple-double of 29 pts/18 rebs/13 asts.

While Friday & Saturday were massacres, it's to bad I can't call the weekend a Boston Massacre. The last series I can call Boston Massacre was the 5-game sweep in 2006 when the Yankees & Sox had to make up 2 rainout games. That essentially knocked Boston out of playoff contention as they never recovered and sure felt good after the 2004 season.

Time to Wake Up

The weekend might be over, but a lot of employees in my building were still asleep. There were a couple of elevator classics today. On my way up in the morning, one woman was texting on her cellphone. She was headed to one of the upper floors... the last stop with 4 numbers pressed and four people in the elevator. When I got in, I hit the 10th floor... the lowest one. The elevator stopped at 3 to pick someone up. The texter started to walk out and realized it was the wrong floor. We had only gone up 2 floors. Her destination was like 20 something. How could we possibly be there already. The elevator stopped at 6 for me... 3 more floors up. The texting woman made another move to get out, almost bumping into me. Who knows how many more balks she made before she finally got to her office. This is proof that texting takes away from our concentration. The elevator story was a woman who couldn't wait to get home. It was at the end of the day and she kept stepping out on the way down as the elevator stopped at the lower floors. After people walked in, she quickly tapped the close doors button. Rushing things is such a waste of energy!

Massacre Continues

If you thought Friday was a bad game for the Red Sox, yesterday's game actually topped that. Yankees won 14-3 behind the consistent hitting of Cervelli and 3 homers by Teixiera. Cervelli went 3 for 4 with 5 RBI's. Tex also had 5 RBI's and went 4 for 6. He only had 2 homers coming into this game, so he's definitely out of his slump and seems to be on track to catching up in May. Jeter, A-Rod, Gardner & Swisher had 2 hits each. The game had a long rain delay, so it went from 3pm to almost 8pm! It was a typical Yankees Red Sox, slow-paced chess match. CC didn't play long enough to get the win because of the rain delay. I think he was just one out away. It's frustrating because he pitched well, but this is one of those things about playing for the Yankees. Preserving his health is more important because the Yankees think longterm with the ultimate goal of a championship. Aceves got credit for the win and remains undefeated at 3-0. Ace is the only reliable middle relief man. I get nervous when anyone else comes in. I actually thought the game would be much closer because CC left early.

Bad Night for Boston

Wait... there's one more! In NHL, the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Boston Bruins in overtime. They forced the overtime with less than a minute remaining in regulation. Then they scored on sudden death for the win. So it's a heartbreaker to go along with the 2 massacres. What's great about this is the Red Sox were being beaten so badly that the Boston fans were looking at the NHL scoreboard in the later innings. I heard them chanting "let's go Bru-ins!" Well... everyone lost tonight!

Boston Massacre

This is an exciting weekend already as the Yankees/Red Sox series kicks off and the NBA playoffs continues. The term Boston Massacre has a dual meaning tonight as the Cavs blew out the Celtics and the Yankees blew out the Sox.

LeBron was on fire all night in the Cavs' 124-95 win as he scored 38... most of which came in the first half. They just destroyed Boston and never let them back in. James filled up the stat sheet with 8 rebs, 7 asts, 2 blocks and a steal. Every active player scored except Moon and they had 6 guys in double figures. With the win, the Cavs took the series lead and homecourt back 2-1.

The Yankees are off to a good start against their rival Red Sox as they blew out the Sox 10-3. Hughes pitched another strong game. The Yankees didn't really have a good hitting game. They really won this one in the 6th when Beckett had a meltdown and just either walked or hit several players, giving the Yankees several free runs on loaded bases. The only bad news is Cano might be out as he got hit the hardest on his back knee and had to leave the game.

Strong Starters, Weak Middle

The Yankees are rolling as they got their 4th straight win in today's rare afternoon game, sweeping the Orioles. After the Vasquez loss, everyone else in rotation did their job. Hughes had the blowout win on Sunday. CC had a 4-1 win on Monday. AJ also won 4-1 on Tuesday with another great performance to stay undefeated. In today's game, Pettitte got another win, also remaining undefeated. The bad news was Andy's elbow started acting up and had to be lifted in the 5th inning with the Yankees leading 6-1. It seemed like a blowout win, but losing a starter in the 5th means the middle relief would have to pitch well. The final score was 7-5... a blowout turned into a thriller as Mitre and Robertson let the O's back in it late in the game. They're really going to have to shape up because even the Yankee starters can't stay this perfect all season long.

Vasquez will skip the upcoming Red Sox series. The excuse is that he needs a break, but it's very obvious that they don't want him to blow an important one. Also, the fans would really get on him for any little mistake against the Sox. Hopefully sitting it out helps. It seems to work for position players, but I feel that it might be too much a break for a pitcher.

IE's Cache

I don't know how many times at work I have to tell people to clear their cache if they're not seeing page updates on the intranet. the IE users are the most notorious for this issue. IE just caches everything. Sometime even a SHIFT+Reload won't clear it. It's the bane of any IT person. I've driven myself crazy when I work on browser compatibility. Sometimes IE is just stuck and I would have to close it, clear everything via control panel and restart it. It happens a lot on pages that call multiple components. Sometimes the page itself refreshes because the headers show a date/time change. But there's nothing triggering the components. So a server side include or JavaScript will have trouble refreshing. People should also know this by now, after working on and being around webpages for years. But some people just never learned to clear cache. This one guy on our team is always the first to reply after an update announcement that the page was not updated. It's always an issue with his cache, but he's just too arrogant to admit it.

For our next OS image, I'm going to have to push for all browsers to stop caching by default. It causes so much trouble for inexperienced employees!

Uncommon Days

I originally scheduled the day off today. I woke up early just because I'm already used to doing that on a weekday, so I decided to check email. One of the messages was a "sick day" out of office by someone I hate. I immediately jumped in the shower and got dressed. I didn't want to waste a day off if that bastard was going to be out! So I ended up with a nice productive day at work and I didn't burn a day off.

I make it am point to take vacation on the same days as people I like and opposite people I hate. It maximizes productivity and positive energy.

Rack Up Another Series

The Yankees won another series over the weekend, this time against the White Sox. It wasn't a smooth ride though. There was the bounce-back game by Pettitte on Friday. It was an inspiring win, but it didn't help motivate Vasquez much as he gave up 5 runs in Saturday's 7-6 loss. The Yankees have been doing well overall because 4 of 5 of their starters have been able to go the distance... get to the 7th ot 8th, avoiding the weak middle relief. Vasquez is the weakest link. I feel bad for him because he pretty much has all of the Yankees losses... they're not spreadout through the rotation.

Sunday's game was a nice blowout win... 12-3. Hughes remains undefeated and continues to prove that he deserved the starting spot over Joba. He was inconsistent last year as a starter, and great out of the pen. But after 3 games, there's no luck involved. He's definitely an improved pitcher. He went 7 innings, giving up 4 hits and 0 runs. The only imperfection was the shutout was lost in the 9th inning as Melancon gave up 3 runs. Jeter had 2 hits and 2 runs as usual. Teixiera had 4 hits and seems to be out of his April slump. Gardner also got his usual 2 hits (one was an unusual homer though). Cano stayed red hot with 2 of his own.

Resiliency

On to baseball! The Yankees are off to a pretty good start this year, only losing one series. Only the Rays have a better AL record. Pettitte went into last night's game undefeated at 3-0. He wasn't as dominant as the previous 4 games, but got the job done. He gave up 4 runs and 6 hits, but made an amazing recovery after the first 2 innings. He settled down and looked like a different pitcher out there. Most pitchers would just crack after giving up 4 runs in 2 innings and throw away the game. Pettitte was lights out from 3-6 and could probably have gone longer. The Yankee bats came through to help out their veteran ace as Jeter had a 2-run homer to tie and then later a 2-run triple for the win. He was a double shy of the cycle. Gardner also had 2 hits and 2 runs as he's been proving his worth as a fulltime outfielder. His .270 avg from last year is up to a solid .323. Pettitte go a no decision, but the strong bounceback is something the younger guys need to master.