Yankees in First Place? Big Deal

Wow, the Yankees beat the mighty Devil Rays. And for some reason, the Orioles play the BoSox like it's game 7 of the World Series, so Boston drops to 4.5 games behind, which means that even with a sweep, they'll be in second place. I doesn't bother me terribly because I don't expect the Red Sox to overtake the Junkees in the standings, and with the wild card, they'll be in the postseason anyway. So they won't have home field, but who cares? How'd that work out for the Yankees in the '03 World Series? Or the '02 ALDS?

In a way, having home field for the LDS (and the LCS and World Series, for that matter) can be a disadvantage because if the Yanks drop the first game or two at home, the road games become must-wins. In '02 they split the first two at the Stadium, and lost the next two in Anaheim, and their season was over. I was dancing in the streets. And when the Angels won the whole thing, Torre, in his infinite wisdom, declared something like, "I'm glad they won it all because if you're going to lose, you're better off losing to the champs." As long as George liked that answer...