Half way in "The Summer of Excitement™"

Well, well. The baseball season has reached the halfway point for most teams. The Yankees have been, for the most part, pretty mediocre. "Led" by a very expensive starting rotation out of which the only reliable starter has been "Tiger" Wang, the Yankees are a mere three games over .500.

And yet...and yet...

Following a bizarre game in Yankee Stadium yesterday afternoon and another collapse on the part of Boston's closer last night in Arlington, the Yankees are a mere four games out of first place.

Nevertheless, yesterday's seesaw ride illustrated as clearly as anything the fragility of the Yankees' bullpen -- there is simply no one there before you get to the closing troika of TanGoMo. If the Yankees starters, particularly Randy Johnson and Carl Pavano, don't get it going, the Summer of Excitement™ is going to be one long flop sweat.

I will say this though, after all the handwringing over Mariano Rivera in April, when there was talk that his days as baseball's most dominent closer were over, he has proven once again that no one -- no one -- holds a candle to him right now.