The weekend and its aftermath

April 2008 continues to get worse and worse for the New York Yankees. First they refuse to have an offense. Then they rush into Fenway behind a glorious start by Chien-Ming Wang, only to pathetically drop the last two games in the set. Game 2 was Moose vs. Beckett, and quite honestly, I was surprised it was as close as it was. But remember what I said about Mussina and his tricks against the Red Sox? It was no surprise to me, then, that Manny wasn't fooled one bit and took Moose deep on his first at bat. But what I don't understand is why Girardi didn't opt to walk him the second time given the situation (winning runs on; no one on first). That decision blows my mind.

And then we have Game 3 from last night, which I really don't want to talk about in great detail. Both Dice-K and Hughes were equally as horrendous, but the Yanks offense just couldn't do a thing to capitalize. The Sox, however, did, and that made all the difference. But perhaps another managerial gaffe was present here. With slumping Johnny Damon up and two on with none out in the 8th, I would have had him lay down the bunt. But Girardi let him swing, successfully murdering a rally with a twin killing. Huh? And then, why in god's name are three lefties, two of which are having serious issues at the moment, at the top of the order? Not a very smart move, Joe...

Yet those were only two games out of 162, so hopefully we can learn from the mistakes and move on. What we can't write off so easily are those problems that are physical or deeply mental. You know, things like:

• Jose Molina, one of the hottest Yankee hitters at the moment, injuring his hamstring, perhaps forcing him to visit the DL. And this is all while Jorge still can't throw.
  
  
• Joba Chamberlain left the team during last night's game when he got word that his dad was in serious condition at a hospital back home; he is now on bereavement leave. I send my best wishes to the family.
  
  
• Wilson Betemit has pink-eye and is on the 15-day DL. What are the chances.

All in all, April is not the Yankees' month. Let's hope things improve tenfold for May.

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With CPW over, the patented MIT weather machine has been turned off, returning Boston to its usual chilly and gloomy April state. But really--it was ridiculous this year. From being in the 50s on Wednesday, it jumped to sunny and 70 on Thursday when the prefrosh arrived, to somewhat more seasonable on Friday, to very spring-ish (complete with an April shower) on Saturday. And now we're back to normal. That's just not natural. But what can you do--at least you enjoy it while it lasts.

I thought we Zetes pulled off an excellent weekend for the youngins. I was most impressed by the paintball range. Yes folks: some of our guys succeeded in turning our dining room into an indoor shooting gallery. It was amazingly impressive, and I definitely think it's something we need to revive in the fall.

The decision is done: I will officially be at MIT for two more years. It hurt to reject Stanford (by which I mean "Stanford's Fellowship"), but their aero program just didn't cut it. So although I now know what I'll be doing in the far future, my immediate plans are still pretty cloudy. In other words, I still don't have a summer job. I really need to work on that...