Hard to pin down what, exactly, was the highlight of this -- the dismissive, "Ten more of those, you'll be in second place'' when Letterman brought up Sunday night's Yankee victory at Fenway Park, or his ''About 40 years ago, when he was 20'' comment when Letterman pointed out that Roger Clemens once pitched in Boston -- but, to me, it was the fact that the New York audience cheered, and cheered lustily, at virtually every anti-Yankee comment made by Damon.

NOT ME: Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched well in defeat last night, but he doesn't think he deserves a spot on the American League All-Star team. (projo.com)

SIGN OF THE TIMES: You may have missed it, but Terry Francona pinch-hit for J.D. Drew in the ninth inning Monday night, an unmistakable indicator of how badly Drew is slumping. (projo.com) Drew, somehow, didn't make Kevin Hench's list of baseball's top underperformers, but Julio Lugo did. (foxsports.com)

CLOSE YOUR BOOKS, CLASS: It's time for Filip Bondy's Yankees' Starting Pitcher Injury Quiz. (New York Daily News)

ROAD TO RECOVERY: After a day of uncertainty, it looks as if Andy Pettitte will pitch Friday and Roger Clemens will make his season debut Saturday for the Yankees. (New York Post)

DID I EVER TELL YOU YOU'RE MY HERO? After dissing Roger Clemens' performance in Trenton last month -- ''Without a doubt, I can do that and probably even better at this point'' -- Pedro Martinez now says he wishes he could take some lessons from the Rocket. (New York Daily News) ''I wish Roger was my coach,'' he said.

FIRST STEP: Speaking of Pedro, he's begun throwing again and still hopes to return to the Mets in August. (New York Daily News)

ACCORDING TO THE WISE GUYS . . . the Yankees are the best team in the A.L. East. (Vegas Watch Index)

GIVE US A CALL: If the Cubs decide to trade Carlos Zambrano, the Mets are very interested. (New York Post)

PEN IS MIGHTIER: The Oakland A's may use Rich Harden in relief when he returns from his strained right shoulder. (San Francisco Chronicle)

'HAVEN'T HIT THE RADAR SCREEN': Major League Baseball says Gary Sheffield's recent comments about Latin players supplanting African-Americans as baseball's most prevalent minority because they are easier to control haven't prompted any call for disciplinary action, though people are indeed talking. Lisa Navarrete, a vice president of La Razza, the Latino national civil rights and advocacy group in Washington, says Sheffield ''resorts to the stereotyping that he himself is trying to fight.'' And White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen explains the large numbers of Latins playing baseball as being because "that's all we have . . . We're trying to survive. Those guys sign for $500,000 or $1 million and they're made. We have a couple of dollars. You can sign one African-American player for the price of 30 Latin players." (espn.com)

YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH: The Latin players on the Tigers think Sheffield spoke the truth. (Detroit News)

EVEN IF IT'S BROKE, DON'T FIX IT: Fox Sport's Ken Rosenthal reports there's friction on the Rangers between manager Ron Washington and some of his players over his desire to change the team's style of play. Why the players insist on clinging to a style that's produced one winning season since 1999 is another question altogether.

-- ART MARTONE

Posted by Art Martone  at 7:06 AM | Permalink