A message from your local sports blogger

Hey there. The second half officially begins tonight for the Yankees, but sadly I must pull myself away from this Web log for a weekend trip to Vegas. I know, I know, what with all The Dark Knight-ing and summer barbecuing and general revelry that comes with being cool, you probably were going to divorce yourself from my blog anyway this weekend and I understand that.

But if you weren't, you're in luck because I have my good buddy Mark pinch-hitting for me the next three days. (Did you see the clever use of a baseball analogy there?) Mark and I go way back to the year 2001 when we were dorm buddies at Boston's Northeastern University. In the times immediately following 9/11, many students used their dorm windows to protest or call for war with messages scrawled on bedsheets. Mark and I had '1918' taped against the plexi-glass in block numbering, by far the most controversial statement on West Campus.

It should also be noted that Mark and I sat through all nine innings of the Yankees' 10-3 loss to the Red Sox at the Stadium in Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS, earning our Bombers badges of courage for life in the process. We saw things that night that no man, woman or child should ever see.

So yeah, welcome Mark. He's a longtime season ticket holder who loves himself some Bombers. I'll be back Monday, hopefully without bookies chasing my black jack-obsessed soul across the Mohave. Have a good weekend.