(I would make a really, really crappy motivational speaker. Yay!)

All right, Yanks, listen up.

You've got some ground to make up in the standings, and not a whole heck of a lot of time to do it.

I understand that this season has been hard. Right now, in fact, you have only one starting pitcher that was in the rotation and active on Opening Day, and that's Mike Mussina--and dude, Moose, there's no justice in the universe if you can't get to 20 wins this year. More than ever, you deserve it this year.

Anyway, back to what I was talking about--the injuries. When the bug bit, it really went all out--it didn't just take pitchers (including our current "ace" and by most accounts our future "ace" as well), but it took our shortstop, third baseman, starting catcher and our left fielder/designated hitter as well; the latter two for most of the season. That's a tremendous part of the offense--no denying it.

That said, guys, you can't wallow in that misery.

Fact is, the line up still has the power to be potent--or did you not just score fourteen runs against the best team in the league?

I know at the beginning of the season I said that one of the things about optimism is the belief that anyone, on any given night, can be the hero of the game. I didn't mean, however, that everyone should try to be the hero.

Just think about this--in the eighth inning tonight, instead of hacking away, Robbie Canò took pitches and worked his third walk of the inninng, which brought Richie Sexson to the plate, and, well, you saw what happened there.

Robbie wasn't trying to play the hero, and it helped get the team back into the game.

Look, I know three back in the loss column in the Wild Card looks pretty daunting right now, but that's not the only way to look at it. All you have to do is win the games you play. Take it game by game--leave worrying about the big picture to Joe Girardi. It's his job to wory about that.

Remember Mariano Duncan in 1996: We play today, we win today, das it!

The only thing you can control is the game you are playing on that day. You can't control what Boston or Tampa does, so don't worry about it.

Instead, focus on winning your own games. If you play hard, with heart, and don't give in, even if you're down by five runs and only have one out left with which to worrk, you'll start winning more games.

Right now, that's all that matters.

You're still in this. You have enough games left with Boston and Tampa that right now, saying the season is 'done' is incredibly premature.

Don't give up, don't give in, play hard, play with heart, and win.