Josh Beckett, celebrated as an ace by most media pundits (even though his career ERA+ is worse than Chien-Ming Wang, who's considered to be an ace by few), will miss Tuesday night's game with 'numbness' in his pitching arm. Tim 'The Ageless Wonder' Wakefield will start in his stead.

For the Yanks to have a realistic shot at the playoffs, they need to take two out of three, and avoiding Beckett should certainly help the cause.

- If you're a Giants fan, today is a horrible day. Osi Umenyiora will miss the entire 2008 season with torn cartilage (lateral meniscus) in his knee that he suffered in Saturday's game against the Jets. The solution should be to move Mathias Kiwanuka back to his normal position of defensive end, but with the start of the season so close, and Kiwanuka already entering his second year at linebacker, the Giants may instead opt for Dave Tollefson, Renaldo Wynn or a trade. Remember how Ernie Accorsi was ripped for selecting another DE in 2006 when Justin Tuck, Michael Strahan and Osi were still around? The move looks pretty great in retrospect.

- The Olympics are like a strange blip in a sports lover's year. You're enjoying baseball season, watching games every day, and all of a sudden you see crazy shit like pole vaulting, badminton, water polo and handball. But let me just say that I love it. I've read a lot around the blogosphere about how much they suck, and how they're boring and meaningless, but it ain't that way for me. For two weeks, I was into volleyball (beach and indoor), swimming, diving, discus throwing, hurdles and even gymnastics, just to name a few. (My favorite athletes included Shawn Johnson, Michael Phelps, Lolo Jones and May and Walsh.) Fortunately, it happens just once every four years, because those events could never hold my attention for more than a couple weeks. Now back to our regularly scheduled sports lives.