FWIW, as Kaat said, I agree, good or bad last night, you have to see Ponson for about 5 starts before you know anything about him for sure.

What was impressive about Ponson was that after the 1st inning, where he was obviously resty and tentative, he was much better than a 5.4 ERA pitcher. He threw a legitimate game for the rest of the game.

If Ponson pitches as well as he did after the first inning every time out, I think we’ll all gladly take that. Seattle has a pretty decent lineup, and Ponson looked a lot sharper than I expected. After that bad pitch to Sexson in the first he really kept it together and avoided letting the game get out of hand. As a #5 guy, he’s more than acceptable at the moment. If he can pitch late into games and eat innings while limiting the damage, I think he’ll give the team a shot to win at least 50% of the games he pitches in.

It is a shame that Chacon is probably done in NY, but thems the breaks. If he is traded, I hope he goes to the NL or the AL west or something where he doesn’t come back to bite us. He’s a competitor out there and he can win ballgames.

The thing I love most about Johnny Damon is that he’s a happy guy. He always seems to be smiling or laughing, joking around with the other team’s first baseman, generally enjoying himself and letting it show. I loved that clip of him catching the helmet and spiking it. But the highlight of the year for me with Johnny was his reaction to Melky’s HR-saving catch on 6/7/06 vs. Boston. Cooler than the catch was seeing Johnny literally freaking out and pumping his fist, happy for his team and for his teammate.

PS – When I woke up this morning my eyes were so blurry that the first time ESPN’s bottom line scrolled through, I thought it said SEA 5 NYY 4 F/11. 15 minutes later my eyes cleared up and I saw the real score. My mood did a 180 before breakfast.