Yeah, there’s Phil Hughes…facing 33 batters so far this post-season and allowing 15 of them to reach base…

And, true, Burnett had an effective start in the ALDS and a very good start in Game Two of this World Series…

But, look at Game Five in both the ALCS and the World Series this year. Both times, the Yankees were up, three games to one, with a chance to finish off the series with A.J. Burnett on the hill.

What happened? In Game Five of the ALCS, Burnett allowed four runs in the first inning. And, in Game Five of the World Series, Burnett allowed six runs before he could retire his seventh batter.

Talk about being in the spotlight and just melting…

Burnett may be a great teammate and all that; but, when it comes to being in a big spot, I don’t feel comfortable with him on the mound…based on these two Game Five situations…do you?

Benched for alleged “fatigue,” slumping New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez partied until 2:30 a.m. Saturday in Miami Beach. He then disappeared into the tropical night with actress Kate Hudson in the back seat of his chauffeured Maybach.

And while it’s pretty obvious A-Rod and Hudson are an item, the third baseman wasn’t too fatigued to continue pretending otherwise. Indeed, it must be a coincidence that Hudson, the star of Almost Famous and Fool’s Gold, is in Miami just as Rodriguez’s New York Yankees are playing the Florida Marlins in SoFla this weekend.

And it must be another coincidence that they “ran” into each other at a private party on SoBe late Friday.

And also blind luck they both ended up in A-Rod’s set of wheels about 2:30 a.m., even if they left the fiesta 15 minutes apart, a spywitness tells me.

Alex being Alex.

Remember, back in April, when A-Rod said he had recommitted himself to baseball and the Yankees and planned to have “tunnel vision” this season? I guess now we know what type of “tunnel” he was talking about…

Ready to return from the disabled list, New York Yankees reliever Brian Bruney blamed an 8 1/2-minute wait during an umpires’ video review for causing a strained flexor muscle in his right elbow.

Bruney went on the disabled list April 25, six days after he was warming up in the bullpen during the seventh inning when umpires checked video before upholding a home run by teammate Jorge Posada. Bruney then entered in the eighth and got three outs.

“Major League Baseball needs a way to figure out if it’s a home run or not,” Bruney said Monday. “It shouldn’t take 8 1/2 minutes, and I think that’s what screwed me up.”

Bruney pitched just once after the April 19 game, throwing an inning on April 21 before going on the DL. He said it was obvious to him from the first replay that Posada’s drive just over the right-field wall against Indians reliever Jensen Lewis was a home run.

He called the players’ association and learned only then that replays are provided to umpires from a central location.

“I don’t know what the 8 1/2 minutes was all about,” he said. “I don’t know if like somebody was on lunch break or what.”

Bruney kept on warming up, not sure how long it would take for umpires to return to the field.

“I could have quit throwing, I could have waited and started again,” he said. “I don’t know if he’s coming out in 30 seconds or 3 minutes or 8 1/2 minutes. It turned out to be the latter. I mean, that’s a long time for a reliever to be throwing or any pitcher to be throwing.”

Bruney allowed one run in one inning during a minor league rehab appearance Sunday and is slated to be activated Tuesday.

Mike Port, Major League Baseball’s vice president of umpiring, declined comment on Bruney’s allegation.

…I could have quit throwing, I could have waited and started again…I don’t know if he’s coming out in 30 seconds or 3 minutes or 8 1/2 minutes. It turned out to be the latter. I mean, that’s a long time for a reliever to be throwing or any pitcher to be throwing…

Hey, Brian, what if it had been a situation where Posada was hurt, on the field, running the bases – instead of a situation where the umps had to review the video tape – and there was an 8 1/2 minute delay while the Yankees trainers worked on Posada? Or, what if the Yankees just kept getting two-out hits, over and over, for an 8 1/2 minute period? In the case of Posada’s injury, you wouldn’t have known if it would take 30 seconds or 3 minutes or 8 1/2 minutes to tend to him. And, with the two-out hits, you would have not been able to tell if the inning would last another 30 seconds or 3 minutes or 8 1/2 minutes.

Dude, you made the call to keep throwing – assuming that the umpires might make a quick call. Therefore, this is your fault – and not the umpires. Geez…I thought Bruney was better than being a blame-layer. Guess not?

Hundreds of irate fans – some who claim Yankee employees told them the game had been rained out – stormed away from Yankee Stadium before Monday night’s game against the Red Sox even got underway and couldn’t get back in, resulting in a an ugly scene at one of the ticket gates.

With rain falling for hours and no start time announced until shortly before 9 p.m., hordes of fans began leaving the Stadium and heading home – some who said they had been advised that the game had been called by Yankee employees who walked the concourse holding pinstriped “How may I help you?” signs.

When a 9:20 p.m. start time was eventually announced over the public address system, a crowd on the sidewalk outside Gate 6 tried to get back into the Stadium, only to have the employees working the turnstiles promptly close the doors in their faces. Panicked fans began racing up and down the sidewalk, trying to find a way back into the ballpark, while others remained at Gate 6 either pleading or demanding to be let back in.

“We talked to the security personnel, who said there was zero chance they were going to play the game,” said Tom Stuart, a 27-year-old from Astoria who waited out most of the rain delay before leaving with his girlfriend. “We spent three hours drinking beer – you can’t drink much because they’re 10 bucks apiece – now they’re going to play a game in front of 35 fans.”

Becky Wright, who flew in from Oregon for Monday night’s game, had bought two tickets as a birthday present for her 16-year-old son, Seth O’Neil. They left the game because “the guys holding the ‘How may I help you signs?’ said they weren’t going to play,” said Wright. They were among the hundreds of fans outside Gate 6 trying to get back into the Stadium.

Jason Zillo, a Yankee spokesman, said the team has a firm no-reentry policy. He also said the NYPD and Stadium security hadn’t let any fans back into the ballpark.

“We’re a part of hundreds of people, if not thousands,” said Martin Watson, a 39-year-old New Yorker who spent $800 for four tickets and tried to reenter through Gate 6. “This is not fan-friendly. This is B.S. You pay money for a top-of-the-line franchise, and you get bottom-of-the-line customer service.”

“I built this Stadium and they won’t let me in it,” a man wearing a local union jacket said before storming off.

While fans were being rebuffed outside Gate 6, scores were having their tickets rescanned outside Gate 4 and being allowed back into the Stadium, but that lasted only for a limited time.

One fan, who was wearing a No. 2 Derek Jeter jersey and a backward Yankee hat, approached a reporter to say he had been let back in, but couldn’t do so because the Yankees wouldn’t rescan his father’s ticket. A turnstile supervisor directed the reporter and several fans to the customer service window, which was locked.

At least one fan was arrested outside the Stadium. Roseanna Franco, 25, of White Plains, was charged with assault, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest after she allegedly kicked a New York City police officer after not being let back in.

Stadium security also threatened to revoke the credential of Daily News photographer Robert Sabo, who was shooting the scene outside Gate 6 – a location photographers weren’t prohibited from working at on Opening Day.

“They were super-embarrassed and told me to go back to my position on the field or they’d take my credential,” Sabo said.

After most of the crowd had dispersed outside Gate 6, turnstile workers opened the doors and began letting people back into the Stadium. But it was already too late for hundreds of fans.

Hey, the fans shouldn’t feel bad. For what it’s worth, at the new Stadium, the Yankees recently also rudely treated Paul O’Neill and his wife too.

Strange. I would bet that the Yankees try and write this stuff off as being the bugs of opening up a new Stadium. But, really, did they never have a two-hour rain delay before a game at the old Stadium? And, did they never have a former Yankee, and current broadcaster, and his wife visiting the park at the old Stadium? These are not situations that are unique to the new Stadium, and, therefore, they should have been handled better by the organization. Hopefully, we’ll never hear of these types of situations happening in Yankeeland again – because, they should just not be happening, period.

(H/T to BBTF on the stories.)

Let’s flash back to April 21, 2006. Remember what happened then, when the Yankees told Worm Killer Wang to pitch from the full wind-up, on a 3-2 count, with two outs, and the bases loaded? Via Tyler Kepner back in the day:

With two outs and Millar on second, Wang lost his control, walking Brian Roberts and Nick Markakis to load the bases. From the bench, the Yankees told Wang to work from the windup, thinking he would be more comfortable.

But Wang is slow from the windup, and on the 3-2 pitch to Melvin Mora, Roberts and Markakis took enormous leads. Mora smacked a grounder to shortstop Derek Jeter, but his only play was to first, and his throw pulled Andy Phillips off the base.

By the time Phillips landed on the bag, Mora had slid in safely. He also had accomplished a rarity, knocking in two runs on an infield single.

Brian Roberts, three years ago, took the Yankees to school on what can happen when you go to the full wind-up with the bases juiced, two outs, and a full count…and, this evening, Jacoby Ellsbury showed us that New York learned nothing three years ago…because, again, the Yanks got embarrassed by sleeping on the field in a big spot.

Yeah, I know it was a 2-2 count this time. But, that’s close enough to it being a full count in a situation like this…

The son of Yankees senior vice president Felix Lopez Jr. – who is the son-in-law of Bronx Bombers owner George Steinbrenner – was busted in 2002 for trafficking in a banned date-rape drug that has been used by athletes for muscle recovery, and for possession of anabolic steroids at his Tampa, Fla., apartment, records reveal.

Felix Lopez III, who in recent weeks has been spotted at the Yankees’ minor league facility in Tampa working out in official team sweats, served 19 months of probation after pleading guilty to reduced charges in 2003.

Lopez, 30, had been arrested at his Tampa home in September 2002 as part of a nationwide Drug Enforcement Administration sting, which cooperated with local law enforcement authorities, for trafficking in a drug known as GBL.

Earlier this week, a source told The Post that Lopez had been acquired as a strength trainer for the Yankees minor league facility, which his father, Felix Lopez Jr., oversees.

Lopez Jr. is married to Jessica Steinbrenner, the younger daughter of the Yankees principal owner.

But Lopez III, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, and Howard Rubenstein, a spokesman for George Steinbrenner, all denied that the younger Lopez had been, or was going to ever be, hired by the Yankees.

“I have not,” Lopez III said, when asked if he had been hired. “I’m not a hire … I wish.

“No, it’s always best to let family just do kind of their own thing. I don’t work for the complex at all, no W-2, no paychecks, nothing.”

Lopez III did confirm he has visited the minor league complex, noting that his dad works there.

The Post’s questions about Lopez’s criminal record caught a number of highly placed Yankees sources by surprise, as they were completely unaware of that aspect of his history.

The Stein family is starting to look more and more like the Bluth’s…everyday.

My thanks to those who left comments here in other entries, also alerting me of this…

Here’s the scoop from SI.com -

In 2003, when he won the American League home run title and the AL Most Valuable Player award as a shortstop for the Texas Rangers, Alex Rodriguez tested positive for two anabolic steroids, four sources have independently told Sports Illustrated.

Rodriguez’s name appears on a list of 104 players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball’s ‘03 survey testing, SI’s sources say. As part of a joint agreement with the MLB Players Association, the testing was conducted to determine if it was necessary to impose mandatory random drug testing across the major leagues in 2004.

When approached by an SI reporter on Thursday at a gym in Miami, Rodriguez declined to discuss his 2003 test results. “You’ll have to talk to the union,” said Rodriguez, the Yankees’ third baseman since his trade to New York in February 2004. When asked if there was an explanation for his positive test, he said, “I’m not saying anything.”

Phone messages left by SI for players’ union executive director Donald Fehr were not returned.

Wow. If true, Jose Canseco was right again. And, all of a sudden, the Joe Torre book doesn’t seem like the biggest news in Yankeeland any more…

Update, 12 noon EST, 2/7/09: How many times do you think this video clip will be replayed in the next 24 hours?

Yankees star Joba Chamberlain downed vodka-and-sodas and caroused at a Nebraska strip club in the hours before he was busted for drunken driving, the Daily News has learned.

The 23-year-old pitcher went drinking at a bar in downtown Lincoln and then capped off his Friday night at a local jiggle joint, where he got into a tiff with another customer over the rival Red Sox, witnesses said.

Chamberlain – who had a blood-alcohol level more than 1-1/2 times Nebraska’s legal limit when he was nabbed – was heckled as he and friends watched the dancers at the Night Before Lounge, witnesses said.

“Some guy yelled out, ‘If you played for the Red Sox, you wouldn’t be sitting here,’” clubgoer Gary (Bo) Bohaty said.

Boston was knocked out of the playoffs Sunday night.

“That got a rise out of him,” said Bohaty, owner of the Beacon Lounge, a bar next to the strip club. “[Joba] turned his head and said, ‘What did you say?’ and the guy yelled it out again.”

As Chamberlain kept shouting back, one of the pitcher’s friends got into a shoving match with the heckler, said the club’s manager, who asked not to be identified.

Once order was restored, Chamberlain and his five friends stared at the gyrating dancers for nearly 90 minutes before leaving just after midnight. Chamberlain paid the $145 tab and left a $100 tip at the club, where the cover charge is $3, the manager said.

His estranged mother, Jacqueline Standley, has said her struggle with alcohol and drugs led her son to be raised mostly by his wheelchair-bound father.

The father snapped at reporters outside his home yesterday.

“Please get off my property,” said Harlan Chamberlain, who then pointed to a woman in a neighboring driveway. “If she got a DUI, would it be a story?”

Harlan, who seems to enjoy all the media coverage that he gets at Yankee Stadium, etc., has to learn that the media is a two-way street. Well, at the least, he’s learning it now…

As far as Joba, hey, he’s not the only ballplayer to hang out in nudie bars…but, the DUI thing is still inexcusable. Dude, call a cab. I’m sure they have car service places in Lincoln, Nebraska, don’t they?

New York Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain has been arrested for allegedly driving under the influence, speeding and having an open container of alcohol in his vehicle.

Deborah Collins is a spokeswoman for the Nebraska State Patrol.

She says Chamberlain was stopped for speeding on U.S. 77 near his hometown of Lincoln at about 1 a.m. on Saturday.

Collins says Chamberlain was taken to the Cornhusker Place Detox in Lincoln, which she says is the normal protocol.

Chamberlain was lodged at the center on charges of driving under the influence, having an open container of alcohol and speeding.

Collins says the county attorney likely would file formal charges on Monday.

An e-mail sent to Chamberlain’s agent Saturday was not immediately returned.

As I have mentioned before, DUI is a terrible, terrible, crime – in my opinion. It’s inexcusable.

The first thing that came to my mind when I heard this was Jim Leyritz. Chamberlain is lucky he’s not in that type of situation right now.

Maybe the Yankees should set up a session for Joba to meet Matthew Wasser’s parents this off-season – so that Chamberlain can hear from someone close to it just how terrible a choice of DUI can be?

Chamberlain is young and he can learn from this incident. Hopefully, he will learn from it. But, until he proves that he has learned from it, his status as a guy who “gets it” has to be moved down – several pegs.

On the season, the Yankees went 51-46 when playing “winning teams” (meaning they had a winning percentage >=.500) and 38-27 when playing “losing teams” (meaning they had a winning percentage <.500).

It was New York's play against "losing teams" that hurt them in the standings this year - as Boston went 46-18 against "losing teams" and Tampa Bay went 42-19 against "losing teams." The difference here between New York, Tampa and Boston is why the Yankees finished where they did in the standings.

In total, when the Yankees played the Reds, Pirates, Indians, Tigers, Royals, and Rangers this year, they went 15-21. And, those are ‘bad’ teams. If you want to say that those 7 games under .500 against these ‘bad’ teams is the difference between the Rays, Bosox and Yanks this season, I would not fight you on it.

In particular, from June 6, 2008 through July 10, 2008, the Yankees lost six games to the Royals, Reds, Rangers and Pirates that they should have never lost. Here are the games – and the player on the Yankees who probably had the biggest hand in that loss:

June 6th vs. The Royals – Goat: Johnny Damon

June 9th vs. The Royals – Goat: Melky Cabrera

June 20th vs. The Reds – Goat: Jason Giambi

June 30th vs. The Rangers – Goat: Jorge Posada

July 1st vs. The Rangers – Goat: Melky Cabrera

July 10th at The Pirates – Goat: Alex Rodriguez

Damon…Melky…Giambi…Posada…and A-Rod. Hey, what can you say? It was a team effort, right?