It looks more and more like Johnny Damon could be headed to the disabled list for the first time in his career, though that's still not 100 percent certain. They planned to re-evaluate him on Sunday but when a guy can't put his uniform jersey on, he's a long way from playing left field at Yankee Stadium.

Speaking of that, did Dustin Pedroia think Damon was still playing left field in the first inning or what? Nice throw by Brett Gardner and it got a pretty good reaction from the crowd. That's a heck of a heads-up slide by Jason Giambi there to put the Yankees on the board as well. You wonder what was going through his mind as he huffs and puffs around third base, then sees the ball is going to beat him by a great margin.

Still waiting for the energy to pump this building up. It's warm, hazy and I know it's Yankees-Red Sox, but it seems like there's still 55,000 people (less the people wearing red, and there's a lot of them) waiting for a reason to explode. Maybe some of them are feeling under the weather like Jorge Posada is.

With the trade deadline more than three weeks away, the Yankees do not appear primed to make a major move, though they also will not be sellers at the deadline. The Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger reported Saturday that the Yankees will not pursue a major shakeup, specifically mentioning the Indians' C.C. Sabathia as someone the club will not go after.

"We're looking into different things," Yankees co-chairperson Hank Steinbrenner told the Star-Ledger. "I think we all had more confidence in what we could do with what we have than what we've shown lately.

"I don't think there's going to be any -- for most teams in baseball, 90 percent of the teams in baseball -- there's not going to be anything major that's going to happen."

MLB.com has a look back at Dave Righetti's no-hitter, 25 years ago to the date against the Red Sox. Who can forget Wade Boggs swinging for the 27th out? The ultimate Rags to riches story.

Watching this video clip really brought me back. When I was growing up, the local public library had a VHS tape about the 10 greatest Yankees moments -- I think it was sponsored by Kodak. I must have taken that thing out a hundred times as I tried to get my hands on anything baseball-related.

I do remember at some point, I just decided not to return it and paid the penalty... I think we did the same thing with Bull Durham and some baseball card collecting video hosted by Rangers manager Bobby Valentine. So to the Sloatsburg Public Library, thank you.

Nothing says the Fourth of July like the Yankees, the Red Sox, and a rain delay!

We're set to start back up at around 5:45 p.m. ET. Seems I may have been a bit off today - I actually did believe Darrell Rasner was going to throw a good one on the board. That didn't work out quite so well, with Mike Lowell's three-run homer so far standing as the difference.

The Yankees do have six outs remaining but, once again, the offense has been underwhelming. So much for that meeting -- if this score holds, they'll be stuck looking at the bases-loaded, two-out situation they missed in the fourth inning and the bases-loaded, one-out jam Hideki Okajima and Manny Delcarmen pitched out of in the seventh.

Hope you're enjoying your Fourth regardless of what transpires here in the Bronx -- enjoy some burgers and hot dogs off the grill, and maybe down a cold one or two before the fireworks show tonight.

This headline on MLB.com says it all: Yanks' quiet loss spurs loud meeting.

I'd love to be able to tell you exactly what transpired during the 34 minutes that Joe Girardi ordered not just the reporters to stay out of the room, but also the batboys, clubhouse workers and assorted security personnel. I won't pretend I know exactly what was said. We'll never have a word-by-word transcript, but you can cobble together a pretty good idea of what this meeting was all about.

This was the red alert, the kick in the rear end that told the Yankees to look up at the calendar. When Darrell Rasner throws the game's first pitch on Friday afternoon, there will be only 75 full games remaining -- 75 games for the Yankees to prove they deserve to be a playoff team. If the season ended today, they wouldn't even be close to being one of the four American League teams permitted to play in October. It's the harsh truth.

That's what Girardi's meeting was about -- not so much an indictment of one game or one performance, though there wasn't much to speak of in a sleepy 7-0 setback to the Red Sox. This was about the season, and more to the point, the fact that it is slipping away quicker than they anticipated.

Last year, Joe Torre got loud behind closed doors in Toronto and left even some of the veterans feeling embarrassed about the dressing-down they'd been given. That was in May. Girardi has held four meetings by our count (Derek Jeter hints there have been more we don't know about) and this is by far the most in-your-face, nothing-held-back session so far, from the bits and pieces that were tossed around.

It worked for Torre. Will it work for Girardi? If it does, you'll look back on July 3 as the day the Yankees' season turned for the better. If it doesn't, this will be just a mere footnote in a season that didn't live up to expectations.

You know, for all this talk about the unbalanced schedule, it sure does feel like a long time since the Yankees and Red Sox met. A lot has happened since April 17. Think they'll remember how to play a lengthy game?

Here's the quick hits pre-game that you need to know about ... Melky Cabrera is back in the lineup and they hope the day off cleared his head. This 0-for-19 slump might have been wearing on him quite a bit, but you'd never be able to tell by his demeanor. I crossed paths with Melky in the clubhouse and he was upbeat, saying the day off was good for him and Joe Girardi told him it'd just be for one night.

It also seems that Hideki Matsui won't be able to pick up a bat this weekend, as the Yankees originally thought he would. Surgery still is being viewed as a last resort, but it's clear that something continues to not be going well in that left knee of his. If Matsui has surgery, he said his '08 season will be over, so they'll do everything possible to avoid going under the knife. If that means Matsui has to sit out until after the All-Star Break, so be it.

Fun fact: The last time the Yankees and Red Sox met this late in the season with neither team occupying first place in the AL East was Sept. 15, 1997, when the Orioles paced the division.

Thursday, 7:05 p.m.
Andy Pettitte LHP (9-5, 3.98) vs. Jon Lester LHP (6-3, 3.48)

Friday, 1:05 p.m.
Darrell Rasner RHP (4-4, 4.22) vs. Josh Beckett RHP (7-5, 3.65)

Saturday, 3:55 p.m.
Mike Mussina RHP (10-6, 3.87) vs. Justin Masterson RHP (4-2, 3.75)

Sunday, 8:05 p.m.
Joba Chamberlain RHP (2-2, 2.22) vs. Tim Wakefield RHP (5-6, 3.72)

While Hank Steinbrenner was spurring the Yankees on to their biggest offensive showing of the season, delivering the wake-up equivalent of a Starbucks doubleshot espresso, Hal Steinbrenner was calmly and coolly sitting down with MLB.com in Tampa.

Here's a snippet concerning pricing at the new Stadium, where they'll be 53,000 seats pointed toward the action in 2009:

"I see in the papers all the time about the 180 Legends Seats that are so expensive," he said. "But they don't talk about the fact that half of the seats in the stadium are $45 or less; that the entire top level is $20-$25 seats, and the bleacher seats are $12. We wanted to make sure that the average family can afford to go there and that's the way it's going to be."

Also, Hal says that the Yankees' baseball engine has not been a money-maker in recent years. That's believable, since the club has been subject to large revenue sharing spillage, but the organization's other ventures like the YES Network have been quite lucrative.

The full article can be found here.

This was talked about as a possibility back when the Mitchell Report fallout was all we were talking about, but thankfully hundreds upon hundreds of innings of actual baseball pushed it back in the news.

The New York Daily News is reporting that Andy Pettitte could be called to Harris County, Texas to appear as a witness in the defamation lawsuit that Roger Clemens has brought against former personal trainer Brian McNamee. You'll remember that Pettitte largely sided with McNamee's version of events when he provided a sworn deposition to Congress.

Pettitte starts tonight as the Yankees open a four-game weekend series with the Boston Red Sox.

Sidney Ponson will be on the mound tonight as the Yankees complete their three-game series with the Texas Rangers, playing on after Hank Steinbrenner publicly called the team out for its lackadaisical offense. We just grabbed Brian Cashman on the field and he wasn't taken by surprise when Hank unloaded, speaking to the Associated Press:

 "He's right," Cashman said. "The offense has underperformed and we've got to figure it out. The strength of this team, more than anything, is supposed to be the offense. It's a weakness for us right now and we've got to fight our way through it and get guys going in the right direction. It's simple as that."

They'll get their first chance tonight -- the Yankees' 388 runs scored are their fewest since 1992, when they had 374 runs and a 42-42 record after 84 games. In case you're wondering -- and I was -- the '92 Yanks lost that 85th game too, with Scott Sanderson allowing four runs over 7 2/3 innings. They fell to the Mariners, 5-2, when Dave Fleming threw a gem, making one mistake over eight innings -- a two-run Danny Tartabull home run.

Imagine if this blog was around then?

Back in 2008, Melky Cabrera isn't in the lineup, with the Yankees hoping to get his head right after a 0-for-19 drought. It's looking like Hideki Matsui won't be back before the All-Star Break; meanwhile, Chris Britton (strained left ribcage) threw a scoreless inning on rehab with the GCL Yankees on Tuesday. Humberto Sanchez (Tommy John surgery rehab) also appeared in the game, throwing a scoreless inning in his third rehab appearance.