DAY ONE

With reluctance and great uncertainty, we at IT IS HIGH hereby go through the motions of hyping Joba Chamberlain, the savior, the changer, the manchild who shall lead us - thus joining the media enslaught that will put him on a pedestal so high that no matter what the poor guy does, it won't be enough.


We do this to alleviate the intense fear this team is instilling in us.


Even John Sterling is fed up. Last night, in the fifth, when ARod stranded Jeter on third with one out, John didn't hide his contempt for the lackluster way we pursue the fundamentals of baseball.


Nobody gets paid $10 million a year for fundamentals.


Girardi was supposed to instill them in us. The official line was that Joe Torre had gone soft, and Girardi would take us back to basics.

It hasn't happened.


The line was that our young pitchers were going to be able to carry the older ones, breathe fire into the bullpen, that our farm system had turned the corner and would bear fruit.


It hasn't happened.


We are slow, we are sluggish, we are a team of double-play balls waiting to be hit, a team of salary dumps waiting to be made.

Sooner the better. But tonight... DAY ONE.