Yankees Clinch. For the 9th year in a row.

Yankees do it again. So what else is new? 

Jason Giambi has a small ligament tear in his left wrist. He’s .233 with no homers in September. Maybe he really is off the juice. Or maybe this is just the breakdown of his steroid-ravaged connective tissue. Either way, at least the ’stache is gone.

Also, SportsCenter showed footage of the Yankees’ totally anticlimactic (grumble grumble) champagne-soaked clinch-fest, including a quick one-armed embrace/backslap/no-we’re-not-gay man-hug administered by Alex Rodriguez to Derek Jeter. The locker room reporter quickly homed in on Jeter and shouted jovially, “You and Alex just shared a hug—some people thought they’d never see that!” To which the dripping-wth-bubbly Jeter replied, with a sardonic smile, ”We’ve hugged before. We’ve been together a while.” Apparently so.

Giambi then tried to say that the comments he made to Tom Verducci for this week’s Sports Illustrated cover story were meant in a positive light. That is, these comments:

Giambi is quoted in the article as saying Rodriguez has a “false confidence” and that Torre should “stop coddling him.”

Yeah, “stop coddling him” is totally taken out of context. I can just tell. And “false confidence”? I’m sure Giambi meant “false confidence” in a good way. Whatevs. Everyone’s friends on a winning team.

I think I’ll also take this opportunity to randomly and gratuitously highlight the lame comments A-Rod made in the article, just because I hate him (via Mike Vaccaro of the NY Post):

“I can’t help that I’m a bright person,” is one of the lead quotes that Rodriguez provides Tom Verducci for his brilliant cover story in this week’s Sports Illustrated….

 “Mike Mussina doesn’t get hammered at all,” he said. “He’s making a boatload of money. Jason Giambi’s making $20.4 million, which is fine and dandy, but it seems those guys get a pass. When people write bad things about me, I don’t know if it’s because I’m good-looking, I’m biracial, I make the most money, I play on the most popular team. . . .”

“I have perfect pitch, I always put the seat down, every full moon I lay golden eggs that I autograph and donate to UNICEF. I mean, I can’t help it if my shit don’t stink. Look it’s not easy being this talented, this rich, and this good-looking, okay?”