The Plague-Offs

 In one of the most uncomfortable-to-watch scenes in playoff history, the New York Yankees were trumped not by the inefficient Indians, but by hoards of swarming bugs. Starting around the 8^th inning, flies called “Canadian soliders” by the locals selected Yankee Joba Chamberlain as a worthy landing zone, planting themselves on his arms, neck and face. Unfortunately for Joba, matters were made worse by the ill-advised decision to coat him with a healthy sheen of Off bug spray. The spray ironically caused the bugs to become stuck to his skin, and left Joba swinging his arms like a bear who just stuck his head in a beehive.

            Unquestionably, Yankee fans will now rally around this strange occurrence as reason why their team lost, especially if they lose the series. To me, that just doesn’t make sense. Players deal with rain, heat and deafening fans on a regular basis, a group of flies that don’t even bite shouldn’t be too big of a problem. Furthermore, Fausto Carmona and the rest of the Tribe dealt with the invasion just fine, finally capitalizing with men on base.

            It is true that Joba looked thoroughly irritated by the flies, but the Yanks should have been buried in this game. The Indians left more guys stranded than an episode of Survivor, and Yankee bats (ahem, A-Rod) were as cold as bug spray on bare skin. Its not the bugs’ fault the Yankees were squashed, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the series ended in Yankee Stadium on Sunday.