BRING ON THE YANKS!!!  Congrats to 30% of you Ranger fans.  The Rangers are headed to the ALCS.

No more “Texas is the only franchise that has never won a post-season series.”  No more grousing about how, yeah, the Rangers might back into the playoffs because the A.L. West is so weak, but they won’t be able to do anything once they get there.

The Rangers are headed to the ALCS.

I have SportsCenter on right now, and Tim Kurkjian said he was taking the Yankees in the ALCS because Cliff Lee won’t be able to go in Game 1.  This, despite the fact that (as he pointed out earlier in the segment) it doesn’t matter if Lee went in Game 1 or not, since he wasn’t going to start three games anyway.

It probably doesn’t really matter if Lee starts 1 and 5, 2 and 6, or 3 and 7.  Part of me, though, is glad that Lee is going 3 and 7, because if this comes down to a Game 7, I’ll feel a lot better with Cliff Lee on the mound.  (Read More).

Chillean miners look pretty good after all..How bad could it have been?….CAPRICORN ONE!  [Updated at 6:02 a.m. ET, 7:02 a.m. Chile time] Claudio Yanez’ girlfriend  kissed the mining minister as he arrived at the top of the rescue chamber, becoming the eighth miner to emerge after being underground for more than two months.

Wearing glasses to protect his eyes from the change in light, Yanez ran towards his loved ones and engaged in a long embrace with his wife. He then went to hug his two daughters, the youngest who was crying and rubbing her father’s back. He held his daughters as he went and thanked each rescuer one at a time.

[Updated at 5:55 a.m. ET, 6:55 a.m. Chile time] Claudio Yanez, the eighth miner, has arrived at the top of the rescue chamber,
His family, including one of his daughters stood near by with bright smiles on their faces as they awaited his arrival.  (Read More).
Freaky Mexican Pirate story gets even weirder.  The lead Mexican investigator in the Falcon Lake case, Rolando Armando Flores Villegas, has been killed, his severed head delivered Tuesday in a suitcase to the Mexican military, officials told CNN.

“His head was delivered to the army garrison this morning in a suitcase after he failed to report back home last night,” Zapata County, Texas, Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez Jr. said.

A spokesman for the attorney general of Tamaulipas state in Mexico, Ruben Dario-Rios, confirmed the killing Tuesday afternoon in a telephone interview.

The report came a day after authorities in the Tamaulipas state attorney general’s office gave conflicting information on whether authorities were pursuing a pair of suspects in the case of David Michael Hartley’s disappearance.  (Read More).