Rich Lederer and his son are on the east coast taking in some baseball, “a trip of a lifetime.” They started in Boston on Sunday, then visited Cooperstown before arriving in Manhattan early yesterday afternoon. I spoke to Rich via cell phone just after he arrived in the Bronx hours later to see Yankee Stadium for the first (and last) time.

“You’ll never believe who rode up here in the subway with…Cliff Lee.”

Well, the least Rich or his son, Joe could have done was accidentally bump into Lee, stepping on his foot, or jamming his shoulder. Something. They did not which was too bad for the Yankees. Lee continued his staggering early season success as the Tribe shut-out the Yanks, spoiling another fine outing from Chien-Ming Wang.

It is overcast and rainy but not unpleasent in New York today. A warm, moist day. Mike Mussina and the Bombers try to avoid the sweep this afternoon. Cliff will be in the Big House and he’ll have an account posted later tonight. As for me, I’m going to meet Rich after work. I’ve known Rich since 2003 and we’ve been buddies since. We speak on the phone every couple of weeks, but we’ve never met in person. So last week he’s packing for the trip and he asks, “Should I bring my mitt?”

“Hell, yeah.”

So the first thing we’re going to do when we get together this evening, rain or shine, is go up to Central Park and have a catch.

Talk about a fine how do you do!

Go Yanks!