Alert George Steinbrenner

An illegal alien attempted to sneak into the U.S. through Arizona managed to down a U.S. Border Patrol helicopter with a rock about the size of a baseball, according to the Associated Press.

Illegal immigrants threw rocks at a Border Patrol helicopter, forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing when one of the rocks damaged the rotor, the agency said.

Neither the pilot nor the Border Patrol observer was injured.

The A-Star helicopter was two miles west of the U.S. Port of Entry in Andrade, Calif., on Tuesday when a group of immigrants began throwing rocks at the aircraft.

One baseball-sized rock gashed the rotor, forcing the pilot to land nearby, said Michael Gramley, spokesman for the Border Patrol sector based in Yuma, Ariz.

That must have been some throw.

Considering how troubled the NY Yankee pitching staff has been, and that the Yankees have opted for refugee talent in the past ...

On the serious side, check out the following paragraph and see if you can spot the mistake.

After the incident, 17 people were apprehended for illegally crossing the border, and two of them were being investigated for smuggling. Ten immigrants evaded capture."

Notice how it went from "illegal immigrants" to just plain "immigrants"?

Maybe it's not a mistake at all, just another case of the AP preparing the minds of the American people for the Reconquista.