It appears as though the New York Post has been thinking the same thing lately as the Yankees have told their 36-year-old free agent shortstop to feel free to shop around if the $45 million they offered him is not enough. And anyone who follows baseball knows that if there is one team that may actually outbid the Yankees for an All-Star player, it is the Boston Red Sox.
So that once again leaves us all asking the question, "What if?"
George Steinbrenner, the controversial but beloved "Boss" who turned around the Yankees franchise in 37 years of ownership, died this morning in Tampa, Fla., after suffering a massive heart attack.
"He took a great but struggling franchise and turned it into a champion again," the family said in a statement released by spokesman Howard Rubenstein. "He was an incredible and charitable man. First and foremost he was devoted to his entire familygrandchildren."
Steinbrenner's micromanaging on the field and penchant for pursuing high-priced free agents -- and later taking a key role in escalating their salaries -- earned him a reputation as one of the most controversial figures in sports and made him beloved yet polarizing New York City legend.
Dramatic Photos: Yanks Celebrate World Series Return
LOOK
Dramatic Photos: Yanks Celebrate World Series Return
In Memoriam: Yankees Owner George Steinbrenner
LOOK
In Memoriam: Yankees Owner George Steinbrenner
A Look Back: George Steinbrenner Dies at 80
LOOK
A Look Back: George Steinbrenner Dies at 80
For more than 30 years, Steinbrenner lived up to his billing as "the Boss," a nickname he earned and clearly enjoyed as he ruled with an iron fist. During Steinbrenner's 37-year ownership of the club, the longest tenure in Bronx Bombers' history, the Yankees won 7 World Series titles and 11 penants.
He was known for feuds, clashing with Yankees great Yogi Berra, and firing manager Billy Martin twice. But as his health declined, Steinbrenner let sons Hal and Hank run more of the family business.
Steinbrenner was in fragile health for years, resulting in fewer public appearances and pronouncements. Yet dressed in his trademark navy blue blazer and white turtleneck, he was the model of success: The Yankees won seven World Series titles after his reign began in 1973.
Steinbrenner’s tenure of more than 37 years exceeded that of any other New York Yankees owner by 13 years (Colonel Jacob Ruppert purchased the Yankees with Tillinghast L’Hommedieu Huston in January 1915, bought out Huston in 1922, and maintained sole ownership in the club until his death in January 1939—a total of 24 years). Since Steinbrenner became principal owner, the other 29 Major League clubs had more than 100 owners or ownership groups while the Yankees had just one.
He appeared at the new Yankee Stadium just four times: for the opener in April 2009, for the first two games of last year's World Series and for this year's homer opener, when captain Derek Jeter and manager Joe Girardi went to his suite and personally delivered his seventh World Series ring.
"He was very emotional," said Hal Steinbrenner, his father's successor as managing general partner.
Until the end, he demanded championships. He criticized Joe Torre during the 2007 playoffs, then let the popular manager leave after another loss in the opening round. The team responded last year by winning another title.
In addition to the team’s on-field success, the Yankees have consistently shattered franchise and league attendance records at home and on the road. In 2009, they drew 3,719,358 fans in their first season of play in Yankee Stadium, topping the American League in attendance for the seventh straight season (2003-09). Currently, the Yankees remain the only franchise in baseball history to draw more than 4 million fans at home in four consecutive seasons (2005-08).
Yankees Pitcher Pat Venditte Can Throw From Both Sides! WTF?!
Have you guys seen this yet?
Pat Venditte, seen above pitching for his alma mater Creighton, is now a Yankee farmhand and he is ambidextrous. Yup, dude can throw left handed, and right handed, and is quite good at it. He has a career minor league ERA of 1.53, with a .95 WHIP and it seems like we might see him in the bigs shortly.
Tuesday, Venditte saw his first spring action and allowed one earned run, walked one, and gave up two hits in 1 1/3 innings against the Braves.
“People are going to have their doubts when they hear something like this, and I’ve got to prove that I can do it,” Venditte told MLB.com.
I promise I will be there for his big league debut, and the last MLB player to do the damn was Greg Harris in 1995 for Montreal. I think me and my brother called him “The Butt Shower” because his ass was so big.
Below are a few videos of my man throwing, including an ESPN video when Joba “The Hut” Chamberlain has nothing but good things to say about the multi talented Venditte.
Watch from the 1:00 mark as major confusion happens when both hitter and pitcher are capable of going from both sides. Pretty amazing stuff.
E:60 Piece
I wish this kid all the best and hope to see him in the bigs ASAP. He could pitch for the Cubs right now.
Matt Anaya Twitter.com/MatAnaya Twitter.com/DugoutDoctors
Total Pro Sports - Toronto seems to be a hot spot for Alex Rodriguez. Last time he made headlines in the great Canadian city, it was for his extra-marital affairs with a hot blond at a local strip club. This time he stayed away from the titty bars, and even the hot blond (not Kate Hudson or Madonna), as it was a dark-haired Toronto police officer that he had his eyes on.
During last night's game between the Jays and the New York Yankees, a pop-up off the bat of Lyle Overbay was drifting towards the stands on the third base side. ARod made his way towards the area in an attempt to record the out.
Although he could not get a piece of the ball as it trailed off into the stands, he did manage to get himself a piece of something. That something was one of the city of Toronto's finest (cops, that is).
Reaching the warning track, he lunged, but missed the ball, unintentionally groping the female police officer sitting against the stands – not once but twice. For the first time in years, Alex Rodriguez was cheered good-naturedly at the Rogers Centre.
"I'm just glad she didn't read me my rights," Rodriguez said. "Only me. My God, how embarrassing." [Toronto Star]
ARod and Johnny Damon would end up checking on the woman in uniform and she would be alright. No word yet, but it doesn't seem like Rodriguez took her out afterward for some drinks to celebrate the 10-5 victory at The Brass Rail (a fine Toronto strip club).
Here is how it all unfolded.
ARod grops female officer
ARod grops female officer
After the groping
Hat Tip Pics - [Blitz Corner]...check them out for the rest of the pics.
Earlier today, we told you that the Yankees had not found anything conclusive from previous wind pattern studies at the new Yankee Stadium.
But thanks to the right field wind tunnel theory, given the preponderance of home runs, meteorologists are getting involved.
Accuweather.commeteorologists "estimate that the angle of the seating in the new stadium could have an effect on wind speed across the field," in an interpretive news release issued by the Web site Monday afternoon:
"The old Yankee Stadium had more stacked tiers and a large upper deck, acting like a solid wall in efffect, which would cause the wind to swirl more and be less concentrated. The new Yankee Stadium's tiers are less stacked, making a less sharp slope from the top of the stadium to the field. This shape could enable winds to blow across the field with less restriction. In addition, the slope of the seating would also lead to a 'downslope' effect in the field which, depending on the wind direction, would tend to cause air to lift up in the right field. Fly balls going into right field during a gusty west wind would be given more of a lift, thus carrying the ball further out to right field.
Source: accuweather.com
Accuweather.com says if it is the seat angle that's cause the issue, the only games that will be affected will be during times when "the winds are from a westerly direction and above 10 mph. This typically occurs during the spring and the middle to late fall." Therefore, according to Accuweather, the calmer weather in the summer will lead to fewer home runs.
Executives with Populous, formerly HOK Sport, the firm that designed the stadium are now referring all calls to the Yankees.
The amenities of the new Yankee Stadium were finally out for display yesterday, and perhaps nothing summed up the You Can’t Afford A Gaddamned Thing In This Place more than the $9 “Retro Beer” cooler, featuring 24 oz. Tall Boys of Pabst Blue Ribbon Horse Tinkle. Seriously? For nine bucks, they’d better send some Indonesian kid to my seat and pour it into my damn mouth. The beer , pervert. Pour the beer .
New Stadium Insider caught wind of this yesterday , but it’s still mind-blowing. Some people don’t understand that one of the drawbacks of having expensive beer is that it creates incentive for patrons to smuggle drinks of their own choosing into the stadium. And if 10 bucks can barely get you a can of PBR, it’s reasonable to believe that the new Yankee Stadium will see an uptick in smuggling compared to the old.
More on the Yanks’ new digs after the jump.
Keith Olbermann compares the new Yankee Stadium to the old, in a way that only a smug, self-satisfying prick can. From NBC New York :
BRIDGETON, N.J. — Just when it seemed that all the sports-licensing ideas had been exhausted — coffins with team logos, unveiled a few years ago, could have reasonably been the presumed end — along comes something that has been growing in plain sight all along.
A tuft for the windowsill? A pallet for the backyard? Officially licensed grass is about to be sold, in the form of sod or seeds, to fans who want a patch to call their own.
“It’s just capitalizing on what we have and what we’ve done,” said Rick DeLea, vice president of DeLea Sod Farms, which his grandfather founded in 1928 and has supplied turf for Yankee Stadium since the 1960s.
On a recent morning, Mr. DeLea swept his hand across a portion of the 80 acres of Yankees Sod on a vast hillside in South Jersey. Last fall, some of the secret blend of bluegrass was peeled in broad strips, hauled north on trucks and laid inside the new Yankee Stadium. But most of it was still here, greening under a late-winter sun.
“It’s going to be one of those ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’ stories,” said David Andres, the energetic and entrepreneurial man who came up with the idea of selling sod and grass to fans.
A former consultant with the company and now Mr. DeLea’s vice president for business development, Mr. Andres saw a field of bluegrass far bigger than the two and a half acres needed to cover the grassy portions of the new Yankee Stadium. The team had asked Mr. DeLea to reserve 10 acres for the stadium, apparently in case of some horrific horticultural incident in the Bronx, but that left a lot of leftover sod.
“I said: ‘Rick, you’re sitting on it. Why not do something with it?’ ” Mr. Andres said.
Actually, Mr. DeLea had been doing something with it. He sells the same three-variety blend of Kentucky bluegrass from this field to other clients. A high school in West Long Branch, N.J., had 16 acres installed last fall, when it was just called sod. Not Yankees Sod.
Mr. Andres, a self-described “sell ice to Eskimos kind of guy,” took the idea of licensing the product to the Yankees and Major League Baseball. He received the requisite stamps of approval and started a company called Stadium Associates to market Yankees Sod and Yankees Grass Seed.
It makes one wonder if other licensed permutations will follow — Cubs Ivy or Daytona Asphalt or Cameron Indoor Hardwood Floors, using the same vine, road mix or batch of trees as the sports arenas.
For now, Mr. Andres and three partners have visions of Cubs Sod and Red Sox Sod and other licensed sod. They have reached out to the farms that supply the other 27 major league teams with natural-grass fields.
But Major League Baseball is taking it one team at a time.
“We want to see how this goes,” Howard Smith, baseball’s vice president for licensing, said. “But we want all of our licensees to be wildly successful.”
Yankees Sod will be available at New York City-area Home Depot stores near the end of the month. A patch a little bigger than five square feet — 16 inches by 4 feet — will cost $7.50, Mr. Andres said. It may cost a few thousand dollars to cover a large backyard, but the sod comes with a certificate of authenticity from Major League Baseball, complete with the counterfeit-proof hologram, declaring it to be the official grass of the New York Yankees.
Yankees Grass Seed will also be available, in gift-friendly novelty sizes of three ounces and eight ounces, at Yankee Stadium and other places. Home Depot will carry bigger bags of seed.
Mr. Andres wants to sow grass seed in small planters, too, for fans who may want a little patch to water and cut, kind of like bonsai groundskeepers. He is even pondering miniature desktop replicas of the stadium filled with blades of Yankees Sod.
“It is something that is green,” Mr. Andres said, referring to the environmental benefit of the product, if not the awe-inspiring color that greets fans as they step through the stadium portals. “It is something that is connected to America’s pastime. It is something that is affordable. And it is something that every fan can appreciate.”
Mr. DeLea, an unassuming man who oversees a 13-farm sod empire with the help of a helicopter he pilots, supplies various varieties of turf, from bluegrass to bentgrass, to clients that include well-known golf courses and small municipalities.
He said that the bluegrass developed for the Yankees took about 14 months to mature. The DeLea sod laid in Yankee Stadium last fall, like the sod remaining on this hillside parcel, was planted in the spring of 2006. More is being planted at various sod farms for fans.
Mr. DeLea said that Yankee Sod was fine for a lawn that receives full sun, drains well and is reasonably maintained.
As the men turned to walk off the lush grass and into a van parked in the dirt, where sod once grew — the sod now in Yankee Stadium, perhaps, or maybe just at a high school in New Jersey — Mr. Andres mindlessly flicked the ashes of his cigar onto the turf.
Mr. DeLea scolded him and rubbed out the embers with his shoe. After all, this was not ordinary sod.
New stars in pinstripes Dec. 18: Sabathia says he has chills at the thought of being a Yankee.
NBC Sports
updated 9:00 p.m. ET,Thurs., Dec. 18, 2008
NEW YORK - Most teams triumphantly unveil a new ace. The New York Yankees presented a pair.
The sign board outside old Yankee Stadium beamed with an unusual message Thursday for a ballpark that already has seen its final game: “LET’S PLAY TWO,” read the top line. “CC & AJ 1 PM TODAY,” said the lower.
For $243.5 million, a lot in most places but a trifle in a city where a financier is accused of swindling billions, the Yankees signed two pitchers they hope will restore the franchise’s glory when it moves across the street to the new $1.3 billion Yankee Stadium next year.
There was a Christmas tree on the mound of the old ballpark, Yogi Berra was walking around and down in the cramped Stadium Club, 11 people were seated on chairs beside the podium. Manager Joe Girardi’s 9-year-old daughter, Serena, presented roses to the wives of CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett.
Yankees president Randy Levine called the news conference “one last hurrah” for the 85-year-old stadium, scheduled for demolition starting next summer. Brian Cashman said the teddy bearish Sabathia “lights up a room when he walks in.”
“I hope he lights up a city,” the general manager said.
Disappointed, dismayed and dissed after their streak of 13 consecutive postseason appearances came to an end, the Yankees reversed course after a one-year experiment with young starters and exercised their economic might by finalizing huge contracts Thursday for the two highly pursued pitchers. Sabathia’s $161 million, seven-year deal is the highest for a pitcher. Burnett’s $82.5 million, five-year agreement would be the highest on many teams.
“We learned last year that injuries can happen across the board,” Yankees co-chairman Hal Steinbrenner said. “There’s no doubt pitching is a bit more worrisome, but you’ve got to live year by year and we’re focused on 2009.”
New York has used 51 starting pitchers since its last World Series title in 2000, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, tied for sixth in the majors and third in the AL. Kevin Brown, Javier Vazquez, Jeff Weaver, Randy Johnson and Carl Pavano have all come and gone. Many of them were introduced with similar hoopla.
“You can’t stop swinging for the fences,” Cashman said, proudly wearing a World Series ring. “We’ve been here. We’ve done this before. How many times, right? And I’ve got this on my finger from the times where things have worked out. And I’ve got tread on my back from where I’ve been hit by a bus when it didn’t work out.”
Sabathia, wearing two large diamond earrings and more bling on his arm, slipped a large jersey with No. 52 over his dress shirt and Burnett put a trimmer No. 34 top over his. At 6-foot-7, about 300 pounds and with size 15 shoes, Sabathia carries big expectations to go with his big body.
“I’m not the best physique-looking guy,” Sabathia said.
To reel him in, the Yankees dazzled the 28-year-old left-hander with fellow Californian Reggie Jackson, tales of how they had coveted him for more than a year and a provision that allows the 2007 AL Cy Young Award winner to terminate his contract after three years.
Derek Jeter made a recruiting call, and Cashman traveled to Sabathia’s home in Vallejo, Calif., last week during the winter meetings to assure him and wife Amber that New York was a great place to live and pitch. That clinched it.
“Ten minutes after he left my house,” Sabathia said, “I called him and I looked at my wife, I said, you know, ‘I’ll be a Yankee.’ Every time I say that I still get chills thinking about that.”
Sabathia said the addition of a seventh season to the original $138 million, six-year offer was important. His wife said Cashman’s decision to offer the opt-out provision was key.
“When he said that, I said, ‘We’re going to love it,”’ she recalled.
Already, they spent Wednesday looking at houses in Alpine, N.J. The Sabathias intend to permanently move to the area.
They said the one-month gap between the Yankees’ initial offer and Sabathia’s acceptance was partly because they have a new child and partly because he wanted to hear from every interested team. He was concerned New York would withdraw its offer and move on.
“I was worried about the public perception here,” Sabathia said. “I don’t want anybody to think that I didn’t want to come here.”
Burnett seemed to be the wilder personality. He has a Pisces tattoo on his left hand in honor of his two sons. When asked about his trips to the disabled list (10), he interrupted the questioner.
“You don’t have to say the number,” he said.
The 31-year-old right-hander even received a recruiting call from Alex Rodriguez. Last September, Burnett got an unexpected recommendation to sign with the Yankees: from Carl Pavano.
His former Florida teammate, maligned for multiple injuries during his four seasons in New York, spoke with him during batting practice at Yankee Stadium.
“It’s a great place to play. It’s a great place to live,” Burnett said Pavano told him. “I was expecting to hear, you know, different things.”
Playing near his home in Maryland was important to Burnett. So was the chance to win.
“Of course, money had something to do with it,” he added. “How often do you get the chance to put on pinstripes? I mean, whether you want to admit that you love them or hate them, everybody wants to be a Yankee.”
Burnett was looking forward to picking out his locker in the oval clubhouse of the new ballpark, where the pair went to pose for pictures after the news conference. Before heading over, he heard a loud noise from above as he spoke with reporters.
“Get over to the new place quick,” he said. “We’re supposed to get out first.”
Notes: The Yankees still hope to re-sign Andy Pettitte. “He’s still excited about coming back,” manager Joe Girardi said. ... Steinbrenner said it was possible Joba Chamberlain could wind up splitting time as a starter and reliever. Steinbrenner also wouldn’t rule out chances of signing OF Manny Ramirez. “I guess as realistic as any of the other free agents, because we’re looking at all of them,” he said. “We’re just going to have to see what each day brings.”
FBI agents investigating Roger Clemens pored through medical records from his former teams earlier this year, looking for evidence that he perjured himself in February when he told Congress he had never used steroids or human growth hormone, several sources have told ESPN.
Agents met with club officials and attorneys from the New York Yankees, Houston Astros and Toronto Blue Jays in late spring, reviewing medical documents the teams had and interviewing some medical and training personnel.
The team medical reports are not expected to yield much information other than to confirm details made public when Clemens testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, such as the existence of an abscess on Clemens' buttocks while he played for the Blue Jays in 1998.
Brian McNamee, the personal trainer who said he provided performance-enhancing drugs for Clemens and other athletes, told congressional investigators that Clemens had developed the abscess after McNamee injected him. McNamee told investigators that he injected Clemens privately, so it is possible that team officials and medical staff were unaware of Clemens' alleged use.
Such abscesses have been associated with steroid use, although the existence of such an abscess is not necessarily evidence that Clemens was doping. FBI agents interviewed some club medical and training staff representatives and asked what they recalled about the incident, and whether Clemens had discussed steroid or HGH use.
The Yankees and Astros records were subpoenaed, but the FBI had no authority to subpoena material from the Blue Jays. Sources said they were not aware of how much information the FBI was able to obtain directly from the Blue Jays, and under Canada's strict privacy laws, patient consent is needed to release medical records.
Clemens did sign a waiver in February, however, that allowed the Blue Jays to turn over relevant medical reports to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and those records were made available to the FBI.
Although Blue Jays personnel who were interviewed by committee investigators said they had no knowledge of an abscess, the records showed that he had been treated for one.
Officials from Clemens' former clubs declined comment, as did Rusty Hardin, Clemens' attorney.
MLB officials also declined comment, but one source said the teams were told "to cooperate and make sure you get a lawyer who's an expert in medical privacy law," and another source confirmed that directive. MLB and club sources said they have heard nothing about the investigation since the summer, and were not aware whether any of the information culled from the reports would incriminate Clemens
In connection with the House hearing in February, former Yankees teammates Andy Pettitte and Chuck Knoblauch confirmed that they had received drugs from McNamee, but Clemens flatly denied the accusations. Pettitte, who did not appear before the committee but gave sworn testimony to investigators, essentially confirmed McNamee's version of events, saying he was aware Clemens used human growth hormone and had discussed it with him.
The hearing broke almost completely on party lines, with Democrats tending to attack Clemens and Republicans going after McNamee. Committee chairman Henry Waxman (D-Ca.) asked the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., to open a perjury investigation. Ranking minority member Tom Davis (R-Va.) led a Republican response that questioned many of McNamee's accusations. The U.S. attorney took up the case and the FBI began investigating.
As ESPN and the New York Times reported last month, investigators also took DNA samples from McNamee and his legal team to determine whether their DNA was on syringes that McNamee claims were used to inject Clemens with performance-enhancing drugs.
T.J. Quinn is a reporter for ESPN's Enterprise Unit. He can be reached at tjquinn31@yahoo.com.
.
All you art collectors out there. Here is a chance to get a Giclee copy of some of Ian M Sherwin work. Ian is planning on doing a whole series of Marblehead, Massachusetts paintings. His work is amazing.
.
Posts
