Author Archive
New York Yankees: The Good (and Not So Good) of Spring »
Spring training is mercifully reaching its conclusion. Maybe it's just me, but Yankees camp felt especially long this year. I'm guessing many of the veterans feel the same way. Except Nick Swisher, that dude loved spring training. Then again, Swish could find something to love about an asteroid crashing into Wisconsin. Swishalicious loves life. [...]
Alex Rodriguez: Is It Too Soon To Knock A-Rod Off the »
For the first time in almost a decade and a half, Alex Rodriguez is not being taken in the first round of fantasy drafts.Think about that for a second. A-Rod has been a star Major League player for almost as long as he hasn't. His breakthrough season came in 1996, when he hit .358 with 36 homers and 123 RBIs ... as a 20-year-old.He led the league [...]
New York Yankees: The Ongoing Quest To Know the »
Every two years or so, a glossy men's magazine will profile Derek Jeter. Like death, taxes and Adam Sandler comedies with melodramatic courtroom climaxes, it's inevitable.I surmise the goal of these profiles is get to know the real Derek Jeter, misguided as that notion may be. As anyone who's followed the shortstop's career can attest, Jeter [...]
New York Yankees: Your Team Fantasy Survival Guide, »
Is it really fantasy baseball season again?I'm still exhausted from last year, when the struggles of Mark Teixeira had me acting like the overstressed black police captain in every 1980s buddy cop movie you ever saw, popping Tums by the handful and saying things like, "I'm getting too old for this shit."But who am I kidding? I love it. Baseball is [...]
New York Yankees: Helpful Thoughts to Guide You »
I've found, in my two-plus decades of baseball fandom, that the key to spring training coverage is to arm yourself with a ruthless filter.The quicker you understand that 70 percent of news that comes out of camp is utter crap, the better off you'll be.This isn't meant to be a dig on the beat writers on the scene—they're doing their job [...]
New York Yankees: Nick Johnson in the News, Brian »
We all have regrets. Some of us more than others. Take your author for example. While I was in Miami for a bachelor party last weekend, my girlfriend was in Boston visiting my friend's wife who recently had a baby. Right about the time that my buddies and I were being seated at celebrated steakhouse Prime 112, I began receiving text messages with [...]
Yankees Have No Choice but to Put Faith in A.J. »
It was the snapshot that summed up a season: A.J. Burnett standing on the mound in disbelief, his hands on top of his head, while a pumped up Bengie Molina carried his impressive gut around the base-paths at Yankee Stadium.The Texas catcher's three-run homer in Game Four of the ALCS neatly accomplished two feats—it effectively ended the [...]
New York Yankees Will Lean Heavily on the Power of the »
Considering how many Yankees had sub par seasons by their standards in 2010, it can be considered a minor miracle the team came within two games of returning to the World Series last fall.Many of those slumping stars are back in 2011. Does having several key players with something to prove provide a perfect cocktail for success? Or are the Yankees [...]
New York Yankees: Hank Steinbrenner Takes on Derek »
At this point in the game, we've learned three irrefutable truths about Yankees co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner.1) His stance on recreational nicotine use stands in sharp contrast to the Surgeon General's.2) No one takes him even remotely seriously.3) He cannot be shut up.Steinbrenner added to his greatest hits collection on Monday when he shared [...]
New York Yankees: What Joba’s Gut Says About »
It started out innocently enough.Last Wednesday, Joba Chamberlain was among several Yankees pitchers to report early to the team's spring complex in Tampa, and some beat writers on the scene remarked on Twitter that the reliever looked as though he'd put on weight.Only, nothing is really innocent when it comes to Twitter and reporting anymore. The [...]