Driving Mr. Yogi

In the recently released book, Driving Mr. Yogi by Harvey Araton, the front seat is occupied ably by Yogi Berra and Ron Guidry, but the back seat is filled with the Pantheon of modern day Yankee heroes. Characteristically, George Steibrenner spills over into the front and tries to take the wheel. But Yogi Berra is too much […]

Consummate Captain

If Sandy Koufax is in the Baseball Hall of Fame, why not Don Mattingly? OK, OK, maybe that’s like comparing apples to oranges. How about Kirby Puckett vs. Don Mattingly? Take a look at this and more in “Donnie Baseball” by longtime journalist Mike Shalin. Read this book because: 1. Nobody worked harder than Mattingly. […]

Clearing The Bases

We’ve had to take a few weeks off due to some software problems, but we’re back today, just in time to watch all of the players that major league teams will call up to fortify their bullpen and bench during this final month.  The Yanks and Red Sox have been playing a big series this […]

Clearing The Bases

The baseball season is more than 1/3 completed, the weather is warming up, and pennant races are starting to shape up.  We are in mid-June; no longer can any player state that they are in a slump. Slumps don’t last two plus months.  With that in mind we are going to take a look at […]

Clearing The Bases

Unless you have been living in a cave all week you have undoubtedly heard about the Yankees Jorge Posada’s decision to pull himself out of the lineup and refuse to play last Saturday versus Boston.  What you may not know are the details preceding this decision. When Posada first came up with the Yankees he […]

2011 Pre-Season Preview: AL East – New York Yankees

NY Yankees 1B Mark Teixeira New York Yankees (2010 record: 95-67) The Yankees entered the off-season expecting to sign LHP Cliff Lee to a lucrative deal, but a funny thing happened on the way to the ballpark – the Philadelphia Phillies signed Lee out from under their nose at the eleventh hour. Hey, turn about […]

2011 AL East Positional Analysis And Ranking: Designated Hitter

I am finally at the end of my series examining the relative strengths and weaknesses of the teams in the AL East, on a position-by-position basis. The players at each position have been ranked in relation to their peers within the division, with each team being assigned points based on where their player ranks in […]

Time Marches On

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day ~William Shakespeare Time.  There’s no stopping it, no slowing it.  Whether you’re a Hall-of-Fame outfielder, a back-up infielder, or a middle school teacher, time inevitably marches on.  It slows us down, humbles us, and erodes away our natural athletic gifts. The […]

Recent Indy Grad Rene Rivera Only Hitter to Take Stephen Strasburg Over the Fence

Rene Rivera is one of only a dozen and a half baseball players in the Independent leagues who has had his contract purchased by a major league organization in this still young season. The stocky catcher has a unique distinction, though, not only among the privileged group that has moved one step closer to the […]

Are the Yankees Ready for an Encore Performance?

New York City had not finished sweeping up the confetti from the latest parade down the Canyon of Heroes before the Yankees’ relieved fans asked the obvious question: can they repeat? It may have taken nine years to deliver championship number 27, but that doesn’t mean the team’s spoiled fans are satisfied. The difference in […]