MySports Today

Alex Rodriguez played 3rd base for 7 innings on Tuesday for the 2nd straight day.  It is unclear if he will play a 3rd straight day on Wednesday.  A-Rod went 3 for 6 with 2 home runs to center field.  I wonder if his hot new girlfriend – model Melissa Britos – was in Tampa to check out her man…

The New York Yankees defeated the Cleveland Indians 6-5 for their 1st win on New Yankee Stadium soil.  The Yankees needed 5 home runs to pull off the win.  Johnny Damon and Mark Teixeira homered in the 3rd inning; Melky Cabrera homered in the 4th inning; Robinson Cano homered in the 6th inning; and Derek Jeter’s home run in the bottom of the 8th inning broke up a 5-5 tie and put the Yankees ahead for good.  Although Mariano Rivera gave up 2 hits in the 9th inning to make things interesting, he got it done by striking out Mark DeRosa to end the game.  DeRosa had been 2 for 4 with 2 RBI’s and 2 runs scored.

The Yankees are now 6-5 on the season – the 1st time they have more wins than losses on the young 2009 campaign.

Call it karma…

This has never happened before in the New York.

On Friday night (April 3rd), the New York Yankees and New York Mets each opened new baseball stadiums.  And although they were only “exhibition” games, each team pulled out the victory, marking it the first time that 2 teams playing for the same “city” opened new stadiums and won their respective games.  Does this mean we are headed for a Subway Series?  Probably not, but it is an odd first.

The New York Yankees defeated the Chicago Cubs 7-3 at the new Yankee Stadium behind home runs from Hideki Matsui, Robinson Cano and Cody Ransom.

The New York Mets defeated the Boston Red Sox 4-3 behind solid pitching from Livan Hernandez, Pedro Feliciano and Francisco Rodriguez and clutch hitting from the ageless Fernando Tatis and newly signed, Red Sox cast-off Bobby Kielty.

2 teams playing for New York.  2 new stadiums.  2 rainy nights.  2 victories.

The Yankees and Mets faced off in a Subway Series back in 2000 – the Yankees took the crown in 5 games.  Will 2009 bring another Subway Series to the Bronx and Queens?  We’ll have to wait about 6 months to find out…

The New York Mets have signed Gary Sheffield to a 1-year deal.  The recently released outfielder/slugger will split time in right field with Ryan Church.  Daniel Murphy will continue to start full-time in left field against both right-handed and left-handed pitchers and will likely be spelled from time to time by either Church or Sheffield.

The Detroit Tigers, who released Sheffield earlier this week, will pay $13.6 million of Sheffield’s $14 million contract for 2009.  The Mets will cover the additional $400,000 – nice deal for Omar Minaya and the Mets.  This isn’t Sheffield’s first stint in the Big Apple – he played for the Yankees from 2004 through 2006 and put up monster numbers in his 1st two season for the Yankees.  Sheffield battled injury issues through the 2006 MLB season and was later traded to the Detroit Tigers.

Sheffield is one home run shy of reaching the 500 home run plateau.  Sheffield is a career .292 hitter and he has 1,633 career RBI’s – good for 27th on the all-time list.

This is a nice pick up for the Mets.  He is cheap and he still has the ability to hit the longball in a reduced reserve role.  Limiting his play should also reduce the risk of injury on the 40-year old ballplayer.  Kudos to Minaya for going out and making the deal with Sheffield and his handlers.

The Detroit Tigers released slugger Gary Sheffield on Tuesday.  Sheffield was hitting only .178 in 18 games for the Tigers during Spring Training.  Sheffield has 499 career home runs, 1 shy of the amazing 500 home run mark.  Sheffield will likely reach that 500 plateau at some point during the 2009 MLB schedule, but he will not do so in a Tigers uniform.  The Tigers are still obligated to pay Sheffield $14 million for the season.  Any team can now sign Sheffield for the MLB minimum $400,000 salary, and the defending World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies have already placed a call into Sheffield’s handlers to see if there is a fit for Sheffield in the City of Brotherly Love…

The New York Yankees have a fancy new billion dollar stadium. They also have spent more then any other team on players in the off season at over $400 million. Now if any Yankees fans want to go to the home opener which is the first game at the new stadium its going to cost you. I logged on to the web site today to check out what it would cost you to get two good seats to the April 16th game. For the low price of $2,625 and a nice big service charge you to could sit behind home plate. Yes that is two thousand a ticket face value. I just think its great how much heat tickets brokers get for prices that are set by an open market and here we have team charging this much. I guess times are tough and they need to pay the bills. What a great way to take care of the NY fans.

Mariano Rivera is back and ready to pitch in his 1st Grapefruit League action this spring.  As of now, it looks like that 1st appearance will come this Tuesday.  We’ll keep you posted how Rivera is feeling after his 40-pitch batting practice session this morning.  Assuming Rivera is pain-free, he will suit up for live action on Tuesday.

In batting practice, Rivera was crisp and found the strike zone often.  Rivera knows he has a lot of work to do in order to refine the delivery and get ready for stressful game situations, but everything seems to be on track for making a full recovery for the 2009 MLB season.  “Everything just needs time.  The cutter is good, but you have to be better.  That will come with time – just pitching.  But everything feels great.”

Rivera is coming off of off-season surgery to repair his right shoulder.  We’ll keep you posted with any further updates to the Mariano Rivera spring pitching schedule.

New York Yankees starting pitching has been off as of late.  On Friday night against the Boston Red Sox, Chien-Ming Wang lasted only 1 2/3 innings in the Yankees 8-4 loss.  Wang started the game by retiring the first 3 Red Sox hitters on groundouts.  After that, everything went wrong for Wang as his pitches went flat and the Red Sox teed off after an error by 1st baseman Juan Miranda kept the inning alive on a double play that never happened.  The Red Sox ended up scoring 7 runs in the inning – 3 on home runs by Mike Lowell and David Ortiz.

Wang has never fared well in Spring Training and he doesn’t seem too concerned this season either:  “I think I still need to work in the bullpen now.  This is Spring Training.  I’m not really worried about it.”  In the 2008 spring, Wang was tattooed for 10 runs in 10+ innings of work, yet started the MLB regular season with an 8-2 record before a foot injury ended his season early.  Wang hopes for similar results again during the 2009 MLB season.

The Detroit Tigers defeated the New York Yankees 7-4 on Wednesday roughing up Yankees ace CC Sabathia in the process.  Sabathia didn’t make it out of the 2nd inning – giving up 5 runs on 6 hits.  Gary Sheffield hit a 2-run home run off of Sabathia in the Tigers 5-run 2nd inning.  Sheffield hit 2 home runs against his former team in the game.

As for Yankees’ bats, Mark Teixeira had an RBI-single in the 1st inning of Tigers starter Justin Verlander.  The Yankees coaxed Verlander into 3 consecutive walks in the 2nd inning which enabled the Yankees to score on a Posada walk, a Kevin Cash single and a Nick Swisher sacrifice fly.

The Yankees are now 5-7-1 this spring, while the Tigers are 4-8.

The Alex Rodriguez saga continues.  A-Rod met with Major League Baseball executives on Sunday to discuss his use of steroids from 2001 through 2003 while a member of the Texas Rangers.  A-Rod said that he was glad that the meeting was behind him, and now he can simply focus on spring training and getting ready for the upcoming 2009 MLB season.

A-Rod also joined the Dominican Republic team on Monday in preparation for the 2009 World Baseball Classic.  The Dominican Republic team is stocked with major league talent – Pedro Martinez, David Ortiz, Miguel Tejada, Hanley Ramirez and Jose Reyes.

As for the meeting with MLB brass, the commissioner’s office released a statement saying that A-Rod was cooperative.  A-Rod attended the meeting with his 2 lawyers.  Union general counsel Michael Weiner was also present.  Dan Mullin (executive vice president of MLB investigations), Rob Manfred (executive vice president for MLB labor relations) and Dan Halem (general counsel for labor) were present on behalf of MLB.   From all accounts, the meeting went well.

A-Rod had this to say on his attempt to un-tarnish his public image – “I’ve put myself behind the eight ball, that’s for sure.  I’ve made mistakes.  I feel bad about them.  But I’m also looking forward to doing good things – not only playing good baseball, but perhaps being a messenger of the right message for kids in the future to not make the same mistake I made.”