No More Mo? Mariano Rivera Suffers Torn ACL And Career Is In Jeopardy

It's probably the last way that Mariano Rivera thought his career would end. Landing awkwardly during shagging fly balls during the pregame warmup routine.

His face told the tale. The pain in his knee and needing to be carted off for an MRI.

Rivera will need surgery, but the Yankees are now peering into the future of life without the greatest closer of all time backstopping their bullpen as he has since 1997.

The numbers for this 12-time All-Star are simply ridiculous:

First on the all-time saves list with 608
1119 strikeouts and 277 walks in more than 1200 innings
A 2.21 ERA and 0.998 WHIP
A career ERA+ (which measures his ERA against his peers, with 100 being average) of 206.
And then don’t forget the postseason: 42 saves in 96 games. A 0.70 ERA and a 0.759 WHIP. And five championship rings.

His ERA is the lowest of any pitcher with 1,000+ innings since the live-ball era began. Better than Hoyt Wilhelm. Better than Whitey Ford. Better than Sandy Koufax.

Yet, Rivera's statistics tell only part of the tale. While his career on the field is worthy of first ballot Hall of Fame induction, it's his off the field demeanor and grace that sets him apart from everyone else.

He's as classy and respectful of the game, his fellow players, and the fans as anyone who ever put on cleats.

Rivera will now have to go through surgery and consider rehabilitation and whether he thinks he can return to his prior form, which for him means being the best closer of all time. If he thinks he can return, he'll do everything possible to make his return possible. However, if he doesn't think he can return to his former greatness, he might never take to the mound again.

And it's a shame for not only Yankee fans, but the game of baseball. A talent like his comes so infrequently that watching him pitch was something that everyone appreciated - you could see it in the eyes of rival hitters and pitchers alike particularly at All Star Games. He would sit around and talk with anyone who wanted to about his cutter, the pitch that made him so incredibly effective. He'd talk mechanics and technique with anyone, and while some managed to attempt cutters of their own, none could master the technique with such precision.

It's a gift, and it was an incredible pleasure to watch him pitch in pinstripes for all these years. It's sad that we may not see him play competitive again, though one can hold out hope that he might be able to come back from even this.

We can only hope.

UPDATE:
Well, that was quick. Mariano issued a statement saying that he would definitely come back for 2013.

"I'm coming back," he said. "Write it down in big letters."

Rivera was on crutches today and said that he's heard he could be back to work in 3-5 months. He would not rule out pitching this season but said if everything goes right he'll be completely ready by spring training next year.

He plans on telling his teammates as a group, something he hadn't done by the time the clubhouse opened to the media.

Rivera said he decided late Thursday night in his hotel room and that he will fly back to New York Saturday.

"You don't go out like this," Rivera said.

Yankee Stadium Parking Deal A Disaster For New York City

In their efforts to build a new stadium, the New York Yankees convinced the Bloomberg Administration that more parking was needed for the stadium. So, the Bloomberg Administration lined up financing for building parking garages and lots around the new stadium.

Well, it turns out that fans have avoided the parking like the plague and it's such a disaster that the parking lot bonding may default costing the City $237 million in the process.

Time is running out, in other words, to avoid one of the biggest failures in decades of bonds issued by a New York City agency.

The simple fact is that Bloomberg and his aides made a costly mistake when they succumbed back in 2005 to the Yankees’ demand for a 9,000-space garage system. It was all part of the deal for the team to build a new stadium in the Bronx.

But Yankees fans have shunned the garages, where gameday self-parking rates soared last year to $35 — up from $23 previously and more than double the original $14 charge. Valet parking now goes for $48.

So many fans are staying away, in part due to the lure of cheaper local competition, that Bronx Parking Development now projects only 3,500 paying customers per game for the upcoming season.

And that occupancy rate — a measly 38% — will exist only on days when the Bronx Bombers take the field. For the rest of the year, the garages will remain a ghost town, since a mere 70 South Bronx residents currently park there each day.

At the same time, Bronx Parking Development has turned into a giant tax deadbeat. The firm, which is not connected to the Yankees, has failed to pay any rent or property taxes, even though the garages sit on 21 acres of leased public land.

It currently owes the city a whopping $25 million.

The City's solution to this mess? Another bond proposal to build a hotel complex around the stadium.

I'm sorry, but the better solution is to restore parkland that was destroyed as part of relocating Yankee Stadium across the street, and to open up bidding for prime locations for affordable housing and combined retail/residential development. This is a prime location in the City, and the proximity to both a Metro North train station that leads directly into Grand Central Terminal and subways means that it's an easy commute to the heart of the city. Parking should have taken a back seat considering that fans are doing whatever they can to avoid paying through the nose for parking - even circling streets nearby to find on-street parking or lower cost lot alternatives.

The City and the agency that issued the bonds (the IDA) claims that the city and IDA aren't going to be on the hook for the costs. Instead, they claim that the bondholders will be stuck with any potential default. I don't find that completely reassuring, and it also means that the IDA will have a harder time issuing bonds in the future on more worthwhile projects, and bondholders might be more leery of IDA bond issuances.

Thus far, developers have not put forth proposals for hotels or housing on the affected lots, unless they receive sufficient incentives (read as tax credits). Due to the way that the City has mismanaged this resource, the City will have a hard time getting top dollar for the properties.

Yanks Resign Jeter and Rivera to Deals

The New York Yankees have closed deals with both Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera that will essentially see both long time All-stars finish their careers with the Yankees.

That hasn't stopped some from questioning the kind of deal that Jeter managed to get. Mike Lupica, who hasn't been the same kind of sports reporter/editorialist since he went off on a tangent thinking that he was a political observer, thinks that Jeter was somehow disrespected by the deal that saw him take a pay cut over the three year (or four year with option) deal that he got.

This was business. It wasn't personal. Jeter had career lows last year in average and power, and he's sliding towards the backside of his career. It just doesn't make any sense from a baseball standpoint to lock him in on a more costly deal, and the Yankees treated it as a business decision. Jeter's agent, Casey Close, was trying to play up the emotional ties between the club and Jeter, who has been the consummate player and ambassador for baseball and the Yankee organization.

Yet, it ultimately came down to how Jeter performed on the field that led to the lower deal. Jeter just didn't keep to his previous statistics. Had he done so, his argument about being paid comparably to his prior deal would have carried more weight. I'm as big a Jeter fan as anyone out there, but it just doesn't make sense to pay him more money than his just expired deal. This was a business negotiation, and normally such negotiations take place out of sight, but this was done in the full light of public view.

It's that aspect that got so many fans bent out of shape and debating the merits of compensating Jeter even though that is between Jeter and the Yankee organization.

Moreover, Lupica trying to compare the Jeter deal with Rivera's deal is just asinine. Rivera has been as steady a performer as they come. He has not shown the slightest slowdown in his skills or outcomes. He still closes games as the top closer in baseball. Rivera didn't ask for more than he got previously, and he got what he was worth.

Gov. Paterson's Free Yankee Tix Were Expensive After All

It's going to hit Gov. David Paterson quite hard in the pocketbook. After taking testimony from witnesses and determining that Gov. Paterson thought it was his right to obtain free tickets to a Yankees World Series game, the Public Integrity Commission requested Paterson be fined $96,375.

The recommendation will be passed along to an administrative law judge who will decide the matter, which could take months to resolve.

The proceedings, including the damning testimony of Paterson's former spokesman and three top Yankees officials, were conducted without the governor, who refused to attend.

Three chairs saved for the governor's legal team sat empty throughout the hearing, which lasted barely two hours.

Paterson had argued the commission should have held off until a special counsel finished a spin-off investigation into whether Paterson perjured himself during the agency's original probe.

Paterson's failure to pay for five VIP seats behind home plate -- a potentially illegal gift worth $2,125 to $6,000 from the Yankees, a registered lobbyist -- was first reported last November by The Post.

Commission lawyers credited the newspaper with calling Paterson out on the alleged ticket-taking scheme.

"In fact, the governor never intended to pay for any of the tickets until Fred Dicker of the New York Post started asking questions," commission counsel Bridget Holohan said in her opening statement.

State law bars top public officials from accepting gifts of anything but "nominal" value from entities such as the Yankees that employ lobbyists or that attempt to influence official decisions.

Special Counsel Jeff Schlanger said Paterson "intentionally misled" the commission and added that the governor's ethical standards "sadly and widely missed the mark." Paterson has said he attended the ballgame in his "official capacity" and has denied any wrongdoing.

That's a historic fine and the first of its kind against a sitting governor.

Paterson may well be out of office by the time the judge rules on the fine.

The entitlement culture is pervasive in politics where politicians feel that they are more than entitled to perks of the office, even if it is violation of ethics codes or state law.

Yet, it also appears that Paterson purposefully misled the Commission on his actions, and that is particularly troublesome. In fact, those claims could lead to criminal charges down the road for perjury and obstruction of justice.

George Steinbrenner In Critical Condition UPDATE: Steinbrenner Dead at 80

Multiple reports are indicating that the owner of the New York Yankees, George Steinbrenner was in critical condition after suffering a massive heart attack yesterday. It's been a tough couple of days for the Yankee family with the passing of Bob Sheppard over the weekend and now TMZ.com (apparently corroborated by the AP) is reporting that he actually has died last night.

According to multiple reports, Steinbrenner -- who turned 80-years-old on July 4th -- was rushed to St. Joseph's hospital in Tampa where he was later pronounced dead.

Steinbrenner -- a U.S. Navy veteran -- retired from running the Yankees in 2006 ... leaving his sons Hank and Hal to run the team.

Since Steinbrenner took over the team in 1973, the Yankees locked up 11 pennants and 7 World Series titles.

When Steinbrenner bought the team in 1973 from CBS for $10 million, the team was in the doldrums and hadn't had a championship in years (since 1962). Steinbrenner turned things around, bringing in top talent, including Reggie Jackson. The team won championships in 1977 and 1978, but then settled back into a period of mediocrity fed by overpaying for free agents and chewing through managers as though they were chew toys for a rottweiler.

Steinbrenner demanded wins and championships, and when players or managers couldn't deliver, he fired them.

However, in his later years, he mellowed and allowed his front office staff to make key decisions that enabled a core group of players to develop. You might have heard of them - Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter, Andy Pettite, and Jorge Posada. They became the backbone for the team and led the team to championships in 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2000 along with the 2009 championship.

Off the field, Steinbrenner had his share of controversy, but few can argue that he didn't want to see his team succeed.

My thoughts and prayers go out to his friends and family.

The Voice of the Yankees Has Passed Away

Bob Sheppard, the voice of Yankee Stadium and the New York Yankees and New York football Giants for decades has passed away. He was 99.



He will be missed.

Demolition Underway At Old Yankee Stadium

It's painful to watch this, but the old Yankee Stadium demolition is truly underway as crews pull down the upper deck to make way for a park to be built on the location.

The Yankees Win... The Yankeeess Win!

That's right folks. The evil empire is back and they took out the Philadelphia Phillies to win their 27th World Championship in the process. The Phillies were quite smug coming into the Series, with Jimmie Rollins promising a win and back to back championships. The Phillie fans were even worse.

I guess they'll have to eat their words as the Yanks crushed them 4 games to 2. The series MVP is Hideki Matsui, who had a Godzilla of a Game 6, batting in six of the seven runs scored. Matsui is in the final year of his contract, so if this was his final game in Pinstripes, he made it a memorable one.



The Yanks also managed to win the Series in the first year of their new home, just as they did with the original Stadium in 1923. It's a rather fitting bookmark.

Congrats to the Yanks!

Oh, and the ticker tape parade is Friday in the Canyon of Heroes in Lower Manhattan riding up from Battery Park to City Hall Park along Broadway.

UPDATE:
Memo to Jimmy Rollins. Denial isn't just a river in Egypt. When your team loses the Series 4-2, you can't hit, you can't pitch, and you are outplayed at every turn, you do not get to claim that your team is better. The Phillies lost. Bigtime.

They lost the series, they didn't win as many games as the Yankees did during the regular season either, so claiming that your team was better is asinine.

Moreover, when you bat .217, you are hardly in a position to claim your team is better despite losing a series in six.

Welcome to CitiField

Last night I attended my first game at the new home of the Amazing New York Mets, CitiField. I have to say, the place is magnificent. In every way, the stadium will take its place among the great new stadiums in the league. Honestly, I was much more impressed with it than I was with the new Yankee Stadium.

One feature present in both stadiums is the fact that you can see the game while purchasing food and drinks. The teams went to great lengths to understand that the average fan gets up just over two times per game to get food and drink. In that time, the same fan misses more than 2 innings of the game. The goal of all the newer stadiums being built, is to allow the fans to continue to enjoy the game while spending money on food, drinks and souveniers. So, all the new stadiums are built so that while at the concessions, you miss as little of the game as possible. And indeed, they have shown that people now get up just over three times per game for concessions and miss less than 2 innings of the game (closer to 1.5 innings). Translation, happier fans spending more money on beer and hot dogs.

So why did I like CitiField better than Yankee Stadium, well, the answer is more than just because my NY Mets play there. In my opinion, and I spoke with a few of the people who I know who have been at both and they agree, CitiField has more of a fan friendly atmosphere, especially for the children. At Yankee Stadium, unless you get there several hours before the game and tour monument park, there is nothing else but the game. And that used to be great. But now, the modern parks are packed with the fan experience. CitiField has on the field level, behind center field, a place for children to play t-ball, and run the bases and see themselves on a large jumbo tron as the play. They have batting cages for the kids, a dunking tank, and even a video game area where you can play one of the baseball videogames (I think it was MLB, but not sure.) This is they type of fan experience they have brought to Camden Yards, and Citizen Bank Ballpark in Philadelphia. But it is conspicuous by its absence at Yankee Stadium.

Both had amazing food options, but I think CitiField had even more choices. Citifield, in addition to the usual hamburgers, hot dogs, sausage and peppers and and beer, had a fish place (lobster rolls, crab cakes, fried fish sandwiches) a barbecue stand, Mexican food, a shake shack, and several other great food options, although, I did have a hard time finding Carvel on the upper levels.

The seats at Citifield were really nice. The entire stadium is built so that it angles towards the pitcher's mound. All of the seats make you feel more on top of the game than Shea Stadium was.

Overall, I was really impressed with CitiField, and the Mets 7-5 victory over the Phillies! Mike Pelfry settled in nicely and overcame a first inning run by the Phillies and pitched decent, giving up 2 runs, and no strike outs. The Mets got home runs by Beltran, Wright and Reyes, and survived a poor blown call by the umpires, when they took away a double play in the eighth and instead awarded Victorino second on shortstop interference during a run down play. That lead to a Jayson Werth home run off of Feliciano, but K-Rod closed the door in the 9th to preserve the Mets' fourth straight victory.

Yankees Cutting Ticket Prices

Better late than never, but the prices are still high. The Yankees announced that they're cutting ticket prices of their most expensive seats after seeing them remain largely empty during the first two weeks the new stadium was open. (HT: Nevergiveup at LGF)

The team on Tuesday slashed the price of 48 first-row Legends Suite season seats on the outer half of the dugouts and photo cages from $2,500 to $1,250, and 68 others in the final three sections down each foul line from $1,000 to $650.

"There are a few hundred suite seats in our premium locations that have not been sold on a full season basis," Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner said in a statement. "As a result, and for many of our fans who have already purchased full season suite seats in such premium locations, the Yankees are announcing today a program that adjusts certain prices and benefits."

New York said the reductions will apply to this season only.

(snip)

Those who bought $2,500 first-row season tickets in the 11 sections surrounding the plate that weren't reduced will receive an equal number of free first-row tickets for the rest of the season. Those who bought $1,250 first-row seats in the first two sections past each photo cage will receive free seats for 24 games.

The prices were set based on what the team thought the market would bear, but they were wrong. I see that the team is also making good on those people who already purchased seats at the stadium in those affected sections.

What I think will be interesting is whether the team will raise those ticket prices next year. The jury's out on that.

Baseball Blues

Major league baseball is taking it on the chin in the first two weeks of the season. Attendance is clearly down over last season.

Major League Baseball’s average attendance was 30,298 for its first 183 games over the opening two weeks of the season, a 6.9 percent drop from last year’s final figure of 32,539.

The average declined from 31,111 in the opening week. The average usually drops during the second week of the season, as the significance of opening-day sellouts in the average lessens.

While the general reports seem to indicate that this is a league wide problem, I think it can be attributed to just two teams. The New York Yankees and New York Mets both moved into brand new stadiums, but their seating capacity is far less than the old stadiums.

Old Yankee Stadium seated nearly 57,000 people. The New Stadium seats nearly 52,325. Shea Stadium seated 57,333 while the new CitiField seats just 45,000.

More to the point, the 2008 season average for the Yankees last year was 53,069 per game in home attendance. The Mets had 51,165.

The current averages for the Yankees in 2009: 45,401 (through four dates). That means that the team is already 30,677 fans short based on the season long figures. The Mets attendance is 36,907 (through six dates). The Mets are currently 85,548 fans short based on the attendance comparison with last season.

You can't attribute the drop off to Bernie Madoff. You can attribute it to smaller venues replacing to stadium that were filled to the gills last season in historic sendoffs. Higher ticket prices at the new stadiums are also playing a role.

In fact, I think you could attribute nearly half the dropoff in attendance to both new stadiums: the 10 games there represent a loss of 116,220 fans who didn't go to the games. Instead of averaging 30,298 fans through 183 games, had the Yankees and Mets both drawn as they did during the 2008 season in their old ball parks, the attendance would likely be closer to 30,933. It's still a dropoff, but nowhere near as steep as seen so far.

Witnessing History: The New Yankee Stadium Experience

Yesterday began with such promise. It was a glorious day to take in a baseball game and it was my first time in the new Yankee Stadium. The building is such a different experience than the old stadium across the street. Instead of the narrow and cramped quarters behind the stands, you have wide concourses that have every manner of amenity you can think of.

You can view the field from pretty much anywhere in the park, even from the concourses that ring the stands. This stands in stark contrast to the old stadium, where your only views of the field were through the ramps up to the seats.

Then, there's the Great Hall, which fans congregated in and took in the whole experience.

Monument park was relocated as well. It now sits just beyond the center field fence, which is where the original monument park was located at the old Yankee Stadium before the 1970s renovation moved it to the left field location most people currently associate with the monuments. It's still not accessible during the game, and the pre-game line was huge and they cut it off more than an hour before the game.

As for the game itself, it began well enough for the Yankees. We knew that we were going to witness some kind of history, but we had no idea just what kind of history it would be. The Yankees took an early 2-0 lead on a Mark Texiera home run, but that was all the good news for the home team. The Cleveland Indians hit 20 unanswered runs, 14 in a second inning that broke all kinds of records at the new Stadium and in Yankee history for that matter. No team ever put up those kinds of numbers against the Yankees. Ever. It also set a major league baseball record for the most runs ever scored in the second inning.

The final score was 22-4 and the fans who stayed to the end truly were troopers. There was more fight in the stands than the Yankee pitching, which is getting taxed to no end every time Wang goes out and pitches.

One curious point that should be revisited later in the season is the fact that the stadium was packed with crowds except for the elite seats right between the bases - the box/luxury seats that appear to have been priced out by the recession and the overall costs for those seats. This is a game that should have been an absolute sellout, and it fell short. The score of yesterday's game notwithstanding, the game should have been a sellout. It wasn't.

That is perhaps the most troubling thing for the Yankees, besides their clear need for middle relief and to fix whatever ails Chien Mien Wang. They priced those seats too high, and now the team will go with those empty seats showing up on broadcasts night after night for the next six months unless they do something to get fans in those seats. Businesses clearly didn't see the worth of buying those field level seats, and now they're going empty. Even the Yankees admit that they may have overpriced the tickets, but that's not going to do them any good at the moment.

It doesn't matter how comfortable those seats are, and we moved from the terrace level down to behind home plate to see the end of the game. The pricing is going to be a big story as the season progresses.

Voice of Yankee Stadium Retires

Bob Sheppard, who has been announcing games at Yankee Stadium since the 1950s, is retiring. He had been in ill health and unable to announce games for the past season.

Yet, folks who are still hoping to hear his voice and unmistakable cadence can get to hear it every time that Derek Jeter comes up to bat. Sheppard recorded his introduction for Jeter at Jeter's request.

Now batting.... number two... Derek... Jeter.

Jim Hall, Sheppard's backup, will fill in, but no permanent replacement has been announced by the team as it makes its inauguaral season at the new Yankee Stadium.

Bob announced the last lineup read at the old Stadium, during the pre-game ceremonies closing the Stadium:

Tiger is Back, and Other Sports News

Yesterday gave us a reminder that the world is not all consumed with budgets and deficits and unemployment figures and politics. Yesterday was also about sports. In the world of golf, Tiger Woods made his season debut at the Accenture WGC Match Play Championship. Tiger has been out since his 91 hole victory over Rocco Mediate in the 2008 U.S. Open (considered by some – myself included – to be one of the greatest U.S. Opens since probably Bobby Jones played.) After the U.S. Open, Tiger announced that he needed season ending knee surgery, and that he played the Open, against doctor’s orders, while requiring anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) surgery on his left knee. Woods also revealed that he had been playing for at least 10 months with a torn ligament in his left knee, and sustained a double stress fracture in his left tibia while rehabbing after previous surgery. The fact that he was walking, let alone playing golf that week was incredible.

Tiger was not Tiger-like yesterday, but still easily dispatched Australian Brendan Jones 3 and 2. In other match play news, world number 2, Sergio Garcia lost 1dn to Charl Schwartzel, as Sergio completely blew 17 and 18. Anthony Kim easily dispatched Wen-Tang Lin 7 and 5 and my personal favorite, Boo Weekley, defeated Justin Rose 1up. As Boo approaches the weekend look for the crowds to get wild, as Arizona golf crowds are not known for their subdued nature (see, TPC Scottsdale, 16th hole)

In baseball news, the Mets and Yankees both played their first spring training games, with the Mets defeating the Orioles 9-3. Second Basemen Luis Castillo had 4 RBIs and Left Fielder Ryan Church drove in 3. The Yankees defeated Toronto 6-1, with Alex “Steroid” Rodriquez smacking a home run.

Lastly, the Knicks reached agreement with Coney Island native Stephon Marbury on a buyout of his contract. Marbury has not played for the Knicks since refusing to play a November game. It is rumored that Marbury will sign with the World Champion Celtics this week.

Now wasn’t that sports round-up a welcome break from the economy?

Name the Names: UPDATE: A-Rod Admits Steroid Usage

I want names. All of them. Let's see who else was taking steroids according to a report from 2003 when more than 100 players were found to be taking steroids.

Only one name was leaked over the weekend.

That was Alex Rodriguez. He was singled out from more than 100 players. Even if all the other players were named, his would still be the marquee face on the latest revelations from baseball, because he is the most recognized player and was seen as the one clean player with the best chance of breaking Barry Bonds home run records.

No longer.

Name the names.

“I’d be all for the 104 positives being named, and the game moving on if that is at all possible,” former Boston ace Curt Schilling wrote on his blog Sunday.

“In my opinion, if you don’t do that, then the other 600-700 players are going to be guilty by association, forever,” he wrote. “It appears that not only was it 104, but three of the greatest of our, or any, generation appear to be on top of this list.”

Rodriguez joined Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens on an ever-growing list of stars tainted by the Steroids Era scandal. Sports Illustrated reported Saturday the Yankees slugger, already dubbed “A-Roid” in the tabloids, tested positive for two steroids in 2003.

Rodriguez, the players’ union and Major League Baseball were mum Sunday.

“Alex has been out of the country. I expect him back later today and want to confer with my client before saying anything,” agent Scott Boras said.

Meanwhile, one recently retired player wanted to know how Rodriguez’s name got out. Sean Casey, who spent last season with the Red Sox, said he felt violated by the leak.

“A little bit, because it was supposed to be a survey test and those results were supposed to be confidential,” he said. “The only reason we opened up the collective bargaining agreement was on those terms.”

MLB has brought this disaster upon itself because it failed to address the steroid issue for far too long and the players union decided that it was better to protect those players who were juicing than to honor those players who were doing it without any enhancements.

If I were a clean player in baseball, I'd want to see all the names, because it would put my own numbers and statistics into its proper perspective.

How many A-Rod home runs can be attributed to steroids? What about the MVP awards? How much money was thrown at him for his superhuman statistics as a result of steroid enhancement?

Baseball owes its customers not only an explanation, but an apology.

It starts with naming names - and for the players union to allow its release - for the good of the game.

UPDATE:
A-Rod admits to having taken steroids before becoming a New York Yankee.

“When I arrived at Texas in 2001 I felt an enormous amount of pressure to perform, and perform at a high level every day,” Rodriguez told Peter Gammons. “I was young. I was stupid. I was naïve. And I wanted to prove to everyone that I was worth being one of the greatest players of all time. I did take a banned substance, and for that I am very sorry and deeply regretful.”

The acknowledgment by Rodriguez came two days after Sports Illustrated’s Web site, SI.com, reported that Rodriguez had tested positive for steroids in 2003, when he was in his last season with the Texas Rangers and won the first of his three Most Valuable Player awards.

The next season, Rodriguez joined the Yankees. He is now the highest paid player in baseball and widely viewed as the most talented.

Rodriguez said he did not know exactly what substances he took, but that he hadn’t taken substances since 2003.

“I am guilty of being negligent, naïve, not asking all the right questions,” Rodriguez, the Yankees’ third baseman, said.

Nonsense. He wasn't negligent or naive. He knew that other players were taking it to get an edge in performance, whether it was to improve conditioning or to increase strength to hit home runs or both. He can just claim as much now, but he lied to the public when he gave interviews in the past few years that he had not taken steroids or other performance enhancing drugs.

Once he sets about lying, it becomes difficult to trust anything he says, including that he stopped using performance enhancing drugs after joining the Yankees.

And you know who deserves yet another apology? Jose Canseco, who repeatedly stated that Rodriguez was taking steroids. He was brushed off as peddling a book or lying about how Rodriguez was hitting on Canseco's wife, to say nothing of his broad claims about how many baseball players were juiced. He was right again.

UPDATE:
Anyone care to weigh in on whether HIPAA privacy laws may affect the release of the names or whether there was a violation of Rodriguez's rights? Based on the HIPAA website, it wouldn't appear that there are any privacy concerns as the baseball union isn't a covered entity.

The current terms and conditions of the MLB drug policy does set forth certain conditions for release of certain private information. However, it is not necessarily relevant here as the positive drug tests occurred prior to the implementation of the MLB test regime.

Part of the way that the test results became public was that the union failed to destroy the list showing who tested positive in a timely fashion as per the union agreement with MLB; the federal investigation into BALCO short circuited the process and the union had tried to fight the implementation of the tests altogether by claiming false-positives to bring the percentage of those players taking steroids and performance enhancers under the threshold required by the MLB to test all players. CNNSI has more on that facet.

End of an Era

George Steinbrenner has officially stepped down as the head of the New York Yankees and has handed off control of the team to his son Hal.

The Yankees have named Hal Steinbrenner as their control person, making it eminently clear that it is Hal Steinbrenner, and not his older, more verbose brother Hank, who plays the greater role in the team's operations.

Hal Steinbrenner replaces his father, George Steinbrenner, as the person appointed to speak with commissioner Bud Selig for all relevant matters. Selig made the announcement today following the quarterly owners' meetings, at Major League Baseball's Manhattan office.

"It was unanimous [approval]," Selig said. "Hal comes to New York every week and has been very involved."

"I appreciate the confidence that commissioner Selig and the other owners have in me," Hal Steinbrenner said. "My dad left big shoes to fill, but I'm going to do my best.

While Hank Steinbrenner is the one who sports reporters love to cover because of his colorful antics that remind some of George in his younger days, Hal is the one who will be running the multibillion dollar company and leading the opening of the new Yankee Stadium in April 2009.

Packing Up The House That Ruth Built

The move of Yankee Stadium artifacts to the new stadium across the street has been underway for a while now as the pitching rubber and dirt from the infield was transferred over.

Now, they're moving Monument Park and other artifacts. The monuments in old Yankee Stadium had been moved once before, in 1973, as part of the rehabilitation of the Stadium.

Video follows.

"Evil Empire" Meets America's Team

Well, businesses are always looking for synergy, and the sports world is no exception. I find this one a bit hard to swallow, given that I'm a huge Yankees fan, but also hate the Dallas Cowboys - I'm a Giants fan after all.

The Yanks are forming a joint company with the Dallas Cowboys to handle merchandising of the two teams at their new stadiums. The new entity, Legends Hospitality Management, will likely expand to work with other pro teams and college programs.

The Yankees, often called the Evil Empire by haters (often disgruntled Mets fans or Boston fans), is the richest sports franchise on the planet, worth well over $1 billion (including the YES network), and is approached only in worth by the Dallas Cowboys.

MLB Agrees to Instant Replay

It took them long enough. After a series of botched calls over the past few months, including in high profile games involving both the Yankees and Mets, MLB has decided that instant replay is an idea whose time has come.

Major League Baseball still hasn’t determined when the use of replays will start. Installation of equipment has been going on at ballparks, and officials have said they hoped to start using replay in August.

Replays will be limited to boundary calls, such as determining whether fly balls were fair or foul, or whether they went over fences.

“I told our members that it’s just another tool that we can use to get the play right, not to look at it as a negative, but a positive,” World Umpires Association president John Hirschbeck said. “As hard as you try, as much as you hustle, sometimes with just the landscape of the ballparks nowadays, it’s hard to tell. So if we can get it right, you know what, let’s use it as a tool to get it right.”

Apparently there were issues over which umpires would view the replay, where the replay viewing would take place, and even as late as this afternoon there were reports that the umpires and MLB were not going to reach an agreement on instant replay in time for the playoffs.

History might look a whole lot different had baseball adopted instant replay more than a decade ago, if they took another look at the infamous Jeffrey Maier home run during the playoffs between the Yankees and Orioles. Derek Jeter hit a fly ball into the right field corner, and the umpire ruled it a home run, even though the replay clearly showed fan interference. The Yankees tied the game as a result and went on to win the game and the series, culminating in the World Series win over the Braves.

Fans in the future will find comfort in knowing that umpires will now be able to get those kinds of calls right.

Batty Lawsuit against New York City

A Mets fan has put the city on notice that he intends to file a $5.5 million lawsuit for a Aug. 8, 2007, flying-bat incident at Shea Stadium that left him with broken teeth, facial fractures and a split palate.

James Falzon, 48, was in the second row - along the third-base line with his dad, 11-year-old son and 9-year-old nephew - watching the Mets play the Atlanta Braves on an annual family outing to Shea.

As Mets second baseman Luis Castillo smacked a seventh-inning fly ball, his bat shattered and shards flew into the seats.

I was watching the ball," Falzon said, "and [the shards] hit me in the face. It knocked me off my chair."

The disfiguring injuries left him with massive bleeding, extensive hospital care and permanent metal plates and pins, he said.

"It broke my whole face," Falzon said.

Shea Stadium, owned by the city, has netting up to protect those sitting behind home plate. Falzon contends in Queens Supreme Court papers that there should be netting to protect other sections of seating as well

This lawsuit is so ridiculous that it borders on frivolous. Numerous lawsuits have been dismissed against the City, the Mets and the Yankees brought by fans injured during the game. The City and the team are not responsible for fans being hit by equipment leaving the field of play. That's the law. In fact, at Shea Stadium, they play a video on the Diamond Vision scoreboard at the start of the game telling fans that they should be aware at all time for equipment leaving the field of play. On the back of the ticket it expressly states that the stadium takes no responsibility for this.

Moreover, his claim that their should have been additional netting is likewise flawed. Shea Stadium has been in existence for more than 40 years. At no time was netting ever in place anywhere else than behind home plate. In fact, at no stadium in the country is netting covering the area where this person claims it should be. Obviously, this is not a design flaw, and that part of the suit should be dismissed.

However, this brings up a much bigger issue, and a much better lawsuit, one with actual merit. He should be suing Major League Baseball for allowing the continuation of maple bats. Maple bats, unlike ash bats, shatter and splinter when broken. It is not uncommon for the remains of an ash bat to travel further than the hit ball. Maple bat usage has increased over the last several years on the heals of Barry Bonds' record breaking home run season.

In the last few months alone, reports of maple bats injuring players (Colorado Rockies star, Troy Tulowitzki), umpires (plate umpire Brian O'Nora, during a Royals/Rockies game), coaches,(Pittsburgh Pirates coach, Don Long, after a hit by outfielder Nate McLouth )and other fans (a Los Angeles Dodger fan)have been in the news. MLB has recently decided to "investigate" the situation. Will it take a death of a fan or player, or umpire, or coach, before the league acts to ban these weapons?

MLB needs to wake up to this dangerous situation now and not turn a blind eye to the situation (especially since this is a situation that can cause someone to go blind.) Baseball should be ahead of the curve on this, and not allow this to be another ugly Barry Bonds legacy on the game!