The "Boss" was recently seen touring the new Yankee stadium with his daughter.  For those of you who are not baseball fans, the "Boss" is George M. Steinbrenner (AKA the "big Stein" and a regular character on Seinfeld).

I can't wait to go see the new stadium.  The reports and pictures are very impressive.  The new stadium is hi-tech (wi-fi, the latest scoreboard, etc.), while  at the same time preserves the architectural style of the original Yankee Stadium, as it opened in 1923 (and before the big-face lift in 72).

Yankee Stadium is baseball's grand cathedral.  Anaheim Stadium, while a nice facility, and the place where I most often watch the sport I love,  is to baseball what Rick Warren's Saddleback is to the megachurch.  It is hard to enjoy a game in Anaheim because of all the teenie-boppers kicking around beach balls, and trying to start a "wave."  And who can forget the Disney years of "seeker-sensitive" baseball?  Far too many people come to watch the Angels because it is an event, not because they are fans of the game.  This is the big OC after all.

I know, many of you think the picture of the Boss walking through his new stadium is baseball's equivalent of the man of sin entering the temple, but the fact is the luxury tax he pays keeps a number of your teams afloat (any Pirates or Marlins fans out there?), and baseball without a grand Yankee Stadium just wouldn't be the same.

If the old Yankee Stadium is the "House that Ruth built," the new Yankee Stadium is surely the "House the Boss built."  And I don't care how much you hate the Yankees, you have to admit, this will be great for baseball. 

It has finally come--opening day, 2008!  Spring is at hand.

This will be an interesting year for the Yankees.  This is the final year for the current Yankee Stadium, arguably the most famous sports venue since the Flavian Amphitheater in Rome (the Colosseum).  The photo depicts opening day at Yankee Stadium, 1923, the stadium's first season.  Who hit the first home-run?  Babe Ruth, of course! 

No other team in pro sports evokes emotion (pro or con) like the Yankees!  All of the great names (Ruth, Mantle, DiMaggio, Gehrig, Berra, etc.), the great moments, and now with opening day, more are sure to come.

There are some great teams in the American League this year--The Red Sox, the Tigers, and the Indians.  The Yankees' fortunes largely depend upon three young and so-far unproven pitchers (two of whom are from Orange County!).  So, we'll see how things play out . . . 

But on this day, every team is still in first place.  Every fan still thinks they have a chance to win it all.

Opening day is here.  Finally!  Let's go Yankees! 

This is a glorious day for baseball fans everywhere.  After the doldrums of your team losing out on a World Series title (its been seven years since the Yanks have won), after all the free agent drama (A-Rod) and trade talk (Johan Santana), after all the nonsense from Congress (Clemens and Pettitte) . . .

The big day is finally here.  Pitchers and catchers have reported to spring training!  The Yankee blogs will spring to life, and the pre-season games will finally begin on March1.  Opening day is just around the corner!  The first item of business is that the Yanks announced that "Legends Field," their home in Tampa, has been renamed "George M. Steinbrenner Field."  It's good to be the king!

In honor of this glorious occasion, I'll fire up John Fogerty's "Centerfield" as part of my i-Tunes rotation today.  Might even listen to it twice!

Yes, I am very surprised that A-Rod opted out of his contract.  I'm even more surprised by the tacky way he did it.

Reportedly, the Yankees were offering huge bucks for a 5-year extension, but A-Rod opted out before even beginning negotiations with the Yanks.  He refused to return calls to the Steinbrenners and to GM Brian Cashman.  Since the Yanks have made it clear that they will not negotiate with A-Rod should he go down this road, he's gone.  Too bad, but certainly not the end of the world (to quote my least favorite player, Manny Ramirez).

Translation--A-Rod's agent (Scott Boras) must have a deal in place with someone else, and it will cost them upwards of the 230 million that would have been owed A-Rod if he played the next ten years for the Yankees.

Good luck to whoever signs this guy.  He's a great player, but he's driven by money, his agent is a snake, and he hasn't shown that he makes his team any better.  To make such an announcement during the final game of the World Series, stealing Boston's thunder, is about as tacky as it gets.  Don't forget that the Mariners won 116 games the first season after A-Rod left.

So, while I am surprised, I am not saddened.  The Yankees have not won a World Series with A-Rod.  They'll have oodles of money to spend on pitching.  And as we have seen with this year's Red Sox, last year's White Sox, and so on, it is pitching, pitching and more pitching which makes a team successful.

A-Rod is walking away from a chance to enter the Hall of Fame as a Yankee and have a plaque one day in his honor in Monument Park in the New Yankees Stadium.  Now he'll just be seen as a greedy hired gun, without a team, without a World Series ring, and without any shame.  As Pete Abraham puts it (Click here: The LoHud Yankees Blog), "he's now the homeless Hall of Famer."  He is, as Buster Olney puts it, trying to place himself above the game (Click here: ESPN - Olney: A-Rod upstages the World Series - MLB).  Baseball fans tend to frown on that. 

So, A-Rod, good riddance!  To you Angels, Dodgers and Red Sox fans who may end up with this guy, be careful what you wish for -- caveat emptor!

Well that was a bummer--spanked hard by the Indians. 

Torre will be gone, who knows about Mo, Posada and A-Rod.  But since the Yankees have gone 3-14 in the play-offs the last three years, I guess its time for a change.  Yankees' fans expect to win.  With those players, with that payroll, you expect them to win.  They should win.  And they didn't.

The reality is that there's no shame in losing to the team with baseball's best record (the Indians).  No current team in baseball has gone to the play-offs even two years in a row--the Yankees have gone twelve times in a row.  But still, its not enough . . .  Steinbrenner wants that 27th world series title before he turns the reigns over to his sons.  As they say, he's the Boss.

You baseball fans know full well what's wrong with the Yankees.  Pitching, pitching and more pitching.  When your play-off starter for games one and four of a five game series has an ERA of over 18.00, you are gonna lose.  Plain and simple.

So, the season's over.  No more box scores. No more games.  I'm bummed.  I can't wait till March 2008, when pitchers and catchers report and we start all over again!  Until then, it will be one wild and woolly off-season.   

 
Indulge me for a minute . . .

I knew we were in for one of those years.  The Yankees' opening day pitcher was Carl Pavano, whose only claim to fame was leading the league in injuries despite a ten million dollar per-year contract.  He hadn't pitched in a major league game in over a year and a half.  He lasted less than a month before he was injured yet again and out for the season.

By May 29, the Yankees were 8 games under .500 and some 14 games behind the streaking Boston Red Sox.  Pundits and beat-writers blew the Yanks off.  No way they'd even make the play-offs.

Injuries mounted.  There was an air of desperation.  Things got just plain weird.  Two starting pitchers were hit by batted balls and suffered broken bones--both in the first inning!  Another pitcher was in the seventh inning of a no-hitter when he tore a hamstring.  Unbelievable.

The Yankees used some twenty-five pitchers, nine of whom made their major league debut.  Unheard of for a mega-bucks payroll team like the Yanks.  Unheard of for even a crummy team.

But after the All-Star break something truly remarkable happened.  Roger Clemens (who is 45 going on 30) had signed for the year--certainly his last.  The veteran pitchers stepped up--especially Andy Pettitte, Mike Mussina and Mariano Rivera.  The influx of rookies brought new energy (especially Hughes, Joba and Duncan).  And the perennial all-stars of the team (Jeter, Damon, Posada, Cano and Matsui) played like it.  Even journeyman-type players made big plays, got big hits and won critical games.

And then there was A-Rod (pictured getting doused in champagne by a bunch of rookies) who had an absolute monster of a year.  He put up numbers like those of Ruth, Mantle and Dimaggio.  He's not going anywhere . . .

After going an amazing 48-24 in the second half (far and away the best record in baseball over that time), the Yankees are in the play-offs for the thirteenth straight year, twelve of those under Joe Torre.  I wanted Torre sacked after the Yankees lost to the Tigers last year with an inexcusably lethargic performance.  But nobody but Joe Torre could have handled this year's mess and then turn this team around like he did.

How will the Yanks do from here on out?  With this team it is impossible to tell.  The fact that they'll play Cleveland in the first round is good (the Angels seem to have the Yank's number).  My guess is that the Yankees will eventually play the Red Sox in yet another epic battle between the evil empire and the Sox nation for the American league pennant.

Whew . . .  There was time there I didn't think they'd make it.  Now that was a roller-coaster of a season!  Lets go Yankees!!!!

As if you needed one, here's another reason why Barry B*nds is so universally disliked by baseball fans.  Yes, he is the greatest hitter of the modern era.  Yes, he belongs in the hall of fame (unless we find out he committed the unpardonable baseball sin--betting on games in which he managed, like Pete Rose).  But his home run record should have one big, giant asterisk!  The man is a cheater.

Aside from the steroid abuse (read Game of Shadows if you still think this is unfounded), the very public mistress (while B*nds parades his wife and kids around like nothing was going on), the impending perjury charges and tax fraud matter with the IRS, B*nds is simply one cold-hearted dude:  Click here: Beaver County Times Allegheny Times - Steigerwald column: Bonds isn't a good guy.

Another writer thinks that B*nd's armor plated elbow brace has helped him hit more home runs.  I'm ambivalent about this one, but found it interesting nonetheless (Click here: Barry Bonds' HR Record Tainted by Elbow 'Armor'?)

As Peter Abraham so aptly puts it (Click here: If Yankees pony up the money, A-Rod isn't going anywhere), "The less space and energy wasted on fraudulent home-run king Barry Bonds, the better. But here's our question: How can Curt Schilling be the only honest man in uniform? Throughout baseball, dozens of players, managers and coaches offered Bonds hearty congratulations, as if Tuesday were a day to be cherished.

`He's the greatest player to walk between the lines,' Arizona second baseman Orlando Hudson said. `It's good for baseball,' St. Louis outfielder Jim Edmonds said.

Good for baseball? In what way, shape or form can having a surly cheater holding the game's most cherished record be good for baseball?  Only Schilling - often a boor himself - has called out Bonds in public. Why haven't any others?

It seems obvious that a much larger percentage of players than believed have used performance-enhancing drugs to some degree and are afraid to have their own skeletons exposed. Or they fear the wrath of teammates who have used.

Even some writers, in an apparent case of Stockholm syndrome, now view Bonds in a sympathetic light. He's a product of his times, a flawed hero. Hopefully, Bonds will fade away after this season and join Mark McGwire in shameful seclusion. Perhaps then baseball will move past its steroids era.

In the meantime, here's to Roger Maris and Hank Aaron, two sluggers whose accomplishments should be remembered with a smile, not a grimace."

IMHO, Peter Abraham's Yankees blog is the best sports blog, period (Click here: The LoHud Yankees Blog.