Baseball

The time has finally come for pitchers and catchers to report. That means baseball is here once again and that lull between football and baseball is almost over. I’m not sure how I made it through, tobe honest.

I thought the Caribbean Series would help, but other than seeing a few at-bats from Juan Francisco, it wasn’t that interesting to me. Actually, the defense was so painful to watch at times, that it really wasn’t that entertaining at all. 

The New York Yankees opened their spring training camp in Tampa yesterday.

Brian Cashman was quoted defending his reshuffling of the outfield, including the signing of Randy Winn instead of former Yankee Johnny Damon.

Cash said that when he had traded Austin Jackson to get Curtis Granderson, after trading Melky Cabrera to get Javy Vazquez and after being unable to re-sign Damon, he had to bring in a large number of outfielders to restock the shelves.

According to sources, former National League Cy Young award winner Eric Gagne has decided to return to the team that lifted him to the top of the baseball world in his prime. Eric Gagne has reportedly signed a $500,000 contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers. It is a minor league deal, but with Spring Training coming up he could earn a spot on the team's major league roster.

The former Los Angeles Dodgers closer could earn up to $1MM, with $500,000 in performance bonuses. 

The White Sox have had very limited postseason performances and really the only great ones came in 2005.

Besides for Dewayne Wise's three-run home run game against the Rays in the 2008 ALDS, which Javier Vazquez promptly gave right back, and...I can't even find a good performance in the 2000 ALDS (the White Sox batted .185), the White Sox haven't had any great performances except for 2005.

I'm not going back to the 1906 World Series winner where the White Sox batted .198 and the Chicago Cubs batted .196.

Now that Spring Training has started and Opening Day is just around the corner, agents are scrambling trying to find a home for their clients. If they can’t find a major league deal for their client, a lot of agents will suggest taking a minor league deal.

After all, a minor league deal and an invitation to Spring Training is better than no deal at all.

On Thursday, we saw a couple of minor league deals that involved some known players.

Here is a recap:

Mike MacDougal Signs With the Florida Marlins

The Boston Red Sox have a familiar problem heading into spring training. Too many quality starting pitchers.

Back in 2005 the Red Sox were confident that, even though they had parted ways with consummate ace Pedro Martinez, there were plenty of pitchers to send to the mound to construct a rotation that would be effective. However, an injury to Curt Shilling had the team scrambling to find its ace, and its identity.

The 2009 postseason will forever provide fond memories for Yankees fans—a month of baseball that signaled the franchise's return to the apex of the sport.

But being a Sports Pessimist (the New York Jets did this to me), I still had a couple of minor gripes. One was Chris Rose, the Best Damn Sports Show hack who was inexplicably given on-field emcee duties following New York's Game Six clincher.

What do you think was the over/under for the number of Yankee games Rose watched last year? Eight? Four? One?

In a stunning turn of events, Athletic's pitcher Ben Sheets has already managed to find a way to injure himself. Ben Sheets was ecstatic about joining his new ball-club and getting things started in Spring Training. He was hoping to get off on the right foot, but he literally didn't.

Jo Stac recalls that after the disastrous 1965 season, the New York Yankees were finally considered "just another team."

She read many articles about how the "pride of the Yankees" belonged to the past. Jo was pleased.

I have rooted for the Cleveland Indians since 1951. Today's fans don't know that the Indians, not the Boston Red Sox, were the New York Yankees' main competition during the early and mid-1950s.

Today, my travels took me to the local Wal-Mart where I picked up some packs of 2010 Topps Baseball Series 1 and landed four Million Card Giveaway redemptions.

Unfortunately for me, the booty wasn't good today, so I've chosen the best of the bunch–1988 Von Hayes.