New York Yankees

The 1952 World Series is usually remembered for Billy Martin's great catch of a Jackie Robinson pop fly with the bases loaded and two outs in the seventh inning of the seventh game.

The catch saved the Series for the Yankees, but the 1952 World Series was memorable in many other ways.

Joe Black Started and Finished Game 1

Rookie right hander Joe Black started Game1 at Ebbets Field against Yankees' ace Allie Reynolds.

How many times have you heard that the Yankees buy their players? How many times have you heard how the Yankees buy their championships?

Yesterday the Yankees added seven players to their 40-man roster, protecting them from the Rule 5 draft. They also removed Shelley Duncan from the roster and out righted him to Triple-A. I predicted that the Yankees would only add four or five players, so I am definitely a bit surprised they chose to add the following seven players:

Austin Jackson, OF

On Friday, Nov. 20, 2009, the New York Yankees made a few tweaks to their 40-man roster. The Yankees added seven players to their roster in preparation for the upcoming Rule-Five draft. Reggie Corona, Kevin Russo, Eduardo Nunez, pitchers Romulo Sanchez, Ivan Nova, and Hector Noesi make up six of the seven players rescued from the draft.

Among those seven players is Yankees top prospect, Austin Jackson. Jackson could be the next big Yankees prospect since Derek Jeter, and could be making a splash in the major leagues as early as next season. 

Watching the New York Yankees win the World Series this year made me reflect on the past. My mind wandered to a decade ago and to a specific date, October 27, 1999. A date that represents my all-time greatest sports moment. 

Now, I have been to plenty of playoff games in the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL. I have seen championship boxing matches and I've seen Tiger Woods play the Honda Classic. But nothing can compare to being in the stadium when your favorite team wins a championship. The atmosphere is simply electric.

At midnight, it begins.

Free agency basically ends everything from the 2009 season and begins the 2010 season.

For the 2009 World Series champion New York Yankees, it too begins their journey of defending their new championship that they worked hard to win.

Most people are probably wondering, where do the Yankees start in the offseason?

They have their own free agents to decide whether or not to bring back.

I still remember the first day I became a Mets fan.

It was spring of 1990 and there I was, five years old and ready to face the world of tee-ball. Where I lived in California, the teams were not green or orange, but actual baseball teams like the Yankees and the Dodgers.

As it turned out, I was destined to be on the Mets with my dad as coach. From then on, I was a Mets fan. There really are not a lot of memories from that age I can recollect, but this always stuck out in my mind

The New York Yankees earned an A+ for their overall efforts on and off the field during the 2009 season, as they captured the 27th World Series championship in franchise history.

But who deserves most of the credit for the rings they will receive in April?  In the first part of my grading series, I evaluate the position players.

• Year: 1963
• Record: 79-83
• Win %: .488
• Win % Change: -40
• Run Differential: -3
• Pythagorean Record: 81-81
• AL Finish: 5th of 10
• Manager: Bob Scheffing and Chuck Dressen
• Best Transaction: Picked up Denny McLain off of waivers.  McLain’s story is well know in Tigers lore.  He reached a very high peak in the late 1960s and then fell apart on and off of the field.  No matter what kind of trouble he got into later in his career, you can’t beat the price the Tigers paid to get him.  McLain had five productive seasons in Detr