New York Yankees

One fine day last August, Bradley Campeau-Laurion just wanted to leave his seat and use the bathroom at the old Yankee Stadium. The 30-year-old New York resident had no idea that nature's call would lead him down a road to perdition where he would be accused of challenging God, country, and the joys of compulsory patriotism at the ballpark.

It's a mighty fine day to hate the New York Yankees.

If you thought Alex Rodriguez' hip injury or Chien-Ming Wang's meltdown were karmic retribution for treating the rest of the league as a trade deadline shopping center, plundering the annual free-agent market, and fleecing taxpayers into subsidizing a cash cow of a stadium for the richest organization in baseball, you weren't thinking big enough.

Both Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera started their careers in 1995 as New York Yankees.

Mariano has stayed put and has been with the Yankees since the start of his career, while Andy has been a Yankee for 12 of his 15 seasons.

Both Yankees have impressive career numbers:

Pettitte has over 2,000 strikeouts, 217 wins, and a career 3.88 ERA.

Rivera sports an impressive hall-of-fame stat line of 485 saves, close to 1,000 strikeouts, and an astonishing 2.28 ERA. These numbers secure a spot as one of the most dominate closers ever.

According to Mark Feinsand of the Daily News, Yankees outfielder Xavier Nady was diagnosed with a partial ligament tear in his right elbow that will not require Tommy John surgery so he will only be out 4-6 weeks instead of the remainder of the year.

Chien Ming Wang used to be the Yankees' ace. Now it seems more like he's pitching batting practice.

Wang claims that he feels like he's pitching the same as he always has. That may be the problem. Pitchers and hitters don't run in place, they adjust. American League hitters may now be adjusting to Wang, while he isn't adjusting to them.

First the Yankees lost Alex Rodriguez to a hip injury during Spring Training.  A team that relies entirely on consistency was heading into Opening Day with a gigantic disadvantage.  Then, it appeared disaster struck again.

In the midst of a game against the defending division champion Tampa Bay Rays, Yankees right fielder Xavier Nady launched a relay throw into the infield at Tropicana Stadium.  He instantly felt a sharp shot of pain, and was removed from the game. 

CAPTION: With an ERA above 30.00 (yes, really) over his first three starts, Chien-Ming Wang has quickly become the biggest question mark in the Yankees' pitching staff.

One week and seven games further into the 2009 season, the Yankees are sitting rather comfortably at 7-6, one game above .500 for the first two weeks. They've won or tied three of their first four series, including an impressive showing in a three-game road stand against the defending American League Champions.

My friend Moorphrang is from Nepal and he recently visited me. In order to introduce him to some true American culture, I decided to take him to see an afternoon game at Yankee Stadium.

We decided to see the Cleveland Indians against the Yankees on Saturday afternoon last. I checked online and realized that even at the last minute I could still get four tickets for seats three rows from the field just a little to the third base side of home plate.

The lineup for today's game has been posted and here it is:

Jeter(ss)
Damon(lf)
Teixeira(1b)
Posada(c)
Cano(2b)
Swisher(rf)
Matsui(dh)
Ransom(3b)
Gardner(cf)

Some notes courtesy of Peter Abraham:

The Yankees are batting .125 with runners in scoring position at home so far this year.

Brian Bruney has retired 20 straight batters; his last seven outings are 6.2 perfect innings striking out twelve.