Opinion

I want to apologize for a mistake I made in my minor league post. The Scranton Yankees are 8-0, not 7-0. I should have known better but mistakes happen and I will make sure to pay closer attention.

I don't think the Yankees are going to carry 13 pitchers all season and I would have to assume they will eventually carry another outfielder to make up for Xavier Nady being out. Shelly Duncan is looking good, batting .333 so far this year. Does he get another shot??

Who, among us die-hard Braves fans, was not excited when it was announced that Chipper Jones’ contract had been extended another three years?

Who, among us, was not thrilled with the fact that Chipper would be a lifetime Brave? Especially considering the circumstances in which John Smoltz left Atlanta for the hated Red Sox three months ago.

We've all been there. We sit at home, in a bar, or at the sporting event and scream our brains out at the calls our officials make.

"Come on ref." "That was pass interference." "He was safe at first."

We all have done it; trust me, I do it, too. It's part of being a sports fan.

But not all of us have been on the other side. We have not been placed at that position, we have not had to be the ref or umpire.

Well, starting Saturday, I will get that experience—I decided to sign up to be an umpire.

Yesterday Major League Baseball and the office of the commissioner, in it's infinite wisdom, decided to make it mandatory for all uniformed personel—players, coaches, managers, and umpires—to wear Jackie Robinson's number 42 in an attempt to honor the man and his accomplishments.

This was a foolhardy exercise bound up in P.C. chains and force-fed to the baseball viewing public. 

1) Yankees lucked out with the first sunny day of the 2009 season here in the New York Area...at least it seems that way.

I did notice plenty of empty seats in and around the dugouts and behind home plate.

2) The opening ceremonies were good with quite a few ex-Yankees announced, John Fogerty singing "Centerfield," and Bernie playing the guitar. Both were nice touches.

There's just something special about career milestones in professional sports; 10,000 rushing yards in football, 300 career touchdown passes, 25,000 points in basketball, and so on.

But the most prolific and famous milestone may belong to the sport of baseball, and more specifically pitching. It is the 300 game winner.

Only 23 pitchers have ever accomplished the feat in the 120 year history of the league. The list may be filled with the biggest names of any milestone list; Cy Young, Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson, Warren Spahn, Steve Carlton, Nolan Ryan, and many more.

Be it a groan, cheer, or a clever series of words strung together, everybody in and around baseball had an extreme reaction to the New York Yankees' offseason spending.

Through 10 games, it's not fair to judge the performances of CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, or Mark Teixeira so far.

Fans and critics alike must give them ample time to settle in before making the decision to laugh at the Yankees' reckless spending or write a nasty letter to their own team's front office for not shelling out the green to land the big names.

A.J. Burnett was always a thorn in the Yankees' side.

While with Toronto, Burnett continually shut the Yankees down, causing their hitters to look more like a bunch of little leaguers than professionals.

When Burnett chose to become a free agent after the 2008 season, a lot of people thought that the Yankees shouldn't go after him. Burnett has been plagued by a lot of injuries throughout his career. The last thing the Yankees needed was another pitcher with a high probability of landing on the DL.

The New York Yankees lost to the Cleveland Indians by a score of 10-2. CC Sabathia started but got a no decision. CC Sabathia pitched 5.2 innings. Jose Veras got the loss.

This is not the outcome us Yankee fans wanted in the new stadium. It could have been a historic game for the Yankees for about six innings, but the seventh changed all that.

Yesterday, I posted what turned out to be an ill-fated article on what appeared to be a resurgent and resiliant Jose Contreras.

In his third inning of work, I watched him put a man on second and third with no outs and proceed to get out of this jam with ease and style. Alas, this would be the end of an impressive outing and a seemingly miraculous comeback from a potentially career-ending injury.

After leaving the game in the sixth, his line read 5.1 innings, 5 ER, 2 BB.

So, was this a one-off?