Robinson Cano

Working in a local supermarket, I have a front row seat for all the latest hollywood gossip and glamour. There are upsides and downsides to this.

For example: downside, I can name about twenty celebrities who have cellulite, and how many plastic surgeries Heidi Montag has had.

A clear upside: the Swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated, or any magazine that has Kim Kardashian on the cover.

At first glance, it looks like baseball and competitive balance run on parallel lines. There are the Yankees with their 27 World Championships and the Pittsburgh Pirates who have not had a winning season since 1992.

Those two franchises met in the epic 1960 World Series when Bill Mazeroski won it with a Game Seven ninth-inning home run. 1960 was during a run where the Yankees played in 14 out of 16 World Series.

Robinson Cano has a way of making things look easy on a baseball field.

This is his greatest blessing and biggest curse.

New York sports fans don't like when things look easy. We appreciate effort. Effort means you're taking the game as seriously as we are.

Paul O'Neill chasing down Luis Polonia's drive up the gap in Game Five of the '96 Series, that was hard work .

Mickey Mantle barely able to drag his shot legs around the bases after hitting his 500th homer off Stu Miller...that took effort.

Bottom line, the Yankees are the defending World Series champions.

I think they have a very good shot for pulling off the repeat. The Yankees lost Hideki Matsui, Johnny Damon, Melky Cabrerea and a great prospect in outfielder Austin Jackson, however they did bring in Curtis Granderson, Javier Vazquez, Randy Winn, and Nick Johnson.

The Yankees experienced a magical 2009 season that resulted in their 27th championship. Everything fell into place in just the right way, and they avoided any and all unfortunate mishaps.

Alex Rodriguez was able to break out of his October nightmare, even after a crippling hip injury nearly derailed his season before it began.

Every season is different and provides a whole new set of obstacles, and this 2010 Yankee team is no different.

As most of you know by now, the Yankees moved into a brand new stadium last season. The old Yankee Stadium is being torn down to make way for a large park that is expected to include baseball fields, a track, tennis courts, and more. Only one gate remains from the original 1923 Yankee Stadium.

That gate is Gate 2.

Yankee Stadium is currently being torn down and Gate 2 is expected to go with it.

See what you can do to save it!

Since the late 1990's dynasty years, and well before high walk totals and high on base percentages were fashionable, the New York Yankees lineup was known as a patient group, working the pitcher to drive pitch counts up and getting to the opponents bullpen early.

Often they would get to the bullpen by the fifth, sixth, or seventh innings.  And when it became a battle of the bullpens, the Yankees always had the advantage with hurlers like John Wetteland, Mariano Rivera, and Jeff Nelson.

I know I’m in the minority with my ranking of Robinson Cano (see my 2B rankings here ), but I believe he has the ability to challenge for the batting title. Not to mention he should be among the leaders at second base in runs, HRs, and RBIs.

Cano is a notoriously slow starter, hitting .271 in April and May and .322 the rest of the way. His OPS is also much lower in those two months:

I love baseball movies.

Field of Dreams still makes me cry (don't laugh—I know you cry when Ray Kinsella has that catch with his dad). Bull Durham is that perfect Saturday afternoon dose of rivalry and sweetness. Then there are the historical dramas like Eight Men Out.

So, when the American Film Institute recently released its selections for this year's top films, and a baseball movie called Sugar was on the list, I went right to my computer and shot it to the top of my Netflix queue.

Everybody seems to love the New York Yankees trade with the Atlanta Braves for Javier Vazquez. The Yankees traded OF Melky Cabrera, LHP Michael Dunn and Low-Low A (although highly rated) pitcher Arodys Vizcaino to get the former Yankee right handed pitcher.