One of the most popular part-time players of recent memory will return to the Blue Jays organization, marking a new chapter in his baseball career.

Sal Fasano recently retired as a player and has been appointed as manager of the Toronto Blue Jays Single-A minor league team, the Lansing Lugnuts of the Midwest League.

The Chicago, Illinois native is making his coaching debut after 17 professional seasons as a player, eleven of which were spent in the major leagues.

Mark Newman was nailed with a DUI the other day, but unlike former Yankee executive Steve Swindall it appears that Newman’s status within the organization is secure. Or at least he’s giving interviews and acting as if everything is all right.

I might as well get this initial statement out of the way, first and foremost.

There is no greater sport than the game of baseball.

There, I said it. Not that I haven’t said it before, but I’ve typed out several different ways to start this out—and that seemed the best way to go about things.

It encompasses all my thoughts and feelings into 10 simple and glorious words.

There was a small slate of games, but plenty of stories worth watching.  Just look at the performance of Dontrelle Willis, for example.

Just when the Rangers thought they were in the clear after their manager, Ron Washington, apologized to fans and his players for testing positive for cocaine over the summer of 2009.

Well, today new news was leaked to the Dallas media that Washington used amphetamines and pot as his 10-year career as a player. The Fan, 105.3 FM in Dallas, reported that Washington had told a reporter of this but that the news wasn't ever supposed to be leaked.

Long have been the days of opening our ears to the orchestra of baseball that is Vin Scully.

With fantastic elaborations and a profound prospective of the game, Mr. Scully has surely etched his name in Dodgers lore. Broadcasters on a regular basis come across plain, and at times, disagreeable. When it comes to Vin Scully, he is as irregular as they come.

San Francisco should be a very fun and interesting team to watch this season, and should be able to possibly win the NL WIld Card.

But don't expect for the Giants to be able to win the NL West, because they won't be able to beat the Rockies. The Rockies are just to good.

San Francisco's success will be based on their pitching again, which is still very strong, and possibly even better than last year's pitching. The Giants have some of the best young players in baseball with Tim Lincecum and Pablo Sandoval, along with other young studs on the team.

As the season draws closer the Yankees have a big decision coming up as to who they are going to pick to be their fifth starter this year. Despite my belief that it would be a waste to go with anyone other than Joba Chamberlain , there is a very real chance that he could get passed over especially considering he hasn’t really pitched all that well this spring.

Damaso Marte has certainly had mixed results during his Yankee career, but he was lights-out in the playoffs last year, especially in big spots against Ryan Howard in the World Series.

Consider yesterday payback as he couldn’t even get an out in the fifth inning yesterday as he gave up three runs on a Jayson

Werth homer, four hits, and was removed from the game after Howard hit a liner off his back.

Major League Baseball has a real knack for standing under black clouds and refusing umbrellas.

Just when the nation was beginning to think the league drug testing policy was working, a story is broken about Ron Washington testing positive for cocaine in 2009 and receiving no punishment.

The Texas Rangers manager says that as soon as he found out he would be drug tested last July, he informed league officials and team ownership that he had made a “mistake.”