New York Yankees

According to the dictionary, the term curse means, "the expression of a wish that misfortune, evil, doom, etc., or a formula or charm intended to cause such misfortune to another."

I bring that up because in the sports world, another curse has been brought up and being talked about.

Early Wednesday afternoon, while many people were celebrating Cinco De Mayo by pounding down Corona's, New York Yankee outfielder Nick Swisher was pounding this second inning pitch for a solo home run.

It was Swisher's fifth home run of the year and his 17th RBI.

Nick is slashing .295 BA/.380 OBP/.547 SLG/.927 OPS right now.

You may be saying what is the big deal. Swisher was slashing .312/.430/.714/1.144 OPS at the end of April last season, but went into a big funk and ended up with a .249/.371/.498/.869 OPS.

The injury bug has been taking out Yankees one at a time. Is the Sports Illustrated cover curse taking its place in the Yankees locker room? The core four appeared on the cover this past week and three of the four have been battling injuries.

Jorge Posada is day-to-day with a calf strain, Mariano Rivera has missed a few games because of stiffness in his arm, and Andy Pettitte had to leave Wednesday's game with stiffness of his own in his left arm.

The Yankees finished up a series with the Baltimore Orioles yesterday afternoon. Here are some thoughts recapping the series.

How Sweep It Is

The Yankees swept the three-game series from Baltimore and improved their record to 19-8 on the year. New York has won all but one series this season, but this is their first sweep.

Heading into every season the mission statement of the New York Yankees is clear-cut: Win the World Series or consider the season a failure.

Always has, and always will be.

A World Series championship was the icing on the cake to a magical inaugural season at the new Yankee Stadium. But as the excitement of the new stadium starts to fade, the Yankees will and desire for their next championship continues to grow.

The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox square off this weekend at Fenway Park, the first meeting between the two rivals since umpire Joe West's controversial marks about the slow pace of play between the teams.

Unfortunately for West, and those that have early dinner reservations this weekend, River & Sunset has uncovered a list of 10 reasons why this three-game series will be just as long, if not longer, than the matchups that preceded it.

Game No. 22 of 162 in the Fantasy Baseball Insiders Tonight summer-long journey featured one of this year’s biggest surprises and a bounce-back performance from one of Oakland’s young guns…

Belligerence makes the world go ‘round.

New York Yankees fans and Boston Red Sox fans are militant competitors. They’re also mutual complements. When the Yanks and Sox square off at Fenway Park this weekend, soldiers on both sides of the front will fire the latest shots in a long-standing conflict—which would be more distressing news if long-standing conflict weren’t such an important part of human identity.

Harmony means getting along with your peer group.

Hostility, on the other hand, means getting in touch with your personhood.

New York Times reporter, Richard Sandomir, is reporting that the New York Yankees will air their July 10th and 11th games against the Seattle Mariners in 3-D.  The YES Network has been able to make an agreement to test out the latest technology with DirecTV.

Sadly not everyone will be able to watch the game in 3-D due to the fact that not everyone has that specific cable service provider. The Yankees vs. Mariners game will be the first regular season game aired in three dimensions.

Leading 7-3 with one out in the bottom of the ninth, New York appeared to roll to an easy win and series sweep of Baltimore. However, the Orioles brought the go-ahead run to the plate before the Yankees held on for a 7-5 win. The win marked the fourth time since 2008 that the Yankees have swept a three-game series at home against the Orioles.