New York Yankees

Besides the ring ceremony, nail-biting finish, and return of Godzilla, there was one other noteworthy occurrence at Yankee Stadium yesterday afternoon: the emergence of Nick Johnson.

When the Yankees embraced Hideki Matsui in a goosebump-inducing moment for Yankee fans, it finally set in—Matsui is no longer the Yankees DH.

No, instead of Matsui, the Yankees penciled the oft-injured Nick Johnson to fill Matsui's void of designated hitter this past offseason.

  I’ll admit it, Javier Vazquez is not pitching well. Obviously that is not a huge revelation, but this 0-2 start is not what I expected. Still, a lot of Yankee fans are turning on him and some never forgave him for the grand slam he gave up to Johnny Damon in 2004 and it’s already tired.

He's only two starts into the 2010 season, but Javier Vazquez is not providing the depth promised when the Yankees acquired him via a trade in December.

After a 5 2/3-inning debut in which he surrendered eight runs against the Rays, the right-hander once again failed to escape the sixth frame on Wednesday, when he yielded four runs in a 5-3 loss to the Angels.

Vazquez is now 0-2 with a 9.82 ERA.

Los Angeles pitcher Joel Pineiro (1-1) limited New York to one run over seven innings, as the Angels earned a 5-3 victory Wednesday afternoon at Yankee Stadium. Pineiro only allowed five hits while striking out seven and walking none. Javier Vazquez (0-2) suffered the loss after allowing four runs in 5.1 innings.

Perfection is a word that must be used cautiously.

And perfection in the sense intended here does not mean always perfect.

Every fan of the New York Yankees can remember a base hit in the bottom half of a ninth inning of a seventh game of a World Series in 2001 when we all felt our team would win because Mo was closing.

We can also remember home runs in crucial games in Fenway Park which we could not believe Number 42 had actually given up.

But Mariano Rivera is perfection.

Mariano Rivera is the perfect closer.

The World Champion New York Yankees hung their 27th banner yesterday and passed out some very large rings.

But now we leave '09 in the rear view and look to what the new season holds in store.

After seven games in an odd 10 days that saw a forgiving schedule with three off days, the Yankees hold a 5-2 record.

Derek Jeter has started as hot as he played last year. Through seven games Jete has scored five runs and has 10 hits. Over a 162 game average that would give the Yankee captain 230 hits for the year.

The New York Yankees started the season with two road series against their biggest rivals in the American League East.

They won both series, after dropping the first game in each series, and opened at home yesterday with a 4-2 record.

Brett Gardner was key in some of the Yankee wins in this first road trip of the year. But in the finale Sunday afternoon in Tampa Bay, Gardner failed to get on base for the first time this season.

Gardner went 0-for-4 with one strikeout, while hitting ninth in the lineup.

It was a cool, partly cloudy afternoon in the Bronx on Tuesday: the perfect weather for Opening Day at the new Yankee Stadium.

World Series rings were given out, a prank was played on Hideki Matsui (known by his New York faithful as "Gozilla"), and good ol' Jerry Hairston Jr. even stopped by.

The General of the Yankees rotation, Andy Pettitte, took the mound, and from the first pitch on, the game went according to plan:

Derek Jeter hit a home run.
Jorge Posada had three hits and an RBI.
Andy Pettitte pitched six scoreless innings.

Tuesday afternoon's game between the Yankees and Angels was certainly more meaningful than just a regular opening game at Yankee Stadium.

Last year in 2009, they opened the brand new ballpark.

This year in 2010, the Yankees celebrated it by receiving their 2009 World Series Championship rings in a pre-game ceremony.

On hand were former Yankees Whitey Ford and Yogi Berra, who helped pass out the rings. Also on hand was former Yankees owner George Steinbrenner to receive his ring from Joe Girardi and Derek Jeter.

The Yankees had a special guest on hand for their ring ceremony Tuesday afternoon.  It wasn't Yogi Berra, it wasn't Whitey Ford, and it wasn't George Steinbrenner—although they were all there. 

Hideki Matsui was the true guest of honor in the house that the Core Four built.

Although Matsui wasn't with the likes of Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera, or Andy Pettitte back when the group won their first four rings in the 90s, he still feels like a true Yankee who has been there forever.