New York Yankees

We’ve seen a ton of these this winter. It seems like every Yankee blog out there has their own. We’ve even toyed with the idea of releasing one here at BBD (having not seen most of these players play ourselves we’ve decided to let others handle it).

According to Jordan Bastian of MLB.com, the man who hit the final homer in original Yankee Stadium history, Jose Molina, has signed a one-year, $400,000 deal with the Blue Jays with a 2011 team option worth $1.2 million.

The Yankees acquired Molina back in 2007 when they traded minor leaguer Jeff Kennard for him near the July deadline.

Molina played well enough down the stretch in 2007—in 29 games he had a 101 OPS+—to earn himself a two-year, $4 million deal.

The New York Yankees opened their spring training camp in Tampa yesterday.

Brian Cashman was quoted defending his reshuffling of the outfield, including the signing of Randy Winn instead of former Yankee Johnny Damon.

Cash said that when he had traded Austin Jackson to get Curtis Granderson, after trading Melky Cabrera to get Javy Vazquez and after being unable to re-sign Damon, he had to bring in a large number of outfielders to restock the shelves.

The 2009 postseason will forever provide fond memories for Yankees fans—a month of baseball that signaled the franchise's return to the apex of the sport.

But being a Sports Pessimist (the New York Jets did this to me), I still had a couple of minor gripes. One was Chris Rose, the Best Damn Sports Show hack who was inexplicably given on-field emcee duties following New York's Game Six clincher.

What do you think was the over/under for the number of Yankee games Rose watched last year? Eight? Four? One?

Jo Stac recalls that after the disastrous 1965 season, the New York Yankees were finally considered "just another team."

She read many articles about how the "pride of the Yankees" belonged to the past. Jo was pleased.

I have rooted for the Cleveland Indians since 1951. Today's fans don't know that the Indians, not the Boston Red Sox, were the New York Yankees' main competition during the early and mid-1950s.

One of the clichés you hear in the weeks preceding the opening of spring training camps is that "competition brings out the best in players."

Joe Girardi and Brian Cashman both have said that during the last month. In fact, here is what Girardi said just yesterday:

Every Yankee fan knows the feeling. Walk anywhere outside of New York wearing the blue and white, and we're greeted with chants of derision. However, unlike what fans of the Red Sox or Mets might endure, we endure insults that challenge not our team, but our fanhood.

"Front-runner."

"Bandwagon-Jumper."

People who have heard these sorts of insults know that they hurt more than other ones, such as "Yankees suck" or chants of that ilk. At least there is a reasonable comeback to that, and inane arguments about whose team is better are a major part of being a sports fan.

Ths is one of the happiest days of the year, as Spring Training opens. It makes all of us kids again, remembering the snap of ball into mitt and the unique sound of a well struck ball off a wooden bat.

As has been so often said, "Hope Springs Eternal."  Even the fans of perennial cellar dwellers can find some invigoration in Spring Training as we look to the future.

I just can't get enough of the Topps Million Card Giveaway.

Today, my travels took me to the Modell's by Grand Central Station where I scooped up 11 packs of "2010 Topps Baseball series 1" in search of Million Card Giveaway redemption cards, hoping to pull that elusive 1952 Mickey Mantle.

Out of the 11 packages, I scored three redemption cards (none of which was the Mantle (sigh)), and was lucky enough to "unlock" this 1958 Enos "Country" Slaughter, then of the New York Yankees.

Victor Mohn, despite being a Boston Red Sox fan, admired Mickey Mantle, but he felt that injuries were part of the game.

Victor wasn't surprised to learn that New York Yankees' general manager Ralph Houk talked Mickey out of retiring after the disastrous 1965 season.

Mickey Mantle revealed the truth. At the age of 34, the second greatest center fielder in New York Yankees' history no longer could run or throw well, and was no longer an effective hitter from the left side of the plate.