Opinion

The rumors are true. And so are the reports from SportsCenter, USA Today, and every single Boston-based sports page known to the net. Nomar Garciaparra signed a one-day minor-league contract with the Boston Red Sox and then retired. This likely is somehow associated with the criteria to have your number retired at Fenway, but I call that a long shot.

Washington Nationals right-handed pitcher Stephen Strasburg made his spring training debut Tuesday in a 9-4 loss to the Detroit Tigers in Viera, Fla.

Strasburg, who was selected by the Nationals with the No. 1 overall pick out of San Diego State University in the 2009 Major League Baseball (MLB) Draft, fanned two batters in two scoreless innings before the was relieved.

The Big Three; Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and manager Joe Girardi, it appears, will have to wait until the end of the 2010 campaign to restructure their contracts.

"People just have to understand that everybody does business in a different way,” Steinbrenner said to reporters following Tuesday’s news conference to announce the details of the inaugural Pinstripe Bowl.

Pirates fans haven't been treated to much good baseball or many star players since former Pirate Sid Bream raced home to win the NLCS for the Atlanta Braves in 1992.

But 2010 could be different, even if the won/loss column does show the Pirates with an above-.500 record when everything is said and done.

There is plenty to like about this years team and plenty of reasons to watch the Pirates as they continue the long journey back from the cellar.

While running a major league team, there are only so many ways you can gain a real advantage. Having more capital then your opponent is the easiest way, but teams continually look for other ways to better themselves at an inexpensive price.

This is termed a market inefficiency. Basically, the best thing a team can do is find something of value that isn't being valued properly on the open market.

While I tend to gravitate towards the players in the game that don’t get big time recognition, I still find a place in my heart for people who do.

Still, you aren’t going to find me talking about why I love Albert Pujols or Joe Mauer in this space. Although, the sport is in a great state with those two as the game’s best ambassadors.

For about half an hour this afternoon, Viera, Florida was the center of the baseball universe.

Stephen Strasburg, last season’s top amateur pick, took the mound and for the first time faced veteran major league players and not fuzzy-cheeked prospects.

"I was a prisoner in my own city," Milton Bradley told ESPN. But that was not all he said.

He was asked if race played a role in the "city's hatred" for Bradley. The response he gave to ESPN was repulsive.

"I got the same mail Latroy [Hawkins] probably got; the same mail Jacque [Jones] got," he told Colleen Dominguez on ESPN.

News flash Milton: Cubs fans everywhere didn't hate you because you were black. We hated you because you got paid an enormous sum of money and you sucked. You sucked beyond the acceptable level of sucking.

Harry Leroy Halladay III (or simply Roy) will always have a special place in the hearts of Toronto Blue Jays fans. Despite being born and raised in Denver and bearing a nickname derived from a gunfighter of the western United States (Doc Holliday), Roy Halladay has become synonymous with baseball in Canada's largest city.

Javier Vazquez is the luckiest man in baseball right now, and he probably doesn't even know it.

Imagine a World Series where Bad A.J. shows up instead of Good A.J. in Game Two, or Johnny Damon is thrown out trying to take that extra base in Game Five, or Hideki Matsui rides the pine with a bum knee in Game Six.

Had the Baseball Gods seen things differently, the Yankees may have entered a new decade riding the same ghost train that departed the Bronx in October 2004.