Fan News

New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez is one shy of hitting the 600 home run mark.

He can hit 800 by the end of his career, but he won't hit Cooperstown with the rest of baseball's legends...ever.

This situation best relates with Mark McGwire, but even he wasn't close to the required number of votes to get in the Hall of Fame.

He got 25 percent of votes, but players need 75 percent to get in. McGwire was maybe the most exciting hitter to see when he was in his prime, just like how A-Rod was in Texas, or when he's chasing history.

People have complained about the lack of parity in basketball. Sure, with all the teams getting "big three" sets, the parity there seems to be low. But those teams have a terrible supporting cast (with the exception of Boston). The Lakers have a great one, but they don't have three megastars eating up the salary cap. 

In baseball, it is much worse.

Before inter-league play, the New York Yankees played the New York Mets in an annual exhibition game for the Mayor's Trophy. The proceeds went to charity, usually sandlot baseball.

Players on both teams didn't care much about winning the game. It was, after all, merely an exhibition game, but for the fans, it was much more, especially for one Yankees' fan.

George M. Steinbrenner became the principle owner of what had become New York's "other" team in 1973. His primary goal was to change that, which meant the Yankees had to be better than the Mets.

Baseball analyst Ken Rosenthal reported that the world champion New York Yankees are the front runners to acquire pitcher Dan Haren.

Haren of the Arizona Diamondbacks has been a consistent pitcher since 2005.

Last season, he had an ERA of 3.14 and picked up 14 wins. Note the fact that the D-Backs had a losing season.

The Yankees have been looking for an above-average starter to fill in Andy Pettitte, who is injured, and to have an always-stockpiled starting rotation.

Despite General Manager Brian Cashman's continued claim that the Yankees do not need another starting pitcher, the team continues to pursue the top names.

New York is reportedly actively pursuing Arizona Diamondbacks' starter Dan Haren. The two teams have gone as far as naming names and proposing deals. An agreement has not been made as of yet.

It was a big night for the Yankees, who sat through about an hour and a half wait through a rain delay to beat the Royals 7-1 last night.

Here are some notes:

Last night, Arizona Diamondbacks’ second baseman Kelly Johnson became the third player this year to hit for the cycle. Johnson went 4-for-4 with three RBI along with a hit by pitch in the Diamondbacks 7-4 loss to the San Francisco Giants.

While this is a great feat for Johnson, I am a tad annoyed this happened. I am annoyed this happened because I had Johnson on my bench last night for my fantasy team. My logic? I went off sample size.

Both Carlos Santana and Buster Posey have paid immediate dividends for fantasy owners and have made an impact on our early 2011 rankings.  Let’s take a look at how things currently stand (remember, this an extremely early ranking and may change significantly as the season progresses):

Within the last 20 years, hundreds of articles have been written about Pete Rose's ban from baseball, so I will spare you what has all ready been said. Instead, I'd like to touch more on the effects of his punishment as opposed to the actions that warranted it.

The court of public opinion maintains that the time has come to reinstate him—and I agree, as far as the Hall of Fame goes.

Banning Rose from baseball not only penalizes the man himself, it hurts the sport and denies fans the opportunity to see one of the game's greatest heroes.

The Phillies won 6-0 on Friday night over the Colorado Rockies at Citizen's Bank Park. Roy Halladay got the win as he pitched eight scoreless innings, fanning nine, and watched his offense explode for five runs in the fifth inning.

And that's it. That's all I've got. Thanks for reading, and I hope you'll read again soon.

... You're still here? Oh, you wanted more? Sorry, that's truly all I've got. Here is where I would usually add some sort of analysis or my opinion on the game and the Phillies in general, but there's really nothing more left to be said.