Major League Baseball blasts A-Rod, agent

NEW YORK (AP) -- Major League Baseball had this message for Alex Rodriguez and agent Scott Boras: Shame on you.
Boras announced during Game 4 of the World Series on Sunday night that A-Rod was opting out of the final three seasons of his contract with the Yankees. The timing left baseball officials livid, and Boras apologized Monday evening, just after Rodriguez filed with the players' association and became a free agent for the first time since 2000.
"We were very disappointed that Scott Boras would try to upstage our premier baseball event of the season with his announcement," Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer, said Monday in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
"There was no reason to make an announcement last night other than to try to put his selfish interests and that of one individual player above the overall good of the game," DuPuy said. "Last night and today belong to the Red Sox, who should be celebrated for their achievement, and to the Rockies, who made such an unbelievable run to the World Series."
Boras said causing a distraction was an unintended consequence.
"I apologize to the Boston Red Sox and Colorado Rockies and their players, Major League Baseball and its players, and baseball fans everywhere for that interference," he said in a statement. "The teams and players involved deserved to be the focus of the evening and honored with the utmost respect. The unfortunate result was not my intent, but is solely my fault. I could have handled this situation better, and for that I am truly sorry."
Red Sox fans sure took notice fast. After their team won the title for the second time in four seasons, they stood behind the visitors' dugout at Coors Field and chanted: "Don't sign A-Rod!"
"Kind of strange timing," Red Sox president Larry Lucchino said after Boston completed its sweep of Colorado.
New York, which failed to make the World Series in all of Rodriguez's seasons, maintained Monday that it will not attempt to re-sign A-Rod now that he has opted out.
"No chance," Hank Steinbrenner, a son of owner George Steinbrenner, said Monday at Legends Field. "Not if it's made official."

Why A-Rod won't land in Boston

Alex Rodriguez' announcement yesterday was a big slap in the face to the Yankees, but that by no stretch of the imagination means, as some in the media have portrayed, that he will be running into the waiting arms of Theo Epstein.
The timing of A-Rod's public announcement that he won't be rejoining the Yankees was as big a slap at the Red Sox as it was the Yankees.
How dare the most selfish player in Major League Baseball try to steal headlines from the Red Sox as they were only 10 outs away from winning the 2007 World Series?
Even Peter Gammons, about as courteous and conservative of a broadcaster you can get, and an elder statesman of baseball knowledge, took time out of his reporting on the field in Colorado last night to blast Rodriguez, paint him as selfish and suggest, in exactly these words, that "maybe that's why he's never won a World Series."
That, combined with the incredible stats and World Series MVP trophy 3rd baseman free agent Mike Lowell pulled down this year, mean there's slim to no chance that A-Rod will become a member of the Red Sox.
The Nation don't want him.

A-Rod gives Yankees the finger

The timing of Alex Rodriguez' announcement yesterday that he would not pick up his option to play for the Yankees for the remaining three years of his contract was a calculated slap at the team.
He had 10 days until the end of the World Series to make a decision ... and made his announcement as soon as he possibly could, saying, in effect, that he couldn't wait to be out of pinstripes.
It's no surprise, considering the way fans in New York treated A-Rod, and the way his own manager embarrassed the greatest player in the sport last year by dropping him to eighth in the lineup.
So it's clear now, if it wasn't already, that A-Rod was playing this year not to help his team, necessarily, but to put up as strong a set of personal numbers as possible so that he could then thumb his nose at New York and its fans as well as get as much money as possible somewhere else.

It's over

Boston Red Sox president Larry Lucchino, left, general manager Theo Epstein, center, and manager Terry Francona hold the World Series trophy after Boston beat the Colorado Rockies, 4-3, in Game 4 Sunday, Oct. 28, 2007, at Coors Field in Denver, to sweep the series 4-0. (AP photo)

Torre says offer was an 'insult'

BREAKING NEWS: Joe's outta here

Joe Torre has rejected a one-year contract extension offer from the Yankees and will not be returning next season.
We expect that it wasn't the $2.5 million pay cut he would have had to take from his $7.5 million salary this year. He still would have been the highest paid manager in Major League Baseball.
Rather, it's likely that the length of the new contract was what offended Torre.
Who wants to be a lame duck again for another year? Who wants more of the crap that Yankees brass has continually put Torre, one of its most successful managers ever, through every year?
So now the Yankees get to choose, barring some dark horse candidates, from among Joe Girardi, Don Mattingly and Tony LaRussa.
That's LaRussa of still waiting for the DUI court appearance infamy.
Girardi of can't get along with team ownership and blows out young arms infamy.
And Mattingly of "I'm not ready for this job," "Wait, no, I am ready," "Umm, I don't know" infamy.
Things sure are looking up for this team.

Joe Torre death watch?

News is expected sometime today or early tomorrow on the fate of Joe Torre, and speculation is that the longer the silence, the more likely it is that Joe will come back at a much-reduced salary in 2008.
Meanwhile, Don Mattingly's agent has denied a report that had the legendary 1st baseman telling Yankees brass that he's "not ready" to take over as manager.

Torre in a familiar place ... twisting in the wind

A decision on the fate of Joe Torre has been delayed, according to the AP, and the New York Post reported today that Torre might come back if the Steinbrenners (that's right, apparently George's sons are getting some input these days) can't agree on a successor and if Torre is willing to take a cut in pay from the $7 million he made this season.
Torre's bloated salary (next-highest paid managers in the Major Leagues, according to the Post, are Cubs manager Lou Piniella at $3.5 million, the Braves' Bobby Cox at $3 million, the Cardinals' Tony LaRussa at $2.8 million and the Angels' Mike Scioscia and Tigers' Jim Leyland, at $2 million each) matches the Yankees' bloated payroll, but could be even more reason to cut him loose. They're paying bigtime for the players that should get a team to the World Series, and they're paying their manager twice what any other manager makes, again, to get them to the World Series.
Meanwhile, the Red Sox take the field at Fenway for the start of the American League Championship Series tonight, and the Yankees won't be there. Reflect on that, George.

The new manager(?)'s mugshot ... literally

Suzyn Waldman cries on the air after Yankees eliminated

Candidates emerge for Torre's replacement

Joe Torre is likely out after 12 years "managing" the largest payroll in baseball.
Don't believe any of that talk about Joe Girardi or Don Mattingly taking over this team.
Here are some of the top contenders for his job:
- DR. PHIL: Who better to help A-Rod with his self-esteem issues, and manage A-Rod's relationship with Derek Jeter?
- BUCKY DENT: Hey, he's been a manager in the farm league system, and Yankees fans have been living off his memory for years, so why not give the guy a chance?
- ISIAH THOMAS: OK, wrong sport, but he's already very familiar with the New York media, his personal shenanigans might take some of the attention away from the Yankees losing, and all that time he spends in a courtroom instead of managing would eliminate the middle man and allow Brian Cashman to run the team.
- JORGE POSADA: This one's half-serious. Why not a player-manager, a la Pete Rose? Posada doesn't get enough credit for calling victories while working with a rotation of 900 different pitchers this season, some of whom were about 14 years old. And meanwhile, he batted .338.
- A WET NURSE: Joba Chamberlain, Ian Kennedy, Phil Hughes. Next year's Yankees are barely out of kindergarten. Someone's got to take care of them.
- AN ATM MACHINE: Oh, wait, an endless supply of cash has been managing this team for years.

2007 Yankees, RIP

Wang relieves Mussina before he starts ... huh?

Mike Mussina was originally scheduled to start Game 4 tonight.

He basically did, just an inning late.

That's because the Yankees had such low confidence in the Moose that they rushed Game 1 starter Chien-Ming Wang back out onto the mound on short rest.

Wang got knocked around like a pinata in Game 1.

Same thing started to happen tonight, with two runs surrendered in the first, and two more given up by the "ace" without making an out in the second.

So that plan was scratched on the fly, and now Mussina is in the game.

Wang's 2007 playoffs work is likely done, and he finishes the job with a stellar 19.67 postseason ERA.

Oh, the Yankees and the playoffs ... priceless.

Red Sox rooting for the Yankees

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) - The Red Sox are rooting for the Yankees, if only for one game.
Boston has four days off before the start of the AL championship series, having swept the Angels in the first round of the playoffs. Though none of the Red Sox would express a preference in the lone remaining division matchup, they wouldn't mind if New York and Cleveland wear each other out before it's over.
"I guess my preference would be that they play for about another eight days and go 20 innings every game," Boston manager Terry Francona said after beating the Angels 9-1 on Sunday to earn the extra time off. "We'll get guys throwing. We'll get guys hitting, and we'll stay ready."
The Yankees and Indians were scheduled to play Game 4 on Monday night, with Cleveland holding a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series. If New York wins they will play a deciding fifth game on Wednesday.
"My preference is they play five games, try to use their guys up, so we can be more rested than them," third baseman Mike Lowell said. "But either team is going to be a challenge for us and it's going to be a tough series, and hopefully we can be ready for it."
Josh Beckett, who pitched a four-hit shutout over the Angels in Game 1, his second consecutive playoff shutout, will have eight days of rest before the opener of the AL championship series. Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched the second game in the first round, but Curt Schilling could get the Game 2 start in Round 2 and he would have five days of rest.
"It's certainly better than playing a 17-inning Game 5 and heading straight to Cleveland," Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein said.

Rocket broken

Roger Clemens' senior citizen bones are crumbling with every pitch, and now he's been removed from the Yankees' roster and will have sit out a championship series against the Red Sox, if his team can somehow come all the way back from 0-2 and get there.
Joe Torre has put Ron Villone on the squad in Clemens' place, reversing an earlier misstep he made in having no one to come out of the bullpen to pitch to Cleveland's lefthanded power hitters.

On the brink of elimination, Yanks break out the steroids

NEW YORK (AP) - Jason Giambi got his first start of the playoffs Sunday night, inserted into the Yankees lineup for Game 3 against Cleveland.
The Indians also made a lineup change, putting Trot Nixon in right field. Nixon's combined numbers in the regular season and playoffs against New York starter Roger Clemens were striking: 15-for-39 (.385) with four homers, five doubles, eight walks and 12 RBIs.
With the Yankees looking for more offense as they tried to stave off elimination in the best-of-five playoff series, Giambi batted sixth and replaced defensive whiz Doug Mientkiewicz at first base.
Slumping slugger Hideki Matsui was New York's designated hitter, batting seventh, with leadoff man Johnny Damon playing left field.
Giambi had just one plate appearance as the Yankees combined for only four runs in the first two games of the series at Cleveland. He singled as a pinch-hitter in the opener, late in a 12-3 loss.
The 2000 AL MVP with Oakland, Giambi hit .236 with 14 homers and 39 RBIs this year during a season interrupted by injury. He had only 254 at-bats, but walked 40 times to give him a respectable .356 on-base percentage.
Giambi entered 6-for-14 (.429) with two homers and five walks against the Indians' starting pitcher in Game 3, Jake Westbrook.
"That, plus the fact we really haven't done anything offensively. Our ballclub scoring four runs and three of them on home runs is not our identity," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "We need to put men on base, get them in the stretch, make them think about what we're going to do."

The master motivator

George Steinbrenner broke out of his unusual silent streak of 2007 to say that Joe Torre will be fired if the Yankees don't win the game tonight.
Oh, it warms the heart, doesn't it? Isn't it good to have the old George back?

Because he looked so good in Game 1

NEW YORK (AP) - Chien-Ming Wang appears to be the Yankees' likely starting pitcher Monday night if New York forces its series against the Indians to a fourth game.
Yankees manager Joe Torre said Saturday that Mike Mussina would be available in relief on Sunday night should Roger Clemens falter. Mussina also would have followed Luis Vizcaino had Friday's 2-1, 11-inning loss gone much longer.
Wang has started on less than four days' rest just once, allowing one hit in seven innings to beat the Orioles on June 6 last year. That outing came three days after he got the final two outs and a save in a 10-inning win at Baltimore.
Wang's sinker was up against Cleveland in the series opener, when he matched his career high by allowing eight runs in a 12-3 loss.
Pitching Wang in Game 4 lines up Andy Pettitte to pitch a potential fifth game. Roger Clemens joked about the way his buddy pitched out of trouble to throw 6 1-3 scoreless innings in Game 2.
"I told Andy he looked great from the stretch since he was in it all night," Clemens said.
Pettitte has a $16 million player option for next year and will need to speak with his family before deciding whether to exercise it. The status of Torre, in the final year of his contract, also will play a part in his decision.
"That definitely would be something that I would factor in," Pettitte said.

God hates the Yankees

It was Maine Sen. George Mitchell who said to Oliver North that "God doesn't take sides in politics."

Now George Mitchell is investigating steroid use.

And God is taking sides in Major League Baseball.

OK, this has nothing at all to do with steroids or George Mitchell.

But who can deny that Divine Intervention came into play Friday night as the Yankees lost to go down 0-2 vs. Cleveland and be on the brink of having their season ended.

The game was even - a pitchers' duel - and the Yankees had gotten as good an outing as they could have asked for from Andy Pettitte.

Their phenom fireballer, Joba Chamberlain, was on the mound, and he's been unhittable.

Yankee fans everywhere were starting to think about pitching matchups against the Boston Red Sox, jumping ahead to a prospective ALCS.

And God looked down on Jacobs Field, and sent a swarm of insects left over from one of the plagues on Egypt, to smote the Evil Empire.

Blinded by swarming bugs, Joba started throwing wild pitches, and the rest is playoff history.

Another reason to hate the Yankees

Click here for an anti-Yankee and anti-Lebron editorial from one of our sister papers in Ohio:
Here's an excerpt:
LeBron James has his loyalty questioned each time he has the audacity to wear a Yankees cap. You might call it disrespectful when one of Ohio's finest openly proclaims his love for the enemy. You might even let it affect how you feel about James the athlete - one of the best basketball players in the world, and one whose wizardry you get to watch 82 nights a year.
But when you really think about it, James and the Yankees are an ideal combination.
Obscenely rich. Recognized above all others. The King and the Big Apple. Pinstripes and Nike swooshes.

Mr. 0 for October

Have you heard all the talk on ESPN, sports radio and the newspapers about how Alex Rodriguez, after the year he's had, was bound to redeem himself in this year's playoffs?

No longer would he be known for choking in October?

He'd be clutch, like he's been for the first time consistently in the regular season this year, except he'd be clutch when it really mattered?

Well, A-Rod choked again last night, and now the Yankees are 0-2 against Cleveland, one loss away from going home for a long, team-dismantling winter.

So far, A-Rod is 0-6 in the playoffs, with three strikeouts and four men left on base.

Meanwhile, in Boston, the enemy continues to get clutch performances out of its stars in the playoffs.

NEWS FLASH: Joba is human

Cleveland Indians' Grady Sizemore, left, slides home to score on a wild pitch by New York Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain, right, in the eighth inning of Game 2 of an American League Division Series baseball game Friday in Cleveland. (AP Photo)

Another Joe Torre mistake

Joe Torre's decision to put Hideki Matsui into the game last night as designated hitter instead of Shelley Duncan, an idea he'd been toying with, according to the New York Post, backfired bigtime.
Matsui going into last night's game was 0 for 9 against Sabathia in his career.
Now he's 0 for 13.
Meanwhile, Duncan was put in as a pinch hitter and he actually got a hit against the Indians and scored one of the Yankees three runs.

Ohlendorf on golf

With the Yankees' decision to leave Ron Villone off the post-season roster for this series, the team is left without a single lefthanded pitcher in the bullpen.
You can't blame anyone for not having faith in Ron Villone.
But rookie Ross Ohlendorf, who got the nod instead, isn't going to get it done for you either, at least based on last night's dismal performance.
Not having a lefty in the bullpen, George King of the New York Post pointed out Thursday, leaves the Yankees without a strong situational matchup in key spots against the three big lefthanded hitters in the Indians' lineup (Kenny Lofton, Grady Sizemore and Travis Hafner).
The revenge-seeking former Yankee Lofton had 3 RBI against the bullpen in last night's game, and Hafner hit a solo home run.

It's almost over

Yankees "ace" and one-time Cy Young contender Chien-Ming Wang looked awful last night as he was pounded by Indians hitters, but a bigger key to the series is the Yankees' quiet bats.
Three runs of offense isn't going to be enough in Game 3 with Clemens on the mound, and certainly not when the Yankees hand Mike Mussina the ball in Game 4.
It's a five-game series, remember, so that's enough to send the Yankees home for the year, and Joe Torre off into retirement (or a job coaching the Kansas City Royals).

It's easy to hate a Yankees fan ... especially if he's a star for one of your city's other pro teams

Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James, right, wears a New York Yankees hat as he watches Game 1 of an American League Division Series baseball game between the Yankees and Cleveland Indians, Thursday, in Cleveland. (AP Photo)

Yankees narrowly miss upgrading offense at first base

CLEVELAND (AP) - The Yankees' 13th straight trip to the postseason started with a stumble.
First baseman Doug Mientkiewicz got tangled up with a cameraman and injured his left ankle in an accident, but was in the starting lineup Thursday night for the Yankees' playoff opener against theIndians.
Mientkiewicz was walking up a ramp at Jacobs Field when a YES cameraman was recording while backpedaling.
"My left foot was up, and he fell kind of right on the back of my heel. My ankle rolled," Mientkiewicz said. "It's going to deter (me) from stealing like 15 bases.
"I rolled it pretty good, but it's all right."
Yankees manager Joe Torre had Mientkiewicz work out on the ankle a few hours before game time.
"We tested him every which way, up and down," Torre said. "He ran in the outfield and he looked fine during batting practice. It's not going to hurt his speed, we know that."
Mientkiewicz had to have a screw inserted into the ankle after he broke it years ago. Initially, he was worried after the accident.
"I thought I was dead (as far as playing)," he said. "I've had a lot of damage to that left foot."
The cameraman, a freelance hired from the Cleveland area, was fired by YES. The network did not reveal his name.
YES spokesman Eric Handler said the cameraman had completed his shoot and had been told to shut down.
"Unbeknownst to us he continue to shoot," Handler said. "Because he did not follow instructions, and because it was his not following instructions that caused the accident, he was relieved of his duties."
In the lineup primarily for his defense, Mientkiewicz has the second-highest fielding percentage (.996) among first basemen with 500 or more career games and won a Gold Glove in 2001.
He said he felt bad for the cameraman.
"I don't want him to get fired. Accidents happen, especially for me. Everything happens to me," Mientkiewicz said.
Mientkiewicz injured his wrist June 2 in a collision with Boston's Mike Lowell. He had surgery and returned to the Yankees Sept. 1 and hit .429 (18-for-42) with a home run and eight RBIs in 22 games during the season's final month.

A two-game series?

The Yankees' 2007 playoffs experience could be over by tomorrow.
They are facing two of the best pitchers in the American League, guys who have been absolutely lights-out against everyone they've faced this year.
And if the Yankees start things off 0-2, they will be putting their fate in the aging, pudgy hands of Roger Clemens, he of notorious playoff failure fame.
And if he gets run support in the 10-12 range and somehow prevails, it's on to Game 4, and Mike Mussina, and 10-12 runs might not be enough to keep the Yankees from another case of "wait until next year."
That being said, if any team can beat the Indians' top two pitchers, maybe it's the Yankees.
Fausto Carmona has an 0-1 career record against the Yankees, with a 3.86 ERA over five games, maybe not a big enough body of work to know how they'll fare against him.
And although the Yankees haven't faced C.C. Sabathia this year, his career record against the Yankees is 1-7, with a 7.13 ERA in eight games.