Down Go The Yankees - The Official MLB Thread

[NWOWolfpack]

Offerman detained after slugging umpire



SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- Former major league All-Star Jose Offerman threw a punch at an umpire during an argument in a Dominican winter league game Saturday night, the second time in 2½ years that he's attacked someone on a baseball field.

Offerman, manager of the Licey Tigers, appeared to hit first base umpire Daniel Rayburn in the face or neck with his fist during a heated discussion in a game against the Cibao Giants. Rayburn fell to the ground.

Offerman was detained by stadium security and taken to a police station to wait until the end of the game to see if Rayburn would press charges.

The Giants were winning 6-0 in the third inning of the final game of the winter league semifinal playoff series when plate umpire Jason Bradley ejected catcher Ronny Paulino for arguing balls and strikes.

Offerman came onto the field to talk to Bradley, but ended up arguing with Rayburn.

It was the latest violent outburst by Offerman, an All-Star infielder with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1995 and Boston Red Sox in 1999.

On Aug. 14, 2007, he was batting for the Long Island Ducks against the Bridgeport Bluefish in an independent minor league game when pitcher Matt Beech hit him with a fastball. Offerman charged the mound with his bat and swung at least twice, striking Beech and Bluefish catcher John Nathans.

In February 2009, Nathans sued Offerman in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport, seeking $4.8 million in damages. Nathans said the attack left him with permanent, career-ending injuries.

Offerman last played in the big leagues in 2005 with the New York Mets. He batted .273 during his 15 seasons in the majors.


Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press

[NWOWolfpack]

After four seasons and one championship, Johnny Damon won't be returning to the New York Yankees unless he slashes his asking price.

"I'm not having any discussions on him," general manager Brian Cashman said, according to MLB.com. "His abilities exceed the money that I have."

Cashman told the Web site that his priority is finding a right-handed bat for the outfield.

Damon, a left-handed hitter, batted .282 with a career-high tying 24 home runs and 82 RBIs, but he is 36 years old.

He earned $13 million last season. After back and forth in negotiations yielded little, ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney reported that the Yankees offered Damon a one-year deal over the weekend. Now, they appear to be backing off.

"He's a valuable player that a lot of teams are talking to, I'm sure," Cashman said, according to MLB.com. "His abilities exceed my physical ability to keep my finances afloat."

The Yankees continuously lead the league in payroll, but there are indications that they aren't willing to go higher than their 2009 levels.

"I'll always try to get the budget pushed, but you're not always successful," Cashman said, according to the Web site. "The Steinbrenner family has been extremely generous for adding talent, but you can't do everything."

[broncofan]

Its that time and the Rockies are going to roll the National League West Division this year!

[BreakingBacks]

Ron Santo, legendary Chicago Cubs third baseman, dies at 70

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... ml#photo=1

100%,500

[NWOWolfpack]

Andy Pettitte to retire Friday

Goodbye to a Hall of Famer..................

http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/ ... id=6086575

NEW YORK -- The Core Four is now down to We Three.

As many expected since the New York Yankees' 2010 season ended in disappointment in Texas, Andy Pettitte will officially announce his retirement at a news conference at Yankee Stadium at 10:30 a.m. ET on Friday.

With Andy Pettitte hanging it up after 16 seasons, we look back on the Yankees lefty's most memorable moments in pinstripes and beyond. Photo gallery

Pettitte's intentions, first reported by 1050 ESPN Radio's Michael Kay, were confirmed by the Yankees in announcing the news conference.

Pettitte phoned Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner to inform him of his decision, sources told ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney.

"We thank Andy, his wife, Laura, and their family for their many contributions to this organization," managing partners Hank and Hal Steinbrenner said in a statement. "We hope the Pettitte family remains a part of the Yankees family for years to come, and we wish them nothing but the best moving forward."

Pettitte, who will turn 39 on June 15, has wrestled with thoughts of retirement for the past several seasons. But never had he seemed more serious about the imminent end of his career than last season, when he spoke several times about his desire to spend more time at home in Deer Park, Texas, with his wife and their four school-age children.

Pettitte's upcoming role as the star prosecution witness in the perjury trial of Roger Clemens, his former teammate and friend, may have also played a factor in his decision.

But until Thursday, some Yankees officials were holding out hope that as in years past, Pettitte would reconsider as spring training drew closer, a hope that became more urgent when the Yankees failed to sign Cliff Lee as a free agent this winter.

General manager Brian Cashman, however, had remained consistent in his belief that Pettitte would not be a part of the Yankees' starting rotation this season.

"Andy's not in play," the GM said repeatedly this winter. "Unless he tells me otherwise, I'm proceeding as if he won't be with us next year."

Pettitte compiled a 240-138 record and 3.88 ERA in 13 seasons with the Yankees and three with the Houston Astros. He is a three-time All Star, a two-time 20-game winner and a member of five Yankees world championship teams. He appeared in two other World Series with the Yankees as well and another with the Astros. He's won more games, 19, than any pitcher in postseason history.

Along with Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada, he was among the last remaining members of the Yankees teams that won four championships in five seasons between 1996 and 2000.

"I'm really sad that Andy is going to retire," said Posada. "He was so much more than a teammate to me -- he was one of my closest friends. I admire everything that he has accomplished as a Yankee, but Andy was someone who always put the team first. I'm going to miss him deeply."

Pettitte got off to the best start of his career in 2010, going 11-2 with a 2.38 ERA before a groin strain suffered on July 18 robbed him of two months of the season. He finished up 11-3 with a 3.28 ERA and went 1-1 in the postseason, beating the Minnesota Twins in Game 2 of the ALDS and losing Game 3 of the ALCS to the Rangers and Lee despite allowing just two runs in seven innings.

Pettitte's decision to retire leaves the Yankees treacherously thin in the starting rotation, with CC Sabathia, Phil Hughes and A.J. Burnett the only experienced returning starters on the staff.

Ivan Nova, who made a handful of starts as a rookie last season, is expected to fill the No. 4 spot and a collection of retreads (Sergio Mitre plus new acquisitions Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia) will compete for the No. 5 spot in spring training unless Cashman can add another experienced starter.

Cashman did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

"Since I've been retired, I'm always asked, 'Who would you have pitch a World Series Game 7?' And I always say, 'Andy Pettitte.' When people ask why, I tell them it was because he was so prepared for every start," said former teammate Tino Martinez. "When the time comes for a big game, you want a guy who's going to give you seven strong innings. And that's what he did time and time again."

[broncofan]

Hall of Famer Duke Snider, 84, dies


To his mother, he was Ed. To everyone else, he was "The Duke of Flatbush" -- revered by a borough of baseball fans and forever remembered in a song that romanticized a most golden era.

Duke Snider, the Hall of Fame center fielder for the charmed "Boys of Summer" who helped the Dodgers bring their elusive and only World Series crown to Brooklyn, died Sunday. He was 84.

Snider died at the Valle Vista Convalescent Hospital in Escondido, Calif., according to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, which announced the death on behalf of the family. Snider had been ill for months. His family said he died of natural causes.

Snider hit .295 with 407 career home runs, played in the World Series six times and won two titles. But the eight-time All-Star was defined by much more than his stats -- he was, after all, part of the love affair between Brooklyn and "Dem Bums" who lived in the local neighborhoods.

Ebbets Field was filled with stars such as Pee Wee Reese, Roy Campanella and Gil Hodges during that 1955 championship season. Yet it is Snider's name that refrains in the ballpark favorite "Talkin' Baseball."

"Willie, Mickey, and the Duke," goes the popular ballpark song, which marks its 30th anniversary this year.

Snider wore No. 4 in Dodger blue and was often regarded as the third-best center fielder in New York -- behind Willie Mays of the Giants and Mickey Mantle of the Yankees.

"Duke was a fine man, a terrific hitter and a great friend, even though he was a Dodger," Mays said in a statement. "It was great playing centerfield in New York in the 1950s, along with Mickey and Duke."

To Snider it was a made up rivalry.

"The newspapers compared Willie, Mickey and I, and that was their thing," Snider said several years ago. "As a team, we competed with the Giants, and we faced the Yankees in the World Series. So we had a rivalry as a team, that was it. It was an honor to be compared to them, they were both great players."

Mantle died in 1995 at age 63. Mays, now 79, threw out a ceremonial ball last fall before a playoff game in San Francisco.

"Willie, Duke and Mickey. They were great players in one city, one town. Duke never got the credit of being the outfielder that Mays and Mantle were," former teammate Don Zimmer said Sunday. "But Duke was a great outfielder. He was a great player."

Commissioner Bud Selig called Snider an "integral part of Dodger history" and part of an "unparalleled triumvirate of center fielders" in New York.

"Then the Los Angeles native went home and helped usher in a new part of baseball history with great class," Selig said in a statement.

Said Giants manager Bruce Bochy: "There was even a song with Duke in it."

"I remember the first time I met him. It's almost like you're meeting a god, a baseball hero for all of us," he said.

Snider hit at least 40 homers in five straight seasons and led the NL in total bases three times. He never won an MVP award, although a voting error may have cost him the prize in 1955. He lost to Campanella by a very narrow margin -- it later turned out an ill voter left Snider off the ballot, supposedly by mistake.

Snider is the Dodgers' franchise leader in home runs (389) and RBIs (1,271). He led all major leaguers in the 1950s with 326 homers and 1,031 RBIs.

Carl Erskine was Snider's roommate for 10 years and the two shared a house at spring training in Vero Beach, Fla., with their families.

"Duke played so great when I pitched," he recalled. "He just made so many plays in the World Series for me, and he seemed to play his best when I pitched."

Snider hit .309 with 42 homers and a career-high 136 RBIs in 1955. That October, he hit four homers, drove in seven runs and hit .320 as the Dodgers beat the Yankees in a seven-game Series.

For a team that kept preaching "Wait till next year" after World Series losses to the Yankees in 1953, '52, '49, '47 and '41, it was indeed next year. A generation later, long after they'd all grown old, those Dodgers were lauded as the "Boys of Summer" in Roger Kahn's book.

"He was the true Dodger and represented the Dodgers to the highest degree of class, dignity and character," Hall of Fame Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda said.

Orlando Cepeda, a Hall of Famer with the Giants, said Snider provided one of his biggest thrills when he broke into the majors in 1958.

"When I came to first base, the opening game, he said to me, 'Orlando, good luck, good luck," Cepeda said. "He was one of my idols. I almost fainted."

Born Edwin Donald Snider, he got his nickname at an early age. Noticing his son return home from a game with somewhat of a strut, Snider's dad said, "Here comes the Duke."

Even though his mom preferred Ed, the name stuck. So did Snider, once he played his first game in the majors in 1947, two days after Jackie Robinson's historic debut.

A durable slugger with a strong arm, good instincts on the bases and a regal style, Snider hit the last home run at Ebbets Field in 1957.

Snider's swing gave the Dodgers a lefty presence on a team of mostly righties. He often launched shots over the short right-field wall at the Brooklyn bandbox, rewarding a waiting throng that gathered on Bedford Avenue. "The Duke's up," fans in the upper deck would shout to those on the street.

Snider had a wild swing that was harnessed by Branch Rickey, who made him practice standing at home plate with a bat on his shoulder calling balls and strikes but forbidden to swing.

Snider stayed with the Dodgers when they moved to Los Angeles in 1958 and won another World Series ring the next year. Prematurely gray, "The Silver Fox" returned to New York with the bumbling Mets in 1963 and finished his career in 1964 with the Giants, where he and Mays were teammates.

"Above it all, he was a fan favorite for his style of play, personality, accessibility, and fondness for playing stickball with kids in the streets of Brooklyn," Hall of Fame President Jeff Idelson said.

Snider was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1980 on his 11th try. He was a broadcaster for the Montreal Expos for several seasons -- he played in the city as a minor leaguer in the Brooklyn farm system -- and later was an announcer with the Dodgers.

"He had the grace and the abilities of DiMaggio and Mays and, of course, he was a World Series hero that will forever be remembered in the borough of Brooklyn," Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully said. "Although it's ironic to say it, we have lost a giant."

In 1995, Snider pleaded guilty to federal tax charges and was sentenced to two years' probation and fined $5,000. He admitted not reporting more than $97,000 in cash from autograph signings, card shows and memorabilia sales.

Snider was sentenced at the Brooklyn federal courthouse, a few miles from where he had starred. The judge said Snider had been "publicly disgraced and humiliated ... here in Brooklyn, where you were idolized by a generation ... of which I was one."

Snider apologized. He said he began making autograph appearances because he had little in savings and had made several bad business decisions. The judge said Snider paid nearly $30,000 in back taxes and noted he had diabetes, hypertension and other illnesses.

A native Californian, Snider became part of Brooklyn's fabric during his playing days.

"I was born in Los Angeles," he once said. "Baseballwise, I was born in Brooklyn. We lived with Brooklyn. We died with Brooklyn."

The Duke, however, had some early problems with the boisterous Brooklyn fans.

Once, in the early 1950s, he was quoted as calling them the worst in the game. He came to the park after the quote was published and was greeted with a chorus of boos. But he enjoyed one of his better nights, and silenced the fans for good.

"The fans were something." Snider said. "They were so close to you. You got to know them, some of them by name."

During his playing career, Snider became an avocado farmer and lived many years in Fallbrook, Calif.

He is survived by his wife, Beverly, whom he married in 1947.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

Zimmer lamented another Dodger gone.

"They're all passing away," he said. "There's not many left."


Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press

[NWOWolfpack]

It's Opening Day................Go Yankees!!

[broncofan]

This going to be the year of the Colorado Rockies!