Shouldn't it have occurred to someone in the MLB offices when the master schedule for Major League Baseball was made up last winter that, oh yeah, this will be the final season in the long and storied history of Yankee Stadium and maybe it would be a good idea to have the Yankees finish the 2008 regular season at home, so their fans could give the old ballpark a fitting sendoff?

As it is, the final home game for the Yankees takes place Sunday night, September 21, against Baltimore, then the team goes on the road for the last week, finishing up in Boston, of all places, September 28. The schedule gurus, if there are such things, probably assumed New York would be making a postseason appearance, as they have every year since 1994, so what difference would it make whether the Yankees finished the regular season at home or not?

The kick in the teeth, of course, is that barring a miraculous Lazarus impression by the Yankees over the final three weeks, they will miss the postseason this year, so the Stadium will close with a whimper after so many big ####s over so many decades of baseball. I am by no means a New York Yankees follower, but as a lifelong baseball fan it seems to me the building that has played home to Ruth, Dimaggio, Berra, Ford, Mantle, Hunter, Jackson, Williams, Jeter and so many other transcendant stars deserves a more appropriate sendoff, and should have gotten one.

What would have been wrong with the Yankees hosting the final game at the Stadium the day after the regular season ended for everyone else? The attention of the entire baseball world could have been directed at the shrine just before the playoffs started. It seems to me that would have been far preferable to the ignoble finish in store for Yankee Stadium the way it is going down. It would have added one day to the already endless baseball season; big deal.

Instead, even though the final Yankee Stadium game will be televised nationally on ESPN, it will seem as though there is unfinished business when the lights are extinguished for the final time. Maybe that's how it seems to Yankees fans anyway, given the disappointing performance of their team during the 2008 season. They will be opening 2009 with a sparkling, brand-spanking-new ballpark, but things will never be the same.

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If you love fiction and have a few minutes to spare, check out my website, www.allanleverone.com

Over at Yahoo, they did a piece called, "America's Ten Worst Cities to be a Sports Fan." Of course, the headline on the main page was accompanied by a picture of a fan sitting in the stands with a paper bag over his head, something that has been done so many times by now that it should be considered the Madonna of sports cliches, topped only by (maybe) that silly "DE-" and then the picture of a fence which apparently has been mandated by law to be featured at every professional and college football game in the country.

I mean, really. The bag over the head thing was funny and original back in the seventies when poor, beleaguered New Orleans Saints fans were doing it, but where has the originality gone? Archie Manning's kids are now playing in the NFL; can't we find a new way to show our disgust with the home team?

Anyway, in this article at Yahoo, the author "compared the latest median household income figures from the Census Bureau to the Fan Cost Index for each team compiled by Team Marketing...Those ratios were then compared to team performance, with regular season won-lost records and playoff outcomes combined for all teams in a given city."

Got all that?

No? Me neither, although their fancy formula determined that the city of Miami is currently the worst place to be a professional sports fan in America, so it must have something going for it. Undoubtedly Cam Cameron wouldn't argue with that assessment; not after going 1-15 in his only season as head coach of the Dolphins.

But, really, as sports fans, arent we all accustomed to failure? If you follow teams in any of the four so-called major professional sports - baseball, football, basketball and hockey - which is what Yahoo's writers considered in their analysis, then you can't really be completely happy with your team's season unless they won their league's championship, right? And you can throw college football and Nascar into the mix, too, since they have championships of their own.

The team almost universally considered to be the most successful ever, with the longest and most storied history, would be the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball. They've won an astonishing 26 world championships since 1900, nearly triple the number won by the next-most-successful team, the St. Louis Cardinals.

Impressive numbers, until you consider the fact that by winning 26 times in 108 years, they've lost 82 times! 26 championships in 108 years means they have been ultimately successful just 24% of the time, zero percent in the last eight years; no wonder Hank Steinbrenner seems so upset all the time.

You could argue with my choice of team to use as an example - the Montreal Canadiens of the NHL and the Boston Celtics of the NBA are also widely considered to be the most successful in their league's history - but the point is still the same: even these teams with such great traditions of winning championships have lost a lot more than they've won.

When you think about it, it's really a wonder we all don't wear bags on our heads. It's not easy being a sports fan.

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If youlove fiction and have a few minutes to spare, check out my website, www.allanleverone.com                    
                                          

I normally try to stay away from re-posting something that I've written here before, mostly because I figure it's good to try to force a little creativity out of my feeble brain.  In this case, though, I'm posting something I wrote originally this past March. 

The Jimmy Fund is the long-time charity of the Boston Red Sox, dedicated to fighting cancer in children.  Today and tomorrow, Boston sports radio station WEEI and television network NESN, the New England SportsNetwork, are holding their seventh annual Jimmy Fund Radio-Telethon, hoping to raise millions of dollars to fund cancer research.

Here is the post I wrote last March dedicated to the subject:

Between fans of the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, even over the winter the sniping never really ends, it just becomes a little more muted than during the regular season.

This year in particular, the offseason seemed more bombastic than usual, what with members of both organizations getting involved and ratcheting up the noise. First, A-Rod stepped on Red Sox toes with the ill-timed World Series announcement that he was opting out of his contract. He says it was his agent's idea and that he regrets the timing, but that was just the first volley anyway.

After that came Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon's remark to a reporter that the Series-clinching ball, the one he supposedly had in his possession, had been eaten by his dog. The dog's name? "Boss," of course, what else?

Move on to spring training, where Hank Steinbrenner railed against Boston's "Red Sox Nation," much to the delight of Red Sox fans everywhere. Steinbrenner promised to restore order to the universe by beating the Sox, and everyone else, and earning a Yankee World Championship.

Finally, Boston management responded by enrolling Mr. Steinbrenner in Red Sox Nation and sending him a David Ortiz autographed hat as a peace offering. Needless to say, that peace offering went unaccepted.

From a Red Sox perspective, then, the Yankees are the hated enemy, the thorn in their side, the bane of their existence. As a kid born and raised outside Boston, I can testify to the truth of that statement, and undoubtedly the same thing is true of Yankee fans everywhere, who used to say, "You have to win once in a while for it to be a rivalry," in a not-so-subtle nod to the fact that while the Red Sox were going 86 years without a championship, the Yankees were racking them up with regularity. Well, now that the Sox have won a couple, it seems the rivalry has become invigorated and reached a renewed intensity.

But here's the dirty little secret that Hank Steinbrenner surely doesn't want you to know, whether you are a Boston fan or a New York supporter: The Steinbrenner family has been incredibly generous to the charity the Red Sox organization adopted 55 years ago and has supported ever since, the Jimmy Fund.

Established in 1948, the Jimmy Fund of Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is dedicated to raising money and awareness in the fight against cancer in children. In the 60 years since it's inception, the Jimmy Fund has raised over $400 million dollars, with more than 90 cents out of every dollar raised going directly toward research dedicated to "eradicating cancer and related diseases."

For the past seven years, Boston sports radio station WEEI, and NESN, the New England Sports Network, have teamed up with the Red Sox organization to run a weekend radio/telethon in support of the Jimmy Fund. Each of the first six telethons have raised a larger amount of money than the one the previous year, culminating in last year's total of $3.74 million, with a grand total in the six-year history of the event of nearly $12 million raised.

What does all this have to do with the Steinbrenner family? Since it's inception in 2002, George Steinbrenner has supported the fundraising weekend with an annual donation of $10,000, which he upped last year to $25,000. He is not by any means the only celebrity/rich guy making a donation - Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and MLB Commissioner Bud Selig are two others who have opened their wallets generously - but the others aren't the owners and public faces of the supposed sworn enemies of the franchise.

Rivaries are great for sports. They add drama and excitement to the season and give fans and media something to talk about. But some things are more important in life, and it's nice to see that The Boss and the entire Steinbrenner family have an appreciation for that fact.

This year's 7th Annual Red Sox WEEI/NESN Jimmy Fund Radio/Telethon takes place the weekend of August 14-15, and for the seventh straight year will attempt to break the previous season's record for money raised. Undoubtedly the Steinbrenner family and thus the New York Yankees will again be a big part of the fundraising effort.

For more information on the Jimmy Fund or to make a donation, just click this link. Or this one.  Or this one.  Anyone who has watched a relative or close friend suffer through cancer - and who hasn't? - knows how difficult it is to sit by as a loved one is ravaged by the disease. Now imagine that someone is a young child, maybe even your son or daughter. Take a moment to check out the Jimmy Fund, and if you have a few bucks, think about pledging something - you just might save a life today.

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If you love fiction and have a few spare minutes, check out my website, www.allanleverone.com

It has become standard practice for athletes of all incomes and all ability levels in all professional sports to endear themselves to the local fan base by exclaiming loudly and to anyone who will listen how much they are looking forward to finishing their career in that city.

Usually midway through the introductory press conference, the athlete in question vows, in between posing for the obligatory photos shaking the hands of the team's ownership and management (also known as the very same people he will be fighting tooth and nail against to get more money from come contract time) and holding up his new home jersey with his name on the back, that this is where he has wanted to play his entire career and he is looking forward to retiring from this lucky city.

The players inevitably say these words with the utmost sincerity, counting on the suckers...uh, excuse me...fans...yeah, that's it, fans...to eat it up like Rosie O'Donnell at the dessert table, which they inevitably do.

But Manny Ramirez has set a new standard for baboozling home-town fans, a mark which may never be broken. After stating in early summer that he fully expected to remain a Boston Red Sox until retirement, he orchestrated a trade out of town by performing in-game job actions that were so blatantly obvious they have inspired an investigation from the league office.

But wait, there's more! After donning mirrored sunglasses and wowing fans in L.A. by stating, within 24 hours of arriving in town, "I think that I'll play here for the remainder of my career," sources now say that what the man for whom the term "enigmatic" was originally coined meant to say was that he wants to sign a free agent contract this winter to loaf...uh, excuse me...play...yeah, that's it, play, for the New York Yankees until his retirement from the game.

Anyone can change his mind, of course, and it was a whole five days between Manny's oath of devotion to L.A. and the revelation of the latest city he's developed a crush on, but ultimately, it probably doesn't much matter, anyway. The guy will hit wherever he is, and chances are he's not going to be too sure where that is, anyway.

Besides, if the flirtation with New York doesn't work out, there are still over two dozen cities he can swear he wants to finish his career in, and that doesn't even include Green Bay, where Manny may or may not have volunteered to play quarterback. He's just hitting his stride!

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If you love fiction and have a few minutes to spare, check out my website, www.allanleverone.com

Anyone who has ever played sports at any level has probably heard this from a coach at one time or another: "It doesn't take any talent to hustle!"

I heard this repeatedly when I was playing baseball, telling me that:

A) The coaches appreciated my hard-nosed style of play, the fact that my uniform was always dirty, and the fact that I never gave up on any ball, no matter where it was hit, OR,

B) They recognized that I had no appreciable talent for the game.

Although it's kind of a backwards compliment, like telling your date she's the prettiest girl at the dance when you're the first couple to arrive, there's still a lot of truth to the statement - All it takes to bust it down the line on a ground ball is the desire to do so, and sometimes that little bit of effort makes all the difference in the world.

This is why I love the right side of the Boston Red Sox infield so much. Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia are both straight out of the Trot Nixon-Mike Greenwell mold. They will dive, run into and sometimes through walls, hustle out ground balls, and always give 100%, a rarity in the world of professional sports, where so many players seem to think it's more important to preen and showboat than to do their utmost to help their team win.

For Pedroia, a little guy who has a home run hitter's swing and yet makes consistent contact with the best in the league, that work ethic has produced a current streak of hits in 28 consecutive road games. Not that impressive, you say? No Boston player has a longer such streak since Tris Speaker in 1915!

To put that into a little historical perspective, the last time a Red Sox player had a longer road hitting streak than Pedroia, Woodrow Wilson was president of the United States and the country was still two years away from entering into World War One. We have had sixteen presidents since then, and at the time of Tris Speaker's streak, Arizona and New Mexico had only entered the union three years prior.

Babe Ruth was a 20 year old kid playing in his first full year in the big leagues, mostly as a pitcher, compiling 217.7 innings pitched and an 18-8 record. Oh yeah, he showed a little promise at the plate too, hitting .315 with four home runs for the Red Sox, who were still four years away from selling him to...well...you know the rest of the story.

Anyway, I bring up this Pedroia streak because the guy is one of those players you hate if he's on the other team but you love if he's on your team, because he's so darned pesky - he's like the bugs buzzing around Joba Chamberlain's head in the playoffs last fall - no matter how hard you try, you just can't get rid of him.
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If you love fiction and have a few minutes to spare, check out my website, www.allanleverone.com

- Steve Smith, Carolina Panthers receiver, after slugging cornerback Ken Lucas in the face during practice Friday: "I'm completely wrong. It was an asinine decision."

What I Meant to Say: "What was I thinking? I'm a receiver and I hit Lucas with my hand? Thank God I only broke his nose and not my knuckles or something; where would I be then? I'll tell you this, I'm going to be a lot more careful next time. Talk about your asinine decisions. Sheesh!"
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- Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers starting quarterback (maybe), on the news that Brett Favre had been reinstated by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and would be reporting to camp: "I know if they do open it up to a competition, not a lot of people give me a chance..."

What I Meant to Say: "Why won't this guy quit already? What did I ever do to deserve this? He's hanging around longer than Andy Rooney, for crying out loud! We need to trade for Steve Smith."
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Tony Sparano, Miami Dolphins head coach, talking about who is Number One on the depth chart at the quarterback position on his team: "That depth chart in your hands right now won't be the same this afternoon, never mind tomorrow, so it's going to change every single day."

What I Meant to Say: "That depth chart will change every day, or until we can convince Dan Marino to take a page out of Brett Favre's playbook."
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Ned Yost, Milwaukee Brewers manager, on the dugout confrontation between Manny Parra and Prince Fielder during their game against the Reds Monday night: "If you want to know what happened...you're not going to know. It's private, it's between us, and it's not a big deal...It makes teams better."

What I Meant to Say: "At least I sure hope it make teams better, because we can't get much worse right now."
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Jason Giambi, New York Yankees slugger, after shaving his mustache following the Yankees come-from-behind win Sunday: "In about a week, it will be back. It goes hand in hand with winning."

What I Meant to Say: "If they'd let me grow my hair out like I did in Oakland, I guarantee we'd win it all. It has nothing to do with talent; it's all about the hair."
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If you love fiction and have a few minutes to spare, check out my website, www.allanleverone.com

Okay, all you people who are sick and tired of all the same teams getting into the playoffs every year; all you Red Sox and Yankees haters, who wait with bated breath for someone else to win the American League East - It's been a while, hasn't it? You have to go back eleven years to find a season in which one or the other of those two teams didn't win the division.

Welcome to the New World Order, MLB-Style. It's July 21, and the Tampa Bay Rays are leading the AL East, with the third-best record in the big leagues. I know it's going to be tough finding something else to whine about than "The rich always get richer," but guess what? The team that has finished in last place for nine of the ten seasons they've been in existence; the team that has never won more than seventy games in a season - that would be the Rays - they are for real.

The Rays are winning with pitching and defense and exciting young talent, and they're not going away. The only question mark, really, besides depth, is whether their pitching, so much of which is very young, can take the pressure of a September pennant race.

And, really, whether Tampa Bay makes the playoffs in the tough AL East isn't even the point. They could go 14-51 the rest of the way, and it would still qualify as the best season in franchise history. Of course, they're not going to do that, but even if they play .500 baseball from now until the end of the year, the Rays would finish with around 90 wins.

Worst to first? Who knows, but as a baseball fan, it's fun to see what's going on down in Tampa. And I'm a Red Sox fan.

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If you love fiction and have a few spare minutes, check out my website, www.allanleverone.com.

The clock continues to tick down to Major League Baseball's Opening Day, the day fans everywhere look forward to, beginning, oh, roughly ten minutes after the final out of the World Series the previous year. Hang on, we're down to just over a day left before the start of the new season.

In 2008, of course, MLB proves just how small our little world is getting, as Opening Day will take place in Tokyo, Japan, joining 2000 and 2004 as the only time regular-season baseball games will have ever been played outside of North America.

To celebrate the occasion, the two teams the bigwigs in charge of scheduling at MLB chose to represent the sport on this foray into Asia are, quite naturally, the Boston Red Sox and the...uh...Oakland A's?

Picking the Sox to represent MLB is a no-brainer for a couple of reasons, the most obvious being that they are the reigning World Series champs, and who better to show off the sport than its' crown jewel, based on last season's results?

The other thing that makes the BoSox an obvious selection is the fact that two key components of their pitching staff made their way to the shores of this country just one year ago from Japan - Dasiuke Matsuzaka will fill the Number Two slot in the rotation after winning 15 games in the regular season and striking out over 200 batters last year, and Hideki Okajima came out of nowhere, dazzling major league hitters to the tune of a 2.22 ERA in 66 appearances and making the A.L. All-Star Team in his rookie season at age 31.

So sending the Sox to Japan to kick off the 2008 season makes perfect sense, but Oakland is another story entirely. A glance at the Athletics active roster shows exactly zero Japanese players. It appeared Kurt Suzuki might be a possibility, but he was born in Hawaii, meaning he probably is as familiar with Japan as I am.

Now, I realize the point of the trek halfway around the world is to show off Major League Baseball, not bring as many Japanese players back to their homeland as possible, but given the intense interest Japan's people have shown in following the progress of their native players in the big leagues, wouldn't it have made more sense to send either the Seattle Mariners or the New York Yankees to Tokyo as opponents for Boston, rather than Oakland?

Seattle, it would seem, is the obvious choice. One of the closest teams on our shores to Japan in terms of distance, the city also features one of Japanese baseball's biggest former stars, Ichiro Suzuki. Wouldn't it have been a treat for the fans in that country to see Dice-K face off against Ichiro in one of the two regular-season games?

Or how about the Yankees? In addition to the fact that MLB would have had an opportunity to showcase one of the sport's biggest rivalries, the Yankees also feature one of Japanese baseball's biggest former heroes, Hideki Matsui. The same argument applies to a Dice-K-Matsui matchup that applies to Dice-K-Ichiro, and that is this: It only makes sense to offer the rabid baseball fans of Japan an opportunity to see two of their own people who have made it big in the Bigs, up close and personal, rather than Dice-K facing off against, say, Oakland's Jack Cust.

Once again - big surprise - it appears the people in charge of baseball have shot themselves in the foot. There is no doubt whatsoever the two-game series between Boston and Oakland will be a success and will be followed by other MLB regular-season matchups in the Far East, but come on, Bud Selig, you're pulling down in excess of $15 million a year, couldn't you have used a little common sense in choosing this historic matchup?

It's really a shame Client Number Nine didn't hold out for this: "An exclusive experience for those with discerning taste who seek the very best that life has to offer. You will delight in the premium amenities, including cushioned seats with teak arms, in-seat wait service, concierge services, private restrooms and a delectable selection of all-inclusive food and beverages."

Oh, yeah, and don't forget your own private entrance, elevator and concourse. Presumably, a date with "Kristen" is extra, but the literature doesn't really make that clear.

What are we talking about here? An exclusive gentleman's club? A place for high-rolling VIP's, all those people with more money than brains who are out in the cold now that the Emperor's Club has been shut down by those cold-hearted ####s in law enforcement who don't understand the pressures that people who run big business and big government in this country face?

Well, no, not exactly, although if you subscribe to the notion of the New York Yankees as the Evil Empire, it could be considered an Emperor's Club of sorts. This is all what awaits you at the brand new, $1.3 billion Yankee Stadium, coming to a Bronx near you in the spring of 2009.

Of course, if you're a Regular Guy, none of that stuff awaits you, not unless you earn enough money at your Regular Guy job to pay up to $2,500 per game for your ticket. That's right, the first five to eight rows of seating in the home plate area of the new Yankee Stadium will cost anywhere from $500 to $2,500 per game per ticket.

To put that in perspective, even the cheapest seats in the "exclusive experience" will cost you $40,500 if you want to attend every Yankee game. That's a bargain, though, compared to the most expensive $2,500 seats, which will run you a whopping $202,500 for the season. Jeez, no wonder Eliot Spitzer turned to Kristen in Washington, D.C. for entertainment. He got priced right out of Yankee Stadium.

And that's not all! You have to commit to those seats for a specified period of time ranging from three to ten seasons, with a specified scale of price increases included too, of course. After all, it would be totally unfair to expect the Yankees to have to put up with your measly $2,500 per game five years from now. Inflation, you know.

So now, if you commit to your $2,500 seats for the minimum of three years, you are up to a total of $607,500 to see your Yankees play. And that's assuming you go by yourself. If you want to be able to bring some company on those warm summer nights - After all, what's the point of concierge servieces and private restrooms if you can't show them off to someone? - the price doubles, bringing the bill to a staggering $1,215,000. Even Billy Crystal might balk at that.

Not to worry, though, even if you're not Bill Gates or A-Rod's wife, the Yankees assure you there is still room in the new palace, uh, ballpark, for you. According to Lonn Trost, the club's Chief Operating Officer, there will be about 11,000 non-premium seats at field level and 12,000 at the main level. "Of the non-premium seats, 88 percent will be less than $100."

He fails to mention those "non-premium seats" will be located in New Jersey, so don't forget to bring your binoculars to the game.

This is surely all a bitter pill to #### if you're a non-billionare who has been following the Yankees for your whole life, but hey, that money to pay A-Rod's new $300 million contract has to come from somewhere, right? The House That Ruth Built will no longer be a house, it will be the biggest, gaudiest McMansion on the block, "premium amenities" and all.

Between fans of the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, even over the winter the sniping never really ends, it just becomes a little more muted than during the regular season.

This year in particular, the offseason seemed more bombastic than usual, what with members of both organizations getting involved and ratcheting up the noise. First, A-Rod stepped on Red Sox toes with the ill-timed World Series announcement that he was opting out of his contract. He says it was his agent's idea and that he regrets the timing, but that was just the first volley anyway.

After that came Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon's remark to a reporter that the Series-clinching ball, the one he supposedly had in his possession, had been eaten by his dog. The dog's name? "Boss," of course, what else?

Move on to spring training, where Hank Steinbrenner railed against Boston's "Red Sox Nation," much to the delight of Red Sox fans everywhere. Steinbrenner promised to restore order to the universe by beating the Sox, and everyone else, and earning a Yankee World Championship.

Finally, Boston management responded by enrolling Mr. Steinbrenner in Red Sox Nation and sending him a David Ortiz autographed hat as a peace offering. Needless to say, that peace offering went unaccepted.

From a Red Sox perspective, then, the Yankees are the hated enemy, the thorn in their side, the bane of their existence. As a kid born and raised outside Boston, I can testify to the truth of that statement, and undoubtedly the same thing is true of Yankee fans everywhere, who used to say, "You have to win once in a while for it to be a rivalry," in a not-so-subtle nod to the fact that while the Red Sox were going 86 years without a championship, the Yankees were racking them up with regularity. Well, now that the Sox have won a couple, it seems the rivalry has become invigorated and reached a renewed intensity.

But here's the dirty little secret that Hank Steinbrenner surely doesn't want you to know, whether you are a Boston fan or a New York supporter: The Steinbrenner family has been incredibly generous to the charity the Red Sox organization adopted 55 years ago and has supported ever since, the Jimmy Fund.

Established in 1948, the Jimmy Fund of Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is dedicated to raising money and awareness in the fight against cancer in children. In the 60 years since it's inception, the Jimmy Fund has raised over $400 million dollars, with more than 90 cents out of every dollar raised going directly toward research dedicated to "eradicating cancer and related diseases."

For the past seven years, Boston sports radio station WEEI, and NESN, the New England Sports Network, have teamed up with the Red Sox organization to run a weekend radio/telethon in support of the Jimmy Fund. Each of the first six telethons have raised a larger amount of money than the one the previous year, culminating in last year's total of $3.74 million, with a grand total in the six-year history of the event of nearly $12 million raised.

What does all this have to do with the Steinbrenner family? Since it's inception in 2002, George Steinbrenner has supported the fundraising weekend with an annual donation of $10,000, which he upped last year to $25,000. He is not by any means the only celebrity/rich guy making a donation - Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and MLB Commissioner Bud Selig are two others who have opened their wallets generously - but the others aren't the owners and public faces of the supposed sworn enemies of the franchise.

Rivaries are great for sports. They add drama and excitement to the season and give fans and media something to talk about. But some things are more important in life, and it's nice to see that The Boss and the entire Steinbrenner family have an appreciation for that fact.

This year's 7th Annual Red Sox WEEI/NESN Jimmy Fund Radio/Telethon takes place the weekend of August 14-15, and for the seventh straight year will attempt to break the previous season's record for money raised. Undoubtedly the Steinbrenner family and thus the New York Yankees will again be a big part of the fundraising effort.

For more information on the Jimmy Fund or to make a donation, just click this link. Anyone who has watched a relative or close friend suffer through cancer - and who hasn't? - knows how difficult it is to sit by as a loved one is ravaged by the disease. Now imagine that someone is a young child, maybe even your son or daughter. Take a moment to check out the Jimmy Fund, and thanks for reading.

Sure, Billy Crystal got to live out his life-long fantasy Thursday, the day before his sixtieth birthday, when he signed a one day contract with the New York Yankees and appeared in their spring training game against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Sure, he got to hob-nob with all the famous and not-so-famous Yankees, spending Wednesday working out with the team and following Derek Jeter around the field like a puppy - and by the way, if you're going to follow someone, who better than Jeter?

Sure, he was nervous in his one and only plate appearance, a strikeout on a 3-2 pitch from Pittsburgh's Paul Maholm. Who wouldn't have been?

But with all the attention focused on Crystal, how about a little nod to the pressure poor Paul Maholm must have been feeling? Here's a kid who's 25 years old, a veteran of just two full big league seasons, with a career record five games under .500 and an ERA last year over 5.00 - in the National League! - and he has to face a 60 year old comedian who hasn't played baseball competitively since high school.

Talk about your pressure situations! Can you imagine if he had given up a hit to Crystal? He grooves a fastball and the guy takes him deep? He tosses up a curveball that doesn't break and Billy Crystal slugs a double off the wall? Billy Crystal?

How do you explain that one to the manager? "Sorry Skip, I guess I shoulda moved him off the plate early in the at-bat. Made him move his feet or even knocked him down. He was a little too comfortable up there, but what do you expect? After all, the guy has hosted the Oscars, right Skip? Pressure's nothing to him. What? What do you mean you're moving me to the bullpen?"

Or how about this scenario - A fastball gets away from Maholm and he drills the legendary Billy Crystal right in the earhole. Can you imagine being known forevermore as the guy who killed the New York Yankees most famous die-hard lifelong fan? How do you get past that one?

At least, as a National Leaguer, you wouldn't have to venture into Yankee Stadium every year and hear it from their fans, and as a Pittsburgh Pirate, you wouldn't have to worry about meeting them in the World Series, but still. Pressure.

As it was, Maholm flirted with disaster as the sixty year old comedian, a man old enough to be his grandfather, narrowly missed actually getting a hit on a ground ball down the first base line that missed staying fair by only three feet or so.

In a way, it's too bad the ball didn't stay fair. We could have been treated to the sight of Billy Crystal trying to stretch his single into a double and maybe coming into second base with spikes high, catching Pirates shortstop Jack Wilson somewhere above the knee with his metal cleats. According to Shelley Duncan, that's how you play hard, isn't it?

Spring training in Major League Baseball is normally a time of stretching, two or three at-bats per game for the regulars, and plenty of golf for everyone. This year, though, it seems the Yankees and Rays have decided to engage in their own little tong war.

First came some guy you never heard of for Tampa Bay running over some other guy you never heard of playing catcher for New York on a play at the plate late in their Grapefruit League game Saturday. The Yankee guy you never heard of held on to the ball for the out before leaving the field in obvious pain and being rushed to the hospital where it was determined he suffered a fractured wrist.

It was an outstanding play by the Yankee catcher, Francisco Cervelli (See, I told you you never heard of him), to hold on to the ball, considering the Tampa runner, Elliott Johnson (See?) had a full head of steam going and ran Cervelli over like John Daly headed for the beer tent.

After the game, the quotes were predictable - outrage from the Yankee side and offended innocence from Tampa's clubhouse. The Yankees felt a meaningless spring training game was no place for, you know, real hustle, and that Johnson should have....uh....well, no one really ever said what else he was supposed to do, but what he did wasn't it, dammit!

It was probably inevitable that there would be retaliation from the New York side, baseball's unwritten codes being what they are, but who would have imagined it would come just four days later? After all, both teams reside in the American League East, which means they would have ample opportunities to settle their differences over the course of the season, considering they will face each other eighteen times in 2008.

Nevertheless, in the second inning of Wednesday's game between the two teams, Shelley Duncan of the Yankees went hard into second base with his spikes high trying to stretch a one-base error into two, taking out Rays second baseman Akinori Iwamura. In the A.P. photo you can clearly see Duncan's spikes raised almost to the top of Iwamura's leg, and there is a clear dirt mark on Iwamura's uniform where the shoe struck the Ray's second baseman above the knee.

A total of two players and two coaches were ejected as a result of that play and the pushing and shoving and name-calling that followed it, and that's after Yankee pitcher Heath Phillips was ejected in the first inning for hitting the Rays' Evan Longoria with a pitch.

The Yankees, again predictably, claimed no ill intent on Duncan's part, but the picture seems to prove otherwise pretty conclusively, and therein lies the difference between the two incidents. Saturday's collision at home plate was something you see a couple of times a week during the baseball season - a good hard clean play at the plate. It was unfortunate someone got injured, but if you watch the video, there is no question the play was clean.

The Yankees point was that the Tampa player no one ever heard of should not have barrelled over their catcher in a meaningless game, but no spring game is meaningless to a player no one ever heard of - every play is an opportunity to show the organization you know how to hustle. If the Yankees truly believe what they were saying, they should simply instruct their catchers never to block the plate until the regular season. End of problem.

Wednesday's play, however, was the essence of dirty, with Tampa manager Joe Maddon calling it "contemptible" and "borderline criminal." Look at the above photo again and it's hard to argue otherwise.

Fortunately for Iwamura, and for Shelley Duncan as well, the Tampa second baseman was unhurt. It would be an awful thing for Duncan to have to live with if he ended another player's career with a dirty, vindictive play and that is exactly what it was, although Duncan will never admit it.

From Boston.com and the Cape Cod Times comes a baseball story of greed and avarice that almost seems too ridiculous to be believed. Is it A-Rod opting out of a $252 million contract to sign another for $275 million? Is it the price of warm, watered-down beer at Fenway? Jonathan Papelbon's desire to be paid like Mariano Rivera "for the good of baseball"?

All good guesses, but unfortunately, all wrong. This story is even more ludicrous than any of those, if you can believe it.

This story involves the amateur Cape Cod League, a breeding ground for future major league baseball players that may have no equal in amateur baseball around the country.

If you're a fan of any major league baseball team, chances are that some significant players on your team honed their skills in the Cape Cod League before turning professional: Names such as Lance Berkman, Craig Biggio, Ryan Braun, Jacoby Ellsbury, Nomar Garciaparra, Tony Gwynn, Todd Helton, Brian Roberts and Aaron Rowand, among many others, all played at least one summer in the Cape League. In fact, according to their official website, capecodbaseball.org, fully one in seven MLB players played in the league at one time.

Cape League baseball has always been and is still free for fans to attend and has been in operation since 1885. In its current incarnation the Cape League features ten teams, all located, obviously, on Cape Cod.

Sounds like a storybook All-American summer league, doesn't it? The problem is, after 122 years, Major League Baseball has decided it needs and deserves a piece of the CCBL pie.

That's right, the sports league that's knee deep in its biggest scandal in nearly 100 years has decided the billions of dollars it rakes in yearly isn't enough - they are demanding that the six Cape League teams that share a name with an MLB team (They are the Chatham A's, Bourne Braves, Harwich Mariners, Hyannis Mets, Orleans Cardinals, and Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox) purchase all future uniforms and souvenir merchandise from expensive MLB-licensed vendors.

Additionally, MLB's grasping accountants are demanding an 11% royalty on sales of all existing inventory from the six affected teams. "Items such as coffee mugs and teddy bears that are not available through MLB vendors could no longer be sold."

As currently constituted, this deal being forced down the throats of these six Cape League teams would squeeze out local merchants, many of whom have been associated with the league for decades.

The reason MLB's Masters of Hypocrisy can make these demands is that MLB annually donates $100,000 of the roughly $2 million Cape League operating budget to its administrators. MLB's accountants, who must work part-time for the IRS, are threatening to cancel the yearly donation unless the teams agree to their extortion.

All six of the teams involved say they will change their names rather than submit to the unseemly arm-twisting by the bullies at MLB, but they admit it is too late to change their teams' uniforms for this season, leading to a classic David and Goliath showdown. A league source, who understandably wants to remain unnamed, says the Cape Cod League will not roll over or be strong-armed by MLB.

The shamelessness never seems to end in big-time athletics. $100,000 is nothing to Major League Baseball. Hank Steinbrenner probably spends that much on towels for Kyle Farnsworth to cry into, and yet Bud Selig's geniuses are threatening to yank that money out from under an amateur baseball league that has undoubtedly provided more players to MLB than any other over the past 122 years.

The Cape League should tell MLB to take their money and shove it; all six teams should change their names, and the league should start a national fundraising drive to make up the loss of the money Selig's minions are using to blackmail them with. Maybe MLB could use the $100,000 to fund a real HGH testing program.

Sheesh.

Ah, spring, when a young man's thoughts turn lightly to...the big score!

Every year there are a handful of players in Major League Baseball who are accomplished enough to warrant big money but, unfortunately for them, lack the service time to qualify for free agency or even arbitration. This puts them in a position where "negotiating" a contract is a bitter illusion.

The only negotiating that goes on in the case of these players is between their team's General Manager and Chief Financial Officer. They reach an agreement on what to pay the player, then they inform the player that his contract has been renewed and what his salary will be for the upcoming season.

Most of the time, the player understands his position and not a big deal is made of it. The player knows and the team knows that as soon as the guy reaches a certain amount of service time, usually the three years required to be eligible for salary arbitration, he'll be in the big money - check that, he's already in the big money if he's making hundreds of thousands of dollars to play baseball, so he'll be in the really big money - and not a lot is said about it either way.

Every so often, though, the player has accomplished so much in such a short time that he feels cheated by getting renewed for what he views as spare change, which is the situation with Prince Fielder of the Milwaukee Brewers. He was resigned to getting renewed last year, but then, after hitting fifty home runs and driving in 119 runs in 2007, was none too happy to get renewed by Milwaukee again.

Then there's the case of Jonathan Papelbon in Boston. He made $425,500 last season, a year in which he saved 37 games in the regular season, becoming the only Sox reliever in their history to save over 30 games two years in a row, and then went 1-0 in the postseason, along with four saves, including the World Series clincher against Colorado.

Papelbon wants to negotiate a deal with the Red Sox but, like Fielder, doesn't have enough service time to give him any leverage whatsoever in negotiations. Thus, he will be renewed Thursday at whatever salary Boston's management team feels is reasonable.

Papelbon seems to understand his position, admitting, "I'm at the mercy of the club right now..." He should have stopped right there, but goes on to say he feels an "obligation not only to myself and my family to make the money that I deserve but for the game of baseball."

He then says that Mariano Rivera of the Yankees has established the salary standard for elite closers over the past ten years and that "with me coming up behind him I feel a certain obligation to do the same."

Oh, brother. As a Red Sox fan I love Jonathan Papelbon. His intimidating presence on the mound, his bulldog attitude, his outstanding fastball and splitter all make him one of the game's best closers. But please, Jonathan, don't expect me to buy into the notion that you want to make millions of dollars in order to help out the game of baseball.

For the game's owners, collectively a group of people I've torched in the past but in this instance stand behind, finding a young, outstanding player without a lot of Major League service time, is like being a kid and waking up on Christmas morning. They can get a couple of years of great baseball at a relatively bargain price before having to break the bank if they want to keep him.

Heck, for some small-market teams, this is the only way to stay competitive. Oakland and Minnesota come immediately to mind. Teams like these and others look to scouting and their minor league systems in the hopes of finding enough young talent to make a run at a playoff spot before inevitably losing their good young players to teams with deeper pockets.

So, Jonathan, close your mouth and bide your time. Another year or two like your first couple of seasons and you will replace your meager half-million dollar a year salary, which seems so miniscule to you but which the rest of us would love to experience, with the Monopoly money of the truly rich. Soon you'll be like Ryan Howard, who, after being renewed last year at $900,000 is now making more than a thousand percent more than that, or ten million dollars this season.

Ah, spring, when a young man's thoughts turn lightly to...arbitration and free agency.

A few random thoughts while watching Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals shred the Bruins for a first period hat trick in a 5-0 game (so far).


You just never know in sports. The Bruins have been playing some of the best hockey in the NHL for most of the last month, with goaltender Tim Thomas standing on his head, stopping practically everything coming his way. Not tonight, though, as Thomas gave up four goals in less than nine minutes and was replaced by Alex Auld halfway through the first period, when it was already 4-0.

Thomas didn't get much help from his defense, though, as the Bruins looked like they forgot their skates at the team hotel. Wow, 6-0 now, still first period. Apparently the Bruins have been busy celebrating Randy Moss re-signing with the Patriots for three more years.


Lou Piniella isn't wasting any time getting into midseason form. After Jason Marquis told reporters he would rather go elsewhere if he wasn't part of the Chicago Cubs starting rotation, Piniella angrily replied Chicago should just "let him go" if that was the case.

No surprise there. Lou Piniella has always been strung a little tighter than even most other baseball managers, not a group usually known for their laid-back ways. What is surprising though, is that one day later, Piniella apologized for his remarks and Marquis did not retract any of his.

There is definitely more to come on this story. It may take until July or August, but you will hear more from these two guys.


It didn't take long to get here. Just days after Astros owner Drayton McLane raved about how much Roger Clemens means to the Houston franchise and how Roger would be welcomed in the Astros camp with open arms, the Houston Chronicle is reporting McLane gathered the Astros top brass together to reach some sort of decision on how to handle Clemens if he decides to return to camp.

The Rocket had pitched batting practice to the club's minor league players for two days last week, but the resulting crush of media attention had turned into what club officials felt was a distraction. Suddenly McLane's arms aren't open quite so wide.


Spare a thought for Bobby Murcer. According to Associated Press Baseball Writer Mike Fitzpatrick, the 61 year old Murcer, a Yankee broadcaster for the last 23 seasons and former All-Star outfielder, is recovering from a brain biopsy performed Monday in Houston.

Murcer, who underwent surgery in December, 2006 for a malignant brain tumor, was forced to undergo the most recent operation after an MRI revealed "an area of concern, which could be scar tissue or another tumor." The popular broadcaster recovered from his 2006 surgery in time to work Yankee games last year; let's hope he will be back on the air this season as well.


Sydney Crosby needs a cool nickname. The Pittsburgh Penguins captain, still only twenty years old, may be out for a few more weeks with a high ankle sprain, but perhaps the time could be used to come up with a fitting moniker for him. "Syd the Kid?" Come on. By the age of twenty, Wayne Gretzky was already being referred to as "The Great One," so it only seems fitting that Crosby get something better than "Syd the Kid."

Considering how many honors Crosby has already won in just his first two years in the NHL - The Hart Trophy as NHL MVP, the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL's leading scorer, and the Lester B. Pearson Trophy as the league's Most Outstanding Player as voted by the Player's Association, all in 2007 - maybe he could be known as "Bling" Crosby. After all, barring a serious, career-threatening injury, Crosby should be racking up the hardware for most of the next two decades.