Yankee News For Yankee Fans

[Yankee4Life]

Hiroki Kuroda of the New York Yankees throws a pitch in the first inning against the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium on September 19, 2014 in the Bronx borough of New York City.

[Yankee4Life]

New York Yankees' Brian McCann follows through on an RBI single off Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Mark Buehrle in the first inning of a baseball game at Yankee Stadium on Friday, Sept. 19, 2014, in New York.

[Yankee4Life]

Jacoby Ellsbury of the New York Yankees hits a home run in the third inning during a game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium on September 19, 2014 in the Bronx borough of New York City.

[Yankee4Life]

Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees fields a ball in the seventh inning against the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium on September 19, 2014 in the Bronx borough of New York City.

[Yankee4Life]

Masahiro Tanaka stellar in return for Yankees, who earn 5-2 win over Blue Jays

Tanaka picked up where he left off before his elbow injury in July, allowing a one run over 5.1 innings as the Yankees hit three home runs - two by Brian McCann - to beat the Blue Jays at the Stadium

Masahiro Tanaka leaves the field Sunday to standing ovation from Yankee fans.

Masahiro Tanaka was a singular sensation for the Yankees in the first half of the season, an All-Star right out of the gate since arriving from Japan and a contender for the AL Cy Young Award. In the 75 days since he felt elbow pain during a July 8 start, he has been the club’s enormous $155 million question mark.

Sunday, the answers might have started coming for the Bombers.

The injured ace returned to the mound for the first time since doctors counseled against Tommy John surgery for a small tear in his ulnar collateral ligament and instead recommended rehab, platelet-rich plasma treatment and a throwing program. It’s only one start, but it looks like the right call so far.

Tanaka was every bit as effective as he was before the injury, allowing just one run in 5.1 innings against the Blue Jays on a day the Yankees hit three home runs and Derek Jeter delighted a crowd of 48,144 in a 5-2 victory at the Stadium.

“I thought it was great,” catcher Brian McCann said of Tanaka’s 70-pitch performance. “He looked the same. . . . As far as the difference between today and what he did early on, (it) was nothing.”

“Pretty darn good,” Joe Girardi said. “His first pitch was 92. I don’t know if I was really prepared for that. That was really encouraging to me, too.”

McCann hit two home runs and had three RBI and Brett Gardner was 2-for-4 with a solo shot — the 15,000th homer in Yankee history.

Jeter continued his hitting tear with a fourth straight two-hit game. The sellout crowd spent much of the seventh inning chanting his name as he came up with Gardner on second and none out. It roared when he doubled the run in and did again as he stole third base. Jeter scored on McCann’s second homer — a blast to right — for a 5-1 lead.

Yet for all of their positives, the Yankees made up no ground on the victorious Royals in the chase for an AL wild card. They remain 4½ games off the pace with seven to play, and their tragic number for mathematical elimination is down to four.

The Yankees had initially wanted to get their ace back for the pursuit of that playoff spot. As the math has gotten harder, the desire has been more about gauging what Tanaka can be in 2015 when he starts the second season of his seven-year deal.

“I think it’s important for us as an organization, for him, to see what we have moving forward,” Girardi said.

Brian McCann shows off his power stroke with a pair of home runs against the Blue Jays.

A cloudy outlook got brighter after Tanaka allowed five hits and no walks and struck out four.

“It’s pain free,” Tanaka declared through a translator.

“I wanted to check to see how well my elbow responds, so in that sense it was a success. . . . I felt like I was able to do all the things I wanted to do on the mound today,” he added.

If there was any apprehension — in turning his fastball loose or stressing his arm with his dynamic splitter — Tanaka said it faded quickly as he pitched on. “I am relieved,” he said.

Tanaka was efficient because of excellent control, but was short of overpowering. His strikeout rate was down a bit and his hit rate up a tick. He threw more curveballs than usual and fewer splitters, but said it was because he had one of his best curves of the season. And pitching coach Larry Rothschild liked how he increased the intensity from his simulated games, saying, “Today he pushed himself.”

Yankee fans stand up and cheer for retiring captain Derek Jeter before his first at-bat of the game.

“All in all, I thought he pitched excellent,” McCann said.

The Blue Jays got their run off Tanaka in the first inning on a double-play groundout. He retired 11 of 12 to reach the end of the fifth inning having thrown 61 pitches. The Yankees wanted Tanaka to throw 70-75 pitches, so he went out for the sixth. He gave up a pair of singles and came out with two on and one out and the Yanks in front 2-1.

Adam Warren struck out the next two batters to finish the inning and added a scoreless seventh.

Dellin Betances allowed a run in the eighth before David Robertson threw a scoreless ninth for his 38th save.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been back out there, but overall I’m pretty satisfied with how I pitched today,” Tanaka said, before adding that he feels he will be able to have a typical offseason to prepare for 2015.

Tanaka will get another start before season’s end against the Red Sox at Fenway Park on Saturday, Girardi said. The only hurdle between now and then is whether his elbow feels good on Monday.

“We got through today,” Girardi said, “so let’s get through tomorrow.”

[Yankee4Life]

Derek Jeter finishes career with infield single in third inning against Red Sox at Fenway Park

After lining out against Clay Buchholz in the first inning, Jeter hit a high chopper to third base in his second at-bat, driving in a run with an infield single. As Jeter got to first base, Joe Girardi looked out from the dugout to see if the Captain wanted a pinch-runner, which he did, marking the official end to his brilliant career.

BOSTON — Baseball fans are having a tough time letting Derek Jeter go, but the Captain says it’s time. After getting one final hit in what became his last at-bat on Sunday, the iconic Yankee said he’s ready for retirement.

“I felt like the time was right,” Jeter said. “My emotions were so all over the place on Thursday in New York. When I got here, I was ready. I was ready for my career to be over with. I’m happy I had an opportunity to come and play here in a couple games, but I’m ready for this to be the end.”

Jeter said he could have hit four home runs on Sunday, and nothing would have topped his finale in the Bronx, when his hit won the game.

Still, his single in Sunday’s 9-5 win over the Red Sox at an adoring Fenway Park was a satisfying way to end his legendary 20-year career.

For the second straight day, Jeter served as the Yankees’ designated hitter. He lined out to shortstop Jemile Weeks in the first inning, then stepped to the plate in the third with one out and a runner at third base.

Jeter hit a high chopper that third baseman Garin Cecchini tried to barehand but couldn’t handle for an infield hit that drove in Ichiro Suzuki. As Jeter got to first base, Joe Girardi looked out from the dugout to see if the Captain wanted a pinch-runner, which he did, marking the official end to his two-decade run and with it the last link to a Yankee dynasty.

“I would have loved to hit a home run like everyone else, but getting hits is not easy to do,” Jeter said. “I have no ego when it comes to hits. It’s either a hit or an out. I’ve gotten a lot of hits like that throughout my career, and they all count the same.”

Derek Jeter tips his cap to the crowd at Fenway Park when he leaves the game in the third inning after an infield hit.

Brian McCann jogged to run for Jeter, who embraced his teammate.

“I just said, ‘You’re the best,’ and that was it,” McCann said. “He’s the face of baseball, and he will be for a long, long time. To be a part of this last season with him has been special.”

Jeter stopped at the mound to share a word with Clay Buchholz, the last pitcher he would ever face, then jogged toward the dugout where his teammates were waiting for him.

“It was great that he could end his career with a base hit,” David Robertson said. “It was a great game, a great day, and it was a thrill to be a part of it.”

Jeter hugged each of his teammates while the Fenway crowd chanted his name as if he were one of its own. Jeter then tipped his hat to the crowd a couple more times before descending into the dugout one final time. There were more Yankees fans here than usual, but even the Boston fans stood and showed their respect for No. 2.

“There’s been a lot of ugly times in this rivalry,” Girardi said. “Things you wouldn’t necessarily want everyone to see. But for one day, everyone came together.”

Jeter finished his career with a .310 average, his 3,465 hits good for sixth place on baseball’s all-time list.

Girardi had mentioned to Jeter that one more hit would tie him with Ty Cobb for the most 150-hit seasons in baseball history. Jeter wasn’t interested. Pete Rose and Tris Speaker also share the record — 18 — with Cobb, while Jeter and Hank Aaron have 17 each.

“I never played this game for numbers, so why start now?” Jeter said. “One more hit, I would have tied Cobb’s record, but I’m tied with Hank Aaron. That’s enough for me.”

The Yankees took batting practice at Jeter’s request, though instead of the usual groups of three or four hitters at a time, they all hit together, sharing the experience with their captain one last time.

“I asked him if he wanted to hit today,” Girardi said. “He said, ‘You know I always want to hit.’ So I said, ‘We’ll hit then.’ ”

Jeter and his teammates had plenty of laughs as they took part in a BP game — Jeter won, of course — as Joe Torre and Brian Cashman looked on from behind the cage.

It was all part of the plan. After Thursday’s emotional finale in the Bronx, Jeter came to Boston with one goal in mind: to enjoy himself. This weekend was about fun and friends, one last series to be a part of the team that has defined him his entire adult life.

“You can’t top what happened Thursday,” Jeter said. “I don’t care if I came to Boston and I hit a home run every single at-bat.

“New York has been a special place for me. The way that game ended at home, you couldn’t have written the script. When I got here, I was just ready. I’m ready for my career to be over with, so I tried to have as much fun as I could.”

Several people suggested to Jeter that he sit out the final weekend the way Mariano Rivera did a year ago in Houston after his memorable Bronx goodbye, but the Captain decided to DH on Saturday and Sunday out of respect to the Red Sox, the rivalry and the fans.

“I thought about it, but I said I was going to play, so that’s why I played,” Jeter said. “There are a lot of fans that told me that they came a long way to see these last games, so I felt it was right to play here.”

Jeter spent most of the season brushing aside questions about his legacy, his achievements and his place in history. Asked Sunday to describe his 20-year career, Jeter had an answer.

“Fun; I had a blast,” Jeter said. “Listen, I got an opportunity to do what I wanted to do — the only thing that I ever wanted to do. I know that not a lot of people can say that.”

Jeter’s No. 2 will hang in Monument Park soon enough, and five-plus years from now, the shortstop will join the rest of baseball’s immortals in the Hall of Fame. But Jeter, who has played for only one organization since turning pro at the age of 18, wants to be remembered for only one thing.

“I’m happy being known as a Yankee,” Jeter said. “That’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted to be, was the shortstop of the New York Yankees, and I had an opportunity to do that for 20 years. Being remembered as a Yankee is good enough for me.

“I gave it everything I had physically, and I gave it everything I had mentally during my time. Now it’s time to step back and, like I said, let someone else play.”

[Yankee4Life]

Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees on the field prior to the last game of the season against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on September 28, 2014 in Boston, Massachusetts.

[Yankee4Life]

A base is seen prior to the last game of the season between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees at Fenway Park on September 28, 2014 in Boston, Massachusetts.

[Yankee4Life]

Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees is honored prior to the last game of the season, and his career, against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on September 28, 2014 in Boston, Massachusetts.

[Yankee4Life]

Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees bats against the Boston Red Sox in the first inning during the last game of the season at Fenway Park on September 28, 2014 in Boston, Massachusetts.

[Yankee4Life]

New York Yankees designated hitter Derek Jeter takes a moment prior to his at-bat in the third inning against the Boston Red Sox in a baseball game Sunday, Sept. 28, 2014, in Boston. It is the last baseball game of Jeter's career.

[Yankee4Life]

Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees hits a single for his last career at bat in the third inning against the Boston Red Sox during the last game of the season at Fenway Park on September 28, 2014 in Boston, Massachusetts.

[Yankee4Life]

Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees hits a single for his last career at bat in the third inning against the Boston Red Sox during the last game of the season at Fenway Park on September 28, 2014 in Boston, Massachusetts.

[Yankee4Life]

Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees hits a single for his last career at bat in the third inning against the Boston Red Sox during the last game of the season at Fenway Park on September 28, 2014 in Boston, Massachusetts.

[Yankee4Life]

Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees stands on first base after hitting a single for his last career at bat in the third inning against the Boston Red Sox during the last game of the season at Fenway Park on September 28, 2014 in Boston, Massachusetts.

[Yankee4Life]

New York Yankees' Derek Jeter, right, stops to speak to Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Clay Buchholz as Jeter leaves after hitting an RBI single in the third inning of the last baseball game of his career Sunday, Sept. 28, 2014, at Fenway Park in Boston. The Yankees won 9-5.

[Mac]

great pictures!

[Yankee4Life]

great pictures!

Thank you. I am glad you enjoyed them.

[Yankee4Life]

After years of saying nothing, now Derek Jeter has something to say - and I couldn’t care less

For two decades, the Yankees captain gave reporters - who are informing the fans about the teams they follow - virtually nothing. Now that he's no longer in the lineup, his words still carry some weight. But not nearly as much.

By Filip Bondy, New York Daily News

Derek Jeter rarely says much of anything to reporters during his 20-year career.

For the past two decades, reporters from the press, television and the web have studiously anointed Derek Jeter as saint and savior of the Yankees. He stood upright, played brilliantly quite often, and remained relatively unsoiled. We did the rest. We built his sterling reputation, accomplishing this while desperately, unsuccessfully attempting to glean even one meaningful quote from the great shortstop.

Nobody says nothing better than Jeter. We always knew and accepted that. He treated almost all reporters as he might autograph seekers: We were necessary nuisances who demanded his time and whose requests were best deflected. He did his duty with us, the bare minimum, albeit politely. As captain, for some reason, he never felt the responsibility to stand up publicly for teammates or to battle injustice. He was leading by example on the field, and that was enough.

“Derek Jeter is a lousy captain,” the late sportswriter Maury Allen used to say. “He never says anything. That’s not a captain.”

But now, Jeter is telling us that he had plenty to say; that he and other players are lousy quotes only because they distrust reporters. And in his new enterprise, a website called The Players’ Tribune (www.theplayerstribune.com), famous athletes like Jeter will express their true thoughts on the forum without the inconvenient filter of the media. Jeter is done merely frustrating reporters. He’s declared war on his own kingmakers.

“I do think fans deserve more than ‘no comments’ or ‘I don’t knows,’ ” Jeter wrote in his first post on the site. “Those simple answers have always stemmed from a genuine concern that any statement, any opinion or detail, might be distorted. We just need to be sure our thoughts will come across the way we intend. So I’m in the process of building a place where athletes have the tools they need to share what they really think and feel. We want to have a way to connect directly with our fans, with no filter.”

No filter, no analysis, no crafted words or humor. Kill the old messenger. Jeter is the new messenger, the middle man, the guy bound to profit on the words of others.

There are several problems with this concept. For one thing, the forum already exists. It’s called Twitter. Apparently on The Players’ Tribune, posts will be more carefully edited by “producers” and molded by advisers, or editors. In other words, they will be sterilized and more boring than the visceral, often loony posts on Twitter that have generously fed both talk shows and back pages.

Here’s another thing that’s wrong with Jeter starting such a site: We no longer care nearly as much what he thinks. For 20 years, we wanted to know how he really felt about George Steinbrenner; about the Red Sox; about Joe Girardi’s treatment of Jorge Posada; about Alex Rodriguez.

We got virtually nothing from him. Now that he’s no longer in the lineup, his words still carry some weight. But not nearly as much.

Derek Jeter's new website, a sports blog from players themselves.

“I’m not a robot,” Jeter, and perhaps his handlers, wrote in an introductory post. “Neither are the other athletes who at times might seem unapproachable. We all have emotions. We just need to be sure our thoughts will come across the way we intend.”

OK, let’s see. Let’s see if the athletes, and the producers, on this site now take on the racism in the pro leagues; the domestic violence; the drug use; the networks; the sponsors. Let’s see if they do what the media has tried to do for so many years, with very little help from the athletes themselves.

The job of a sports reporter, too often, is to wait around a long time to interview athletes who don’t want to talk to us and have nothing to say in any case. If it turns out they really had something to say, and made us wait around for nothing, the relationship only grows more cynical. My guess, though, is that milquetoast is milquetoast, now and forever. After one or two large, pre-arranged “reveals,” the site will likely retreat to safer grounds.

Take a closer look at Jeter’s first post. You know what he revealed about himself? Nothing, except that there’s much to reveal.

[Yankee4Life]

It is very rare you read an article -especially out of the New York papers- that say anything bad about Jeter but this writer really nailed it.

And one more, this one by Mike Lupica.

[Yankee4Life]

Suddenly, cat no longer has Derek Jeter’s tongue

Maybe the best part of all of his new website is that Jeter now becomes a part of the media, no longer allowed to say 'you guys' when talking to reporters. It will have to be 'we' going forward. Or 'us.'

Suddenly, Derek Jeter has so much to say.

Derek Jeter prided himself, for 20 years, on saying as little as possible. Suddenly, though, you can’t shut the guy up. Here was Jeter even taking questions on Twitter Wednesday, even revealing in one thrilling exchange that he was afraid of cats.

Of course it turns out this happened on the same day that Jeter announced his brand spanking new website, The Players’ Tribune, which he said will “transform how athletes and newsmakers share information, and bring fans closer than ever to the games they love.” And here I thought that’s why the Lord invented ESPN.

Jeter also said this in his statement about the new site: “We just need to be sure our thoughts come across the way we intend.”

It’s a good thing, then, that he never stood in front of his locker and told me he was afraid of cats, because who knows what I would have done with information like that, how I could have misconstrued what he was saying, or even misquoted him.

I mean, you can see the potential minefield here. I might have written that he was afraid of pussy cats, and then a word might have gotten dropped and, well, who knows what people might have thought he was really trying to say? Or what he’s had a phobia about all these years, even being this kind of man about town?

We always knew the guy had nerve when it came to big moments in baseball. Now it turns out that he just has nerve, period. And by the way? No one in town has celebrated what Jeter meant to the Yankees and to their fans and to this city more than I have. This was done, with gusto, all the way until last Thursday night at the new Yankee Stadium, when Jeter turned what should have been a meaningless game at the end of a lost Yankee season into one of the greatest sports nights we have ever had around here.

In that moment, he wiped the slate clean on so much of the wretched excess of his farewell tour, especially as it got near the end, when you got the idea that Steiner Sports, the memorabilia company that seemed to be running him and running the Yankees at the same time, was willing to sell everything except the toothbrush he was using after games. And if you do have a Steiner Sports/Jeter toothbrush that you bought for $40, my apologies.

Now comes The Players’ Tribune, and good for him if he thinks this can be a money-maker for him, and some new groundbreaking enterprise. Jeter admitted on Wednesday that not only was he guarded with reporters — not exactly the kind of breaking news he wants for his new site — but that he had only survived in New York by being careful with what he said.

Earth to Derek: We had kind of picked up on that by now.

It was just that nobody much cared, because of the way you conducted your career and the way you played the game and the way you were in the center of all the winning when the Yankees started winning again.

“(My) simple answers have always stemmed from a genuine concern that any statement, or opinion, or detail, might be distorted.”

Perhaps in his first personal blog post on The Players’ Tribune, he can remind me and everybody else just when it was over the past two decades that anybody distorted anything he said, or embarrassed him, or misquoted him, or took anything he said out of context. No matter. No one officially knew, until Wednesday, what a threat he considered the media to what has now officially, up there in lights, become Jeter, Inc.

When he was on Twitter on Wednesday, he did manage to avoid questions about his former teammate, Alex Rodriguez. This was somewhat ironic, since after reading the mission statement for The Players’ Tribune, I thought the thing is made for Alex Rodriguez, and his various flacks and crisis managers and headbangers.

What better place than a blog on Derek’s site for A-Rod to get out his message about how everything about his steroid use was a dirty lie except the 162-game suspension he just served?

Maybe the best part of all of this is that Jeter now becomes a part of the media, no longer allowed to say “you guys” when talking to reporters. It will have to be “we” going forward. Or “us.” There may be something in here about eventually becoming the thing you hate, but it’s probably too early to make a call on that one.

So a guy, with more nerve than we even knew, one whom reporters carried around on their shoulders across one of the storied careers in baseball history, finally admits how scared he was that we might drop him. But not nearly as afraid as the poor guy was — and I’m trying to be as non-distorting as I can here — of pussy cats.

[Yankee4Life]

Mark Teixeira: A-Rod can make his comeback a ‘great story’

Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira during the 2013 season.

Mark Teixeira is preparing himself for the return of A-Rod.

“Alex is one of the most talked-about athletes in sports, and we really hope he’s talked about because of all the home runs he hits,” Teixeira said. “Because that would be a great story.”

Rodriguez’s presence with the Yankees will no doubt be a great story once he is removed from the suspended list at the end of the World Series, but whether it’s a comedy, drama or tragedy is anyone’s guess.

What is certain is the Yankees need help in their lineup and they’re willing to get it from whomever they can. General manager Brian Cashman said in Boston he had been in touch with Rodriguez about his future in pinstripes. So has Teixeira.

The two texted before Georgia Tech and Miami faced off in college football on Saturday night.

“I told him I’m looking forward to having him back,” Teixeira said. “Who knows how many games he’s gonna play or how healthy he’s gonna be, but I know a healthy Alex Rodriguez is a big part of our lineup.”

And while Teixeira said Rodriguez sounded like he was in good spirits, it’s impossible to predict what the third baseman who missed an entire season due to his involvement in Biogenesis, has had major surgery performed on both hips and will turn 40 next season will be able to do.

“I have no idea,” Teixeira said. “I’m hoping for the best.”

Teixeira was at Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City on Monday, hosting a fundraiser for Harlem RBI, which provides year-round academic and athletic programs to communities in East Harlem and the South Bronx, not far from Yankee Stadium, which is experiencing a dark October for the second year in a row.

In order to avoid a third, they’ll need significant contributions from not just Rodriguez, but also CC Sabathia, Carlos Beltran, as well as Teixeira.

“I’m hoping when [Rodriguez] comes back that we pick up where we left off,” Teixeira said. “He served his punishment. We’ve had other teammates that have had to serve punishments. People around baseball, you do your time and you move on. I don’t think that’s gonna be an issue.”

Time will tell.

As for himself, Teixeira said he wanted to get back to being a 150-game player, backtracking from comments he made toward the end of the season, but he hasn’t played more than 123 games in a season since 2011.

The 34-year-old has already started his offseason workout program rather than taking his typical month off after the season.

“You’d be crazy [not] to think we’d be little bit better if I was healthier,” Teixeira said. “I played [123] games. I want to play 150 and I want to be healthy and strong for 150.”

[Yankee4Life]

God I hope so. A healthy Alex Rodriguez will be a huge plus for this team. These SOB's couldn't hit at all this year.

[DeadShot]

God I hope so. A healthy Alex Rodriguez will be a huge plus for this team. These SOB's couldn't hit at all this year.

We could only hope. Who knows can he play an adequate third base after a year long layoff from baseball and can his hip hold up to play third base? Can he adjust to Major League pitching after a year of not seeing any? These questions can be partially answered by the fact that he was once the best to play the game, but there is still uncertainty.

[sabugo]

I hardly believe that he'll hit anything more than singles.