Regular Season Game 12-Rangers at Yankees

The New York Yankees will go for the sweep this afternoon at the Stadium. The game is at 1:05PM on the yes network. The weather looks beautiful out although it is a little chillly. The Yankees have won their first 4 series for the first time since 1926 so they are off to one of their best starts ever. Here are the lineups and some notes. Andy Pettitte will take on Rich Harden in the pitching matchup. Mark Teixeira who is 4-40 on the season is hoping that that broken bat rbi single in yesterdays game will get him going. Today marks the 87th anniversary of the original opening of the Old Yankee Stadium. April 18, 1923. Rangers Lineup: Andrus(SS) Young(3B) Hamilton(CF) Guerrero(DH) Cruz(RF) Garko(1B) Murphy(LF) Treanor(C) Blanco(2B) Yankees Lineup: Gardner(LF) Johnson(DH) Tex(1B) A-rod(3B) Cano(2B) Posada(C) Granderson(CF) Swisher(RF) Pena(SS) Alex Rodriguez moved into sole possesion of 8th place on the all time homerun list ahead of Mark McGwire. Jorge Posada recorded his 1500th hit of his career. He is the 19th Yankee to do it and 4th whose primary position was catcher. The Yankees are tied for third in the AL with 11 stolen bases. They have become more of a running team and manufacturing runs although they still hit for power.

More on Mark McGwire

Here is the story on Mark McGwire and his confession. I personally wouldn't vote for him for the Hall Of Fame if I had a vote. I don't think he is one with or without steroids and these guys that did it really annoy me, i know A-rod and Barry Bonds did it also but in my mind they are Hall Of Famers either way and before they did it they still put up amazing numbers. I think it is guys like Sosa and McGwire who may only be Hall Of Fame worthy because of the homeruns that won't make it now because of using steroids. I think there will be some interesting cases that will test this steroid thing out, a great example will be Roger Clemens. I think the only reason Big Mac admitted to it now is because he realized that once he arrived in spring training all the questions would start and he had to do something as not to be a distraction to the St Louis Cardinals. I wonder if it will all go away or will he still have to deal with a lot during the season, riducule from fans in other ballparks and what about the players he is trying to teach??

Mark McGwire finally admits to Steroids

I don't think there are too many people suprised but Mark McGwire admitted to using steroids today. He is the new hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals and has been mostly in hiding for the past decade until taking this job. I don't know why it took him so long to admit this but he probably felt it was just easier to hide and not have to worry about it. He is now the hitting coach for the team he used to play for and knew that it would keep coming up if he didn't address it. I will add the links to the story later and have some comments up from him and possibly others. I would like to hear what you guys think about this, care/don't care?? Did you think this all along or didn't?? Do you think this will help his case for the Hall of Fame or hurt it?? I would love to hear what you guys think and I will jump in on these topics later.

Some things I missed over the weekend

The Baseball Writers Of American announced the nominees for induction into the Baseball Hall Of Fame for 2010. The nominees are as follows: Bert Blyleven Andre Dawson Roberto Alomar Barry Larkin Pet Hentgen Fred McGriff Edgar Martinez Andres Galaraga Kevin Appier Mike Jackson Shane Reynolds Todd Zeile David Segui Robin Ventura Ellis Burks Ray Lankford Lee Smith Jack Morris Dale Murphy Dave Parker Tim Raines Don Mattingly Mark McGwire Alan Trammell Harold Baines There are 15 first timers on this list, the closest to getting in are Andre Dawson and Bert Blyleven. In order to be eligible you have to be retired for 5 years and in order to stay on the ballot you need 5 percent of the vote and then you can stay on for up to 15 years. Results will be announced on Wed Jan 6, 2010. I am a tough grader and on this list I really don't see many Hall Of Famers, my favorite player of all time is Don Mattingly and I wish he could get in but he just doesn't have the numbers for long enough unfortunately. I can see Dawson and Blyleven and Jack Morris should probably get in. There are a lot of players on here that I say wow good solid players but that is different from Hall Of Famer. I think Hall of Fame as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Yogi Berra, A-rod, Honus Wagner, Roberto Clemente guys like that. I think it has been watered down and should be the best of the best. Rickey Henderson got in last year and that was a no brainer to me. Roy Halladay apparently on Friday said he would waive his no trade clause to go to the Yankees not suprisingly. This to me is not big news but intersting anyway. Alex Gonzalez signed with Toronto leaving the Red Sox scrambling again for a shortstop. They will probably end up signing Marco Scutaro away from the Jays. He had a career year last year with them. The New Jersey Nets tied the record by going 0-17, they can break the record with a loss Wed at home against the Dallas Mavericks. This actually happened officially today but was gaining steam over the weekend. Charlie Weis has been fired as Head Coach of Notre Dame.