New York Yankees trainer falls ill

The New York Yankees head athletic trainer Gene Monahan is taking a leave of absence. He will miss his first spring training in 47 years. He has a undisclosed illness and will miss all of spring training and the beginning of the season. The New York Post was the first to report this yesterday. He will remain in New York and receive extensive treatment over the next few weeks. Gene Monahan had this to say, " I miss being around my professional family already, but im battling." " The New York Yankees have gone above and beyond in this most difficult time. I couldn't do this alone, but with the support of my immediate family, my family within the organization, the dedication and expertise of many fine doctors I look forward to resuming my role with the team this season." Gene Monahan is the longest tenured head athletic trainer in the major leagues. He has worked in that capacity for the last 38 years. He was honored with an induction into the New York State Athletic Trainers Hall Of Fame in 2007. He received the distinguished athletic trainer award from the National Athletic Trainers association in 2009. Steve Donahue who has worked with Gene Monahan for the past 25 yrs as a trainer will replace him in his time of absence. The Yankees will have someone assist him but are not sure who yet.

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??

Here is how the Hall Of Fame voting broke down. Andre Dawson suprisingly was the only one to make it, he will join former manager Whitey Herzog and umpire Doug Harvey who were selected last month by the veterans committee. Andre Dawson- 420 votes 77.9% Bert Blyleven- 400 votes 74.2% Roberto Alomar- 397 votes 73.7% Jack Morris- 282 votes 52.3% Barry Larkin-278 votes 51.6% Lee Smith- 245 votes 47.3% Edgar Martinez- 195 votes 36.2% Tim Raines- 164 votes 30.4% Mark McGwire- 128 votes 23.7% Alan Trammell- 121 votes 22.4% Fred McGriff- 116 votes 21.5% Don Mattingly-87 votes 16.1% Dave Parker- 82 votes 15.2% Dale Murphy-63 votes 11.7% Harold Baines-33 votes 6.1% Andres Galarraga- 22 votes 4.1% Robin Ventura- 7 votes 1.3% Ellis Burks- 2 votes .4% Eric Karros- 2 votes .4% Kevin Appier- 1 vote .2% Pat Hentgen- 1 vote .2% David Segui- 1 vote .2% I just can't believe someone would vote for Ellis Burks or Robin Ventura or even worse is Eric Karros, Pat Hentgen, Kevin Appier and David Segui. I mean ok nice players and all but Hall Of Famers, not even close. I just can't belive people would waste their votes like that, it is insane to me.

Hall Of Fame Announcement

The Hall Of Fame Class of 2010 will be announced in about 15 minutes. I haven't thought about it too much but I think Roberto Alomar will get in and Andre Dawson. I think Jack Morris may but he hasn't so far so what will change now? I want to discuss the selections and who didn't get selected later on. I would like to hear what you guys think. I will be back later with the official announcement. UPDATE: 5:34PM- I know I am a few hours late on this but Andre Dawson was the only player to be elected into the Hall Of Fame. If you look closely at the numbers he is pretty much a compiler that you question if he should really get in. The bigger story to me though is how did Robbie Alomar not get in?? He was the best second baseman of his generation who had great numbers all around including the postseason. I know he had that spitting incident with the umpire but all was forgiven and they have even become good friends. That is not a reason to keep him out of the hall. I think too many people with votes have an agenda and it just isn't right. I would take this so seriously if I had a vote and really look at all the numbers and go with what is really right in your heart. I also think the whole Mark McGwire thing is showing that these steroid guys are going to get punished big time and maybe never make the Hall. I do think guys like A-rod and Bonds will get in but it may even take them a while to get elected. It will be fun to debate this now in the cold winter months. I want to take a look at some of the numbers later again and maybe post some of them on here and we can debate it.

The Big Unit finally withdraws

Randy Johnson aka- The Big Unit announced his retirement this evening. He finished his career with 303 wins which is 22nd all time. Here are some more of his career accomplishments: His first game was with the Expos in Sept 1988 against the Pirates. 1st strikeout victim was Orestes Destrade He played 22 years for 6 teams 1999-2002 won 4 straight Cy Youngs-won 5 overall 2001 was a World Champion with Arizona and co MVP of the World Series along with Curt Shilling He won 17 games in back to back seasons with the Yankees in 2005-06. His 10.67 strikeouts per 9 innings were 1st all-time for starting pitchers 188 hitbatsmen is 3rd all-time 4.875 strikeouts are second all-time and 1st among left handed pitchers 7.24 hits allowed per 9 innings pitched is 10th all-time 37 shutouts is 57th all-time 20 strikeouts in a game on May 8, 2001 He pitched a perfect game on May 18, 2004 He is the 5th pitcher in MLB history to pitch a no-hitter in both leagues joining Cy Young, Jim Bunning, Nolan Ryan and Hideo Nomo. These stats were courtesy of Wikipedia. I will have more on Randy Johnson tomorrow, some comments he made at the press conference and other thoughts on his career.

New Baseball Committee

Comissioner Bud Selig announced this afternoon that he will have a new comittee starting this season. The committee will review on field baseball issues. There are 14 people on the committee and they are: Joe Torre-Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tony Larussa-St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Scioscia-Los Angeles Angels manger Jim Leyland- Detroit Tigers manager John Schuerholz- Atlanta Braves president Andy Mcphail-Baltimore Orioles president Terry Ryan-former Twins general manager Mark Schapiro-Cleveland Indians general manager Chuck Armstrong-Seattle Mariners COO Paul Beeston-Toronto Blue Jays CEO Bill Dewitt- St. Louis Cardinals owner Dave Montgomery- Philadelphia Phillies owner Frank Robinson-Hall Of Famer and former player George Will-Journalist Bud Selig thought that this group could have an impact rather quickly like within a year. I hope this works and it looks like a good thing but we will see what happens. The umpiring was terrible this past season and especially postseason although Bud Selig the comissioner said he has been thinking of this for some time and it isn't because of the poor postseason the umpires had. It is an interesting group consisting of many different backgrounds which is good.

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.

Mariano Rivera-Simply the Best

Mariano Rivera notched his 500th save last night becoming only the second pitcher in history to accomplish that and made me stop and think back. I am 31 years old and have seen pretty much every save that MO has ever had, i am a diehard fan and go or watch just about every single game. Mariano Rivera started out as a skinny little kid that was a starting pitcher in the minor leagues. He came up in 1995 and if Buck Showalter knew what he had in MO things may have drastically been different for lots of people. The Yankees lost a thrilling division round playoff to the Seattle Mariners that year in 5 games. Buck Showalter didn't know what he had in MO and if he did the Yankees probably would have won and maybe gone on to win the World Series and there would of been no Joe Torre and maybe not all those championships but who knows. Mariano Rivera failed as a starting pitcher and was converted to relief and thank goodness Buck and Gene Michael and some others saved him because if it was up to George Steinbrenner they would of traded him to get a shortstop because they were so worried about a kid named Derek Jeter being the starting shortstop for the Yankees. It is really funny how all these years later they are still teammates and both headed to the Hall Of Fame. Mariano Rivera started out as a setup man in 1996 for John Wetteland and made the games 6 innings when Mo would come in for the 7th and 8th and just blow people away and hand the ball off to Wetteland for the save, the Yankees won the World Series that year and next year Wetteland was gone and MO became the closer which he has stayed ever since. Mariano is such a humble man that he didn't even think about that in the offseason until they called him up and said you are going to be our closer and he said ok I will do my best. Mariano Rivera is such a cool customer and never shows too much emotion either way, he acts the same all the time, no matter if it is playoffs, World Series, regular season, spring training. It is funny that now you have Jonathan Papelbon, K-rod even Joba Chamberlain who have some histrionics to them and you still have MO just simply walking towards the catcher and shaking hands. The game last night was a time when he truly could of let loose with emotion but he did what he always does and of course everyone of his teammates walked up to him and hugged him, Derek Jeter had a moment with him and Jorge Posada also had a nice embrace, these guys have been together for a long time and it was great to see. The thing that makes MO great other then him just saving all of these games and being the best in the postseason and never sweating even after he does blow games is how humble he is and what a great person he is. They asked him about saving 500 and what he means and he still thanked go and all of his teammates, it is truly a pleasure to have witnessed his whole career and being able to tell my kids and grandkids one day that i saw the greatest closer of all time pitch. I don't know what will happen when he finally decides to hang it up but it will be a sad sad day. I definitely would love to be there the day he is in Cooperstown inducted into the Baseball Hall of FAme. Congratulations MO you are simply the best.