Assorted Yankee Items

When you go to Yankees.com and the leading story is titled "Yankees Likely to be Players in Free Agent Market", you know that there is not much news to report. It is then upon the bloggers and journalists of the world to dig deep to find their stories. Here are a few news items that may have slipped under the radar.

Many newspapers have reported that Derek Jeter called CC Sabathia. What these newspapers failed to do is get a transcript of that conversation:

CC: Hello.

DJ: Hi CC?

CC: Speaking.

DJ: Its Derek Jeter.

CC: Oh, Jeter! What's going on man?

DJ: Not much man, just living the dream. So, sign with the Yankees.

CC: Okay.

DJ: I'll talk to you later.

CC: See you later, teammate.

End Phone Call

Other prominent news items is that next season we will have the second ever World Baseball Classic. If the last baseball classic taught us anything its that one, Baseball is an international sport*, anyone can win in a short series, and that the United States sucks. How did the United States not make it to the final round of the classic? Or for that matter, the Dominican team? My home team of Puerto Rico didn't go too far, but they lacked pitching, and they did give Cuba a severe beating the first time out. Alas, the baseball classic was concluded with Japan beating Cuba in the final round, propelling such starts as Daisuke Matsuzaka and Kosuke Fukudome into the limelight. The Koreans also did pretty well.

*International defined loosely.

In other WBC news, apparently the Venezuelen team members have been silently planning a boycott of the classic, because of lack of player input allowed and problems that arose in the last classic. Those upset by these issues include such Venezuelan talents as Johan Santana, Carlos Zambrano, Miguel Cabrera, Carlos Guillen, and Magglio Ordonez. Among the problems were not being able to get enough tickets for all the family members that came to watch the games, and getting stiffed on per diem, which resulted in them having dinner one night at a fast food burger joint. This group of players, which made a paltry $36 million in 2006, could not have been reasonably expected to pay $20.00 a ticket for their own family members to watch the games, and sadly could not afford anything more than $6.00 for a burger and fries, with a soda on the side at the conclusion of the game. The WBC should be ashamed of themselves for treating these players as animals. They may be millionaires, but they're people too. I for one am disgusted. Making them pay for their own family members tickets, millionaires eating fastfood like you and me, how dare you WBC!

Lastly, if you didn't see it over at the Pete Abe blog, there is an online auction going on to raise money for the Domestic Violence Project, run by Trenton Thunder clubhouse manager Tom Kackley. The Domestic Violence Project provides services for victims of domestic violence. Kackley started the Domestic Violence Project after his wife's sister was murdered by her husband in an act of domestic violence. Peter Abraham speaks highly of Tom Kackley, and I personally participated in last years auction that raised $5000. Its a great cause, and the auction has some cool things including autographed items by A-Jax (Get them now before he becomes a star!), Brett Gardner, JB Cox, Tino Martinez, Shelley Duncan, Jeff Karstens, Joba Chamberlain, and Reggie Jackson. For any Red Sox fans out there, there's also a Jim Rice autographed picture in the auction. If I remember correctly, more items were added as the auction went on last year, and although I don't know if that will be the case this year it may be worth checking back every so often. Last year he auctioned off some authentic Yankee clothing, and I managed to get some Yankees Adidas shorts and a Yankees warm up track suit. It cost me a fortune, but for charity its worth it. At least that's how I justified it.