Hank Steinbrenner Is Going Senile

Hank Steinbrenner, who has recently turned the Yankees over to his two sons because of his Alzheimer's disease and possible senile symptoms, has provided his share of Boss-like comments in the offseason, his first as one of the principal leaders running the New York Yankees.

He's made verbal digs at former manager Joe Torre and inserted himself during the contract negotiations with Alex Rodriguez, as well as the race for the services of pitcher Johan Santana.

The latest no doubt will send Boston Red Sox fans into a frenzy.

"Red Sox Nation? What a bunch of [expletive] that is ... This is a Yankee country. We're going to put the Yankees back on top and restore the universe to order. "

-- Hank Steinbrenner

Hank Steinbrenner, apparently trying to emphasize that he has no fear of the Yankees' American League competition, has amped up the rivalry between the two teams, intentionally or not.

"Red Sox Nation?" Hank Steinbrenner said in an interview with The New York Times' Play magazine. "What a bunch of [expletive] that is. That was a creation of the Red Sox and ESPN, which is filled with Red Sox fans.

"Go anywhere in America and you won't see Red Sox hats and jackets, you'll see Yankee hats and jackets. This is a Yankee country. We're going to put the Yankees back on top and restore the universe to order."

Steinbrenner's interview, in the March 2 issue of the magazine, reveals a great deal of his personality and his style. He is not afraid to speak his mind, and he appears to have little sense of regret when he does, saying there was a need for him to take control. "Everyone was hiding in their rooms. You can't do that and be a leader. You have to step up and take a position," he said.

His comments about the Red Sox are not the first time he has sent some vitriol their way. In an interview with GQ.com, posted on Feb. 19, Hank Steinbrenner said about the defending World Series champions: "They've got a lot of talent, and [have] done very well the past few years, but let me put it this way: I don't think [they] wanted to play us in the ALCS. So I will concede nothing. I think we're better than [them]."

Steinbrenner's sons never had any experience with owning or management, but Hank still handed the team over to them to keep the Yankees within their family. It'll be interesting to see the decisions his sons make.

Signing Johan Santana Is Proving More Difficult Than The New York Mets Thought

With millions of baseball fans on their seats awaiting to hear the biggest trade in the offseason, Johan Santana and the New York Mets are having a difficult time delivering the good news.

Major League Baseball has granted Johan Santana and the New York Mets an extra two hours to work on a contract extension Friday, pushing the deadline to 7 p.m. EST. The Mets and Santana's agents continued to negotiate furiously Friday, as the original 5 p.m. ET deadline to complete terms of a long-term contract came and went with no immediate resolution.

And as that 5 p.m. deadline passed, indications were that the key sticking point continued to be Santana's attempts to get the Mets to guarantee all six years of his contract extension, on top of the final year of his current contract. According to baseball sources who have been monitoring the negotiations, the Mets' best hope to resolve that disagreement would be to offer to guarantee the sixth season if Santana's side would agree to accept fewer dollars per year.

The Mets and the Minnesota Twins agreed to a tentative deal Tuesday pending the completion of an extension for Santana, a two-time Cy Young winner. In return, the Twins would receive center fielder Carlos Gomez and pitching prospects Phil Humber, Kevin Mulvey and Deolis Guerra. The buzz in the industry Friday was that Santana's agents, Peter and Ed Greenberg, initially asked for the $28 million per year listed in Roger Clemens' prorated contract with the Yankees last season -- which would have amounted to a six-year, $168 million extension. That amount would not have included either a signing bonus or the $13.25 million Santana is scheduled to earn this season. So his total package would have topped $190 million.

There were indications that the Greenbergs later lowered that request to $25 million a year -- which would have resulted in a six-year, $150 million extension and a total package (including this season) of more than $170 million. The Mets' initial offers, however, were all believed to be just five-year guarantees, plus a vesting option for 2014, in the range of $21 million a year. But there was rampant speculation in the industry Friday afternoon that the two sides were headed toward a compromise in which the Mets would guarantee the sixth season if Santana lowered his salary request to $22 million a year.

With a hefty signing bonus added to this year's salary, that figure would bring Santana's total package to about $152 million over seven years -- the largest contract ever awarded to any pitcher. The $22 million per year also would be a record for a pitcher on a multi-year contract -- and, in fact, would be the third-highest average annual salary in baseball history, behind only Alex Rodriguez's last two contracts ($27.5 million in the deal signed this winter, $25.2 million in the contract he signed with Texas in December 2000). But as of mid-afternoon Friday, the two sides hadn't agreed to those figures -- or any other figures.

Hockey Will Be Without Sidney Crosby For At Least A Month

For more than two periods, the Pittsburgh Penguins witnessed what life without star Sidney Crosby is like....disastrous.

Sidney Crosby, tied for the NHL scoring lead with 63 points, is out indefinitely after sustaining a high ankle sprain in the Penguins' 3-0 loss to the Lightning on Friday. Teammate Marc-Andre Fleury, who has the same injury, has been out since December.

Crosby badly sprained an ankle while ramming into the boards in the first period, and the Andre Roy-led Tampa Bay Lightning took advantage of his absence for a 3-0 victory over the Penguins on Friday night.

Crosby was diagnosed with a high ankle sprain, an injury to the large ligament that connects the two biggest bones in the lower leg, the tibia and fibula. The injury is more serious than the traditional twisted ankle and can sideline an athlete for a month or more.

This is obviously a huge loss. There is no team that can deal with losing the best player in the league. That's the equivalent of Tom Brady not playing in the AFC Championship or Alex Rodriguez injured for three months. Crosby is the heart and leader of the Penguins.

"To see a guy like that go down and not come back, it's tough," Penguins forward Colby Armstrong said. "Guys are going to have to take it upon themselves as a team to fill in. But I don't know if you can fill a spot like that."

To show you how bad the Penguins are without Crosby, just look at this stat. Until now, Crosby had missed only four games to injury during his three-season NHL career. The Penguins' record without him is......0-2-2. In other words, they can't win or attempt to win well without him.

Jose Canseco Is Getting On My Nerves

Someone shut Jose Canseco up. Please. One book was enough, but he's writing another book now. Again, on the same topic, which is steroids. Please, just vote this guy into the Hall Of Fame so he'll stop writing books and exposing others as a way to avenge the MLB and the other players who are or will make it in. Don't you see? Roger Clemens was a sure-fire vote for the Hall Of Fame. Jose Canseco is so bothered by the fact that he's not in the Hall Of Fame that he's exposing others to prevent them from potentially entering the Hall Of Fame. Canseco's mindset is that if he can't get in, then no one else will either.

Jose Canseco has finalized a book deal for his sequel to "Juiced" and it is expected to hit bookstores by Opening Day of the 2008 season, two New York newspapers reported Sunday.

Canseco

Robert Saunooke, Canseco's lawyer, told The New York Daily News and The New York Post that the book, which has a working title of "Vindicated" will be co-authored by former Sports Illustrated writer Don Yaeger.

"Jose already has a lot of stuff put together," Yaeger told The Daily News.

Disappointed by the Mitchell report, Canseco hopes to publish "an unjaundiced view, without the rose-colored glasses" of steroid use in baseball, Saunooke told The Post.

"The book is basically going to be -- I don't want to say an attack -- but it will be a clarification of why certain names should have been mentioned [in the Mitchell report] that were not mentioned," Saunooke said of the new book. "We had hoped that the Mitchell report would have been more revealing. It basically ended up being nothing more than [Mitchell saying], 'I talked to a lot of people, some people wouldn't talk to me and it's up to the commissioner,'" Saunooke told The Daily News.

Saunooke told The Post that he and Canseco talked to Sen. Mitchell and provided him with "tons of information and background" on steroid use in baseball. But when the Mitchell report was released, he and Canseco were disappointed that names like Rafael Palmeiro and Ivan Rodriguez were not named.

Canseco's name appears 105 times in the Mitchell report, more than that of Barry Bonds (103) or Roger Clemens (82). In all, the 409-page report identified 86 names to differing degrees, but Clemens clearly was the symbol.

"I saw the list of players, and there are definitely a lot of players missing," Canseco told Fox Business Network this month. "I don't know what they accomplished or what they are trying to prove."

Prodded further about players not included, Canseco said this of Alex Rodriguez: "All I can say is the Mitchell report is incomplete. I could not believe that his name was not in the report."

One of the topics of Canseco's new book, Saunooke told The Post, will be how Mark McGwire asked for immunity before his appearance before Congress in 2005.

Another topic of Canseco's new book might be A-Rod.

In July, Canseco told WEEI Radio in Boston that he had "other stuff" on Rodriguez, who he called a "hypocrite" who "was not all he appeared to be."

"Jose has information about A-Rod and the Yankees that will be in the book. But, I am not sure if Jose is willing to disclose it at this point," Saunooke, told The New York Times in July.

In Baltimore for a Yankees' game against the Orioles that month, Rodriguez told reporters that he hadn't heard Canseco's comments about him. "And I have no comment."

In "Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big," Canseco called himself the "godfather of steroids in baseball," saying, "I single-handedly changed the game of baseball by introducing them into the game."

He wrote in that book that he personally injected McGwire with steroids and that he saw McGwire and Jason Giambi inject each other.

Canseco also claimed he introduced the performance enhancers to Palmeiro, Rodriguez, and Juan Gonzalez when he joined the Rangers in 1992.

Canseco hit 462 home runs in a major league career between 1985 and 2001. He played seven full seasons for the A's before being traded to Texas in '92. He also played for Boston, the Yankees, Toronto, Tampa Bay, Oakland again, and the White Sox.

Wow, now Canseco is going to raise debate about Ivan and Alex Rodriguez. I knew there were more names on the list, but I don't want to hear anymore from Canseco. The Mitchell Report was just the first of many lists to come.

Andruw Jones Signs A 2-Year Deal With The Dodgers

The Gold Glove center fielder Andruw Jones and the Dodgers reached a preliminary agreement Wednesday night on a $36.2 million, two-year contract that gives him the fifth-highest average salary in the major leagues. He will be playing under Joe Torre, who recently became the Dodgers manager.

Jones' $18.1 million average salary trails only those of the Yankees' Alex Rodriguez ($27.5 million), Boston's Manny Ramirez ($20 million), the Yankees' Derek Jeter ($18.9 million), and the Cubs' Carlos Zambrano ($18.3 million).

Adding Jones was the first major move for Los Angeles since Torre replaced Grady Little as manager on Nov. 1. Jones will get a chance to work with Don Mattingly, who followed Torre to the Dodgers and became hitting coach.

Jones, the former Atlanta star who has won 10 straight Gold Gloves, is coming off one of the worst offensive seasons of his career. But if he rebounds, he could give the Dodgers a desperately needed boost in the middle of the lineup. They desperately need power hitting - someone to hit the long ball and drive in multiple runs - and they think Jones can rebound and be the man to do it.

Andruw Jones is still one of the best defensive center fielders in the game, and up until 2007 -- when he allegedly played with a hyper-extended elbow -- was good for an OBP near .350 and 30-40 homers every year. He's also about to turn 31, so he's still in or close to his prime as a hitter. Jones is a .263 career hitter with 368 home runs and 1,117 RBIs.

Yankees To Acquire Mike Lowell?

The New York Yankees, already establishing a new deal with Alex Rodriguez, are now speculating on whether to go after Mike Lowell of the Boston Red Sox. This story is in the preliminary stages...where it should stay. You know, this is so like the Yankees and the reason I have a problem with them. They always go after big star players with the thrill of offering more money and the chance to play in New York. Well, everyone should learn from A-Rod's experience. Playing in New York is by no means a thrill. Players shouldn't sell themselves by going to a team simply because they offer them more money, which is what the New York media market always does. AND why are the Yankees going after the MVP player from Boston? Isn't Boston supposed to be the Yankees' rival team. Why would a player from the Red Sox EVER go to the Yankees and vice-versa. If it's because of more money, then they should be ashamed of themselves. Damon already left the Red Sox to go to the Yankees and I better not see Lowell do the same thing.

Where the Red Sox were the only team that could negotiate with Lowell through midnight on Monday, others now can make offers. It's not known if the Yankees and Lowell's agents have advanced beyond the discussion phase.

Lowell followed a superlative regular season -- career highs in batting average (.324) and RBIs (120) to go with 21 home runs in 154 games -- with an outstanding October. In Boston's four-game sweep of Colorado, Lowell hit .400 (6-for-15) with four RBIs, three walks and a team-high six runs in winning. He homered, doubled and scored twice in the Game 4 clincher at Denver's Coors Field.

A-Rod and Yanks Agree on Outline

And there it is ladies and gentlemen, A-Rod and the Yankees have agreed on a contract. Now there is one thing left for this deal to happen. Here is the story from ESPN.com:

Alex Rodriguez and the New York Yankees have agreed to the outline of a $275 million, 10-year contract, a deal that potentially would allow him to earn millions more if he sets the career home run record.

The amount of the guaranteed money was revealed by a person familiar with the negotiations who spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity because the deal hasn't been finalized. A-Rod met Wednesday in Tampa, Fla., with the Steinbrenner brothers but the parameters of the deal were set in place last weekend.

"Yeah, I could say that," Yankees senior vice president Hank Steinbrenner said. "The meeting was a final get-together. He wanted to make sure myself and my brother knew that he was sincere and serious."

Jorge Posada to Remain A New York Yankee

Jorge Posada was just one of many Yankee players projected to possibly leave this team, but he isn't anymore. The New York Yankees and Jorge Posada agreed Monday night to a $52.4 million, four-year contract that keeps the catcher off the free-agent market. Posada decided to remain with the only major league team he has played for despite Joe Torre no longer being present.

Posada produced MVP type numbers this season. He batted .338 with Home Runs and 90 RBIs (very good for a catcher position).

One player down, many to resign. The next player to decide is Mariano Rivera. New York also was trying to re-sign Mariano Rivera before Tuesday, when free agents could start talking money with all clubs. Notice an obvious pattern? 2 of the 4 players who remained so far (Posada and possible Rivera) have been home-grown and loved Yankee players their entire careers. As for the players who left, Alex Rodriguez has not been a Yankee his whole career and a majority wanted him out and Andy Pettitte was a loved Yankee player, but following this trend, has not been a Yankee his whole career and therefore did not feel obliged to stay on the team.

Yankees Won't Deal Their Young Arms

Finally the New York Yankees are doing something right in upper management. Instead of going out and getting a guy with a big bat, they are going to keep their young arms, and look to the future. Here is the story from ESPN.com:

Hank Steinbrenner was clear on what the New York Yankees won't do to get Miguel Cabrera.

"It's pretty obvious which players we're not going to trade," the owner's son said Wednesday, before rattling off the team's most-prized young pitchers. "Chamberlain, Hughes and even Kennedy. Not for a position player."

As the Florida Marlins try to gauge what teams would give them for their All-Star third baseman, the Yankees are showing qualified interest. Yes, they'd love Cabrera to replace Alex Rodriguez, but they're prepared to wait for the asking price to go down. For now, when other teams inquire, Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy aren't available.

Daddy, I Want A-Rod on my Team! Can You Raise My Allowance to $350 Million?

That title is no joke. I'm hoping either A-Rod and his agent have either flipped or there was a serious problem with the location of the decimal, but I doubt either of those cases happened. The reality is before A-Rod opted out of his contract with the Yankees, the team was told that it would not be able to meet with the third baseman unless they presented an offer of $350 million. Now I understand without A-Rod's clutch hitting during the regular season, the Yankees would have most likely not made the playoffs. Still, no one player is worth investing $350 million in! Instead, with the departure of A-Rod, and possibly the overpaid Clemens, the Yankees could invest that money into fresh young talent. Two examples of recent success are the maturation of Chamberlain and Cano. The Yankees should build up a team of fresh, young players instead of going out and getting wash-ups, old players, and overpaid stars who do nothing but fail in the post-season. Leave that trend up to the Mets, who have and are acquiring all-stars from all over the league. By the way, the Mets have their eye on A-Rod.