Less than 24 hours after the doors opened for spring training 2011, and already Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia has controversy surrounding him.

While we all know that at 6-7 and close to 300 pounds, the closest you can usually get to Carsten Charles Sabathia is to, literally, surround him,...

I sat down at the keyboard today intending to write something about the start of the World Series, but no sooner had I begun trying to focus my thoughts when a friend called to tell me the truly stunning news that Bill Shannon had died this morning in a fire...

While three baseball managers - the Brewers' Ken Macha, the Pirates' John Russell, and the Mets' Jerry Manuel - all were let go by their clubs a day after the conclusion of the regular season, the biggest noise, as always, came out of New York, where the Mets announced that...

OLIVER PEREZ: NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT

When the Mets brought in Oliver Perez to pitch on August 30 during their 9-3 pasting by the Braves, it marked the wayward lefty's first appearance in a ballgame since August 1, when he pitched two innings against the Diamondbacks during...

Since major league baseball loves to call its late summer grind the "dog days of August," it seems bizarrely fitting that injured Washington Nationals rookie phenom Stephen Strasburg should face the prospect of spending the next twelve months working his way back from upcoming surgery on his prized right arm...

"I didn't think they were steroids. That's the part about being young and stupid. It was over the counter...It was pretty evident that we didn't know what we were doing...I knew we weren't taking Tic Tacs."

You may recall those words from Alex Rodriguez's press conference at the start of...

Upon hearing the news yesterday of the passing of George Steinbrenner, the first thing that ran through my mind was a remembrance of the fact that it was because of The Boss that I made my first appearance in the pages of the New York Times. And no, it wasn't...

They announced the rosters for Major League Baseball's 2010 All-Star Game over the weekend, and notwithstanding the "controversy" over whether or not Washington Nats pitching phenom Stephen Strasburg should or shouldn't have been picked to the squad (the guy's been in a grand total of what, six ballgames?), I trust...

We baseball fanatics love to point out that our beloved game intrinsically has so many complexities and nuances to it that on any given day you're entirely likely to see something happen during the course of a game that you've never, ever seen before. Given some of the events that...

Ever since President Obama announced last week that Elena Kagan was his choice to fill retiring Justice John Paul Stevens' seat on the Supreme Court, it seems we've heard more about her baseball allegiances than her legal stances. Given the stakes -- a lifetime seat on the High Court dugout...

Here we are, a scant two weeks into the 2010 baseball season, and already the general consensus among Yankee fans is that their defending champs are going to merrily cruise to, at the very least, another well-deserved berth in the World Series, while the general consensus among Met fans is...

With Opening Day just three weeks away, fans everywhere are beginning to collectively anticipate the ever-comforting, all-is-right-with-the-world sound of wood meeting ball, signifying that another baseball season is, at last, officially underway.

Of course, that very crack of the bat is a subject that the folks who run major league...

I know the calendar says we're in late February, but as far as I'm concerned, it's only these past few days that I've started feeling like 2010 has really begun. That's because major league baseball's spring training camps have officially opened their gates, and the sight of pitchers and catchers...

For any serious baseball Hot Stover (no relation to Smokey Stover), the biggest highlight of the offseason's rubber chicken circuit is undoubtedly the annual dinner held by the New York chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America. It's here that each year's Most Valuable Players, Rookies of the Year,...

They say confession is good for the soul, but when you compartmentalize your own confession, does it really count?

Watching Mark McGwire's one-on-one interview with Bob Costas on the MLB network this past Monday after the former A's and Cards slugger released a statement admitting to steroid use during...

The announcement on January 6 of the results of this year's Hall of Fame voting by the Baseball Writers Association of America has, predictably, brought with it the usual barrage of whining, grousing and assorted complaints regarding the particular qualifications of both voters and votees. Still, the election of former...

I'm sure that by now just about everyone is aware of the fact that the Health Care Bill was passed by the U.S. Senate on Christmas Eve in a strictly partisan vote that saw all the Democrats voting for it and all the Republicans voting against it. Of course, if...

By now, most sports fans, especially those in the New York area, have no doubt heard the news that Bob Sheppard, the longtime Yankee Stadium Public Address announcer whose resonant, lordly tones led Reggie Jackson to dub him "The Voice of God," has let it be known that he was...

As all baseball fans know, the weeks following the end of the World Series are highlighted by the "hardware" season - the bestowing by the Baseball Writers Association of America of individual achievement awards in the American and National Leagues for everything from outstanding fielding by position (the Gold Glove...

Let's say right at the outset that we do understand that, as far as the 2009 baseball season goes, it really is all over but the shouting -- or at least it will be as soon as someone tells Jay-Z to er, Zip it, Zip It good. Which admittedly, may...