Teletopez

I'm not the biggest fan of this move, assuming that it is a change of the actual team name and not just the "New Jersey" to "New York" or "Brooklyn." But we'll see what the new name is. "Nets" may not be the best name out there and is subject to receive some laughs, but both "Brooklyn Nets" and "New York Nets" sound perfectly fine to me. Besides, who doesn't want to hear the N-E-T-S chant again? One writer said it's a smart idea, moving past the 12-70 season and creating a new beginning. We've created a new beginning in plenty of other ways. New owner, new coach, new home, and only four players from Jersey's squad at the end of last season remain.

I just happened to be thinking about the possibilities of Austin Jackson hitting his second HR of the season at Yankee Stadium. Jeter is dropped to the two-spot in the lineup today. He originally left batting second for the leadoff spot partly due to his frequent grounding into double plays, but that same reason has sent him back to the two-hole. This time, though, it may be better for him batting second with Gardner a threat to steal when he's on base. Let this be a new start for the offense.

And Zardari decided to finally show up a couple days ago after his long visit to London. His scheduled meetings there were clearly too important to him to cancel, while the number of residents affected in Pakistan is unbelievably high.

We had the lowest number of one-run games before... http://i33.tinypic.com/2ag2ssi.jpg

Classic! Once New York brought it to 6-5, you knew it would be a heartbreaker for the side that lost. The Yankees were three outs away from losing their third straight one-run game. Good to see that we held Lee to less than seven innings while crossing the plate four times. Rivera got into and out of a man-on-third with no outs jam with just eight pitches. Young swung at the first pitch and was robbed of an RBI by Kearns, Hamilton took two balls and grounded out back to Mo, and Vlad took one ball before grounding out to A-Rod. And congrats to Jeter for becoming the players with the most hits to ever wear a New York uniform.

That's like saying baseball has caused steroid use. There is nothing that Islam has laid out that has pointed to and encouraged some of the warfare you see today. When you say, "Islam and peaceful don't go together," you make it seem like there is some direct connection between the religion and lack of peace, even though what Islam preaches and what most of its followers live by conflicts with that idea.

It seemed most likely that Ramadan would start today, but our mosque didn't find any reliable indications, so we start tomorrow. Ramadan Mubarak!

Part of the meaning of "Islam" is peace. Sorry.

Went to the Yankee game last night. Great to see Jeter pass the Babe. Berkman also came through with key hits after his early struggles. What an outing by Moseley on the big stage.

It's not sending much of a message when anything having Allah's name written on it that is being disposed of is supposed to be burned.

Post your favorites. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SogXrmAnpWU

I picked up Carlos Marmol yesterday...

Dave D'Alessandro Thorn shares some pretty interesting flashbacks. Thanks for everything, Rod.

ESPN Boston

I'm loving the enthusiasm coming from this crowd. You don't hear such loud responses for every member of the all-star teams in all stadiums.

How fitting that after growing impatient with eight ring-less seasons, the last full season George Steinbrenner lived to see had the Yankees as champions. The timeline of not only his ownership, but his whole life, is incredible. His toughness as someone who did not accept losing in any way or form overshadowed his great personality. As the owner of a baseball team, there aren't many others out there that could make as many controversial decisions as him and still be recognized as a great leader simply because of all the changes he made to our team that were for the better. It wasn't only the signings of players. He established a new home for the franchise. He had a presence that was sure to be felt whenever he visited the clubhouse. He introduced a new tradition that spread over to the rest of the team and the whole fanbase and that is well alive today. Many fans have to wonder whether they would even be apart of this fanbase were it not for Steinbrenner. Rest in peace, George M. Steinbrenner III.

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Well there's the whole thing about Favors taking a couple years to develop. I don't exactly agree with it. Outlaw is flexible and can play the 4, and Humphries is there to play some minutes as well. That should be enough padding around Favors as he improves (and that is IF he really needs a couple years to develop).

I'm not sure about Swisher's chances considering Kevin Long is giving him some precautions, but Swish's personality should keep it entertaining.

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You find drafting Favors the only thing to like about the next three years? Even if we may be committing a lot of money to Outlaw and Petro, it isn't like they can't perform. At the same time, people forget about the talent on this team last year simply because of 12-70.

Monday: Tex homers. Tuesday: A-Rod homers twice, including a grand slam. Wednesday: Tex hits a three-run HR. Thursday: A-Rod scores the tying run following a key baserunning play, and drives in the go-ahead run with a two-run single in the ninth. Friday: Tex homers twice. Our pitching has been nothing short of incredible: 6 runs allowed over the last 5 games.

Sigh of relief! I was listening to Francesa and 1050 in the car for over an hour hoping to hear the rumors off. I thought there was no way to turn back around when they "were putting the finishing touches on the deal." I saw quite a few issues in this deal. 1) The obvious observation was that all five of our starting pitchers have been outstanding as of late. What was the point of building on something that was already dominant? Even if someone gets injured, we have Ace hopefully on his way back as well as Gaudin to give us some assistance. 2) Francesa brought up an interesting point. C.C. was a significant pickup when we added him, and it was filling in a hole. The Tex signing was also filling in a slot that was somewhat empty. This deal, though, seemed to be taking a big step forward in possibly knocking down competition. "Overkill" was the word Francesa used, and I think I agree. 3) This deal could have also made a turn for the worse. We already gave up Austin Jackson, someone fans were anticipating to see in the big leagues for a while, in the Granderson deal. Montero's arrival in the big leagues, regardless of whether he's ready as a catcher, has been anticipated by Yankee fans for a while now. If we gave him in the three-man package that included McAllister and David Adams, who knows whether we'd be seeing incredible stars rising in Seattle. Meanwhile, looking at all possibilities, bringing Lee back would not be a guarantee. If he signed somewhere else after this season rather than returning to New York, this deal may have been looked back at as a nightmare.

Woj says Golden State isn't expected to match the offer considering the David Lee contract.

It's tough as a fan of any team to look at Cleveland's reaction after LeBron's decision. I feel for the city. I'm still not ready to buy the Heat being favorites, but we'll see as the offseason goes along.