The Stadium...

past..present..and the future...

good lookin' prospect...

Pitch count all that stops Hacker
Right-hander works seven perfect innings in Yankees' 1-0 victory
By Shane Figueroa / Special to MLB.com

Eric Hacker combined to go 12-5 with a 3.64 ERA in 27 games at three levels last season. (Mark Lomoglio)

The only way to pitch better than Eric Hacker did on Tuesday night is to get six more outs.
Hacker retired all 21 batters he faced before reaching his pitch count as the Tampa Yankees posted a 1-0, 10-inning victory over the Dunedin Blue Jays at Steinbrenner Field.

A 25-year-old right-hander who combined for 13 wins at three Minor League levels last season, Hacker was in complete control. He needed only 78 pitches to get through seven innings.

"Stuff-wise, I felt great," Hacker said. "I had command of all four pitches in the strike zone and could drop a slider or curveball down if I needed to. Mostly, it was the guys behind me making plays. There were more than a few ground balls that could have been hits."

The former 23rd-round draft pick struck out six and induced 11 ground-ball outs. Second baseman Chris Kunda made a nifty backhanded play up the middle in the fourth inning, when he assisted on all three putouts.

"Chris was quick on his feet there," Hacker said. "I thought it was a hit, but he made a quick transition from his glove to the throw and got us an out. You always need plays like that to take a no-hitter or perfect game that far."

Hacker worked quickly, retiring the first two Blue Jays on a groundout and popout before catching Travis Snider looking at a third strike. He fanned two more in the second before producing seven straight ground-ball outs, a pop-up and another called third strike.

Hacker caught Jesus Gonzales looking at strike three in the sixth, which ended with another groundout, then retired the first two batters in the seventh on grounders. He punctuated his night by fanning Snider, MiLB.com's No. 15. prospect, for the second time.

"I'm pretty sure I had at least one strikeout with every kind of pitch I throw," Hacked said. "Everything was sharp, and [catcher Kyle] Anson knows these hitters pretty well. He's great with recognizing hitting patterns, and we got along well tonight. It was rare for me to turn down one of his signals."

It was the longest Hacker had taken a perfect game or no-hitter in his career, though he held Columbus hitless into the seventh for Class A Charleston last July 11 and pitched five perfect frames against Augusta on Aug. 17.

The Blue Jays ended the Yankees' bid for perfection in the eighth as Brian Dopirak and Paul Franko ripped consecutive one-out singles off rehabbing Major Leaguer Sean Henn.

That was no disappointment for Hacker, who missed the entire 2006 season following surgery on his pitching shoulder. For him, the most enjoyable part is simply being on the mound at full strength.

"It's a great feeling to just rear back and throw it," he explained. "I took it easy last year until around midseason, but I feel like I'm back in a groove now."

Despite Hacker's perfect night, the Yankees needed extra innings to even their record at 3-3.

Kunda singled to open the 10th and was sacrificed to second by Tim Battle. After Mitch Hilligoss was intentionally walked, Edwar Gonzalez sent a liner to left that scored Kunda with the game's only run.

Jonathan Hovis (1-0) struck out one in a perfect 10th for the victory.

"It was a great win for us," Hacker said. "It's always nice to win the one-run battles or the extra-inning battles. Hopefully, this gets us going."

Reliever Connor Falkenbach (0-1) was charged with one run on two hits and two walks in two innings for Dunedin (4-2).

Clemens is horrible

Thursday, February 28, 2008
FBI opens inquiry into whether Clemens lied to Congress about steroid use
BY TERI THOMPSON, MICHAEL O'KEEFFE and NATHANIEL VINTON
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITERS

Thursday, February 28th 2008, 4:02 PM

The FBI has opened an investigation into whether Roger Clemens perjured himself when he told Congress that he never took performance-enhancing drugs, a move that is sure to set the seven-time Cy Young Award winner up for intense scrutiny.

"The request to open an investigation regarding the congressional testimony of Roger Clemens has been turned over to the FBI and will receive appropriate investigative action by the FBI's Washington field office," said FBI spokeswoman Debbie Weierman.

"We can't talk about our investigative actions when an investigation is open,” Weierman said.

FBI agents will bring vastly more investigative power to the case than the lawyers for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform could bring to bear on the pitcher in that committee’s two-month probe, which ended with a criminal referral on Wednesday.

The bureau will likely also have to work out some sort of arrangement with Jeff Novitzky of the IRS and Matthew Parrella of the United States Attorney’s office in Northern California – two men who have spearheaded much of the government’s prosecution of drug use in sports.

Novitzky attended the Feb. 13 hearing where Clemens and his accuser, Brian McNamee, made statements before the committee that were so contradictory that one of them had to be lying.

“Everybody wants a piece of it – it’s like when the Navy joins the Army for a war,” said a lawyer close to the Mitchell Report fallout. “Novitzky is involved. I would be shocked if Novitzky and Parrella aren’t involved – they investigated McNamee, the Mitchell Report, on and on. This is about money, too – it’s got to be on someone’s budget. And the FBI has bodies. And Novitzky was always working with the FBI.”

Clemens denied using illegal drugs during a Feb. 5 deposition with the committee's lawyers and in the highly contentious hearing on Feb. 13. But in a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, committee chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, the committee's ranking Republican, said Clemens' denials were contradicted by evidence gathered during the committee's investigation - including testimony from the Rocket's longtime friend and teammate, Yankee pitcher Andy Pettitte.

"We are writing to ask the Justice Department to investigate whether former professional baseball player Roger Clemens committed perjury and made knowingly false statements during the Oversight and Government Reform Committee's investigation of the use of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs in professional baseball," the letter said.

"We believe that his testimony in a sworn deposition on Feb. 5, 2008 and at a hearing on Feb. 13, 2008 that he never used anabolic steroids or human growth hormone warrants further investigation."

Because of his insistence on fiercely and publicly challenging the allegations in the Mitchell Report that he used steroids and human growth hormone, Clemens has already turned his life inside out.

Longtime friends McNamee and Pettitte were forced by the government to testify against Clemens, who identified his wife Debbie as a human growth hormone user. Even his rear end was subject to congressional scrutiny, when the issue of an abscess possibly caused by steroid use came up.

But all of that pales compared to an FBI investigation, which will mean Clemens will be scrutinized by law-enforcement agents who have subpoena power to look at his bank accounts, phone bills, medical records and computer hard drives.

Every friend, every relative, every teammate or business associate is now a potential witness if the government decides to build a case against him.

"You'll see people with direct knowledge who know about what went on. Clemens will start to hear from all these people, wanting to know why they're getting subpoenas and phone calls from the feds," one lawyer familiar with the case said. "It's a nightmare."

The probe comes as no surprise to Clemens' attorney, Rusty Hardin. "We've always expected they would open an investigation. They attended the Congressional hearing. So, what's new?" Hardin said in a statement Thursday.

Hardin said he has been telling his client for months that the Justice Department would get involved in the case and Hardin told the Daily News following the Feb. 13 hearing that he expected a criminal referral. It is a move the Texas lawyer said he welcomed.

"Fortunately, we now move from the court of public opinion, where there are no rules, to the court of law where the rules very specifically level the playing field. Whether it is in a criminal investigation or the upcoming civil trial, what has been a frenzied rush to judgment will be replaced by a careful and unbiased review of all of the evidence," Hardin said on Wednesday.

But Hardin makes a federal investigation sound as inconvenient as a visit to the dentist. The reality would be much more difficult.

Novitzky helped build the perjury case against Barry Bonds, and Parrella, an assistant U.S. Attorney, successfully prosecuted Marion Jones for lying to investigators. They and the FBI could descend on New York, Houston and elsewhere to determine if Clemens should be charged with perjury.

Former teammates - including Pettitte, admitted steroid user Jose Canseco, BALCO witness Jason Giambi and Chuck Knoblauch, who was also questioned by the committee - are sure to be witnesses. Clemens' son Koby, a prospect in the Astros' farm system, could also be questioned.

The Rocket's agents, Randy and Alan Hendricks, would be on Novitzky's to-do list. So would Kelly Blair and Kevin Schexnider, the owners of a Texas gym where, as the Daily News reported, Pettitte's father, Tom, had picked up human growth hormone.

Like we didn't know....

JOBA RULES LEGENDS WORKOUT
By GEORGE A. KING III

February 23, 2008 -- TAMPA - Mike MussinaMike Mussina has 250 big league wins. Chien-Ming WangChien-Ming Wang posted back-to-back 19-win seasons. Yet, it was Joba ChamberlainJoba Chamberlain who sent a buzz through the Legends Field crowd yesterday when he took the mound to throw batting practice.

"He got the loudest cheer and the guy before him [Wang] has won 38 games in the last two years," Joe Girardi said of Chamberlain. "He brings a lot of excitement."

What Chamberlain didn't bring yesterday was his 98-mph fastball and filthy slider. Not on the first day facing hitters. His best pitch was a change-up, which ranks fourth behind the heater, splitter and slider.

"Whether you are a starter or a reliever you are going to need them all," said Chamberlain. "We aren't all so gifted that we can throw a cutter," like Mariano Rivera.

Chamberlain will open the season working the eighth inning in front of Rivera but the plan is for him to be shifted to the rotation at some point.


*
For the first time in 14 spring trainings, Jason Giambi is preparing for a baseball season without a very close friend. In November, Slugger, an Australian shepherd, succumbed after a long bout with cancer.

"I had him for 13 years," Giambi said. "He was part of my divorce as far as custody."

So, what about getting another dog?

"We thought about it, but with spring training starting, me here and Kristian in New York doing some things, we decided not to."


*
Girardi can expect a fight from Jeter if the manager wants to give the shortstop a day off.

"Derek never wants to come out. He has played a lot of games over the years and we will talk as time goes on and give him a blow every once in a while," Girardi said.

Yanks original Moose...

one of his cards from the year of my birth...

William Joseph "Moose" Skowron Jr. (born December 18, 1930) is a former Major League Baseball player, primarily a first baseman. He is currently a Community Relations Representative for the White Sox.

Skowron was born in Chicago, Illinois, and is of Polish descent. His father was a garbage collector. His friends called him "Mussolini" as a joke, after his grandfather gave him a haircut which looked like the dictator's, but his family shortened the nickname to "Moose." The name stuck throughout his career.

"Moose" attended Weber High School on the intersection of Division and Ashland in Chicago. He went to Purdue University on a football scholarship, but found himself better suited to baseball when he hit .500 as a sophomore, a record in the Big Ten Conference that lasted ten years.

Signed by the New York Yankees in 1950 as an amateur free agent, he played his first game for the Yankees on April 13, 1954. He wore uniform number 53 in the 1954 season, but switched to #14 in 1955 and stayed with that number for the rest of his years with the Yankees. In the beginning, he was platooned at first base with Joe Collins, but from 1958 on he became the Yankees' full time first baseman. He played in five All-Star Games as a Yankee: 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, and 1961.

Agree completely with NoMaas.org......

SHUT UP HANK!!

Hank Steinbrenner insists Yankees still talking Johan Santana swap

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Tuesday, January 15th 2008, 4:00 AM

TAMPA - Yankees senior vice president Hank Steinbrenner has not closed the door on a trade for Minnesota Twins lefthander Johan Santana.

"It's still in the deciding process," Steinbrenner said Monday night outside Legends Field at the Yankees' spring training complex. "We're still discussing it. There's still a little talk back and forth."

Phil Hughes and center fielder Melky Cabrera would likely be part of a multiplayer package needed to obtain Santana, a two-time Cy Young Award winner who can become a free agent after this season.

Steinbrenner said reports that the Yankees recently withdrew a formal offer to the Twins are not true.

"There wasn't an official offer anyway. You can't withdraw something that wasn't there," Steinbrenner said. "There was no official offer on the table at this time."

The Mets and Red Sox also are interested in Santana.

Clemens was never a Real Yankee....

He was never anything more than a mercenary for hire.
The Yanks just happened to have the most money.

Funny how when he was still "The Rocket" Sox fans still hoped for him to wear a B on his HOF plaque...