Free Republic

The league has officially handed down suspensions arising out of yesterday’s fisticuffs between the Tigers and Yankees. Detroit star Miguel Cabrera received the stiffest discipline, with a seven-game ban owing to his “inciting the first bench-clearing incident and fighting.” Cabrera isn’t the only one who’ll take some games of unpaid leave (pending appeal). Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez got four games for throwing punches in the melee — he was fortunate, perhaps, not to take a harsher punishment — while fellow New York backstop Austin Romine got two for his part in the tangle with Cabrera. That could cause the organization...

NEW YORK -- They're the New York Yankees. They're worth billions. They're built on a foundation of championships stretching back more than a century. There is just no way they don’t go for it when another title is possible. This is the mandate any year, but it's even truer when they've only played in one playoff game since 2012. So the Yankees had to acquire Sonny Gray. The Yankees, under Hal Steinbrenner, are a scary organization for the rest of the baseball. Steinbrenner has handed the player personnel keys over to his GM, Brian Cashman, and the results have been...

The Yankees are officially all-in. The team acquired Sonny Gray from the A’s an hour before the trade deadline, The Post’s Joel Sherman confirmed. The Yankees sent heralded prospects Dustin Fowler, Jorge Mateo and James Kaprielian for the 27-year-old.

Boycott I’m actually a little surprised by this, if only because it seems in recent years major league sports have been pretty intimidated by the forces of political correctness. Which is to say: They know who will scream and boycott if they don’t give them what they want, and all large, high-profile institutions want to avoid the bad publicity that comes with such things. Oscar Lopez Rivera is a terrorist responsible for more than 100 bombings, but that’s old news. The new news is that Barack Obama commuted his sentence on his way out the door, which makes Rivera a...

Bob Cerv, who holds the single-season record for home runs by a Major League Baseball player in Kansas City history, died Thursday in Blair, Neb. He was 91. Cerv, who served during World War II, was friends with former President Harry Truman, played basketball and baseball at Nebraska and, as a member of the Yankees, roomed with Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle as they dueled for the home-run title in 1961... In six seasons with the Yankees, Cerv was mostly a part-time outfielder/pinch hitter, but he played in two World Series (1955 and 1956), and the Yankees won the 1956...

Since a White Sox scout has been a constant figure at the Yankees’ exhibition games to evaluate talent, the industry buzz is the White Sox have targeted the Yankees as a possible trade partner if they decide to move left-handed starter Jose Quintana. Quintana, a former Yankees minor leaguer who was allowed to flee via free agency after he wasn’t placed on the 40-man roster following the 2010 season, is very attractive on several levels for the Yankees and other clubs seeking starting pitching. One, he is 28. Two, he has a 46-46 record with a 3.41 ERA in 154...

Full title: Obama: Attitudes About My Presidency Among Whites In Northern States Very Different From Southern States; "I Seem Foreign" President Obama speaks about his legacy in a CNN special hosted by Fareed Zakaria that was broadcasted on the cable network Wednesday night. In this segment Zakaria examines if race played a part in early opposition to the Obama agenda. (snip) "There are people who dislike me because they think I'm a liberal," the president told the CNNer. "I think there is a reason why attitudes about my presidency among whites in northern states are very different from whites in...

You can't make this stuff up! BROOKLYN, NY — The 2016 election was a shock for liberal elites. They could not fathom how America could possibly vote for Donald J. Trump and shun the presumptive next President of the United States, Hillary Rodham Clinton. Given the polling, predicting a Clinton victory was not ridiculous. If one trusting nothing but the polling data, a Clinton electoral college win seemed like a pretty safe bet. But Americans defied expectations at the polls, and Trump won several “blue” states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Overall, Trump carried 3084 counties and Clinton won just...

The University Town Center Mall in Sarasota, Florida, has issued a very specific directive: "For choral groups, the Mall prefers no clearly recognizable Christian music, such as carols sung in English, spirituals or gospel." In a memo sent out to area groups who are normally invited to perform seasonal music, the upscale shopping mall leaders have in effect banned any music that could be recognized as "Christian." . . . . . . .

WASHINGTON — In a unanimous vote Saturday, the Alexandria City Council has decided to change the name of Jefferson Davis Highway, a roadway named for Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy. “I could honestly say, personally, raise my taxes to pay for it, to satisfy my parents, my grandparents,” Councilman Willie F. Bailey Sr. said. The council discussed the possibility of changing the name to Patrick Henry but tabled the discussion for later. An advisory committee did not recommend name changes for all the streets in Alexandria named after Confederate soldiers but has now opened the door for neighbors...

Jerry Coleman, a former fighter pilot who played in six World Series as an infielder for the Yankees

BOSTON - The Boston Red Sox canceled a David Ortiz bobblehead promotion Tuesday night when the figurine turned out to be "racially insensitive," said team president Sam Kennedy. The bobblehead depicts Ortiz addressing fans at Fenway Park following the Boston Marathon bombings, but Kennedy said it didn't much resemble the retiring slugger and was not fit for distribution. Kennedy saw the final version of the bobblehead for the first time Tuesday afternoon after they were delivered. "My two immediate reactions were first, it was a really inaccurate portrayal of what he looks like," Kennedy told The Associated Press. "My personal...

Yankees say A-Rod's last game will be on August 12th; will then assume role as special advisor and instructor.

It was 75 years ago today when New York Yankees center fielder Joe DiMaggio hit a single in a 13-1 drubbing to the Chicago White Sox. That hit was the first step in what became a hitting streak which hit 56 games. This record still stands 75 years later. As I write this, I am watching the Boston Red Sox-Houston Astros game. A short time ago, Red Sox center fielder Jackie Bradley, Jr. hit a single to extend his hitting streak to 21 games. It’s nothing to sneeze at as Bradley is rapidly emerging was one of the premier players...

Curt Schilling was recently fired by ESPN in large part because of his frequent social-media activity, specifically controversial memes and comments shared by the former pitcher. So when reports circulated online that ESPN had cut Schilling’s memorable “bloody sock” performance in the 2004 ALCS from its Sunday airing of a “30 for 30″ documentary about that Red Sox-Yankees showdown, it was no surprise to see him weigh in quickly, and strongly.

The Yankees star told ESPN.com that he will hang up his cleats after the 2017 season when his contract with the team runs out.

Luis Arroyo, a stoutly built left-hander with a baffling screwball who was an All-Star in each major league, pitched in two World Series and as a reliever helped Whitey Ford achieve his finest season with the Yankees, died on Wednesday in Guayanilla, P.R. He was 88. His daughter, Milagros, said the cause was cancer. Over all, Arroyo had a middling career, spending all or part of eight seasons in the major leagues with four different teams. But in 1961 he was the best reliever in the game, a prototype of the late-inning specialist now known as a closer.

Brunei, Somalia and Tajikistan ban Christmas In yet another sign of increasing Islamist intolerance around the world, the celebration of Christmas has come under attack in at least three countries this year: Following in the footsteps of the English Puritans who banned Christmas in the Middle Ages, Brunei, Somalia and Tajikistan are now clamping down on the Christian festival. Now, the announcement from Somalia, which is struggling to get back on its feet after decades of civil war, is possibly the least surprising. The country is officially under sharia'h law; it has almost no native Christians; and Islamist militants still...

Greensboro resident Hal "Skinny" Brown, who pitched in the major leagues for 14 seasons, has died at age 91 ... Brown, who was 6 feet 2 and 180 pounds during his playing days, compiled a record of 85-92 with a 3.81 earned-run average in 358 appearances with the Chicago White Sox (1951-52), Boston Red Sox (1953-55), Baltimore Orioles (1955-62), New York Yankees (1962) and Houston Colt .45s (1963-64) ...

Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia announced he is checking himself into an alcohol rehab center. The team released the shocking statement Monday, one day before the Yankees start their postseason against the Astros in the wild-card game.