Free Republic

The AL East rivals will enter the final day of the season with identical 91-70 records Thanks to Saturday's results, we'll go into Sunday with the possibility of a four-way tie for two wild-card spots still intact ... Now, here are the current wild-card standings after the Red Sox, Blue Jays, and Mariners all won on Saturday and the Yankees lost: AL wild-card standings 1. Red Sox: 91-70 2. Yankees: 91-70 --------------------------- 3. Blue Jays: 90-71 (1.0 GB) 4. Mariners: 90-71 (1.0 GB) ... The Yankees and Red Sox have already guaranteed themselves an extra game, either a Game 163...

KANSAS CITY — The Yankees yet again have been impacted by coronavirus, as right-hander Clay Holmes was added to the COVID IL on Wednesday. Holmes reported symptoms and the team was awaiting test results. Brooks Kriske was activated to take his place on the roster before Wednesday’s game against the Royals at Kauffman Stadium. The Yankees already are without Anthony Rizzo, Gary Sanchez, Gerrit Cole and Jordan Montgomery, who were part of the team’s most recent outbreak. Asked Tuesday about the team’s troubles with COVID, which has now sidelined 12 players over the course of the season, Zack Britton said...

Sometimes the numbers DO lie. The New York Yankees have no less than 15 players sidelined by injury or COVID-19. But that hasn’t stopped them from being MLB’s hottest team since the All-Star break. Following the Yankees’ 8-6 win in 11 innings Monday night vs. the Royals, Kansas City PR noted this about New York: Improved to a Majors-best 16-7 since the break and have won 21 of their last 30 games since Game 2 of their July 4 doubleheader, after falling to an even 41-41 in Game 1 … they’ve outscored opponents 133-103 (+30) over the last 30 games,...

Lou Gehrig’s worst full season was his best. Despite leading the league in games played (as always), he hit fewer than 30 homers for the first time in a decade, and his batting average dropped nearly 60 points and tied for his career low. His conditioning was questioned, his games-played streak was scrutinized, his All-Star selection was widely lamented. And even when the season ended with his Yankees once again victorious in the World Series, Gehrig’s four singles in 14 at-bats had barely been a factor. Back in 1938, it would have been preposterous to propose that Gehrig was having...

UPDATE: A ninth member of the New York Yankees organization has tested positive for coronavirus after being fully vaccinated. Manager Aaron Boone said Sunday that a “staff member” tested positive, which they learned Saturday night. He did not identify the staffer, but said the new case was not part of the on-field coaching staff. Previously, pitching coach Matt Blake, first base coach Reggie Willits and third base coach Phil Nevin, along with shortstop Gleyber Torres, were named as the positive cases. The staff member that tested positive Saturday is quarantining in Baltimore. The other positive cases remain in quarantine in...

Yankees third-base coach Phil Nevin has tested positive for COVID-19 in a “breakthrough” case after being fully vaccinated, the team announced. Nevin, 50, is under quarantine in Tampa, where the Yankees are expected to open up a series against the Rays on Tuesday night. Contract tracing is underway, the team said in a statement. Manager Aaron Boone said he expects Tuesday’s game to be played. The Yankees in early April reached the 85 percent threshold of vaccinated players, coaches and others considered Tier I personnel to be able to relax COVID-19 protocols.

Two Major League Baseball teams, the New York Yankees and New York Mets, are getting prepared to, kind of, bring their games back to normal. But the price of bringing the games back to somewhat normal is precisely what many people were frightened of to begin with, CBS New York reported. Their stadiums, Yankee Stadium and Citi Field respectively, will have separate seating for vaccinated and non-vaccinated people. In the vaccinated section, fans will not have to socially distance but will still, ridiculously, have to wear masks even after the Centers For Disease Control said masks were not needed outside.

"The act of participating in our country's election process is our civic responsibility and instrumental to our country's foundation. We should promote increasing voter turnout as opposed to any measures that adversely impact the ability to cast a ballot. In November, the Marlins proudly set out to promote the vote with our Election Day Feed the Polls initiative, providing meals to voters as our local election officials conducted free and fair elections. We support the Commissioner's decision to stand up for the values of our game and not hold this year's All-Star Game in the state of Georgia."

A 1952 Mantle baseball card became the highest-priced sports card ever, selling for $5.2 million, PWCC Marketplace announced Thursday. The Topps card, rated PSA 9 based on the grading system for cards, blew by the previous record of $3.94 million, set in August for a signed Mike Trout 2009 rookie card – of which just one was created. As for the Mantle card, there may be as few as three left in good condition.

Former MLB pitcher Tommy John has contracted COVID-19, but is minimizing the threat of the virus from a hospital bed in California. The 77-year-old left-hander who played 26 seasons for six teams, including the Yankees, told The Daily Beast Tuesday he had no symptoms of the deadly bug despite being on oxygen at a hospital near his home in Indio, California. “I’d leave right now if they’d let me walk out,” John said. But John — who went on to pitch for 14 seasons after having elbow ligament replacement surgery in 1974 — accused a reporter of “making a mountain...

These are the faces on the other end of Jeffrey Toobin’s zoom call

Whitey Ford, a Hall of Fame pitcher who won more World Series games than any other pitcher, died on Friday, the New York Yankees announced. He was 91.Ford had a career record of 236-106, setting the Yankees club records for victories. He was the Cy Young Award winner in 1961, and was a 10-time All-Star.

Whitey Ford, who pitched the Yankees to 11 American League pennants and six World Series championships in the 1950s and 60s and who still holds the highest winning percentage (.690) among all modern-day major league pitchers with at least 150 wins, died Thursday night at his Long Island home. He was 91. Nicknamed “the Chairman of the Board” by teammate Elston Howard for his calm demeanor in pressure situations, Ford spent his entire 16-year career with the Yankees for whom he went 236-106. The Yankees signed the left-hander out of high school in 1947 for $7,000, outbidding the crosstown Giants...

The visiting Indians had taken the field in a virtual tie with the White Sox, just .004 percentage points behind Chicago. The Yankees were a half-game behind but had already made up four games in a week, and were throwing their ace, Carl Mays, a sidewinding righty seeking his 19th win. The Tribe jumped on him, though, and led 3-0 through four innings thanks to their own ace, Stan Coveleski, who retired 12 of the 13 batters to face him, including Babe Ruth twice. Leading off the fifth was shortstop Ray Chapman, one of the most well-liked players in baseball,...

President Trump announced Sunday he wouldn't be throwing out the opening pitch for the New York Yankees next month as he had planned, citing meetings and other work related to the U.S.'s COVID-19 outbreak. In a tweet, Trump said that he would plan to throw out the first pitch at a game later in the MLB's season, which began last week. "Because of my strong focus on the China Virus, including scheduled meetings on Vaccines, our economy and much else, I won’t be able to be in New York to throw out the opening pitch for the @Yankees on August...

President Trump’s not fit for pinstripes, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio. The mayor slammed the New York Yankees for inviting “hatred to your pitcher’s mound” by allowing President Trump to throw out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium next month. “After CONDEMNING racism, the next step isn’t inviting it to your pitcher’s mound,” de Blasio tweeted Saturday. “To the execs that have aligned with hatred, you are on the wrong side of history and morality,” he added. The mayor meanwhile praised Yankees and Washington Nationals players who knelt in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement before the national...

All players and coaches on the Yankees & Nationals took a knee before the national anthem tonight. Thursday was the first night of Major League Baseball season, which began nearly 15 weeks later than scheduled due to the coronavirus. All players and coaches on the Yankees & Nationals took a knee before the national anthem tonight@MarkZuckermanpic.twitter.com/mLai859LzN— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) July 23, 2020 Players from both teams kneel together in unity before tonight’s National Anthem. #OpeningDay #NYYforNY pic.twitter.com/ptW2FgfzUe— New York Yankees (@Yankees) July 23, 2020 Dr. Anthony Fauci also embarrassingly threw the ceremonial first pitch in an empty Nationals Stadium. Fauci...

During a White House coronavirus briefing on Thursday, President Trump said that he was invited by Yankees President Randy Levine to throw out the first pitch at an upcoming game in New York. “Randy Levine, he’s a great friend of mine from the Yankees,” Trump said. “He asked me to throw out the first pitch. And I think I’m doing that on Aug. 15 at Yankee Stadium.” The Yankees also confirmed that Trump will throw out the first pitch at a game. If it happens on Aug. 15, as he announced, it will be prior to a game against the...

Many baseball players have a strong desire to play for the Yankees during their MLB careers. It's one of the most iconic franchises in sports, and they've rarely missed the playoffs since the mid-1990s. However, superstar Ken Griffey Jr. never had a desire to play for the Yankees -- even though his dad played for them. In the new MLB Network documentary "Junior," the Mariners legend explains why. It all stems from an experience Griffey Jr. had while visiting his father, Ken Griffey Sr., in the early 1980s. Griffey Jr., just a kid at the time, was asked to leave...

A New York judge ruled on Friday that a letter sent by Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred to the Yankees addressing the findings of a 2017 investigation into the team should be unsealed. MLB and the Yankees may submit a minimally redacted version of the letter “to protect the identity of the individuals mentioned” by noon ET on Monday, as part of the proceedings in a lawsuit brought against the league by daily fantasy sports contestants in the wake of the sign-stealing scandals in Houston and Boston. The Yankees argue the letter would cause “significant reputational injury,” Judge Jed...