Free Republic

One pitch cost New York Yankee hurler C.C. Sabathia a lot of money Thursday. Sabathia was tossed from Thursday’s game after hitting Tampa Bays Rays catcher Jesus Sucre in the bottom of the sixth inning. Umpire Vic Carapazza determined that it was in retaliation for a pitch thrown by Rays reliever Andrew Kittredge at Austin Romine in the top of the sixth. Sabathia didn’t deny that it was thrown in response to Kittredge throwing at Romine. But it did cost him some money. He has an incentive clause in his contract that said if he pitched 155 innings this year,...

Over the past couple of days the subject of athlete activism, always present to some degree in American sports, but recently revived by Colin Kaepernick and a few other football players in the form of silent protests during the National Anthem, exploded into a headline dominating news story. Lighting the fuse: President Trump directly inserting himself into the controversy. He did so during a speech on Friday night and during a series of tweets Saturday and continuing into this morning in which he urged NFL owners to “fire” or suspend players who do not stand for the national anthem. He...

A 10-year-old girl from Pennsylvania received a special shout-out from the New York Yankees after sharing her experience of bullying in a heartbreaking video. The video shows Cassidy Slater, of Scranton, holding up sheets of paper describing the hardship she faces at her elementary school every day from bullies. "There's 4 of them and only 1 of me," she wrote....{snip} Among the video's many viewers were the New York Yankees. Some members of the team responded to her with a video of their own, using the same format with pieces of paper. The video started with Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia...

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.

YANKEES' SPENDING MAKES BASEBALL WORLD GO 'ROUND I FEEL uncomfortable defending the Yankees. It is unpleasant to find myself on the same side as Hank Steinbrenner. It is distasteful to be making a case for why the organization with the biggest wallet uses it. But listening to one baseball official after another complain at the Winter Meetings about the Yankees' massive spending is like listening to Cowboys officials act as if they were shocked that Pacman Jones got into more trouble or Terrell Owens can't keep his mouth shut. These are the Yankees. This is what they do. Good economy,...