Top News:
NY Daily News:
Harper: Scouts down on Yanks' young arms — So the wheel officially begins to spin now on Brian Cashman's grand gamble to ride the Yankees' young pitching in 2008 and beyond. And premature as it may be, there is no avoiding the question that will be asked countless times this season …
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NY Daily News:
Bondy: Fear is factor for Creatures of habit — So this is it, the beginning of the end below the Utz potato chip sign. If there is such a thing as life after Section 39, then the Bleacher Creatures don't really want to know about it, not yet. — There are at least 81 games left in the old cathedral, Yankee Stadium.
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Bottom9 Baseball
Katie Strang / Newsday:
Confident Wang will start opener for Yankees — A hamstring injury prevented Chien-Ming Wang from traveling with the team to New York for Opening Day last year. Today he'll have the honor of taking the mound against the Blue Jays on a historic day for the Yankees.
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NY Daily News
Jeff Blair / Globe and Mail:
New era for Yankees? Say it's so, Joe — NEW YORK — The new Yankee Stadium is going to take care of itself. You walk by it on a cool, sunny afternoon like yesterday, and even though it's still something of a concrete shell, it is all Gotham, imposing even in its unfinished bleakness.
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Bottom9 Baseball
Kevin Kernan / New York Post:ONCE MORE ... WITH FEELING — EMOTIONS HIGH FOR FINAL OPENERIN RUTH'S HOUSE
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My Pinstripes
Dave Hyde / Sun-Sentinel:
Marlins' $21 million payroll is insulting — Ah, Opening Day. The crack of the bat. The smack of the glove. The Marlins fan looking over the new roster and asking, full of optimism, “Will any team be more profitable?” — Because let's not lie. Let's not ignore the 800-pound gorilla …
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Carlos Frias / Palm Beach Post:
Marlins pump up volume, not payroll — It's opening day and here's the Marlins' best pitch: — Come for the party. Stay for the baseball. — For a franchise caught in limbo, that's about the best it can do to get fans in the stands. — The Marlins, always a tough draw in fickle South Florida …
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Bottom9 Baseball
NY Daily News:
Ziegel: Remember to forget — MIAMI - Remember the Alamo, if that's your idea of a good time, but forget about the Mets' final 17 games last season. The five-game losing streak, the next five-game losing streak, the seven-game lead that disappeared in a hurry, the 11 different Mets pitchers who lost games in September.
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David Lennon / Newsday:
Mets are anxious to bury memories of fall — MIAMI - The wait for redemption has seemed like forever, perhaps the longest six months in the history of the franchise. But the Mets, once burdened by the ignominious collapse of last September, will take the field today at Dolphin Stadium knowing that the nightmare is officially over.
Associated Press:
Zim blast christens Nat Park — WASHINGTON - Ryan Zimmerman raised a fist when he rounded first, then tossed away his helmet as he approached the plate and the mass of teammates waiting to celebrate his game-ending homer. — The kid sure knows how to throw a housewarming party.
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Mike Fast / Hardball Times:
Jack Cust eats fastballs for lunch — Getting a major league job — Early last year, the Oakland Athletics watched as nearly their entire contingent of major league outfielders went down with one injury after another. — The bad news started in spring training, as center fielder Mark Kotsay underwent back surgery on Mar. 8.
Roger Angell / New Yorker:
GREEN … Baseball impends, and, with the flags aloft in the Bronx and, next week, at Shea, fans will grab at the chance to forget about the abysmal closing innings in these neighborhoods last fall. The looming left-field presences of the new Yankee Stadium and the Mets' Citi Field …
Discussion:
Bronx Banter
Ken Gurnick / MLB.com:
Ethier wins left-field job — Pierre forced to bench after hitting just .169 this spring — LOS ANGELES — Andre Ethier won the Dodgers' starting left-field job from veteran Juan Pierre and will start Opening Day vs. the Giants on Monday, Los Angeles manager Joe Torre announced Sunday.
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Ian Browne / MLB.com:
Kielty mulling trip to Minors — Outfielder might jump at big league job if one is available — LOS ANGELES — When the Red Sox depart for Oakland following Sunday's game with the Dodgers, right fielder Bobby Kielty will relocate to his Southern California home for the next couple of days …
Alex Eisenberg / Baseball-Intellect Feed Page:
What Happened to Jason Bay? — One of the big mysteries of the 2007 season was the decline of Pirates' OF Jason Bay. The question everybody has is how it happened. — Was it injuries? Bay did battle knee discomfort for much of the 2007 season and was coming off arthroscopic knee surgery from the previous offseason.
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Where have you gone …
