YANKS' BIG-MONEY MEN MAKE POOR IMPRESSIONS  —  BALTIMORE — It was a full count and maybe with a pitch here CC Sabathia could still salvage a debut, still make Opening Day as a Yankee more than a humiliating entrance.  —  He had zoomed ahead of Luke Scott, a lefty hitter, 0-2.  The bases were loaded.

Baseball Writers Brace for the End  —  As Newspapers Cut Back, Press Boxes Grow Lonelier; How a Venerable Institution Lost Its Way  —  Baseball's independent press corps, once the most powerful in American sports, is fading.  As newspapers cut budgets and payrolls, the press boxes …

Josh Beckett waits another day  —  Rain no sweat for ace  —  + Recent Articles + Recent Blog Entries + Email  —  The barometric pressure over New England fell yesterday as rain moved in and washed away Opening Day.  —  As long as the human barometer for the Red Sox [team stats] …

Giants' Sabean, Bochy on hot seat as season begins  —  For the Giants' 25-man roster, the proving ground of spring training has passed.  For Brian Sabean and Bruce Bochy, it's just beginning.  —  The Giants open the season today against the Milwaukee Brewers at AT&T Park …

John Lackey extends deadline on contract talks  —  Pitcher's wish to have an extension in place by opening day appears to be fluid now that he's on the disabled list.  —  John Lackey's self-imposed deadline of opening day for a contract extension appears to be fluid, now that an elbow injury …

Answering Baseball's What-Ifs  —  You can learn a lot during a major league baseball game.  Like Ukrainian, if it is a particularly slow nine innings.  —  As for the science of baseball strategy, one game teaches precious little.  A well-timed sacrifice bunt can backfire and lose the game; a foolish steal can appear brilliant.

Will Unit be the last to reach 300 wins?  —  With five to go, Johnson far ahead of currently active pitchers  —  Every time someone is stalking or reaching 300 wins, the question is raised as to whether he will be the last of the breed — a contradictory exercise to say the least.

Joba Goes Nine (Steps)!  —  Yankee pitcher completes field sobriety test in video from DUI arrest  —  While devoid of Plaxicoesque bombast and vulgarity, the police video of Joba Chamberlain's DUI arrest is not without its amusing moments.  After a Nebraska State Patrol officer pulled …

There's no need to worry about Doc  —  It was funny to hear the first two callers on JaysTalk last night complaining and worrying about the team's fortunes after they'd just finished cleaning the turf with the Tigers in a 12-5 win.  As Wilner quite rightly pointed out, people should probably tone …

Video: Santana's Pre-Game Handshake Parade  —  Prior to yesterday's game, SNY captured video of Johan Santana, before his Opening Day start, walking up and down the dugout greeting his teammates, each of whom he had a unique, personalized handshake for. … To watch Santana's 90-second Handshake Parade, click play below:

Saying Goodbye  —  I know this post is supposed to be about opening day, but there was one more thing I wanted to do before turning my attention to the current season.  Peter Jensen's amazing series on using the Gameday data to build a fielding metric prompted me to get that data and play around with it.

Note: No Game on TV from 6-7 pm on Saturday  —  FOX has an exclusive window for all Saturday games taking place prior to 7 pm, meaning only FOX and the local channel can broadcast during that window.  —  Meanwhile, the Marlins scheduled this Saturday's game against the Mets for 6 pm …

A-Rod tells Girardi he's right on track  —  Slugger contacts skipper before Monday's opener  —  BALTIMORE — Alex Rodriguez has swapped text messages with Yankees manager Joe Girardi and reports that his rehab is right on schedule.  —  Girardi said on Monday that he and Rodriguez exchanged messages within the past 24 hours.

Yankees Have Official Paint, Mets Have Pudding Sponsor  —  While many have called attention to the fact that the economy has seriously hurt sports marketing in recent months, anyone looking at the signage at the new Yankee Stadium and Citi Field certainly wouldn't know that.