Baseball News

The Milwaukee Brewers finally gave J.J. Hardy the change of scenery he had been expecting and reunited the unhappy shortstop with an old friend in the process. The Brewers traded Hardy to the Minnesota Twins on Friday for speedy outfielder Carlos Gomez. Hardy winds up with the Twins' All-Star catcher, Joe Mauer, a teammate on the U.S. national teams in 2000 and 2003.

He's got a strong arm. He's got good range and he's got power   -Bill Smith

 

Talk about a new third baseman is centered on three names, if the Phillies don't pick up Feliz' contract for $5 million next year. Chone Figgins, Mark DeRosa and now Adrian Beltre are in the mix. Beltre's name is popping up a lot because he put up weak numbers playing in pitcher-friendly Safeco Park in Seattle.  

No. 27. And no sooner had Girardi delivered a 27th World Series title for the most storied franchise in American pro sports than he began plotting for the next one. No surprise there.

Joe pushed all the right buttons   -Derek Jeter

 

Mark Teahen has a new team and a new city. Happily for him, he's got his old position back. The Kansas City Royals sent Teahen to the White Sox on Friday and Chicago will find a home for him at third base.

He's a delight to be around day in and day out. We're going to miss him   -Dayton Moore

 

Alex Rodriguez helped the New York Yankees win their 27th World Championship, now he's looking to capture a pennant in his love life. The slugger, who has formerly been link ed to Madonna and a slew of strippers, seems ready to settle down with actress Kate Hudson. The 34-year old Alex has already made plans for Kate Hudson, 30, and her 4 year old son Ryder to join him in Miami for some fun during the off-season.  

Johnny Damon soaked it all in as he shared a float with first-timers Nick Swisher and Jerry Hairston Jr. for the New York Yankees' championship parade through the Canyon of Heroes on Friday. The whole scene made him a little wistful. "It's good he got to do it in his first year here," Damon said as the energetic Swisher bounced around beside him after the parade finished in the shadow of City Hall. "It took me my fourth and possibly final year. I am so overjoyed because you don't know how many times you get this opportunity."

I think that's just the reality of our game   -Alex Rodriguez

 

Dye, 35, batted .250 (126-503) with 27 home runs and 81 RBI in 141 games with the White Sox in 2009. Dye is a career .274 (1,779-6,487) hitter with 325 home runs and 1,072 RBI in 1,763 games over 14 major-league seasons with Atlanta (1996), Kansas City (1997-2001), Oakland (2001-04) and the White Sox (2005-09). He is one of 18 active players with 300 home runs and 1,000 RBI, reaching both career milestones during the 2009 campaign.  

It's still our greatest sports spectacular, but the World Series needs some fixing. So do the American and National League playoffs that lead up to it. Major League Commissioner Bud Selig has done a very good job overall in his 11 years in that post, including introduction of the wild card system.  

They kept coming in waves of pinstripes and Yankee jackets and caps down Church St., walking against the traffic, walking toward the last of the baseball season, walking downtown toward the last day of the Yankees until spring. They came in their Jeter No. 2 jerseys, a lot of those, always a lot of Jeter jerseys, and Matsui 55's, and even a few with No. 7 for Mickey Mantle on their backs, and all of them were part of the biggest baseball crowd ever assembled. There were kids having the best ...  

Friday's championship parade was pure joy to most Yankees , but it unleashed a flood of mixed emotions for Chien-Ming Wang . The righthander, who had shoulder surgery on July 29, said he has felt "sad" at times during the Yanks' postseason run because he could not contribute on the field. "I couldn't do anything," he said.

My agent hasn't told me anything   -Chien Ming Wang