I think something is happening today in the Yankee Universe... oh, that's right, the SEASON STARTS IN SEVEN HOURS!
The roster was finalized last night, and the last four spots went to Freddy Garcia, Bartolo Colon, Gustavo Molina and (the biggest surprise) Luis Ayala, who had a tremendous spring (8.2 ip, 1 er, 7 h, 0 bb, 8 k). Not to toot my own horn, but I did call him a dark horse candidate way back on March 7th.
The lineup for this afternoon's affair goes: Gardner, Jeter, Tex, A-Rod, Cano, Swisher, Posada, Granderson and Russ Martin. It's great to see that Grandy healed enough to play on Opening Day, but I hope he's not rushing back. In a minor league game yesterday he went 2-5 with two doubles. Ivan Nova pitched in the same game: 4 ip, 0 r, 6 h, 0 bb, 5 k.
- Like Kuri, Ed took Wally Matthews to task on Jesus Montero being a "bust." He also identified the Five Keys to the Season.
- Jeff Freier, also of SBN NY, previewed the Bombers' 2011 chances.
- A-Rod was interviewed by the indomitable Michael Kay. The most encouraging part -
I certainly feel as good and as strong as I've felt probably since '06-'07.
You might remember that he won the MVP in 2007 (158 games, .314/.422/.645).
- Speaking of interviews, I did two recently. One with The Sports-Casters and the other with ADD Sports Radio.
- Beyond the Box Score also interviewed Yankee beat writer Marc Carig.