Good morning, Pinstripe Alley!
Here's the most recent news circulating Yankeeland on this glorious Thursday.
This just appears to become uglier and uglier. Andy Pettitte now claims that there is a 50-50 chance he misheard former Yankee and Astro teammate Roger Clemens say that he used human growth hormone. I'm just hoping that Pettitte won't be testifying anymore because he's needed most in the Bronx.
Eric Chavez suffered a whiplash injury and possible concussion diving for J.J. Hardy's double down the line in the top of the fifth inning on Wednesday night. We'll have updates on that as we learn more throughout the day.
David Phelps makes his first big league start tonight against the Kansas City Royals and it's a "homecoming" of sorts for the 25-year-old. He grew up in St. Louis, about 2.5 hours from Kauffman Stadium, and expects to have at least 25 family members and friends at the game watching. Here's to a, hopefully, great first start for the youngster.
According to USA Today, the New York Yankees are not in the top 5 sport franchises when it comes to paying their players. Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester United and Manchester City soccer clubs lead the pack while the Los Angeles Lakers round out the top 5. The Lakers obviously lead American sports teams as the best-paying franchise. Barcelona pays out an average of $8.68 million per player in 2012.
Amazingly enough, Ivan Nova received his first "L" since June 10 after the Yankees' bats couldn't manage to score even one run on Wednesday night. Nova was one win away from matching Roger Clemens' record of 16 consecutive winning decisions.