Almost Opening Day...

The weather outside in New York doesn't show it but we're really, really close to opening day. I love this time of year when rosters are finalized, teams leave Florida and the anticipation of the season is right around the corner. The greatest part about opening day is that every team starts with the same chance to win the World Series. Sure, I don't think the Pirates or the Royals really have any shot, but as the Giants proved last year, you never really know. So here's to hope, optimism, Spring and Opening Day!

And now a baseball joke for you (H/T Lauren): A Yankees fan, a Mets fan, and a Red Sox fan are climbing a mountain and arguing about who loves his team more. The Mets fan insists he is the most loyal. ''This is for the Mets'', he yells, and jumps off the mountain. Not to be outdone, the Yankees fan is next to profess his love for his team. He yells "This is for the Yankees!!!"...and pushes the Red Sox fan off the mountain.

Join NYaT's Fantasy Baseball league

		Hey NYaT Readers, You have been invited to join NYaT's custom league in Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Baseball. In order to join the league, follow the link above or go to game front page, click the "Sign Up Now" or "Get Another Team" button and follow the links to "Join a Custom League". When prompted, enter the League ID# and password below. League ID#: 148297 Password: Mo We will send you a confirmation with further details once you have completed the registration process. Note from Andrew: We have a few spots open on the annual NYaT fantasy baseball blog league. Sign up to join and play for the ultimate blog bragging rights! --Fantasy Baseball Commissioner http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1

UConn Marches Past Arizona For 2nd Final Four Berth in 3 Years

Jim Calhoun and the West regional champs. (credit: Hartford Courant)

In what was essentially a road game at the Honda Center in Anaheim on Saturday night, the UConn Huskies marched past the Arizona Wildcats to earn their second Final Four berth in three years.  Much to Charles Barkley's dismay, the 2011 Final Four features No. 4 Kentucky, No. 8 Butler, and No. 11 VCU, making third-seeded Connecticut the lowest seed left in the tournament, and the only Big East squad still standing.

File those last two sentences under "things I never thought I'd say five months ago when most of the college basketball world considered these same Huskies strictly NIT-bound."

Shabazz Napier
(credit: Hartford Courant)

Apparently the players never got the memo back in November.  Instead, they locked in and became one of the greatest tournament teams in college basketball history.  Seriously.  It doesn't even matter whether they win the NCAA tournament.  They've already sealed their place in NCAA lore by winning the Maui Invitational (3-0), the Big East tournament (5-0), and advancing to the Final Four (4-0 so far).  Yes sir, the UConn Huskies are undefeated in tournament play with a 12-0 record (and counting).  So can Connecticut keep its amazing streak going for two more games and close out this remarkable season by winning their 3rd NCAA championship?

Putting aside my obvious bias, I say yes -- and a plurality of Americans agree with me.  (ESPN's latest poll has UConn at 38%, Kentucky at 24%, Butler at 22%, and VCU at 11%.)  Speaking of ESPN, here is an unbelievable stat.  Out of the 5.9 million brackets submitted to the WWL's Tournament Challenge, only two brackets got the Final Four correct.  Two!  In related news, Jay Bilas and Jay Williams were the only two ESPN experts who picked UConn to reach the Final Four.  Perhaps you should listen to people named Jay; we know what we're talking about.

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A Standing O: The Madness March-es On

Like Russell, I am mourning the death of my bracket. First it was Louisville dealing me a nice shot in the family jewels before an uppercut from the most awful foul ever killed Pittsburgh--and my bracket. So now that the Madness has settled, I'm left without a ton to root for. But Alex O gives me some hope in his latest post:

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At the bottom of this post are the odds for the next 2 evenings of madness. This is what one resorts to when their bracket has blown up----- Texas, Purdue, and Pitt not good picks. At least I am ahead of Rochelle Rochelle in the NYaT pool!

I am sure I am not alone in rooting for the dogs--- and I don’t mean the Huskies---- they are either a pick ‘em or a favorite. I mean the underdogs: VCU, Richmond, and Butler. I’ll even throw in BYU, why not. I’ll root for Jimmer, who was graced with a name that somehow reminds me of the famous Johnny Cash song “A boy named Sue” --- worth a download.

Interesting side note is that VCU and Richmond make Richmond the first city to have 2 sweet 16 teams since LA in 2007. More on that go here.

Estimates place the total dollar amount of American office pools in excess of $3 billion, with the total cost in lost productivity in the neighborhood of $1.8 billion. Wow, how about them apples.

It was nice to see that Yahoo in their matchup breakdown includes the spreads. To me it is essential in doing any analysis, the oddsmakers in Vegas--- or I guess in the Caymans for the on-line bookies, do their hard work and tell us what the spread is. Sometimes I think there are wrinkles. VCU has blown out its last 3 opponents after barely getting in---- how much is that a factor in the spread vs. Florida State?

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Hot Stove Coal: Retreads Are Never the Answer

I'm sorry that my blogging has been so sporadic. I started a new day job and its duties have had me neglecting my blogging duties. And I was going to be okay with that until I heard this clip of Mike Francesca blowing up at a caller and then saw Michael Kay sitting in full Rangers gear at Madison Square Garden last night. If there was ever a signal that I needed to get back into the blogging game it would be seeing the two New York sports talk blowhards back in my life.

Colon shouldn't be more than a stop-gap for the Yanks(LoHud)

I also wanted to talk about the 2011 Yankees--a rag-tag bunch of characters if I ever saw one. Sure there's the Core Three and A-Rod and CC. But as Spring has gone on, I've seen Yankee fans get excited by the likes of Bartolo Colon, Freddy Garcia, and Mark Prior. It's as American as apple pie to root for comeback stories. We love the guy who rises out of the ashes for one more shot at glory. It's why we go to the theaters to see so many Rocky movies. It's why we the best sports stories always seems to be ones of redemption.

The problem is that we try too hard at times to make something out of nothing, especially when it has to do with baseball retreads (AKA has-beens, washed up, and finished). Sure, there's the odd guy who can have a huge rebound and find his way back to his glory days. But with steroid testing in place, those guys seem to be one in a million. I'm not talking about guys who just needed a change of venue to realize their true potential like David Ortiz, Paul O'Neill, Tim Wakefield or Shane Victorino. And I'm not talking about guys who had a down year or an injury and found a way back the next year. I'm talking about guys whose careers were shot only to find success again. It's just not happening as much as people think.

To prove my point, the Yankees have to look no further than Boston where the Red Sox draw optimisim each Spring from their fans on the retreads they try to revive the careers of. Yankee fans bemoan that their General Manager is no Theo Epstein only to find out that there was a reason these guys were available for so cheap. How much did we hear about Jeremy Hermida, Rocco Baldelli, Brad Penny, John Smoltz, Paul Byrd, Eric Gagne and Wade Miller and how much did they produce? Did you remember that the Red Sox had Bartolo Colon in 2008 or that Freddy Garcia was on the Mets Spring roster before being released? David Wells and David Cone both wore the Red Sox jerseys at some point towards the end of their careers.

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View from the Seats: Rangers vs Panthers

It's been a while since we had one of these and I'm at Madison Square Garden tonight for the Rangers vs the Panthers. 1-0 so far with about 10 minutes left to go in the 3rd period.

The Rangers have not fared well this season at The World's Most Famous Arena but they desperately need two points tonight. Brandon Dubinsky scored for the Rangers who were so close so many times but finally broke through with a score.

Now they have to hold it (and hope for no 3-point games among the close teams). This is a team that should be able to smell the playoffs and need to put away Florida here.

-Andrew

Russell's Bracket Dead At 4 Days

Russell's bracket died tragically yesterday at the relatively young age of 4 days. It was clear on Saturday that the bracket was in serious peril thanks to the Butler Bulldogs, but it became apparent that the end was near as Notre Dame was getting slaughtered, while Kansas State lost to Wisconsin, and Gonzaga fell to BYU. A grieving Simon said to reporters "A ray of hope shone through as Gilbert Brown went to the foul line, but the bracket then experienced a major heart attack, that proved the end was near."

Russell's bracket adopted the radical strategy of picking a lot of upsets, but naturally picked all of the wrong one's, which led to the bracket being in critical condition before the events of Saturday night. Among the notable losses that had a play in the brackets death were, Gonzaga loosing to BYU, UCLA beating Michigan State, Washington loosing to North Carolina, Butler loosing to ODU, and Marquette loosing to Xavier. This radical strategy had a chance at growth, but the bracket quickly became ill again: "We tried everything we could" said Doctor Vitale, who oversaw his care in the intensive care unit, "But VCU was to much for him."

However many other brackets currently in critical condition talked of Russell's bracket quite fondly. They recall his sunny optimism that he would be saved, said hospital roommate Adam's Bracket "He always believed I mean he had faith in Notre Dame and Pitt, and always believed they would come out on top." Others looked fondly at some of the highlights of his bracket, including George Mason,and Richmond that will always cause people to remember him fondly.

Russell's bracket is survived by Ohio State and UConn, his final resting place will be the kitchen garbage.

With Stevens and Seniors, Butler WIns Playing The Right Way

In looking back at this year in college sports, it was scandal filled and very ugly. We had Cam Newton being auctioned off like a Picasso, the Ohio State tats for team gear scandal, and Big East refs simultaneously going blind in order to give the Red Storm a win. But despite all of this ugliness the NCAA tournament has given us a diamond in the rough, something to take our mind of the troubles in college athletics, the diamond that is Butler basketball. Back in the sweet 16 again, the tourney darlings are making a run at the title they nearly won last year. But Butler is more then a sweet Cinderella story, they're more then a team with a couple of great wins, they represent everything that is right with college sports.

Butler tells us that "Hey you don't need 5 guys who dominated in the AAU circuit, or committed crimes, and are leaving for NBA riches after one year to win," in short they tell us college basketball can be saved. And how do they do it. How does a team in the Horizon League, make it to the NCAA championship game, nearly beat Duke, then beat a number one seed the next year to return to the Elite Eight, and maybe even win the final this time? They do it the old school way, with great coaching and great defense and yes a little bit of luck. Butler does it behind a coach who looks like he still should be playing college intramural. But Brad Stevens is clearly showing that you don't necessarily get smarter with age. He builds his teams around solid fundamentals and good teamwork, you know, the way it should be. He's a basketball wizard, building a team around a core 5 not one John Wall or the next one-and-done. Imagine the things he could do if he went to a major school! But no, just like his players Stevens won't be leaving early. Stevens is signed under contract until 2022, which means when he finally grows a beard, he will still be the coach of Butler.

But it isn't all the Stevens of course. Matt Howard, a senior of course who wouldn't consider leaving early, the scrappy, tough forward with the game-winner against Old Dominion, dominates on the boards and can score. Point Guard Shelvin Mack plays the game the right way, and has lead the Butler offensive attack to put up 71 on Pitt. It's beautiful to watch them play, and one can only appreciate how they play the game. Even the basketball God's love Butler. Consider Gilbert Brown going to the line on Saturday and barely missing the last free-throw in the exact position for Matt Howard to get it and, throw up the prayer that helped convince the ref that he was blatantly fouled. That's the kind of smart play that wins games, behind the smart coach this smart team could very well not only go to the ball this year, but marry the prince, and take home the trophy.

The New York Mets want YOU to buy season tickets in 2011

We interrupt your regularly scheduled NCAA tournament programming to bring you this highly convincing multimedia ticket sales campaign by the New York Mets.



"Cheesy" doesn't even begin to describe it. Only the Mets could put their star players in something like this. On the ridiculousness scale of 1-10, Ike Davis gets a 5, David Wright gets a 6, Jason Bay gets a 7, Carlos Beltran gets a 10, and Jose Reyes gets a 13. Only Ike and Wright looked comfortable in front of the camera, and I'm being generous. Not exactly a video that makes you excited for this season of Mets baseball.

In the Mets' defense, they have no money left to produce a real commercial, so a series of green screens and some flimsy graphics was all they could afford. Ladies and gentlemen, your 2011 New York Mets!

Upping the Ante on our NCAA Tourney Pool

Let all your friends know your skills

If you thought bragging rights was a pretty sweet deal, the prize for winning the NYaT NCAA tourney pool is getting even better. From our own Alex O: "I will donate this XL t-shirt to winner of your NYaT tourney contest. Order has been placed. I like that it does not have a year on it."

That's right; you not only get bragging rights and the ability to pen your own guest post about how you whooped all our butts, but you also get an awesome t-shirt to let everyone know for years that you whooped people's butts in an NCAA tourney bracket. Put your mad skills to the test against the rest of the NYaT field.

Zero dollars to join, zero risk involved. So go sign up now. Directions are here in this first post. Goodluck!

A Standing O:...and the Colorado Rocky Mountain High

It's been a while since we got some knowledge from Alex O but he's back today with a post about the New York Knicks, Gallo, and, well, John Denver as well. So whether you're Italian, American, or from the Jersey Shore, you'll love our next Standing O:
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“And the Colorado Rocky mountain high!” John Denver (Great lyrics)

Some have missed Gallo in a Knickerbockers uniform (MSNBC)

Here are some thoughts and links about the Knicks we traded for Melo, Burps (billups) etc. Gallinari, Chandler, Felton, Mozgov, even the corpse formerly known as Eddy Curry is gone but not forgotten. Knickerblogger had a good piece about saying good bye to Gallo. Worth checking out even if it is a bit much. Better yet was the comment I pasted below, from an Italian guy who watched Gallo’s Dad and D’Antoni play back in the day:

1. kaine says:
March 3, 2011 at 2:06 pm

You may not know, but there’s a weeping nation out there.
There’s a generation of italian like me that fell in love with the nba in the 80′, thanks to the men that played then. before the dunks and the no look passes, it was the great personalities. Kareem.Magic.Bird.Jordan.Doc.Moses.Akeem. Ewing. the bad boys.
and when we were in awe at watching the gods, we followed a great italian team, lead by one of the greatest mind that we witnessed on a field, moustache men D’antoni.
I can assure you that he was that good, a stern general well different from the laid back coach of today.
In that team played Gallinari sr. A bruce bowen-type player, I had the luck to wath them play live and I can’t recall to saw him ever try a shot to the rim. defense was his thing, nothing more.
In that glorious days, our collective daydream was to see one italian player to finally succed on an nba field. to show that we are not bound to scramble for a ball with our feet in the mud, but that also the Italians can fly
Last year I finally had the occasion to visit the big apple, and obviously I dragged my wife at the Garden. I was graced with a (rare) great win over the 76ers, and Gallo (along with Douglas) was the leading force to the win.
Seeing him live to blossom into a king for Knicks brought to me all the lost memories of my generation ; the dream of us playground player to become an Nba star was now real. the quest had been fulfilled.
The icing on the cake was that happened in New York, the city that we consider part of ourselves. it’s not the global icon, it’s just the perfect blend of European and American flavours that we love.
I can assure you that Gallo felt the same: he truly truly loves new york.
Now the song has ended. the knicks dismissed Gallo like some high school sweetheart traded for the new flashy hot girl. just another victim of the summer of LeBetaDog.

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Join NYaT's Tournament Pick'em and Win Blog Bragging Rights

March is halfway done but the Madness is only getting started. We're talking about the NCAA Tournament, a time when everyone has a team and dreams live and die on the sound of a buzzer. Here at NYaT we're keeping up the tradition of the blog league and anyone who wants to can join and take on college hoops expert Jay Hyne (hint: he's probably picking UConn) and the rest of the NYaT bloggers.

Follow this link to get you started: http://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/t1/group/62720/invitation?key=80dbee3a509eff71

What's the prize, you ask? A chance to be able to brag for an entire year that you are the best of the blog and the right to write your own blog post lauding your own picking ability. Last year, I finished 12th out of 13th in the NYaT league and this year I'm out for revenge. So try your best against NYaT's best and see if you can be King of the Blog on April 4th.

5-for-5: Ten Thoughts On UConn's Record-Setting Big East Championship Win

UConn Huskies = 2011 Big East Champs (Credit: Hartford Courant)

A few hours ago, the Selection Committee announced that Connecticut will be the No. 3 seed in the West Region of the 2011 NCAA tournament, matching up with No. 14 Bucknell in Washington, D.C. during Thursday's first round.  Historically, UConn has fared well out West, winning the national championship in both 1999 and 2004.  Jay Bilas likes them in 2011 as well -- he recently picked UConn to be a Final Four team this year.

A fundamental law of nature is that controversy must surround Selection Sunday.  This year is no exception.  Bubble teams such as Colorado (six RPI Top-50 wins) and Virginia Tech (defeated then-No. 1 Duke in February, advanced to ACC semis this week) were left out, while unheralded UAB (one RPI Top-50 win) and VCU (finished 4th in CAA, lost their last 5 of 8, 11 losses overall, bad L's to Georgia State and Northeastern) somehow squeaked in.  At least UConn snagged a No. 3 seed.

Kemba Walker & Roscoe Smith
(credit Hartford Courant)

Some could argue that Florida, which finished first in the SEC but lost (decisively) for the second time to Kentucky in today's SEC championship, should not have received a No. 2 while UConn, which reeled off a magical five-game run to win the Big East championship, got stuck with a No. 3.  You could also argue that Pitt's one-and-done in the Big East should have dropped them from No. 1 to No. 2.  And so on.  But I think that the top of the bracket, for the most part, is pretty reasonable.  The only question mark is the absence of certain bubble teams, and why the East and West regions are so damn tough.

But let's forget about the bracket for a moment.  There is plenty of time between now and Thursday's tipoff to hack it apart.  Let's just focus on 10 thoughts about UConn's incredible feat of winning 5 games in 5 days to become Big East champs...

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In NFL Lockout, Owners Show Us Greed Is Good

We all knew it would come to this. We all knew in a battle between billionaires and millionaires the fans would be the first ones to lose, and in looking at the NFL lockout one thing is abundantly clear, greed is good. Consider in the 2010 Forbes list of 1000 richest people in the WORLD there were 13 NFL owners on the list. Nearly half of the leagues owners are in the top 1000 wealthiest people on the planet. And yet they want more. The owners take $1 billion dollars of the NFL pot before dividing up the rest. They want $2 billion, of course they do. If we, the fans have learned anything from this its that the owners don't care about the fans, they care about money. They want to smell it, clean it, jump into a big pool full of it and they don't want anyone to get in the way of their cannonball. Do you know how much money it takes to fill a pool? Now the owners don't want a pool, they want one of those water slides, with 3 tubes and loops, and curves and a huge pool at the end. I know what your thinking but no Paul Allen, he of the $13.5 billion net worth, doesn't want to fill the pool with his money, he may need it for oh-his eighth private jet? He wants it from the players.

Yes the players, those who work there whole lives just to be in the league for maybe a couple of seasons. Those whose average salary is $790,000 dollars, or less then 1/100 the 1% of the net worth of Patriots owner Robert Kraft. And the owners want the players to take a pay cut, naturally. Roger Goodell and the owners want to blame the players, in an open letter to NFL fans the commish said no compensation reduction for veterans implement new year-round health and safety rules; retain the current 16-4 season format for at least two years with any subsequent changes subject to the approval of the league and union; and establish a new legacy fund for retired players ($82 million contributed by the owners over the next two years)." Wow Roger, actually provide some semblance of care for players who expose themselves to violence and brain damage on a daily basis, big of you.

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Sources: Kemba Walker Wanted For The Murder Of Gary McGhee's Ankles

Kemba Walker is so many things for the 2010-11 UConn Huskies.  He is their leader, their go-to scorer, their MVP, and clearly their best all-around player.  He should have been selected as the Big East Player of the Year (Ben Hansbrough?  Really?  Really??) and he will probably be selected as a first-team All-American in April.  Plus, as the consensus top point guard in college basketball, he is going to be someone's lottery pick in June.  You can take that to the bank.  (Minnesota, perhaps?  The Wolves do have a thing for PGs.  KAAAAAAAAAHN!)

Gary McGhee (bottom right) fell all the way into the lane on Kemba's step-back J.  (Credit: Pitt Post-Gazette)

But what is Kemba, really?  If you ask Brittany Griner's bizarro twin Gary McGhee, then Kemba is an ankle breaker.  If you ask Pittsburgh mob capo head coach Jamie Dixon, then Kemba is the best clutch player in the nation.  If you ask UConn head coach Jim Calhoun, then Kemba is the guy who gets the ball at the end of any close game, even though the entire arena knows who's getting the ball.

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Knicks Loss And Lack Of Defense Shows There Is A Long Way To Go

Ahhh the roller coaster ride that is the new New York Knicks. If they were at a high point after Sunday's win at Miami the ride may have fallen off the tracks after last nights 119-115 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, yes the 12 win Cavaliers. In front of a capacity crowd that was fired up the Knicks somehow succeeded in making Luke Harangody look like an all-star and were killed inside by the pure dominance of one J.J. Hickson. The lackadaisical effort, showed early and often as the Knicks never were in total control of the game, even after one would think they would come out playing with fire after Melo vowed "Vengeance" for the last Cavs loss. Even with these losses to Cleveland the most maddening aspect is the Knicks truly incredible lack of defense.

http://www.cleveland.com/

Now I admit I defended Mike D'Antoni's system, as long as they were winning i was fine with it, but that has changed after last night. The Cavs shot 50% from the field, and 57% from behind the arc, in one of the worst defensive showings by the Knicks I have ever seen. While Stat and Melo both had incredible offensive games, they were letting guys get to the basket, and got out rebounded on several possessions that could have changed the game late in the fourth. Anthony's perimeter defense was terrible, as he let J.J. Hickson go 5-7 on field goals and got caught on picks and switches way to much for a top player in the NBA. Stoudamire was terrible as well. I have never seen so many plays where a player for the visiting team goes up to get a rebound with three Knicks around him and manages to get it. For a team with bad defense allowing teams to extend possessions like this in inexcusable. Stat had 9 total rebounds, which is never going to get it done for the big man on the court. He was playing slow around the basket, and overall the new Knicks power couple has got to step it up on D, or there will be more losses just like this.

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Cardinal Sins of Baseball

We often speak of the Cardinal Sins of Baseball, which are acts that when committed by a ballplayer are almost unforgivable.  Almost all of them are committed out of over-aggressiveness and fear.  More importantly, with discipline, they are avoidable.  I've decided to rank what I believe to be the top ten Cardinal Sins of Baseball.

Charles Gipson was a cardinal sinner with the Yankees

10-Hitting into a Double-Play.  This is always a killer for the team at-bat and great news for the team in the field.  I rank this at the bottom of the list because it's possible for a great hitter to hit into double-play against a great pitcher after having worked the count to 3-2 in a 12-pitch at-bat.  What makes this act sinful, however, is when it takes place with the bases loaded, when it ends an inning, when it ends a rally, when it happens against a pitcher who is on the verge of losing his composure and getting pulled, or, most importantly, when it ends the game.

9-Getting doubled-up on a fly ball.  Coaches have to take some of the blame in these situations, as it is really the job of a base coach to tell the runner what to do.  However, in cases where a runner misreads the flight of a fly ball out and doesn't make it back to the bag in time, it's a shameful walk back to the dugout.  On the same note, failing to tag up and advance to the next base on a long fly ball may be equally as sinful.

8-Throwing a wild pitch as part of an intentional walk.  Or even worse, having an intentional ball hit for an RBI (Yes, Miguel Cabrera did this with this Marlins).  There's often been an argument that when a team wants to intentionally walk a batter, the batter should be allowed to take first-base without throwing four balls.  Well, to quote John Sterling, "this is why they play the games."  This shouldn't be a difficult act for any pitcher but fail to do it properly and you are sure to get a rousing set of jeers.

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Two Yankee Prospect Busts From the Last Regime

A few weeks back Ben wrote a guest post on LoHud about Yankee prospects and how Brian Cashman made the right decision on so many of them with when to keep them and when to trade them away. I have always thought this was a combination of dumb luck (how many times did guys almost get traded but by sheer luck didn't) and good internal prospect evaluation. Cashman is hoping to use that combination to make the right decisions with all the young pitchers and catchers the Yankees are trying to develop in their minor league system.

Source: Baseball Almanac

But before Brian Cashman arrived on the scene, the Yankees had a few guys who were flat out busts. There are famous ones like Brien Taylor, but there are a ton of other guys who just never made the cut after the Yankees hype machine touted them as top prospects. Two of those guys made Steven Goldman's Baseball Prospectus post of the worst prospect busts in baseball. Let's take a look at what he had to say about Hensley "Bam-Bam" Meulens and Ruben Rivera:

Hensley Meulens, 3B, Yankees
Free Agent, 1985
Now the Giants hitting coach, “Bam-Bam” was once going to be a star in the Big Apple. the right-handed-hitting third baseman had tremendous power at a very young age, hitting approximately .300/.377/.558 with 28 home runs in the Carolina League at age 20, but he had problems making contact and couldn’t field. Despite these flaws, the Yankees pushed him hard and fast, not really noticing that he didn’t hit or field as they pushed him up the ladder. Finally, after a failed major-league audition in 1989, he got back on the prospect track at Triple-A, hitting .285/.376/.510 with 26 home runs as a 23-year-old while primarily playing left field. This was the first positive thing he had done in some time, and it earned him both a recall (successful) and a full season in the majors in 1991 (not). Back in Columbus in 1992, the now-25-year-old hit .275/.352/.481 with 26 home runs, but also struck out 168 times. The Yankees were largely done with him, and he had just 44 major-league plate appearances remaining. He finished his career at .220/.288/.353 in 182 games. For more, see my profile of Meulens from last fall.

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