What Yankees Records Does Mariano Rivera Hold?

Mariano Rivera is one of the best players in Yankees history. He has been the closer for many World Series titles. He is the all-time leader in saves. But, he also holds many Yankees records. His 2.21 ERA beats Russ Ford, a pitcher in the early 20th century. Obviously, the Yankees saves title belong to him, outpacing Dave Righetti by an incredible 422 saves. He has also played in 1103 games, better than Righetti's 522. His .212 average against ranks first. He also has never gotten a hit in 3 at-bats, but has walked and driven in a run. After his retirement this year, the Yankees will definitely have lost one of their great players.

Yankees Minor League Update

As the Yankees move closer to the end of the regular season it is time for a look at how the minor league affiliates are doing.

The Staten Island Yankees are having a bad season, going 28-39. One bright spot is Eric Jagielo, a Yankees rookie who has been hitting .272 with a very good .383 OBP and 5 homeruns with 24 RBI. Caleb Smith has also been doing well in his first year with a 1.89 ERA over 47 and two-thirds innings. He also has 52 strikeouts against only 15 walks.

The Charleston RiverDogs are doing well, with a 73-60 record, good for 3rd in the South Atlantic League's Southern Division. Gregory Bird has been the star of the team with 20 homeruns and is batting .291 with a spectacular .424 OBP. He also has a good .520 slugging percentage.

The Class-A Tampa Yankees have had an abysmal season with only a 54-74 record. Rob Refsnyder has a .413 OBP with 49 RBI.

The Double-A Trenton Thunder are 70-65. Gary Sanchez has a .323 OBP with 14 homeruns between Tampa and Trenton. He is one of the Yankees' top prospects. Fred Lewis has a 2.28 ERA through 43.1 innings with 39 strikeouts. He has only given up 20 walks.

The Scraton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders are 65-73. Sam Demel has 1.88 ERA through 48.0 innings. He also has recorded 58 strikeouts after playing for the Arizona Diamondbacks last season.

Overall, the minor league affiliates for the Yankees are doing badly but have some bright spots that should be in the majors soon.

Where did the interlocking NY of the Yankees' logo come from?

One of the most beloved logos in sports is the Yankees' interlocking NY. The logo has seen many changes throughout the years, but how the original came about has an interesting backstory. In 1877, Tiffany created a medal for the New York Police Department to give to policeman John McDowell. This was a valor medal because McDowell had been shot and survived. The logo was adopted onto the uniform in 1909. This may have to do with the fact that one of the Yankees' owners at the time, Bill Devery, was a former policeman. Even though the logo looks similar, the design went through some changes.

 
 

The bridge of the "N" on the medal has a more wavy line than the uniform logo. Also, on the medal, the "N" seems to be going over the "Y" while on the uniform the opposite is true. Overall, even though the Yankees' logo has evolved many times, it is still one of the best in all of sports.

Alex Rodriguez hits his 650th homerun

Yesterday, Alex Rodriguez became the 5th player to hit 650 homeruns, joining Willie Mays, Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, and Barry Bonds. He has hit them in 31 stadiums, against 395 pitchers, and versus 26 opponents. He is currently 10 homeruns behind Willie Mays for 4th on the all-time list, and 112 behind all-time leader Barry Bonds. If Rodriguez played for 5 more seasons, he would have to average 22.6 homeruns per season to break Bonds' record.

Derek Jeter returns tonight

Tonight, with the Yankees in Toronto to play the Blue Jays, Derek Jeter will return. He will be at shortstop rather than DH and should replace Eduardo Nunez. Jeter is batting only .211 with 19 at-bats in six games. The Yankees are still only 3.5 games away from the second Wild Card, but, they have two divisional rivals ahead of them, besides the Red Sox. The Rays are in the first Wild Card, while the Orioles are 1.5 games ahead of the Yankees.

Yankees vs Rays- August 25

Today, the Yankees beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3-2 in 11 innings. Coming into the game the Yankees had lost 2 straight to the Rays and were looking to win and improve their standing in the Wild Card race. Ivan Nova got the start and pitched well, giving up 2 runs in 6 and two-thirds innings. In the top of the 11th inning Alfonso Soriano doubled and stole third. Curtis Granderson then scored him with a sacrifice fly. In the bottom of the inning Mariano Rivera came in for what was probably his last game at Tropicana Field. He got the save with a 1-2-3 inning.

Yankees win five straight games

With the Yankees beating the Toronto Blue Jays 5-3 last night, the Yankees have now won five straight games and eight of their last ten. They swept the Blue Jays over four games. The playoffs are starting to look more realistic with the Yankees being only 3.5 games behind in the Wild Card race and playing a three game series starting tonight with one of the teams holding the Wild Card, the Tampa Bay Rays. Hiroki Kuroda goes for his 12th win against Chris Archer

Ichiro passes 4,000 Hits

Yesterday, Ichiro got his 4,000th hit between America and Japan. He accomplished this by having 1,278 hits in Japan and 2,722 hits in America. If his hits in Japan counted, he would be third on the all-time hits list. He broke the single-season record for hits in 2004 with 262. Even though he is 39, he has a good chance to break 3,000 hits in America. He has remained remarkably consistent, having 178 hits last year while playing in all 162 games and 116 this year. 

Robinson Cano hits his 200th homerun

In the first game of yesterday's double header, Robinson Cano hit his 200th homerun. This puts him only 177 homeruns behind Jeff Kent, the all-time second baseman homerun leader. Cano is only 30 so this gives him a good chance to break the record. Cano has been batting well lately, pushing his average to .308 on the season. Today, Ichiro Suzuki can get 4,000 hits for his career in Japan and the United States.

How does the Yankees' uniform measure up against the rest of MLB?

Every year UniWatch's Paul Lukas publishes his MLB uniform rankings. This year, the Yankees came in 7th place and dropped three spots from last year. I personally think that they should have made at least the top 5.



Here are the rest of the rankings:

http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/story/_/id/9541646/uni-watch-power-rankings-rates-mlb-uniforms-1-30

Where do you think the Yankees should have ranked?

The Latest on Alex Rodriguez

Today, as ESPN has reported, Alex Rodriguez and his lawyers will probably sue Chris Ahmad, the Yankees' team doctor, for medical malpractice. This goes along with their claim that the Yankees wanted to ruin Rodriguez's career by making him play when he was injured. Rodriguez says that Ahmad intentionally covered up a left hip injury which he eventually had to have surgery on.

Yankees vs Red Sox- August 18

In last night's Yankees game, Alex Rodriguez was hit by a pitch from Ryan Dempster. This came on a 3-0 count where all of the other pitches had either been inside or behind Rodriguez. The two teams were then warned by the umpire and the benches cleared. Joe Girardi came out to argue Dempster not being ejected. Girardi was then ejected. The Yankees did not retaliate, but Rodriguez later hit a homerun off of Dempster, and the Yankees got the win, 9-6 with CC Sabathia picking up his 11th win of the season.

Alfonso Soriano ties 4 game RBI Record

Alfonso Soriano has been playing extremely well over the last four games. After last night's 10-3 win over the Red Sox, he has hit 5 homeruns and has 18 RBI over the last four games. This would tie the all-time record for RBI over a four game stretch.  He now has 25 homeruns on the season. He also recently picked up his 2,000 hit for his career. Soriano has been just part of a Yankee offense that has picked up recently and gotten hot.

Will the Yankees make the playoffs?

Even with the Yankees' 14-7 win last night, they are still far out in the playoff race. In the AL East, they are fourth and 9.5 games behind the Boston Red Sox. This is due to their 28-31 road record and negative 16 run differential. In the wild card standings the Yankees are 5.5 games back of the Tampa Bay Rays. It might benefit the Yankees if they were to play badly and get a better draft spot as the playoffs may no longer be an attainable goal. In other news, Derek Jeter ran and did batting practice in an effort to get back from injury.

Yankees beat Tigers 4-3

Alex Rodriguez played his first game in New York this season and went hitless. He had three strikeouts and went 0 for 4. Marino Rivera blew his second consecutive save after giving up a homerun to Miguel Cabrera in the top of the 9th inning. But, in the bottom of the 10th, Brett Gardner hit a walk-off single to win the game. Ivan Nova pitched 7 innings and gave up 8 hits and one run. Shawn Kelley pitched one third of an inning for the win. This broke the Tigers' 12 game win streak. Today, Phil Hughes is on the mound.

Yankees vs White Sox- August 5

Last night, the Yankees came into Chicago trying to get a win on Alex Rodriguez's season debut. He was batting 4th and playing third base. On the mound was Andy Pettitte. In the bottom of the first inning, Pettitte gave up 3 runs, putting the Yankees in a hole they would never climb out of. In Rodriguez's first at-bat, he hit a bloop single. In his next 3 at-bats he failed to get a hit again, even striking out once. Overall, it was a bad night for the Yankees, as they lost 8-1.

Alex Rodriguez suspended

Alex Rodriguez has been suspended for the rest of this season and the entire 2014 season. If he does not appeal, this suspension will be 211 games. The suspension will start on August 8, which means he will be able to play in tonight's game. He will also be allowed to appeal and play while going through that process. He was banned under the league's Joint Drug Agreement. He is expected to start tonight as the Yankees are in Chicago to play the White Sox.  

12 players suspended

Before Alex Rodriguez's suspension is announced later today, 12 other players have been suspended because of PEDs. All of them will have 50 game suspensions and have agreed to not appeal. These players are:

Rangers outfielder Nelson Cruz, Padres shortstop Everth Cabrera, Tigers shortstop Jhonny Peralta, Phillies pitcher Antonio Bastardo, Yankees catcher Francisco Cervelli, Mets outfielder Jordany Valdespin, San Diego Padres pitcher Fautino De Los Santos, free-agent Jordan Norbert, and minor leaguers Cesar Puello of the Mets, Jesus Montero of the Mariners, Sergio Escalona of the Astros, and the Yankees' Fernando Martinez.

The Yankees have two players on this list, and a former player in Jesus Montero. These suspensions will not have a big effect on them, because Cervelli has been on the DL for a while and Fernando Martinez is still down in the minors.

Will Alex Rodriguez be suspended tomorrow?

As ESPN has reported, Alex Rodriguez will likely be suspended tomorrow. His suspension could range from 50 games to a lifetime ban from baseball. What is far more likely is that he will be banned from the rest of this season and the entire 2014 season. He will almost definitely appeal a suspension.  Also, around 10 other players will be suspended with most of them receiving 50 game suspensions. This could be great for the Yankees, as it will free up more than $30 million dollars in salary to get players this offseason. Through this all, Rodriguez is preparing to make his season debut with the Yankees on Monday.

Here is the original story from ESPN:

http://espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/story/_/id/9535752/alex-rodriguez-likely-suspended-2014-season-monday-according-sources

Curtis Granderson to return tonight

Curtis Granderson, an outfielder who hit more than 80 homeruns in the last two seasons, should return to the Yankees tonight when they play the San Diego Padres. He has been out since May 24 when he was hit by a pitch on his finger. He has hit around .250 as a member of the Yankees, but last year had a worrisome 195 strikeouts to go along with a .232 batting average. He will almost certainly provide help to a Yankees offense that has been horrible except for Robinson Cano. He could replace Alfonso Soriano in the outfield and Soriano could become the DH, taking Vernon Wells' spot. This might help the Yankees climb back into the playoff race and hopefully get to the World Series.

World Series Ring Gallery

After my recent top 5 Yankees rings, I thought that I should show some more.

Which one of these rings do you like the best?