Mariano Rivera: "I Want To Play Centerfield For One Inning"

Yesterday, Yankees manager Joe Girardi was asked by reporters if Mariano Rivera could cap off his Hall-of-Fame career by being granted one final wish-- to play centerfield.  Girardi sounded like, under the right conditions, he would consider it.

Today, on the Mike Francesa Show, Rivera was asked if he wanted to play one game, one inning or one out at the No. 8 position.

"Just one inning," the unassuming Rivera replied.  "If I caught one ball in centerfield, that would be it."

It sounds like it's more than a flight of fancy for Mo.

"I have one more year left," said the 41 year-old Rivera,  "So I will be pursuing that position."

When pigs fly or when Jorge Posada plays second base.  Oh wait, the 38 year-old catcher did, so now it's might be hard for Girardi to deny Rivera one of his final wishes on his major league bucket list.

Rivera checked off another to-do item when he had his one-and-only at-bat in the July of 2009-- a ninth-inning, bases-loaded pop-up-- which had the Yankees dugout rolling with laughter.

Now, it's time to bring John Fogarty's immortal song to life.

"Put me in, coach-- I'm ready to play today, Look at me, I can be Centerfield."

In  a week when Rivera reached the 600-save milestone, is poised to pass Trevor Hoffman on the all-time list and being lauded as one of the greatest Yankees of all time, it seems like a given that before the season's end we will see Rivera penciled in at centerfield-- under the right circumstances.

Or won't we?

Rivera is a gifted athlete and shags flies in centerfield all the time during batting practice.  It seems unlikely he would embarrass himself or make a silly error.  I mean look at the pressure-filled position he already excels at.

"He's incredible," said Girardi.

If there's a meaningless blowout before the end of the season, could we honestly not think of that  scenario happening at this point of Rivera's career?

"I'll think about that when he tells me he's near the end," said Girardi.  "It's something I would definitely think about.  That'll get me in trouble, won't it?"

Sounds like he is already given the idea some thought.

"Maybe I'd try it for one hitter," said the manager.  "A guy who hits a lot of ground balls, strikes out a lot... and there would be nobody on base where he'd have to make a throw."

Gloomy Gusses are already pointing out the dangers and hurdles.  Besides blowing the play-- unlikely-- or twisting an ankle chasing down a fly ball (devastating);  meaningless games come around about as often as an A.J. Burnett August win during a September playoff race, and the Yankees can't afford for any of those negatives from occurring.

So, when would the best time for Girardi to play fairy godfather and grant Rivera his final wish?

Rivera has one more year left on his contract but next season could be too late.  There's always the possibility of injury or a tighter playoff race to curtail his longing.

I say, this year, first blow-out at Yankee Stadium, put him in.  It's the least the Yankees could do for Mariano Rivera Appreciation Week.

It's the least they could do for the Sandman.

St. John's 2011-12 Recruiting Class Takes Hit; Sampson, Garrett & Pelle Ineligible

St. John's University's Top-3 nationally-ranked basketball class just got knocked down a few spots.  Incoming 2011-12 recruits JaKarr Sampson, Norvel Pelle and Amir Garrett have yet to be approved by the NCAA Initial Eligibility Clearinghouse and will not be eligible to play during the fall semester.

Head coach Steve Lavin announced Thursday that the three student-athletes-- one-third of his lauded nine top freshmen recruits-- are unable to qualify for the 2011 fall semester.

They won't be enrolled for this semester and remain "under review" by the NCAA committee.  They were expected to have received clearance by the NCAA by this time.

The university is in its third week of classes and will work with the NCAA to review the three cases for possible enrollment in spring 2012.

Lavin said, "We are hopeful Amir, Norvell and JaKarr will be able to join us on the court this winter and in the classroom when the spring 2012 semester begins."

All three are consulting with their families and reviewing their options.  There is a good chance they could still be approved and be on the court in late December after the fall semester ends.  The team would have played 10 games by then.

These aren't just any incoming freshmen.

Garrett is from California but played for Findlay prep in Henderson, Nev..  The 6-foot-6, 190 pound offensive threat was rated as high as the 68th best over-all player in the country and  the #15 power-forward.  The left-handed pitcher was the 22nd-round  pick of the Cincinnati Reds and signed a minor league contract in the off-season.

Pelle was a standout power-forward from Los Angeles and he was rated the #2 center in the country.  The 6-foot-10, 200 pounder is a shot-blocking machine.

Sampson is a 6-8 swingman who starred in Akron at St. Vincent's-St. Mary's--  LeBron James high school-- before transferring. He was rated as high as the #11 combo-forward in the country.

Lavin will begin his second year with the Red Storm after rejuvenating the sinking program last season.  After taking the team to its first NCAA tournament since 2002, he announced he was battling prostate cancer.

A-Rod's Return to Yankees' Lineup on Friday Still Looks Uncertain

New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez had another day to rest his sprained thumb in Toronto, but said  he wasn't sure  he would be playing against the Blue Jays.  Goodbye Cameron.  Helloooo Nunez. 

While the rest of the Yankees spend their last off-day of the regular season prepping for the stretch run, A-Rod said he will will test his swing on Friday and make a decision after that.

Asked by reporters if that means he won't play against the Blue Jays, Rodriguez said, "That depends on how the session goes."

Only yesterday, Joe Girardi was optimistic about A-Rod's Friday night encore.


"We decided  for him to not hit [Wed.]," said the manager.  "We said, you know what, if we can give him two more days before he actually swings on it, it's probably better off for our plans just to put him there Friday."

Contrary to what Girardi said about A-Rod's Friday night return to the lineup yesterday, he has now backed off by saying his slugger is more day-to-day.

"I haven't touched a bat in five days," said Rodriguez.  "Maybe Girardi has more confidence than me."

The third baseman injured his left thumb Aug. 21 against the Minnesota Twins.   He played in nine games since then and is hitting .258 (8-for-31) with two home runs and 4 RBI's over that span.

Rodriguez was expected to miss only three or four games since the digit acted up again Sept. 9.  That is, until it was slow to heal this week.

Girardi planned on using A-Rod if the slugger could swing a bat on Thursday.  He didn't, so it doesn't look good.

A-Rod took ground balls and threw long-toss before Wednesday's game against the Seattle Mariners.

"I was at the point I had to stop because I was unable to do my job," said Rodriguez. "It's not going to feel 100%, but you have to play through it." 

The Yankees play 14 games in 13 days before closing out the regular season-- all against AL East rivals.

For A-Rod, this has been a tough week.  Besides breaking up with his long-time actress girlfriend, Cameron Diaz, the put-offish player was named the sixth "Meanest Major League Baseball Player" in a Sports Illustrated player's poll.

Yankees' Staten Island Farm Team Wins Title, Then Gets Sold

The New York Yankees are selling their Staten Island farm team just days after it won the N.Y.-Penn League championship.  It was the team's second title in three years.

The asking price for the team is $8.3 million-- about the price of Derek Jeter's Florida home give-or-take a couple of the mansion's nine bathrooms.

The Staten Island Yankees won the championship on Tuesday night.

According to a report in the New York Post, the Yankees and their partner, Mandalay Baseball, expect the sale of the farm team to be approved and sold by the end of the month.

The Steinbrenner Foundation, set up by Yankees former owner, George Steinbrenner, will keep a small piece of the franchise, which moved to Staten Island from upstate Oneonta in 1999.

The team-- which plays in Richmond County Bank Ballpark just a short walk from the Staten Island ferry--  has reportedly had trouble drawing the crowds its rival the Brooklyn Cyclones draws in Coney Island.

The Cyclones are owned by the New York Mets and have been drawing sold-out crowds regularly.

The buyer of the Staten Island Yankees was not identified, but it has been reported on-line that a hedge-fund manager is putting up the cash for the team.

According to the Post, Mandalay and the Yankees are getting together to purchase the Yankees Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes Barre farm team for $14.6 million.

The Steinbrenner Foundation will also own a piece of the Scranton team too.

Scranton is usually the final stop before making the bigs.  Manny Banuelos, the 20 year-old phenom, is currently playing there.

Heavy Metal's "Big Four" Replaces "Core Four" at Yankee Stadium

In what can only be described as the only time "Enter Sandman" blared through the bowels of Yankee Stadium and fans were not disappointed to see Mariano Rivera come trotting out of the bullpen; four of heavy-metal's most iconic bands took over the House That Jeter Built for a seven-hour headbanger's ball.

The speed-metal giants-- Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer and headliners Metallica--  played in front of over 40,000 fans and there wasn't a fist not pumping or head of hair not flailing in the the whole crowd.

In front of a wall of amps, all four bands took to the stage and went loud and fast. A tribute to when music was born from aggression and not romance.

Anthrax-- die-hard Yankees fans-- kicked off the show at 4 p.m. under a blazing sun and it was a reunion and homecoming for the Queens and Bronx band members.  The only non-New Yorker in the band, returning lead-singer Joey Belladonna, reprised his role as a link to the bands finest years in the 80's.

Megadeth was the second act and lead-singer Dave Mustaine-- who just had neck surgery was less than 100 percent and he admitted it to the crowd.  Heed the warning Justin Tuck of the New York Giants.

Slayer lived up to its name and was the most fundamentally true to the genre-- with deafening guitars and beats faster than a Brett Gardner stolen base-- until the the night came to a climax with Metallica.

The most mainstream of the bunch, Metallica, may be the only band which could get cops, firemen, long-haired punks and biker gangs to rock as one.

The top-billed California quartet is the band which fills stadiums and the boys covered everything from the old, "Creeping Death," to the classics, "Master of Puppets."

While the other bands played one-hour sets, Metallica played twice as long and came out blazing with fireworks, videos and stage effects.

In a time when music tries to be controversial but ends up sounding fake, last night's night's self-proclaimed "Big Four" showed why they still draw new fans after thirty years.

The bolts and foundations of Yankee Stadium haven't been rocked that hard since the autumn of 2009.

For the New York Yankees, last night's show will be a tough act to follow but anytime you hear "Enter Sandman" in the Bronx, everything is alright.

Shaq Keeping Busy; Beats Venus Williams in Oreo-eating Contest

Venus Williams finally met her match in Shaquille O'Neal at a gym in Manhattan yesterday.  One of the world's best tennis players' team lost to the newly retired NBA star's crew in an Oreo-eating contest at the Game Day Challenge sponsored by the cookie company.

O'Neal played Williams one-on-one in basketball and tennis but the highlight was the cookies-and-milk event.

Williams took the loss in stride.

"Shag got lucky today," she joked.  "But it was really fun."

Shaq didn't gloat about his victory though.

"She's fabulous," he said.  "She's always been a great athlete."

Oreo is promoting its new "Triple Double Oreo" which it introduced in August.

Those cookies just keep getting bigger and bigger, don't they?

Teenage Girl Finds Herself The First Female Character Added To EA Sports NHL Games

One day fourteen year-old Lexi Peters was playing one of EA Sports Hockey editions and tried to customize her team into her own St. Peters Purple Eagles hockey team and ran into a problem-- there were no options for putting a female player on the video screen.

Peters then asked her father a simple question, "Why not?"

How come she couldn't recreate her own team when there were not any female avatars?

Her father's advice was to send one of the largest video game makers in the world a letter to find out.

In what seemed like a long-shot, the Buffalo native wrote: "It is unfair to women and girl hockey players around the world, many of them who play and enjoy your game.  I have created a character of myself, except I have to be represented by a male and that's not fun."

It wasn't as easy as that responded EA Sports.  The company would have to go through the NHL, who would make the final decision.

It seemed like a lost cause until NHL 12's head producer David Littman saw the letter and considered it a "wake-up call" regarding the sport's increasing female fan base.

Littman went out of way and got permission from the NHL to use female character builds in the game's options.

The high school freshman's moxie gave her a chance to put a female player on the video's ice and, as a reward for her clever idea, NHL 12 used the likeness of Lexi as its first female character option.

Lexi would now be playing the part of the "default" female player that gamers could customize.

The young hockey fan may not know this, but her vision is not so far-fetched.  After all, the NHL had a female player back in 1992.

Manon Rheaume, a goaltender, played two exhibition games for the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The game was launched on Monday and features Steven Stamkos of the Lightning on the box.