FanHouse George Steinbrenner

The news around the Devils Tuesday should rightfully be about their Game 7 against the Hurricanes, but Sports Business Journal had other plans. They reported Tuesday morning that the team was looking for a business executive to take over revenue-building duties, stripping those duties from do-everything honcho Lou Lamoriello and allowing him the opportunity to focus solely on the hockey operations side.

Apparently, the league has been bitten for the second day in a row by an erroneous report. After ESPN wrongfully reported Monday one-game suspensions for Capitals Donald Brashear and Mike Green only to redact the report shortly thereafter, Devils chairman/managing partner Jeff Vanderbeek called the Lamoriello report "very inaccurate."

The man George Steinbrenner once called a "fat toad" is attempting a comeback. Seriously. Hideki Irabu, who turns 40 in less than a month and hasn't pitched in the majors since 2002, is trying to make a comeback to baseball, with his ultimate goal being reportedly a "high level, like MLB or NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball -- Japan's highest league)."

Apparently he's grounded enough to know that he'll have to start in a United States' independent league, but this can't be serious. The guy was a colossal disappointment in the major leagues, and that was more than six years ago. His career ERA was 5.15.

I almost feel sorry for the place. It isn't the fault of the new Yankee Stadium, with its $1.5 billion price tag and $2,625 top ticket and sizzling party scene and ThinkPad computer in every clubhouse locker, that construction was completed amid the worst economic climate since the Great Depression. In another era, we'd be hailing it as appointment architecture, the most magnificent sports facility ever built, a shiver-worthy replica of the original that whisks us forward with every possible amenity, technological advancement and concession item, including tofu, calamari, edamame (edamame?) and taralli.

"We tried to reflect a five-star hotel and put a ball field in the middle of it," said Yankees executive Lonn Trost, whose description pretty much nails it.

The Redskins made the big early splash in this year's free-agent market, inking DT Albert Haynesworth to a seven-year, $100 million contract ($41 million guaranteed). But this latest from Terry McCormick of the Nashville City Paper makes you wonder if Washington needed to pay Hayneworth even half that much:

"Tennessee's final offer to Haynesworth, according to a league source, amounted to a four-year package worth $34 million total, with about $20 million in guarantees, The City Paper learned."

Can't imagine ol' Albert had to think too long about that one.

The latest, most worrisome crisis for the New York Yankees began when the brother of Alex Rodriguez thought it would be a bright idea to send a flare to the media that A-Rod would soon be having surgery on his hip, and would be out of commission for a minimum of 10 weeks.

This was news to the Yankees, who apparently were not included in A-Rod's circle of family and friends.

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NEW YORK -- Joe Torre's name is on the book, but it's a fair estimate not even one-fourth of the words are actually his. He says he's read it six times, perusing line for line, scanning chapters for quotes or anecdotes that have caused so much fuss. It is clear the New York Yankees, Torre's former employer, aren't pleased with the book -- Torre's book -- and there is a decent chance their relationship is forever stained.

And yet, here is Torre, calmly navigating another hot-stove controversy the way he did for 12 always memorable, sometimes controversial seasons as manager of the Yankees. Taking refuge from a snowstorm building steam outside, Torre brushes a few icy flakes from his shoulder and tells me he "wouldn't change a thing."

Dodgers manager Joe Torre isn't pulling any punches in a new book about his time in the Yankee dugout. According to the New York Post, Torre's book, entitled The Yankee Years, features the normally placid Torre ripping his former players, team executives, and even the team doctors.

Torre claims that when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1999, the team doctors told George Steinbrenner about the illness before telling Torre himself. He also alleges that general manager Brian Cashman never told his bosses that Torre wanted a two-year extension after the 2007 season and sat quietly while Torre and the team's executives met before his departure. Torre was previously open about his disgust with team executives, but had no ill words for Cashman until now.

He saves his most damning words for Alex Rodriguez, however.

For better or worse, this is Jim Rice's moment in the sun. The former Red Sox outfielder was elected to the Hall of Fame in his final try last week, and now everyone wants to hear what he has to say about anything and everything, no matter how misguided it is.

Enter intrepid Newsday reporter David Lennon, who asked Rice about failing to win a World Series during his playing career and got an answer that seems both faulty and unbecoming of a guy about to be enshrined in Cooperstown.

The Yankees made official today what baseball fans have come to realize over the last 18 months: George Steinbrenner is no longer running the show. Instead, he officially passed the baton to his son, Hal Steinbrenner, who received unanimous approval in a vote by the rest of MLB's owner. Don't expect much upheaval, though; Hal readily admits the only thing this changes is the title on his business card:

"Really, for the last two years I have been intimately involved with all aspects and all departments of the company. It's what I've been doing day-to-day. My duties aren't really going to change and my workload isn't going to change much. So, I mean, it's as much a procedural thing within the family, I think, as anything at this point."

Hal and his older brother Hank were named co-chairmen of the team last April, but even though Hank has made a habit of putting himself in front of more microphones, the consensus among those who know such things has been all along that Hal has been the one running the show. That said, it has to be reassuring for Yankees fans to know the hierarchy is finally etched in stone.

Unlike his volatile brother, Hal plays things close to the vest and seems capable of making level-headed decisions without second-guessing his manager, toeing the line between praise and tampering or being insulted when small-market teams dare play hard. The media will almost certainly continue to gravitate toward Hank looking for his next crazy soundbite, but rest assured that the man who's really behind the curtain is completely sane.

You know what I'm enjoying? A Yankees-free postseason. The last time that happened I was fourteen years old. You know who was good back then? Freaking Paul Molitor. God forsaken Mark Langston was good back then. We had to churn our butter by hand. I feel like I'm living in Tomorrowland, now. Like the people mover is going to slowly roll me toward a happier America where Tampa has a sports team and Manny Ramirez is more than a Rated Rookie.

Oh well, no matter what the future holds, at least we'll have that fat-headed gentleman to the right, am I right guys? Guys?

Tonight's Dugout (OF TOMORROW!) is after the jump.