FanHouse Hal Steinbrenner

NEW YORK -- On a pleasant, Doppler-free evening made for bare, brawny forearms, Alex Rodriguez continued his postseason awakening without even swinging a bat. This was in the fourth inning, when the Angels were unable to employ their desired intentional walk because the bases were loaded. So as 50,000 fans stood and shrieked and awaited magic in the new Stadium -- all except Kate Hudson, who sat like she was waiting for Matt Dillon in You, Me and Dupree -- A-Rod stepped in and sought a pitch to rip into the galaxy.

The fat one never came. Joe Saunders walked him, forcing in the Yankees' third run when it was apparent that the Angels wouldn't score more than that off two Doctor Octobers, Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera. All that awaited were the police to ring their field, and when they arrived nearly at the stroke of midnight, the Yankees were celebrating their 40th American League pennant and first World Series trip in six years, which in these parts is an eternity.

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After furiously fighting his way back onto the field May 8 -- from a hip injury some thought would keep him out until June -- Alex Rodriguez recently appeared to be tiring. At least, that's what some of his New York Yankees bosses thought. In his last 10 games, the polarizing slugger we call A-Rod was just 3-for-34. We learned Friday that he'd get the next two days off before re-entering the lineup Sunday.

Saturday, Jon Heyman of SI.com reported that sitting Rodriguez down was not only requested by the front office, but ordered. Apparently there was a conference call where Brian Cashman -- accompanied by Hal Steinbrenner -- informed his star third baseman that he would be on the bench for Friday and Saturday's games in Florida
(Update: A-Rod did wind up playing in Saturday's game as a pinch-hitter.)

Amid the worst economic crisis in decades and with swaths of empty seats visible in the first six regular season games at the new Yankee Stadium, the Yankees will lower the ticket prices -- by half in some cases -- for some of their most expensive seats this season.

"There are a few hundred suite seats in our premium locations that have not been sold on a full season basis," Hal Steinbrenner, Yankees managing general partner said in a statement Tuesday. "As a result, and for many of our fans who have already purchased full season suite seats in such premium locations, the Yankees are announcing today a program that adjusts certain prices and benefits affecting such suite seats."

In a recent article with the New York Daily News' Bill Madden, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner began talking about Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella. In the article, Steinbrenner said that once Piniella's time in Chicago is over and he's finished managing, "[Lou]'ll be back with [the Yankees] as a consultant."

All of which was news to Piniella because according to Lou, even though he knows Hal from his time with the Yankees, he never even discussed a job, let alone agreed to become a Yankees consultant in the future.

NEW YORK - Hal Steinbrenner, the Yankees' general managing partner, isn't a whole lot like his father, George. Hal is media-shy, thoughtful and not prone to bombast. (The bombast gene went to older brother Hank.)

But when Hal addressed the media Thursday, mostly to give his impressions of the new Yankee Stadium, he uncharacteristically gave out a couple of soundbites.

In what amounts to pretty much the only interesting sports story of the day, Joe Torre has taken it upon himself to write a tell-all book dismissing his former ballclub like so much prostate cancer.

In the book, Joe reveals that Alex Rodriguez is a weird creep, Brian Cashman isn't 100 percent on the level, and George Steinbrenner cares more about the "Yankees" than he does about the people who make up the Yankees. The title of the book, if you're interested in reading it, is Things We Already Knew*.

Sunday's Dugout is after the jump.

Nothing says "the holidays" like a feature on a blog on the Internet the day after Christmas! I missed out on posting yesterday because of "life stuff" (I had to observe a holiday) but hey, better late than never, right?

Part three of our Life on Mars epic continues. Your prerequisites are as follows:

Watchmaker, Part One
Watchmaker, Part Two
Watchmaker, Part Three (click below)

I'm getting sick of this. The sports media world has their own Elite Liberal contingent and they're dead-set on running the name of the New York Yankees through the mud. Everywhere you click it's "the Yankees spend too much money" on this, and "the Yankees spent too much money" for that, and "Sabathia has enough money to float in the river and declare himself a sovereign nation."

Somebody on this site needs to make a stand. The Yankees are a baseball team like everybody else. Just because YOUR team can't do what they do doesn't mean they shouldn't be allowed to do it. Hey Royals fans, if you woke up tomorrow morning and the Royals had given 200 million to Mark Teixeira and 200 million to Manny Ramirez and signed five pitchers and got ready to destroy the AL Central next year, wouldn't you be the happiest people on Earth? Of course you would.

This morning's Dugout sets things straight and explains it all, after the jump.

It was good times in Yankee-land on Thursday afternoon. The Lil' Boss Other Lil' Boss gathered his cronies together as the media swarmed for the event, all to introduce CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett as Yankees. Together the two will make roughly $240 million and boy-oh-boy were they excited to get paid for getting hurt join such a happy and winning-tradition-rich family.

"There were some attractions on the West Coast," said Sabathia at the news conference, which was televised live in New York. "But when it came down to it and really thinking about what I wanted, as far as having a chance to win every year, there really was no other place to go."

[...]"This is a dream come true," Burnett said at the news conference. "I'm looking forward to it; it's going to be a fun ride. I want to pitch in the postseason, and I'm here to win."

Well, of course it's a dream come true. You just got paid $80 million, A.J. I mean, not to be so cynical as to believe that both guys really didn't want to win every year, but come on. If you really want to win every year, you take less money to play somewhere you want to be in order to help make your team better.

If you want to get [over] paid more money than you will ever need while hoping you didn't totally mortgage your soul, you go play for the Yankees.

When the news broke yesterday that Hal Steinbrenner would be succeeding his father at the top of the Yankee hierarchy, the move was praised. It wasn't so much about Hal, though he seemed quite competent, as it was about the Yankees not choosing Hank Steinbrenner. Sure, he'll still do and say crazy things when it comes to free agents, but at least it's the sane guy in charge of actually signing them.

Well, maybe. Hal sounded like he was doing an impression of Hank doing his impression of their dad when he spoke to reporters about CC Sabathia yesterday.

"We've made him an offer. It's not going to be there forever,"

Now, it bears mention that Yankee deadlines ("We will never negotiate with A-Rod if he opts out!") are meant to be broken, but someone should remind Hal that the Yankees need CC a lot more than CC needs the Yankees. Everywhere you look you see something saying that Sabathia prefers the NL and the West Coast but can't turn down Yankee money. Why give him the chance to get what he wants without upsetting the union?

There's no pitcher close to Sabathia on the market. Overpaying for A.J. Burnett, Derek Lowe and Andy Pettitte would become a necessity, and you still wouldn't have an ace to head your rotation. You can afford to make any moves you like while Sabathia makes his decision, trying to force the issue can only come back to hurt you.