Welcome to NY, CC

It has been reported by several sources that today, on the first that that free agents can sign with other teams, that the New York Yankees have offered pitcher CC Sabathia a reported 6 year $140 million dollar contract. The Yankees promised to make a big splash this off season and they seem to be living up to their word. While it has been reported that Sabathia would prefer to stay in the National League, where he can also hit, $140 million will change people's minds pretty quick.

Melrose Out In Tampa

It is just 16 games into the NHL season but already the have the first coaching casualty of the year. Tampa Bay Lightning first year head coach Barry Melrose was fired Friday after seeing his team get out to a 5-7-4 start, good for 4th place in the Southeast Division. The Lightning, who signed several big name veterans over the offseason on top of drafting Steve Stamkos #1 overall in the 2008 draft, had very high expectations coming into the season. Just 14 points in 16 games is not exactly living up to the hype.

Its too bad to see something like this happen to one of the good guys in sports. Melrose was a very well known, well respected analyst for ESPN prior to the Tampa job. With any luck that position will still be his for the taking now that he is unemployed. The bottom line is that while Melrose is well liked and probably did not get a fair chance to turn the team around, something needed to be done to shake things up and unfortunately it was Melrose who fell victim to the chopping block. It will be interesting to see how the Lightning respond to the move. Rick Tocchet will take over as head coach, for the time being.

Yanks Acquire Swisher

The New York Yankees have completed a deal with the Chicago White Sox that will send 1B/OF Nick Swisher to New York in exchange for INF Wilison Betemit and two minor league pitchers: Jeff Marquez and Jhonny Nunez.

Swisher is a candidate to fill the void left at first base left by free agaent Jason Giambi. Should the Yankees sign a player such as Mark Teixeria, Swisher would then add outfield depth.

Cubs-Marlins Make A Deal

The Chicago Cubs have acquired closer Kevin Gregg form the Florida Marlins for minor league pitcher Jose Ceda. Gregg was 7-8 with a 3.41 ERA and 29 saves last season for Florida, but was bothered for a large portion of the season by a knee injury. His nine blown saves were tied for the league lead.

Following the deal the Cubs announced that they will not make an attempt to re-sign now former closer Kerry Wood, meaning that the job is Gregg's to lose. Should he falter the Cubs do have star set-up man Carlos Marmol waiting in the wings.

This trade once again was an example of the Marlins cost cutting. Gregg was Florida's highest-paid player in 2008 at $2.5 million and was eligible for arbitration coming into this season.

Battle for AFC EAST Crown

When the New England Patriots and New York Jets get together you know it is going to be a rock fight. Simply put, the two teams would like nothing better than to beat the pants off their opposition. This time around the rivalry has a little more at stake as both teams stand at 6-3, tied atop a tight AFC East. In a league when every game is tough, being able to get a game in hand on a division opponent is crucial. That is what each team will strive for tonight as they kick off at 8:15 in Foxboro.

The last time these two met was week two in New York. Both were vastly different teams, both with serious question marks at several positions. The most notable question mark was at the quarterback position. It was the first game of the Matt Cassel era for New England. He was efficient in his first game as starter, but certainly far from impressive. Now some eight weeks later Cassel has grown comfterble with the offense and the pressure that goes a long with being a starting quarterback in the NFL. Cassel was not the only quarterback under question in that week two meeting. It was just the second game of the Bret Favre era for New York. Like Cassel, he too was still getting acclimated with a new offense. Unlike Cassel, however, Favre brought with him his track record and winning reputation greater than any other quarterback in the NFL. Favre, however, was less than impressive in that week two match-up, but once again, like Cassel has grown much more comfortable under center in the weeks since and now leads one of the more explosive offenses in the AFC. The Jets are averaging 32.1 points per game since that week two loss, and their 255 points lead the AFC.

While the quarterback position certainly will be an important one in tonight's match-up, perhaps the biggest difference maker for each team could be the running game. For the Jets it will be Thomas Jones and his AFC leading 750 rushing yards. Jones has been unstoppable as of late. He racked up 149 rushing yards including three touchdowns in last week's showdown with the St.Louis Rams. His counterpart this week will be BenJarvus Green-Ellis who has gone from the practice squad (6th) on the New England depth chart all the way to #1 thanks to injuries to pretty much every player to line up in the Patriots backfield this season. Once again the Pats have found a diamond in the ruff in Green-Ellis who last week rushed for 105 yards and a touchdown in New England's victory over the Buffalo Bills.

By the way, did I mention that these two teams hate eachother? Countless numbers of personnel have jumped ship from one side to the other over the years. Whether it be stealing a coach from the other side (Pats with Belichick, Jets with Mangini) or simply other players (the Jets signed former Patriots CB Ty Law this week), no two teams in the NFL want to beat eachother more. And don't forget the SpyGate saga that was created last year, which all began when Jets coach Eric Mangini accused the Patriots of stealing signal calls. It resulted in months of controversy and has to have left a sour taste in the mouths of Patriots coaches and players alike.

Tonight will certainly be a game to watch. After this game one team will have sole possession of first place in the AFC East for the first time in weeks. Who will it be? In just a few hours we will find out...

Lee Wins Cy Young

The American league Cy Young Award winner for 2008 has been announced and to nobody's surprise the winner this year is Cleveland Indians ace Cliff Lee. Lee was a major league best 22-3 with a 2.54 ERA in 31 starts this season for the Indians. Lee received 24 of a possible 28 votes (the other 4 went to Roy Holiday) en route to his first career Cy Young. What a difference a year makes for Lee who in 2007 struggled mightily before being demoted to AAA for much of the season.

An interesting side note: this is the second consecutive year a Cleveland pitcher has won the Cy Young. CC Sabathia edged out Josh Beckett for the award in 2007.

Game Of the Year!

Ok, maybe labeling this the game of the year already is a little extreme, but those of you who missed the Detroit Red Wings vs. Pittsburgh Penguins game last night missed one of the more exciting hockey games you will see all season.

There were plenty of story lines going into last night's match up. It was the first time these two teams faced off since last year's Stanley Cup Final (won by Detroit 4 games to 2). It was also the first time that former Penguin Marian Hossa, who played a vital role in Pittsburgh's playoff run a year ago, would be playing against his former team since leaving via free agency during the off season.

The game started out just as many of last season's finals game had; the Penguins committed several early penalties and the Red Wings capitalized on their mistakes. Detroit took leads of 3-1, 5-2 and 6-4, but Pittsburgh battled back in the third period. Thanks to a hat trick by Jordan Staal the Penguins were able to tie it late in the third and force overtime. After weathering shot after shot from an early Penguins power play, it appeared that the Red Wings were going to regain the momentum in the final frame. That all changed however as an errant Pavel Datsyuk pass was picked off by Staal who thread the the needle to Ruslan Fedotenko for a beautiful goal to end the game.

It was a very gutsy win for a Penguins team that was without their top two defensemen: Sergi Gongar and Ryan Whitney. Both are expected to be out until January due to injuries. Hossa recorded a pair of assist in a losing effort against his former team. The star filled lineups did not disappoint on this night as Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk, among others, all scored.

The two teams will meet one more time this season on February 8th, this time in Pittsburgh. Circle that date on your calenders; its bound to be one heck of a game.

Free Tickets!

The New Jersey Nets have devised a new strategy to get people at their games: FREE TICKETS!

The following is from the Newark Star-Ledger:

In a nod to current economic conditions, the basketball team will give unemployed fans who submit their resumes to the Nets Job Bank up to four free tickets, plus access to a Nov. 22 career fair at their home arena, team president and chief executive Brett Yormark said yesterday. The team also will distribute applicants' resumes to its sponsors.

"Hopefully they'll come out and experience the Nets, and then when times get better they'll invest in us, because we invested in them," Yormark said. "No other team is doing that, and I think it's the appropriate thing to do, because times are tough."

To those who register for the program, the team will make 300 tickets available for each of five selected games at Izod Center in East Rutherford.

I like this move by the Nets. The team is struggling, the economy is struggling, why not try to help out both by doing a little something for the fans. Lets face it, a lot of people cannot afford to go to professional sporting events these days. Many times those people who cannot afford a ticket are some of the team's biggest fans. If you are not going to sell out anyway, why not give away a few tickets to people who deserve to and want to go see these games. Who knows, maybe a little extra energy at Izod Center is just what the team needs to win a few close games at home. It will be interesting to see if other teams around the sports world try to adopt this idea.

Managers of the Year Announced

When you take a team from dead last in your division one year all the way to the World Series the following year you are going to get noticed. That is just what the Baseball Writers Association did on Wednesday when they named Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon AL Manager of the Year. Maddon received 27 of a possible 28 first place votes, the lone other vote went to Minnesota Twins manager Ron Gardenhire.

Over in the National League Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella was given the same honor. Piniella edged out Phillies manager Charlie Manuel by 7 first place votes. Pineiella's Cubs were a NL best 97-64 this season before being ousted by the LA Dodgers in the NLDS.

The two great managers do have ties to each other; Maddon replaced Piniella as Rays skipper in 2006. At the time the Tampa coaching job was considered by many to be the worst job in baseball. Things have certainly taken a turn for the better since.

Division Rivals Strike a Deal

The Florida Marlins and Washington Nationals announced a trade on Tuesday that will send outfielder Josh Willingham and lefty starter Scott Olsen to Washington in exchange for three minor leaguers; second baseman Emilio Bonifacio, right-hander P.J. Dean and infielder Jake Smolinski.

The trade marks yet another cost cutting move for the Marlins who recently shipped Mike Jacobs to Kansas City for the very same reason; all are arbitration eligible, making them unfordable. The move very likely will not be the last for Florida. The addition of Bonifacio, a speedy young second basemen, makes all star second basemen Dan Uggla now expendable.

For the Nationals, the addition of Willingham creates a log jam in the outfield where they already have Austin Kearns, Elijah Dukes and Lastings Milledge. It is likely that Washington will move one of those three before the season starts. The addition of Olsen is a nice fit for a rotation that struggled mightily last season. Olsen was 8-11 with a 4.20 ERA in 33 starts in 2008. The most impressive stat is his 201 1/3 innings pitched last season, the first time in his career that he surpassed the 200 inning plateau. No Nationals pitcher recorded more that 182 inning last season.