Bernie Williams

They were deader than the Bambino, down three games to none to New York in the American League Championship Series after the worst playoff defeat in franchise history. Thousands of their fans had walked out on them in disgust. Four days later, the resurgent Red Sox had won their first pennant in 18 years with the greatest comeback in baseball history, beating their pinstriped tormentors inside the House That Ruth Built. "All empires must fall sooner or later," declared club president Larry Lucchino, after Boston had won the seventh game, 10-3, on the strength of four home runs,...

When was it that we were all bemoaning the fact that this latest well-hyped confrontation between the Athens and Sparta of baseball (which is which depends on your point of view) was a major dud? Oh, that's right. It was 10 hours, 51 minutes, and 26 innings of baseball ago. You thought Sunday's 12-inning 6-4/David Ortiz/Beating Mariano game was an epic? Nah. It was the lounge act to last night's headliner, a 14-inning masterpiece culminating in yet another game-winning hit by Ortiz, this one a fisted blooper to center after fouling off five nasty Esteban Loaiza two-strike pitches.

The 3,000 Hit Club is an elite group of baseball’s greats. Musial. Ripken. Cobb. Mays. Not one of the 27, though, joined while wearing a Yankees uniform. Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig never did it. Neither did Joe DiMaggio or Mickey Mantle. Same for Bernie Williams and Don Mattingly. There’s an All-Star roll call of Yankees who came up short for reasons that include illness, injury, wartime service and, frankly, not being wanted any longer in win-now New York. No. 2 from Kalamazoo is about to change that.

They were deader than the Bambino, down three games to none to New York in the American League Championship Series after the worst playoff defeat in franchise history. Thousands of their fans had walked out on them in disgust. Four days later, the resurgent Red Sox had won their first pennant in 18 years with the greatest comeback in baseball history, beating their pinstriped tormentors inside the House That Ruth Built. "All empires must fall sooner or later," declared club president Larry Lucchino, after Boston had won the seventh game, 10-3, on the strength of four home runs,...

Alex Rodriguez and Hideki Matsui each hit two-run doubles, and Jon Lieber struck out a season-high nine to lead the Yankees past the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 11-2, last night in New York. Gary Sheffield had four hits and Bernie Williams homered for the Yankees, who won their third in a row. New York maintained its 2 1/2-game lead over the Red Sox in the East Division. Rocco Baldelli hit a two-run homer in the first inning for Tampa Bay, which lost its ninth straight. New York's new 1-2 punch sparked the offense again.

New York Yankees right fielder Nick Swisher always seems to have a smile on his face. He has a popular Twitter account and made a guest appearance on CBS' "How I Met Your Mother" last year. So the naturally gregarious Swisher jumped at a chance to record a children's album for charity. And he was quick to add his own personal touch. Swisher's 12-song record, "Believe," was released this week and includes "Take Me Home, Country Roads" and "Hang On Sloopy. " The classic John Denver song is for Swisher's hometown of Parkersburg, W.Va., and "Hang On Sloopy" is a...

The New York Yankees kept their cool after Mariano Rivera blew a save for the first time in more than four months. They simply turned to another player they've always relied on in the clutch. Bernie Williams hit a two-run homer in the 11th inning and the Yankees overcame Rivera's first blown save since the third game of the season to beat the fading Texas Rangers, 7-5, at Yankee Stadium yesterday. Rivera had converted a career-best 31 consecutive saves before allowing two runs in the ninth -- one day after the Yankees didn't use him in a save situation because he had been...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- After a shaky start, Jaret Wright called on an old ally to shut down the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The New York Yankees righthander changed the grip on his slider after giving up hits to the first two batters he faced last night, reverting to the way he threw the pitch two years ago and going on to beat the Devil Rays, 1-0. "I was throwing the one I've been working on. It was always up, always getting hit," Wright said....

WASHINGTON -- It sounded like a home game for the Yankees much of the night, and chants of "Ber-nie! Ber-nie!" rang throughout RFK Stadium in the ninth inning. Bernie Williams hit a solo home run in the ninth for his fourth hit, extending a recent personal surge and putting New York ahead to stay in a 7-5 victory over the Washington Nationals last night. Williams was taken aback by the rousing support on the road. "It's a little weird. It's a testament to how many great Yankee fans we had coming down here.

Summoned by Lee Mazzilli for a meeting in the manager's office, Sidney Ponson approached the door with some trepidation. "I thought I did something wrong," Ponson said yesterday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Actually, because the righthander did so many things right last year, Ponson was told by Baltimore's new manager that he would be the Orioles' starting pitcher on Opening Night April 4 against the Red Sox in Camden Yards. It will be the first such honor for Ponson, now the ace of the staff after opening the 2003 season as the No. 4 pitcher in the Orioles'...

Bobby Valentine smiled his big, wide smile, surrounded by media, talking about the Red Sox and the Yankees. Baseball's hottest rivalry gets a new provocateur this year. "The intensity will be interesting. Looking forward to it? Who knows?" he said. Valentine stood in the third base dugout at Steinbrenner Field before his Boston Red Sox beat the New York Yankees 1-0 Tuesday night in the first of two meaningless spring training meetings that serve as an appetizer for the 18 bitter, tense and often lengthy games during the regular season.

NEW YORK — Flanked by his wife and children, with five World Series trophies sitting on a table to his right, Jorge Posada announced his retirement Tuesday. The five-time All-Star catcher ends his major league career after 17 seasons, all with the New York Yankees. The 40-year-old Posada finished with a .273 career batting average, 275 home runs and 1,065 RBIs. Shifted to designated hitter last year, his playing time diminished. Posada joins Bernie Williams and Andy Pettitte in retirement, leaving only 37-year-old Derek Jeter and 42-year-old...

Jorge Posada was watching television when he saw speculation on which teams were interested in signing him as a free agent. "They put my face on different uniforms," he said. "And it didn't look good. " He began a Yankee and ended as a Yankee, spending his entire career in pinstripes. Flanked by his wife and children, with five World Series trophies sitting on a table to his right, the five-time All-Star catcher retired at age 40 on Tuesday after 17 major league seasons.

After five World Series rings, seven American League pennants and five All-Star appearances, Jorge Posada says his career with the New York Yankees is over. "I don't think there's not even a percentage of chance that I can come back," the 40-year-old catcher said Wednesday night before his foundation's annual dinner. "It's not going to happen. " After 17 seasons in pinstripes, Posada faces the same choice Bernie Williams had after the 2006 season: Retire and ensure that his entire big league career was with the Yankees or move on to another team.

NEW YORK — Robinson Cano didn't get a home run the first time he tried, the ball bouncing off the top of the wall in left field. Upon the umpires' review, he remained at second with an RBI double. In his next at-bat, Cano left absolutely no doubt. He blasted a pitch from just-entered reliever Al Alburquerque into the second deck in right field for a grand slam that took the game into blowout territory, the first postseason slam for New York since 1999. The Yankees led by seven runs, and there was little the Tigers could do in an eventual 9-3 outcome.

NEW YORK -- When Derek Jeter walked to home plate with the bases loaded in the sixth inning yesterday, he had gone 5,770 at-bats over 11 major league seasons without a grand slam. "I thought I'd never hit one," he said. Jeter finally filled one of the few gaps in his resume, connecting off Chicago Cubs reliever Joe Borowski for a home run to left-center that broke the game open. Jeter added a solo shot in the eighth, backing a stellar start by rookie Chien Ming Wang in an 8-1 victory that extended New York's winning streak to five.