Bobby Abreu

Hitting the all-star break in first How big was that Phillies win Sunday? It might just have kept them in the pennant race. According to Tom Verducci of SI.com, any team with a lead of more than five games at the all-star break is a virtual postseason lock. Since the current divisional format began in 1995, only one team led its division at the break by more than five games and failed to make the playoffs: the 2003 Royals, who blew a seven-game lead. Entering play Sunday, the Phils were 51/2 behind Atlanta.

Andy Pettitte hit the corners, Derek Jeter homered into the right-centerfield stands, Jorge Posada rambled into second base for a double. And for good measure, Mariano Rivera closed it out with a cutter. Don't tell the Yankees' core four it's 2010. The longtime All-Stars each picked up World Series ring No. 5, then led New York to a victory in its home opener yesterday, 7-5, over the Los Angeles Angels in front of a record crowd that included owner George Steinbrenner. "Everyone talks about how long we've been here but in our minds it seems like we are just still little kids," said Jeter, the American League Rookie of the Year in 1996.

NEW YORK - Paul Bako still remembers the one and only time he caught A.J. Burnett in a major league start. It was 2000. Burnett was a 23-year-old flamethrower, one of several young pitching prospects breaking into the big leagues with the Florida Marlins. Bako was a 28-year-old catcher whom the Astros had shipped to the Marlins after the first game of the season. Burnett was making his first start of the season for the Marlins. Bako, it turns out, was making his last. But for one game, the second of a doubleheader against the Braves, the two players combined for what at that point was the most impressive pitching performance of Burnett's sprouting career.

One is the major-league baseball player who was the fastest ever to hit 200 homers. The other is the highest-paid first baseman ever. That's where you can start with Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard and Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira. Albert Pujols is done this season, and the other candidates who line up right behind him for Best First Baseman in the Game are in this World Series. Who can add to their reputation? Who is ahead on the first baseman pecking order? Who really deserves the $20,625,000 that Teixeira is pulling down from the Yankees this season?

WHATEVER YOU think about the hated New York Yankees, you can thank them for one of the most fortunate transactions in Philadelphia baseball history. And, no, I'm not talking about taking Bobby Abreu off our hands. In 1955 - 5 years after the Bronx Bombers swept the Phils in their only other World Series matchup - the Yankees sold us their giant scoreboard. That's right, the Ballantine Beer scoreboard - the famous 50-foot-tall behemoth that towered in right-centerfield at Connie Mack Stadium at 21st & Lehigh.

WHATEVER YOU think about the hated New York Yankees, you can thank them for one of the most fortunate transactions in Philadelphia baseball history. And, no, I'm not talking about taking Bobby Abreu off our hands. In 1955 - 5 years after the Bronx Bombers swept the Phils in their only other World Series matchup - the Yankees sold us their giant scoreboard. That's right, the Ballantine Beer scoreboard - the famous 50-foot-tall behemoth that towered in right-centerfield at Connie Mack Stadium at 21st & Lehigh.

ANAHEIM, Calif. - CC Sabathia did not seem to miss his extra day of rest too much. Pitching for the first time this season on three days rest, Sabathia allowed one run in eight sharp innings as the New York Yankees beat the Los Angeles Angels, 10-1, last night at Angel Stadium. The Yankees lead the best-of-seven American League Championship Series, three games to one. They will attempt to close things out here tomorrow. Sabathia, who was 2-3 with a 7.92 ERA in three previous postseasons, is 3-0 this year, with two of the wins coming against the Angels.

Kudos to the Bronx Bombers Before the Yankees' final home game on Wednesday night, manager Joe Girardi held an animated meeting with the entire team on the field at the new Yankee Stadium. It wasn't, as you might have imagined, about something as mundane as the playoffs. According to Ian O'Connor of the Bergen Record, Girardi was telling his players a sad story, and reminding them of their responsibility as agents of goodwill. Girardi told the Yankees their guest for the day would be a 10-year-old boy from the Bronx.

A.J. Burnett (12-9) struck out 11 in just his second win since July, and the New York Yankees won a series in Anaheim for the first time since May 2004 with a 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels yesterday. The Yankees, eliminated by the Angels in the first round of the playoffs in 2002 and 2005, lost 18 of their last 23 games in Anaheim before winning back-to-back games in fewer than 24 hours. On Tuesday night, New York beat the Angels, 6-5, to became the first major league team to clinch a playoff berth.