Photo of Andy Pettitte talking to the media by AP/Julie Jacobson With some of his current Yankees teammates on hand, Andy Pettitte addressed the media in Florida this afternoon. Pettitte, who previously admitted using Human Growth Hormone in 2002 and again in 2004, apologized to the Yankees, Astros, and his fans for the "embarrassment" he caused. Pettitte said, "I want to apologize to the New York Yankees and Houston Astros organizations, their fans, my......

Yankees 11, Royals 5: Good thing the Yankees didn't make that Alex Rodriguez for Ervin Santana move this offseason. Rodriguez hit two homers -- Nos. 50 and 51 -- as the Yankees cruised past the Royals. Detroit beat Seattle again, so the wild-card lead stands at three games. Johnny Damon, who looked like a corpse for most of the season, has played better of late. He socked his 10th homer as the Yankees gave plenty......

Yankees 12, Angels 0: While the Yankees take three days off, they'll have pleasant thoughts about a rare laugher against the nemesis Angels. Alex Rodriguez, Hideki Matsui and Robinson Cano all hit three-run homers off Ervin Santana, one player involved in last winter's trade rumors surrounding Rodriguez. Despite winning five of seven, the Yanks enter the break under .500 for the first time since 1995. The good news? They made the playoffs as the wild-card......

Angels 2 Yankees 1 (13 innings): The Yankees had their chances and probably would have won this game if they hadn’t made five errors in it. The biggest were Miguel Cairo’s mishandling of a grounder in the top of the 13th, which resulted in two errors and allowed the Angels to score the go-ahead run. Cairo tried for redemption in the bottom of the inning with a single and got to third with only one......

Yankees 14, Angels 9: First the haves. The Yankees plated 14 runs -- everyone had a hit and an RBI -- to defeat the nemesis Angels. Robinson Cano's missing third base didn't even come back to hurt them. More good news: Alex Rodriguez, back after a day off, had three hits, including a home run. The bad news: Andy Pettitte got rocked for the second straight start, and reliever Edwar Ramirez's couldn't extend his perfect......

Yankees 7 Minnesota 6: The Yankees showed some grit Thursday, overcoming another lousy start from Kei Igawa and a lack of clutch-hitting to get the win. Things looked great in the first couple of innings as New York rebounded from a two-run deficit take a 5-2 lead thanks to home runs from Cano and Cabrera. But, Igawa was awful again, giving the lead back in the fourth by allowing three runs to score with two......

With the news that Roger Clemens is returning to the Yankees, reactions from the local media and Yankee fans are generally positive. Clemens made the announcement during the 7th inning of yesterday's 5-0 win over the Seattle Mariners. After the singing of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," Bob Sheppard directed the crowd to the owner's box for a special announcement. Only then did the public find out that Clemens would be returning to......

Yankees fans can now rejoice, because Roger Clemens is returning to the New York Yankees. The 44-year old right-hander, who last pitched for the Houston Astros last season, announced his plans to the crowd during the 7th inning stretch of today's Yankees-Mariners game (audio from WCBS), "Well, they came and got me out of Texas. I can tell you, it's a privilege to be back. I'll be talking to y'all soon." How surprising was the......

During the Yankees' spring training game against the Cincinnati Reds, Roger Clemens dropped by with his son and they watched Andy Pettitte pitch three scoreless innings. Of course, who could pay attention to Pettitte when the Rocket was around. Clemens met with George Steinbrenner briefly, but did not reveal what they may have discussed. A return to the majors - and the Yankees - for Clemens has been a big topic of off-season discussion,......

Would-be Yankee pitcher Kei Igawa took a visit to Yankee Stadium last night as the Yankees and the 27 year-old lefty close in on contract negotiations. Reports say that the two parties have agreed in principle on a five-year, $20 million contract. The Yankees bid $26 million just for the right to negotiate with Igawa after failing to bid enough to negotiate with Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka. While in town, Igawa was traipsing around......

Joe Torre opened his press conference this afternoon by saying that he had “just gotten off the phone with George Steinbrenner and he has informed me that I will be the manager in 2007.” So closes one of the more bizarre 48 hours in Yankees’ history. First we heard Joe was gone, then he was coming back, and then no decision had been reached. (And somewhere in there, Giuliani called Steinbrenner to save Torre's......

With the U.S. Open behind thanks to two days of rain, plenty of tennis was played on Sunday in Flushing. Andre Agassi's final match, a loss to qualifier Benjamin Becker, drew most of the headlines, but Andy Roddick's resurgence also deserves some attention. He won his third-round match over Fernando Verdasco and will play Becker -- not Agassi -- in the fourth round. Jimmy Connors may have helped the 2003 champion, but only time, and......

- Mets 4, Astros 2: We always thought that Philadelphia fans had the reputation for being the nastiest fans in the sports, but maybe not. Last night, former Astro and current Mets MVP candidate, Carlos Beltran made a game saving catch with two runners on base in the 9th inning and hurt his knee on the fence in the process. While being helped off the field, an audible group of Astros fans were actually......

- Yankees 8, Twins 1: Doing well against a potential first round opponent is never a bad thing. Unfortunately for the Yankees, they weren't facing one of the Twins' aces yesterday. Fortunately, it looks like Alex Rodriguez might be coming out of his slump. A-Rod got the Yankees off to a good start with a solo home run in the 2nd inning and later added another solo shot in the 7th. There was even......

-Yankees 5, Blue Jays 4: After playing like they were going to drop their third straight game in Toronto, the Yankees' offense woke up just in time to win Saturday. Chien Ming Wang pitched a decent game, Alex Rodriguez struck out four times, and Mariano Rivera pitched an uneventful ninth inning for the save. Sometimes, Wang must wonder how good he'd be if his defense were even average behind him. Wang struck out only one;......

-Mets 7, Astros 0: As WIllie Randolph's Mets cruise through the second half of the season to the playoffs, pundits will say their postseason success will rest on their pitching. John Maine, part of the deal that sent Kris Benson to Baltimore, threw a four-hit shutout in the Mets' victory over the Astros on Friday. Maine's performance -- on short notice, no less -- will allow for optimistic Mets fans and management to see him......

- Tonight at Shea Stadium (assuming these apocalyptic thunderstorms stop), Good Morning America Weekend Edition anchor Kate Snow will be selling cotton candy to the masses as the Mets face the Astros. Her stint as a vendor is part of GMA's Summer Dream Jobs segment (or something like that) where anchors do various jobs unrelated to reading stuff off a teleprompter. Could they not give her a slightly harder job? When you sell cotton......

-Mets 4 Reds 2: Tom Glavine struggled through 6 and 1/3 innings, but was bailed out by some excellent relief pitching from Chad Bradford and the Mets used three doubles in the tenth to beat Cincinnati. New York now comes home to face the Astros this weekend. -Toronto 5 Yankees 4: In golf they call it the “yips”, Yankees’ fans just call it the “Knoblachs”. Whatever you call it, A-Rod seems to have it as......

-Mets 7, Blue Jays 4: What are the chances the Mets will reach the playoffs? High, according to Baseball Prospectus? Why? Their offense has been excellent and their pitching has kept up. A year after making the fourth-most outs in the history of baseball, Jose Reyes has proved to be something other than an offensive black hole. Carlos Beltran has come close to earning his paycheck, and everyone knows about David Wright. Steve Trachsel has......

- For those that like the Yankees (or Tigers for that matter), the Yankees-Tigers tonight will be televised at Bryant Park, in what they are dubbing "Pinstripes in the Park". In addition to the game, former Yankees Goose Gossage and Graig Nettles will be on hand, there will be drawings for free airplane trips, and first 2000 fans will receive a free blanket. "Gates" open at 5:30 and the game starts at 7:05. Unfortunately,......

- Early this morning, Xavier Nady underwent emergency appendectomy surgery and was later put on the 15-day DL by the Mets. Nady's unfortunate situation is good news for Lastings Milledge, arguably the best player in the Mets farm system. Milledge was called up from AAA and will start in tonight's game, playing right field and batting 8th. The 21 year-old Milledge was hitting .291 with 32 runs, 4 home runs, 19 RBI and 32......

In what is becoming a slightly disturbing trend, the United States lost again in the World Baseball Classic. First, they lost to Canada, yesterday, the Americans lost to South Korea, 7-3. South Korea, who is 2-0 in the 2nd round and is unbeaten in the WBC, slugged their way to victory. Hee-Seop Choi teed off for a three-run homer in the 4th inning off of Astros pitcher Dan Wheeler, giving the Koreans a 6-1 lead.......

- The Politicker reports that the D.A. Pennebaker documentary of the Ferrer campaign hasn't been happening for a while, because the crew wasn't "getting a film that was worth doing, as compared with what you just got off of every TV screen." Damn TV! - No new trial for attorney Lynne Stewart, who was convicted of passing messages to her terrorist cleric - Al Franken, who has been on every talk show morning and late......

Breaking news!! The Mets are now officially eliminated from the playoffs. Despite winning last night's game in Philadelphia 3-2, a win by the Houston Astros sealed the deal. While the Mets haven't been in contention since their road trip earlier in September, they have managed to win 5 straight games and move three games over .500 and into 3rd place of the NL East. Of course none of that matters at this point. To add......

Given a chance to take the lead in the National League Wild Card race last night against the Phillies, the Mets blew it. If you were to tell us that Pedro Martinez was pitching and the Marlins lost, we would think the Mets would at least be in a tie with the Astros today, but they aren't. A perfect opportunity blown. With an early 2 run lead, Pedro wasn't able to hold on. The Phillies......

Could the Mets be playing their best baseball when they need it most? Or are they just fooling themselves into thinking they are contenders? With a week left before the non-waiver trade deadline, do they even need to improve? They probably do, but if they keep playing like they have recently, they might be good enough to make some noise. With a 6-0 victory over the Dodgers yesterday, the Mets finished their 10-game homestand with......

In their 40 plus years as a franchise, the Mets have never had a no hitter. And while they didn't get one last night's 3-1 win over the Astros, one of their newest members came within three innings of securing the first no no in franchise history. Pedro Martinez took a no hitter into the 7th inning, but Chris Burke ruined his bid when he hit his first career home run. Despite the home run,......

After losing five straight at the start of the season, the Mets have now won four in a row, battling to within one game of .500, a mark that was ever so elusive last season. Last night, they put together a scrappy victory against the Astros, winning 4-3. Despite the victory, there were ugly moments in the game as well. Victor Zambrano stuggled at times, loading the bases twice, yet only allowed one run in......

After a dismal start to the season, the "new Mets" are looking revived, winning three straight games. Last night, they defeated the Astros, 1-0 in 11 innings. The game brought Roger Clemens back to Shea Stadium for the first time since 2002. Clemens faced the Mets last May in Houston, a game that the Mets also won in extra innings despite a great performance by the Astros pitcher. This time, however, Mike Piazza wasn't the......

Seven days after starting the season, the New York Mets have their first win, a 6-1 victory against the Atlanta Braves. Pedro Martinez pitched a two hit complete game, allowing only one run and one walk. Martinez was in line to get the first win for the Mets on Opening Day as well, but we all know how that went. Five losses later, Martinez still gets the first win of the season, and the Mets......