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And just like that, Gary Sheffield won't be coming to the Bronx. Neither will Johnny Damon (I had to include that as a message to those holding out false hope). Not only did Randy Winn pass his physical and officially become a Yankee, Chad Jennings confirmed Jon Heyman's report that the team has signed Marcus Thames to a Minor League deal.

Thus, here's your right-handed hitting outfielder who can come off the bench. It'll be Thames against Rule 5 pick Jamie Hoffman vying for that role during Spring Training. Thames is best remembered as becoming the 80th player in baseball history to homer in his first at-bat. He did it as a Yankee on June 10, 2002, going yard off Randy Johnson in an interleague game against the Diamondbacks. One year later, Thames was traded to the Rangers for Ruben Sierra.

Here's the release on Winn:

The New York Yankees today announced they have signed outfielder Randy Winn to a one-year contract.

Winn, 35, owns a lifetime .286 batting average (1,710-for-5,981) with 359 doubles, 57 triples, 106 home runs, 637 RBI and 209 stolen bases in 1,601 Major League games over a 12-year career with Tampa Bay (1998-2002), Seattle (2003-05) and San Francisco (2005-09).

Originally selected by the Florida Marlins in the third round of the 1995 First-Year Player Draft, Winn was a 2002 All-Star with Tampa Bay. Over the last eight years (2002-09), he is tied for seventh place among all Major Leaguers in games (1,234) and doubles (304) and has compiled the eighth-most hits (1,378) over the span.

In his career, the switch-hitter owns a .289 (1,250-for-4,330) batting average with 73 home runs batting left-handed and a .279 (460-for-1,651) mark with 33 home runs from the right side. Among all active switch-hitters, he ranks fourth in hits (1,710). In 2005, he became one of only three switch-hitters in Major League history to hit over .300 with at least 185 hits, 45 doubles and 20 home runs in a single season, joining Jose Vidro (2000) and Lance Berkman (2001).

Since 2007, Winn has stolen 56 bases in 63 attempts (88.9%), marking the fourth-highest stolen base percentage in the Majors over the last three years.

Winn batted .262 (141-for-538) with 33 doubles, two home runs, 51 RBI and 16 stolen bases in 149 games for San Francisco in 2009, making 90 starts in right field, 34 starts in left field, 11 starts in center field and one start as designated hitter. He was the only National League outfielder to not commit an error in 2009 (minimum 800 innings) and was one of only four outfielders in the Majors to not make a miscue, joining Boston’s Jason Bay and Kansas City’s David DeJesus and Mitch Maier. He is currently riding a career-high 209-game errorless streak, dating back to July 2008.

In addition, he led the Giants with a .319 batting average (37-for-116) with runners in scoring position in 2009, and posted the fourth-highest average in the National League with runners in scoring position and two outs (.370, 20-for-54).

Don't get excited - or upset if that's your opinion. There's been no trace of any chatter about any interest the Yankees have in Gary Sheffield. Leave it to our friends at River Ave. Blues to suggest Brian Cashman taking a flier and bringing back who based on my experiences is a good person, but one who at least once a year provides comments that's money for tabloids but severe headaches for anyone around him.

Can Sheffield, 41, still hit? Sure. His part-time numbers last season with the Mets were .276/.372/.451., 10 home runs and 43 RBIs in 268 at-bats. Of course, he played most of the summer on a bad hamstring, threatened to leave the team after being denied a contract extension and will not stand a prayer anywhere in Yankee Stadium's outfield. Depending on who you want to believe, Sheffield is either plutonium or was held hostage, but the bottom line is whether he'll actually accept being a part-time player or - worse - a Minor League deal with an invite to Spring Training.

Do you want Sheffield and his baggage back in pinstripes? Rocco Baldelli and Jonny Gomes are still out there. I'm just sayin'.

Here we are in the dead of winter - most of the New York metropolitan area avoided what denizens of the Baltimore/Washington metroplex called "Snowmageddon," but may not be so lucky come Wednesday - and yet we were warmed by an eclectic plethora of sporting events. I promise you that New Orleans Saints fans are still partying on Bourbon Street as I write this; the city will also host a Mardi Gras-style parade on Tuesday. But plenty of local activity served as appetizers to go with those chicken wings you probably gorged from kickoff to the final gun, and are paying for dearly this morning.

It started late Thursday night when the New Jersey Devils acquired one of the most dynamic hockey players in the world, Ilya Kovalchuk. If you ever played Capture the Flag as a kid, think of Devils general manager Lou Lamorillo as the one hiding in a ditch and riding steath. Nobody had the Devils in the Kovalchuk sweepstakes and just like that Lamorillo added a a two-time 50-goal scorer to a team that had been shut out four times in 12 games and had won three out of its last 11.

Kovalchuk was imported to spark a perennially flat Devils offense. Friday night the Devils scored three times in the final 3:04 - with Kovalchuk assisting on the tying goal - to stun the Maple Leafs 4-3. Never in the young life of the Prudential Center was that building as loud and boisterous.

The following night, however, Kovalchuk, Martin Brodeur and the Devils were left nearly as perplexed. Facing a Rangers team that can't score on an open net, Brodeur allowed three goals in a 2:39 span of the second period. Marian Gaborik netted his 35th goal, or 23.3 percent of his team's entire output on the season.

Hours later, Long Island's own Matt Serra knocked out Frank Trigg at 2:23 of Round 1 to open the main card of UFC 109, one headlined by Randy Couture's two-round destruction of Mark Coleman in the first-ever battle of active MMA Hall of Famers.

Hockey helped filled the void of the endless wait to the Super Bowl, unless watching hours of the same pregame talk is your thing. If the Rangers, a group so inconsistent it makes a fan want to pull his or her hair out, can sneak into the playoffs, Gaborik would warrant consideration for league MVP. But his best efforts won't trump those of Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby. The duo rewarded Washington Capitals fans who braved two feet of snow by totaling five goals and an assist, with Ovechkin assisting on the game-winner in overtime to conclude the Caps' rally from 3-1 to win 5-4 - their 14th straight victory.

Then, of course, Super Bowl XLIV, a game remembered for Sean Payton's courageous - or deemed stupid if it failed - coaching decisions and Drew Brees' mastery. As fun as the Jets' run was, the Saints won a championship for a franchise that went more than a decade before managing .500 record, two without a winning season and more than four decades before reaching a Super Bowl. On the way they defeated three Hall of Fame quarterbacks (Kurt Warner, Brett Favre, Peyton Manning) and galvanized a city still recovering from Hurricane Katrina and ended a journey that brought people aboard a bandwagon without any shame.

The best news of all in the minute world of sports: Pitchers and catchers report to George M. Steinbrenner Field in nine days.

Two former Yankees, Johnny Damon and Chien-Ming Wang, remain on the free agent market with roughly two weeks before most teams open camp for pitchers and catchers. Wang's recovery from shoulder surgery is ongoing and he won't be Major League ready until at least May, while the Damon drama continues to drag out.

Where do you think Damon and Wang end up? Here are the teams rumored to be in the mix.

Damon
Tigers
Braves
Athletics
Yankees
Blue Jays

My pick: The Yankees, but that's wishful thinking. Realistically I see him headed to Detroit, where he can play some left field, DH and mentor Austin Jackson.

Wang
Dodgers
Mets
Nationals
Cardinals
Phillies

My pick: Dodgers. Joe Torre can use some depth behind Clayton Kershaw and Chad Billingsley, and obviously knows Wang from his days in the Bronx. The Mets are at least kicking the tires after spending the winter dropping the ball, but if Wang were wise he'd stay far away. You heard about how the Flushing Folk treated J.J. Putz, right?

February 1998 in the Bronx: The Yankees are having their usual party at the old Stadium Club, complete with a spread of chicken fingers, fruit and pastries, to introduce their new acquisition, Chuck Knoblauch. The prior fall, the Yankees were humbled in the Division Series, their reign as World Champions ending with a five-game loss to the Indians. Knoblauch was brought in to provide missing elements of speed and a pesky bat from atop the order to go with a Gold Glove at second base.

Never mind how Knoblauch turned out, that's not where I'm going. That afternoon I felt a strange sense when Joe Torre met the media. He discussed the type of team he was to meet in Tampa in a couple of weeks while displaying the unflappable attitude that defined his tenure. I simply had a hunch the Yankees were going into the 1998 season with a chip on their shoulders that represented unfinished business. A group of no-nonsense veterans combined with loquacious youngsters about to blossom into superstardom weren't just going to win, they were to accomplish something special enough for baseball historians to talk about them for generations.

Even when the Yankees started 1-4, I kept the faith. Little did I know they would finish the season on a 113-54 tear with 11 postseason wins to bump their total to 125, the most games any team has won since the inception of our national past time. The 1998 Yankees rank No. 2 on our Top 10 championship teams countdown for many reasons outlined by YESNetwork.com's Jonathan Tayler.

Fast forward 12 years. Four players remain from that team: Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte (after a three-season hiatus). The Core Four is older, but not gray and proved last season they can still perform at elite levels. For crying out loud, Rivera overcame shoulder surgery to set a new personal best of 36 consecutive converted save opportunities and finished the regular season with a 1.76 ERA, 44 saves and a 0.90 WHIP. After allowing only an earned run through 16 postseason innings with five saves - the only closer in the playoffs not saddled with a loss or blown save - Rivera told us in the clubhouse, drenched with champagne, that he'd like to play five more years.

Moral of the story: What Gene Michael and Buck Showalter started in 1993, which Bob Watson and later Brian Cashman continued, was the building of a program with the ability to sustain baseball excellence for years. Even during the Yankees' championship drought from 2001 to 2008, they were good enough to overcome some bad free agent signings and at least make the playoffs every year except '08. The continued excellence of the Core Four and the gradual maturation of the next new wave of talent were blended with three A-list free-agent signings, and a fourth (Nick Swisher) that made significant contributions, and translated into championship No. 27.

Some people complained that Cashman didn't make that big "splash" this winter, apparently the losses of Hideki Matsui and Johnny Damon, along with Roy Halladay going to Philadelphia and John Lackey to Boston, made them forget about Curtis Granderson and Javier Vazquez. But the GM has an eye on a deeper pool in 2011 without destroying his farm system - the same one that produced the Core Four plus Bernie Williams, Robinson Cano, Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes. Keep your eye on David Robertson and Brett Gardner too, each who played major roles at some point last season.

You can either blow off history and be condemed to repeat it, or learn from its setbacks as well as accomplishments. The 1998 Yankees set the gold standard for an old adage.