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Today is April 7 and 34 years ago, Catfish Hunter pitched seven shutout innings and held the Milwaukee Brewers to seven hits to kick off the 1977 season.

That happened to be four days after A.J. Burnett turned three months old and today Burnett makes his second start in what he hopes will be a significant bounce-back campaign from a year ago. Burnett began the season Saturday against Detroit with five servicable innings in a 10-6 win.

The Yankees would love to get the type of performance from Burnett that Billy Martin received from Hunter 34 years ago, though they'll take seven innings with something like five hits and two runs, especially since Burnett does not have the head cold he had last week.

"It makes you feel better about his stamina and being able to give you a substantial

Today is April 4 and a year ago Ivan Nova was preparing to spend most of the season in the International League. Tonight he takes the mound for his eighth career start and will be facing a lineup featuring four lefties and two switch-hitters, meaning there will be at least six at-bats to left-handed hitters when he faces the following lineup:

1 - Denard Span CF

2 - Tsuyoshi Nishioka - 2B

3 - Joe Mauer - C

4 - Justin Morneau - 1B

5 - Delmon Young - LF

6 - Jim Thome - DH

7 - Jason Kubel - RF

8 - Danny Valencia - 3B

9 - Alexei Casilla - SS

In his brief time as a major league (42 innings), Nova has allowed three home runs and 10 walks to left-handed hitters.

Nova's season debut is certainly not based on a brief track record against left-handed hitters, but more upon the 20

Today is April 3 and somehow the Yankees are on pace to hit 405 home runs, a figure that probably won't happen as the Yankees will settle for hitting over 200 or so.

As for reality, the Yankees are attempting to be 3-0 for the first time since the 2003 season when they won their first four - three without Derek Jeter. Phil Hughes was a high school junior at that time and a year away from being drafted and today takes the mound at Yankee Stadium for the first time since his brilliant performance against the Twins in Game Three of the ALDS.

Scouts said in various reports that Hughes' velocity had diminished slightly but the Yankees won't read too much into that, especially since spring training is more about getting your work in as opposed to maxing out the radar gun.

Hughes is throwing

For years, Yankees fans heard the name Phil Hughes and it immediately conjured up the image of a future ace. Since being drafted in the first round (23^rd overall) in the 2004 amateur draft, we have all heard what Hughes could eventually be.

In 2010, those images became reality with him winning 18 games in his first full season as a starter. Even with an innings limit, the still only 24-year-old Hughes was relied upon to be a middle to frontline starter, especially with the way A.J. Burnett struggled through the Summer.

However, if you look deeper into the numbers, it was not all moonlight and canoes for this honeymooner. Through the first 13 starts of the season, he was 10-1 with a 3.17 ERA, 78 strikeouts, 25 walks, while opponents were just hitting .224 against him. He did stretch it

For this generation of Yankees fans, they were their version of the Beatles. The Beatles were dubbed the Fab Four; the Yankees had the Core Four. They were four homegrown baseball studs who built this Yankees dynasty from the inside out. Floating around like protons and neutrons in the nucleus of the five championship teams were Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada and of course, the Captain, Derek Jeter. With the retirement of Pettitte, the Core Four is now down to the Big Three. And with Posada in the last year of his contract, it’s time to start thinking of the next batch of youngsters that could comprise the sequel.

So who are some potential candidates to try to fill the VERY big shoes of their predecessors? You know, the four pairs of shoes that are filled with a

The bats finally woke up for the New York Yankees last night. CC Sabathia stepped up like any ace should, battling through six innings and giving his team the lead.

Staring elimination in the eye, the Yankees used their bats and took advantage of some sloppy play by the Texas Rangers to force a Game 6. The series now returns to Texas with the Rangers holding a three games to two lead in this best of seven series.

In order to defend last seasons world series title, the Yankees will need to win the final two games in Texas, starting Friday night. One step at a time though.

Before a big matchup between Cliff Lee and Andy Pettitte in Game 7, the Yankees will need to win Game 6 behind Phil Hughes. Hughes was roughed up in Game 2, also played in Texas.

Early in the series, the Yankees bats

In game one of the ALCS, the Rangers did their best impersonation of the Twins.  They imploded and turned a 5-1 eighth inning lead into a stunning 6-5 defeat.  In game two, the Rangers proved that they could take a punch.  The Twins would have curled up and died after game one, but these Rangers came out swinging and smacked around the Yankees starter for the second straight game.

Joe Girardi managed game one very well, particularly with his early hook of CC Sabathia.  Apparently Girardi himself wasn't paying attention as the next day he left Phil Hughes in the game for at least an inning too long.  While it's true that the offense did muster a late inning rally as they did the night before, you have to wonder how much those last two runs broke their spirit. On

There are several variations to the "Guy Walks into the Bar" thing and mostly are prefaces to funny jokes or corny jokes.

Straying away from my HD-TV and watching on someone else's HD-TV, there was nothing funny unless you were a Ranger fan enjoying how awful Phil Hughes was in the sequel to his sterling foray into making postseason starts.

There's no sense in re-living it, though based on the events of last night, this did not feel like a run of the mill never had a chance 7-2 loss.

After seeing the eighth inning of Game One, there's no way you can leave the game, especially as the Yankees pile baserunner after baserunner against Colby Lewis and company.

Excitement brews as Lance Berkman rips an RBI single in the fifth. Then disapointment because Berkman thought his speed rating was