Looks like New York City won’t be big enough for Derek Jeter and LeBron James.

The New York Knicks might want the Yankees to help recruiting LeBron James, but Derek Jeter doesn’t see the point. ”It wouldn’t make sense,” the Yankees captain said.

Knicks president Donnie Walsh wants as many New Yorkers as possible to help convince James to choose Madison Square Garden when NBA free agency opens July 1. LeBron James is a Yankees fan, and has a special pair of Yankee-styled Nikes.

”If there’s Yankees that want to help us, we would involve them,” Walsh told the New York Post.

James’ good friend Jay-Z echoed Jeter’s sentiment on recruitment. ”That’s his decision,” the hip-hop mogul and part owner of the New Jersey Nets said in a Rolling Stone interview. ”We’re friends, we’ve still gotta hang out! I don’t want to convince somebody to do something, then have to see him and say, ‘Uh, yeah, we’re 4-30 … sorry.”’

CC Sabathia is also friends with James, but admitted he didn’t know what he’d say to persuade James to pick New York.

”You don’t have to sell winning in New York,” Derek Jeter said.

When it was pointed out to Jeter that since he has won in New York, James could find out about how special it is, Jeter still didn’t budge. Jeter hypothetically compared it to if he were going to be recruited by one of the Los Angeles teams and Magic Johnson called him.

”If I were going to another baseball team, how would a basketball player help?” Jeter said. ”I don’t play basketball. I have nothing to do with that.”

Unaware of Walsh’s comments at the time he spoke about James…

That will be the dilemma the Yankees will find themselves into come game time.

Oh yes, the 2010 MLB baseball season is already underway and on Tuesday night, the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox will renew their heated rivalry at Fenway Park. However, the Yankees will probably have other issues to settle within their camp first because for the first time since Posada and Burnett argued on the very same field at Fenway Park, the Yankees are pairing them up again.

You read it, there’s some sort of dissension going on for quite a while within the New York Yankees roster. Although the Yankees have denied it, it’s obvious that Yankees catcher Jorge Posada and Yankees pitcher A.J. Burnett won’t be exchanging Christmas cards on December.

The last time Jorge Posada were catching A.J. Burnett’s balls (jeez… that didn’t sound right did it?..) they were pounded by the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, 14-1. The loss was so disappointing that Posada and Burnett ended up arguing over what pitches to call right then and there on the mound at Fenway.

After almost a year, Jorge Posada and A.J. Burnett will find themselves across each other again as Yankees team manager Joe Girardi has paired them up for another shot at their rivals from Boston. And for those people who still believe not everything is fine and dandy between Posada and Burnett, the former says he’s excited to catch Burnett’s balls again.

”It’s perfect. Let’s get it out of the way right away,” Jorge Posada said on…

Well, it’s a little too early to answer that.

The fact of the matter is, it’ll be awfully hard for the Philadelphia Phillies to recapture the form they had when they won the National League coming to the 2010 MLB baseball season.

STILL, with the Philadelphia Phillies adding Roy Halladay, you can’t help but accept the fact that these guys are still the team to beat in the NL. They are still serious contenders to go all the way in 2010. Not only does the addition of arguably the best pitcher in baseball enhance their chances, but have you seen their line-up lately?

Aside from the addition of Roy Halladay, the Phillies’ roster this season consists of Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorimo, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Raul Ibanez, Jayson Werth, Placido Polanco, and their only real hole besides the pitcher hitting, Carlos Ruiz.

It’s a modern day ”Murderer’s Row.” Halladay and the rest of the Phillies staff will have a lot of run support. If Cole Hamels can get back to his 2008 self, he and Halladay will be one of the best pitching tandems in all of baseball. Switching to the National League should be more advantageous for Halladay since there won’t be a DH. Plus, his experience pitching to teams like the Yankees and the Red Sox should make pitching against any NL team easy.

But if there’s one team who can challenge Philly in the National League, it would have to be the St. Louis Cardinals.

This team flat out knows how to get things done, consistently plugging…

With Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui no longer part of the Yankees, can these guys return to the World Series this year?

That is the question most Yankee fans are asking themselves as we kick off the brand new 2010 MLB baseball season. Will the key additions of Javier Vasquez and Curtis Granderson be enough to fill the holes Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui left on the roster?

Without a shadow of a doubt, both Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui were keys in the Yankees’ World Series run in 2009. Hell, Matsui was the 2009 World Series MVP for crying out loud. Thankfully, the Yankees are deep enough on both offense and with pitching that they can probably afford to lose out on those key elements on their title run heading to the season.

While some will remember Vazquez’s bad first go-around with the New York Yankees, things will be drastically different in that he won’t be counted on to be the ace or even second-best pitcher on the team. He’ll be the fourth starter behind CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, and Andy Pettitte. There is no questioning Vazquez’s stuff and the second tour on duty with the Bronx Bombers should be a lot smoother.

Granderson can do a lot of things on offense, but would be so much better if he could hit lefties (.210 career batting average). Yet, in a lineup that includes Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Cano, Jorge Posada, and newly (re)-acquired Nick Johnson, Granderson will be alright.

And so will the Yankees as they have a great shot to…

For some reason, the National League always plays second fiddle to the American League because its counterpart has the Yankees and the Red Sox.

Coming to the 2010 MLB baseball season, teams from the National League will once again have the opportunity to outshine those more popular teams from the American League. Yup, betting on these NL teams won’t be that bad of an idea at all.

So which of these NL teams are worth the buck? What about the Los Angeles Dodgers? For the Dodgers, the contract extension of Joe Torre was a huge lift to their spirits. And with Torre still on board, I can’t see any reason why this team will fall from grace anytime soon.

Torre, who originally figured to retire following the 2009 season, said he had committed to a one-year extension that will take his current deal through 2011. Torre’s agent, Maury Gostfrand, and the Dodgers are working on the financial details.

When Joe Torre originally signed a three-year contract to manage the Dodgers starting in the 2008 season, he only intended on managing two of those years. He structured the deal that way because he didn’t want to feel like a lame-duck manager after just one year in Los Angeles.

But then the Dodgers advanced to the NL Championship Series in 2008 and 2009, prompting Torre to stick around and see what might happen next. Even before seeing the results of the 2010 season, he wants to make sure he’s around for one more year.

Make no mistake, though, Torre will manage in 2011 and then…

And as always, these early picks are brought to you by those guys from SPORTSBETTING.com. (Because they really don’t have anything else to do…)

In case you haven’t noticed, the 2010 MLB baseball season is just around the corner. The last time I was mildly interested in a baseball game, the Yankees won the World Series so it’s only fitting that we kick off this one with them Yankees and their chances to go have their re-peat.

The New York Yankees are the perennial favorites to capture the American League pennant and after winning the World Series last season, it’s no surprise that they are once again favored to capture the pennant again in 2010.

However, the Yanks will have a big distraction this season. As it stands, star shortstop Derek Jeter is going into the final year of his deal with them pinstripes and you can bet it will continue to be a distraction until the situation with is resolved.

”I was a Yankees fan growing up. This is where I want to be,” Jeter told the media as he was prepping for spring training in Tampa, Florida. ”I’ve never envisioned myself playing anywhere else, and hopefully I don’t have to.”

It’s doubtful that the Yanks would allow Jeter to leave but then again, former Boston Red Sox player Johnny Damon said he would never sign with the Yankees and he did. The Bronx Bombers are currently listed as the odds-on at +150 to represent the AL in this season’s World Series but if they lose a guy like Jeter, it’ll be awfully hard to win anything.

But hey, at least they still have Alex Rodriguez right? At this point…

Why now? Well, McGwire probably wants to be in the MLB Hall of Fame and he probably thinks doing this is his ticket.

After losing out on the Hall of Fame voting for God knows how many times already, Mark McGwire felt it was time to finally admit to the very thing that has cast a shadow over what was once a stellar MLB career.

Yup, he finally admitted of using steroids during the time he and Sammy Sosa were blasting all them balls out of the park. He finally came clean people. But what difference does this make, we all knew he was on steroids anyway when he broke the home run record back in 1998 right?

McGwire said in an interview that he used steroids on and off the field for nearly a decade. But he believes the drugs didn’t gave him more power to hit home runs. As far as he’s concerned, his ability to hit home runs is a God given gift. Yeah, suuure it is.

”I was given a gift to hit home runs,” McGwire told Bob Costas on the MLB Network. He also told Costas that studying pitchers and making his swing shorter led to his increase in home runs and that he could have hit them without PEDs.

”I truly believe so,” McGwire said. ”I believe I was given this gift. The only reason I took steroids was for health purposes.”

Jeez… He’s almost as bad a liar as Manny Pacquiao…

Two of the best all-around baseball teams collide as the New York Yankees slug it out against the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 6.

That’s right, the 2009 MLB World Series is on as the Yankees and the Phillies play in what is shaping up to be an interesting championship face-off, to say the least. With fans from New York on one side and Philly fans on the other, you can almost smell a brawl brewing.

But who has the advantage? Sure, the New York Yankees are having a terrific season considering that just a few months ago, Alex Rodriguez was in the middle of controversies involving performance enhancing drugs. But do they have enough to dethrone the defending champs?

The Philadelphia Phillies are looking to win it all again after winning the title last year. They have assembled enough talent to bring themselves back in the big dance. This time they have the Bronx Bombers from New York challenging them for the title. Can they make quick work of the Yankees like they did the Tampa Bay Rays last year?

These two teams boast two of the best hitting lineups in the game.

For the Phillies, they have some great hitters including Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, and Shane Victorino. However, the most powerful and feared bat in their lineup is the incomparable Ryan Howard…

62-game regular season. Check. American and National League divisional series. Check. AL and NL championship series. Check.

When the New York Yankees defeated the L.A. Angels 5-2 in Game 6 of the ALCS, they have not only won the AL Pennant and booked a date with the Philadelphia Phillies in the 2009 MLB World Series, they ensured that two of pro sports’ most obnoxious fans would see their teams vying for the title this year.

Online sportsbooks have set the series prices and no big surprise here, the New York Yankees are reasonably steep favorites. New York is at -190 while the Phillies, vying for back-to-back titles, are +165.

However, with the Philadelphia Phillies winning Game 1 convincingly, 6-1, we expect these lines to move dramatically in the next few days.

By virtue of the AL’s 4-3 victory in the 2009 MLB All-Star game, the New York Yankees had homefield to start off the Fall Classic, which began Wednesday. In the opener, the Yankees were a -165 favorite while Philadelphia is a +150 ‘dog with the Over/Under set at 8.

So those of you who wagered on the Phillies and on the Under are probably having a delightful evening just about now.

In the last 10 meetings overall between the Yankees and the Phillies, they have posted a mark of 2 Overs and 8 Unders. Yankee fans, however, shouldn’t fret yet. New York is still looking good to get back at the defending champs.

In the Bronx Bombers’ last 10 home games overall, they are…

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