As spring training begins, almost every fan can still believe that their team will end up lifting one of these at the end of the season.

This Valentine’s Day baseball fans will all be getting a gift that keeps on giving: Pitchers and catchers report on the 14th!

Baseball is truly a fickle mistress. It can bring joys like no other with something like a game tying homerun and then, in the flick of an inning ending double play, it can bring great sorrow. But with spring around the corner and full-on spring training less than a week away, baseball brings all sorts of hope of renewal. Warmer, longer days are almost here and every fans’ team still has a chance (except, of course, if your root for the Mets, Mariners or Pirates).

Happy Valentine’s Day baseball fans.

The Hall of Fame argument is for another day. For now, here are some numbers to reflect on: 240-138 (.635) record and 3.88 ERA (3,055.1 IP, 1,317 ER) in 479 starts over 16 Major League seasons with the Yankees (1995-2003 and ‘07-10) and Houston Astros (2004-06). Five World Series championships with the Yankees. The all-time winningest pitcher in postseason history, going 19-10 with a 3.83 ERA in 42 career starts.

Not much else to say, but: Thanks Andy. This Yankee fan will miss you.

While I think there is still some life in both of those old bats, they’ll add a little character to the clubhouse and (at least in Damon’s case) some veteran leadership. I’ve always liked Johnny even when he played on the hated Sawx. After Boston won that World Series in 2004 (a baseball season I like to pretend never happened), I had a dream that Damon came to my office, gave me a hug and told me it would all be okay. And it was; five years later when he helped the Yankees win the championship.

From an injury perspective it remains to be seen if both of them will be able to stay healthy enough to truly contribute. Damon will actually be playing the outfield and that artificial turf at Tropicana Field is not going to do his aging knees any favors. Manny, well, who knows? He was on the DL three times last year and if manager Joe Maddon thought Rafael Soriano was a diva…

Of course, the reaction among some of my fellow Yankee fans has been quite amusing. You would think the Rays had indeed signed the ’04 version of these players with all the handwringing that’s going on at message boards such as NYYFans. It’s not like the Yankees don’t have an already potent offense with Teixeira, A-Rod, Cano and Posada. I mean come on those players are such hacks. And hey, maybe Tampa can convince Kevin Millar to come out of retirement and really strike terror in the hearts of Yankee universe. Look out for those Ray Sox people!

That’s fine. There is no reason to make a silly trade for the sake of just doing something. Plus, the Yankees have made some moves to help the club. Below I take a look at some of those moves.

Rafael Soriano

The reliever is the biggest name the Yankees have acquired this offseason. There has been much ado about how Cashman didn’t want to make this deal because of the loss of a first round draft pick and how he was overruled by management. The number 31 draft pick is not really my issue with this $35 million contract. It’s the opt-out clause after year one that annoys me. Of course, if Soriano does opt out, the Yankees get that draft pick back. They can also trade him wherever they want, as the contract does not have a no-trade clause.

There has been talk about Soriano’s bad attitude and how he’d get all uppity when Rays manager Joe Maddon would use him in non-save situations. Well, now he’s going to be a set-up man to the greatest closer in baseball history. The Yankees think Mariano Rivera can be both a calming influence and a mentor. He’ll also be in a veteran locker room with several guys (Rivera included) who can hold up a hand-full of World Series rings. Will it work, we’ll see; however, I still think this is a pretty solid move. It gives the Yankees a great bullpen that they’ll probably need given the state of the rotation.

Pedro Feliciano

Speaking of the bullpen, the Yankees were able to add another lefty specialist to the team. Feliciano makes the trip across town from Flushing joining fellow lefty Boone Logan. Feliciano has limited opposing lefty hitters to a .214 batting average in his career and did not surrender a home run to them in 139 chances last season. Over his Major League career, Feliciano is 22-19 with four saves and a 3.31 ERA. Plus, having played for the Mets, we know he can handle distractions.

Andruw Jones

It was announced yesterday that Andruw Jones had signed with the Yanks to be their fourth outfielder. Jones is a defensive upgrade over Marcus Thames. While Jones probably lacks a little of Thames’ pop, the Bombers really do need a right-handed alternative to spell Brett Gardner or Curtis Granderson against a tough lefty. Is he the Jones of 2005? No, but he’s still an improvement over Thames.

Mark Prior

Hey, it is like it’s 2005… Still, it’s a nice, low risk Minor League deal. If the righty makes the team it will most likely be as a member of the bullpen, but I suppose you never know. Prior could make a comeback and be part of the rotation. I believe in second chances.

Russell Martin

Okay, I can’t read his name without hearing it said in the voice of legendary announcer Vin Scully. Sorry Russell that Michael Kay is not quite up there with the Dodger icon. Anyway, Martin looks to be the starting catcher now that Jorge Posada has been relegated to DH status. Of course, if top catching prospect Jesus Montero lives up to his potential it could be an interesting battle behind the plate.

Martin, 27, started off his career with a lot of promise, but has since been middling. He claims there were a lot of “distractions” in L.A. that made him get off track. Good thing there’ll be none of those in New York. Either way, the Yankees will have another veteran presence at the backstop and Posada should be able to stay healthy enough to keep his powerful switch-hitting bat in the Yankee lineup.

The reason I dislike the lack of DH in the National League is because the vast majority of pitchers can’t hit. I’m not talking a light-hitting, back-up catcher kind of batting average. I’m talking below the Mendoza line hitting. In 2008, the average batting average for pitchers in the National League was .140. Only the Chicago Cubs pitchers were above the Mendoza line at .206 thanks mainly to Carlos Zambrano’s .337 average; however, the Carlos Zambranos of the world are the anomalies.

Many fans say they love the whole ebb and flow that goes on in the later innings of a close game in the NL when the manager has to decide whether to keep their ace in the order during a key spot or switch him out for a pinch hitter. I get that. Yet it bores me to tears in the earlier innings when there’s a bases loaded situation with two outs and the pitcher comes up because 99 percent of the time, he’s as good as an automatic out.

I’m not asking for every pitcher to hit as well as Zambrano or Mike Hampton or Orel Hershiser. I’d be happy with a respectable .250 average. I also don’t need the pitcher to be a home run threat (although I admit it is fun to watch when they do go deep). It would just be nice if they could do more than lay down a bunt every now and then.

Oh, and can there also be a rule where pitchers aren’t allowed to wear jackets while they’re on base. That just looks silly.

Actually, yes; just ask Randy Johnson, a.k.a. the Big Unit. It got me thinking about all the dirty sounding expressions sports people use without batting an eye and I began to make a list (because, let’s face it, that Mariners game was far from compelling).

So because spring training is still well over a month away, Andy Pettitte has yet to announce whether or not he will return to the Yankee rotation and frankly, I’m bored, I give you my favorite, top 10 dirty sounding baseball terms.

1. The good wood

2. The big bats

3. High, hard one

4. Shoot one in the hole

5. Bring the lumber

6. Drilled him

7. Could go all the way

8. Fisted one

9. Flash some leather

10. He has soft hands

Of course, there are more, but these are the ones that seem particularly dirty to me. What are your faves?

Injuries

Ask the 2010 Red Sox about that one. They had the Pawtucket gang out there for a good chunk of last season. You never know when guys are going to pull up lame on their way to first base or suddenly grab an elbow on the mound. Two important parts of the Red Sox lineup are coming back from an injury-plagued season: Kevin “Melon Head” Youkilis and little Dusty Pedroia. Even with some new free-agent blood, these guys need to stay healthy to keep the Sox in contention.

The Phillies have three very good pitchers in Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt, but all of them are on the wrong side of 30. Lee had some back issues last year that landed him on the DL, which is a little troublesome. Also Halladay, who is considered a workhorse, has consistently logged a ton of innings and dealt with some groin problems. He’s 33 and it could affect his durability. Plus, the Phillies core bats are also in their 30s.

Are these teams that much better?

If the Red Sox stay healthy, in many cases they have traded like for like. Catcher Victor Martinez and third baseman Adrian Beltre are both gone. In their place (sort of) are outfielder Carl Crawford and first baseman Adrian Gonzalez. They’ve also added Jarrod Saltalamacchia behind the plate, but the Sawx still don’t have a catcher who can throw out a runner. And as one writer jokingly pointed out, Crawford’s stolen base numbers will go down now that he won’t be playing against the Red Sox. (He once stole six bases against Boston in a single game.) Their rotation remains the same, but beyond Buchholz and Lester, the rest of the starters (Beckett, Lackey and Dice-K) are a crapshoot.

As for Philadelphia, behind an admittedly powerful, one-two punch of Halladay and Lee, I’m not as wowed. Cole Hamels was frustrating in a bad way in 2009 and while he seemed to return to form last year, his record was just over .500, 12-11. I don’t get the love for Roy Oswalt. He’s a solid pitcher, but not particularly awe-inspiring. I think he got some new life coming over to Philadelphia, but it will be interesting to see how he fairs in year two. Finally, those Phillie sluggers are prone to ice-cold bat syndrome. Remember mid-season when the likes of Utley and Howard couldn’t buy a hit?

The short series

If both teams make it to the postseason and, barring injuries (see above) I think they will, the short series can be a killer. An injury here, a slump or two there can derail the best team’s championship run. Add in a hot wild card team that’s been on a streak since season’s end and the best of five series can be a killer.

The San Francisco Giants

Okay, who actually predicted that the Giants would win the Fall Classic? I don’t even think long-suffering, die-hard Giants fans saw that one coming. I bet even now very few pundits are predicting them to repeat; however, San Francisco’s pitching is a force to be reckoned with and Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum and Madison Bumgarner, as well as closer Brian Wilson, are all under 30. The Giants could do it again. After all, as Yankees radio announcer John Sterling says (over and over and over again), “You just can’t predict baseball.”

I did care that Cliff Lee decided to sign with Philadelphia instead of New York enough to be annoyed by it for 24 hours and I did want to write about it, but I haven’t quite been in the zone. It’s been a year of transition for me, leaving my family and friends behind and moving to a city that, to be honest, I had never even considered would be a place I’d end up. I walked away from a job I had been at for 14 years and went back to school to try and make a bit of a career change. Don’t worry, though. I’m not going to use my transition as a literary transition to discuss how the Yankees may be in transition this season. That would be lame.

While baseball is a good distraction for me when things get crazy, I think for once the craziness in my life distracted me from baseball instead. However, I recently got a gentle reminder of why I love baseball so much. It came from a somewhat unlikely source: Alyssa Milano. Yeah, that’s right, Miss “Who’s the Boss” herself.

I follow Alyssa Milano on Twitter. Snicker if you must, but she is actually is one of the more interesting of the celebrity Twits. We also have a little bit in common (and it’s not being former Japanese pop stars). We are both transplanted New Yorkers of Italian descent living on the West Coast who learned to love the game from their fathers. While that may be where the similarities end, I appreciate that her passion for the game is not just hawking her Touch line of sports-related clothing for women. She’s an avid L.A. Dodgers fan and can be found in the stands at most of their home games.

She recently tweeted about a book she wrote about baseball, Safe at Home. Initially, I thought: Great, another celebrity gets a book deal. But I perused it online and while it’s no literary masterpiece, I enjoyed some of her musings. I especially liked that she admitted to loving the game more than the Dodgers specifically. I can relate to that.

I love the Yankees, but I also love baseball even more. I can watch almost any game. Back in New York, I’d turn on the Mets when the Yankee game was over or if they weren’t playing. Later I’d turn on the MLB Network to catch their glimpses into ongoing games. I’d fall asleep with ESPN showing a match-up between two West Coast teams I knew little about, like the Rockies and the Diamondbacks. This past summer, I’d watch the Yankees online and then put on the Mariners game even though their TV announcers make me want to poke out my eardrums. During the winter, I can’t wait until they start showing the Caribbean World Series.

I had been distracted, but I was reminded. Now I can get back to what’s important… and also start bitch slapping all the fools who have, without a single pitch being thrown, declared a Phillies/Red Sox World Series in 2011.

I’m a big fan of Tim Lincecum, a Washington State native and former UDub Husky who also looks like he could be a member of my family. Timmy is a lot of fun to watch pitch and embodies that laid-back, west-coast lifestyle in his demeanor. I also love Matt Cain, who looks like he just got up out of bed and threw on his uniform. I got to see Cain pitch in person a few years ago during a trip to San Francisco, back when Barry Bonds was still the face of the Giants.

No longer will Charlie Brown have to exclaim, "Good Grief!" when talking about the SF Giants.

It was always hard for me to take a liking to the Giants when Bonds was lumbering around the outfield with his enormous head (both in the literal and the figurative sense). It wasn’t just that he was the poster boy for PEDs, it was his surly demeanor and “the world has wronged me” attitude that made him so unpalatable.

But this Giants team isn’t about Bonds; it’s about life after Bonds and some amazing young pitchers. And that’s what makes them so much fun: they look like they’re having fun. Even Brian Wilson and his stupid facial hair and silly hand jesters (yeah, I know it’s some tribute to his dead father and God) grew on me, although I still think he’s a tool.

Speaking of tools… An added bonus was getting to witness (because we’re all witnesses, aren’t we Nike) the pouting faces of Texas’ Nolan Ryan and W. (Well, mostly Ryan because I don’t think George W. Bush’s expression ever really changes from that dopey smirk.) That made it all worthwhile for me. Thanks San Francisco!

As much as it’s difficult for me to get behind a team with connections to W that has embraced silly hand antlers as some sort of rallying cry, the Rangers played well and deserved to win the pennant. Although one note: Ranger fans, you can’t chant “You took steroids” to Alex Rodriguez and then cheer for players like Rafael Palmeiro, Juan Gonzalez and Pudge Rodriguez when they are shown on the Jumbotron. But then again everything’s bigger in Texas, right?

The Yankees rarely looked like the Yankees during much of this series. In fact, most of this season I just didn’t get that same feeling I got from the ’09 team. The ’10 version lacked last year’s magic and spark.

I love my boys and will support them to the end, but they played a horrible ALCS. The worst part of the Yankees losing were the haters (most of whom are bitter Mets fans) that came out in full force on Facebook. They posted messages like: “28 DENIED” and “Start singing the blues.” Sorry, but unless you’re a fan of the Rangers, you have no bragging rights and just sound pathetic.

Speaking of pathetic… after the Yankees lost, ESPN’s Seth Everett posted on his Twitter account: “10 years ago, I just KNEW the Texas Rangers would win the American League Pennant w/ Alex Rodriguez on the field. And he was at the plate!” Yeah, right Seth, you knew or you wished?

I would normally dismiss such a silly statement, especially by an ESPN hack, but Mr. Everett is a tad obsessed with Mr. Rodriguez. From listening to him on the “Baseball Today” podcast, I’ve learned that Everett spent some time covering the Seattle Mariners during their glory days of Griffey Jr. (version 1.0), Randy Johnson and Alex Rodriguez (the shortstop version). Apparently there was some perceived slight that Everett received from A-Rod when the player was about to become a free agent.

Instead of taking the high road and letting whatever it was go, Everett has become obsessed with A-Rod. He hasn’t even been on the podcast for a year yet and I’ve lost track at the amount of times he’s gone out of his way to bash the third baseman.

The saddest instance, however, was when he went on Michael Kay‘s radio show this summer after A-Rod hit his 600th home run. Everett told his little tale and then wanted to go on and on about how disingenious Rodriguez was and how he was only out for himself… blah, blah, blah.

To his credit, Kay (of whom I’m not a huge fan either) wouldn’t let him. He kept saying “So?” and pointing out that most players are out for themselves so why call out Alex. In the end, Everett looked petty… just like last night.

So how about this: Seth, if I get A-Rod to send you a pretty little Hallmark card with a nice handwritten apology and perhaps a box of snickerdoodles, will you let it go? I know I was happy to get a consolation present from Ron Washington last night after the Yankees were eliminated. I haven’t opened it yet, but it seems to have a picture of a seal on it.