Derek Jeter's Historic 3,000th Hit! Christian Lopez Catches!

Derek Jeter's 3,000 hit ball nabbed by Christian Lopez at Yankee Stadium

It was the perfect birthday present for a lifelong Yankees fan like Christian Lopez: The historic baseball drilled by Derek Jeter for his 3,000th hit.

And while Lopez was thrilled by the gift, he wasted no time in returning the irreplaceable baseball Saturday afternoon to the future Hall of Famer.

"He deserved this," Lopez said in an interview on the YES Network. "He worked so hard for this. He's been in the league for so long. I'm not really the kind to take something away from him.

"He earned it."

Lopez, in a touch the Yankees captain would appreciate, outhustled the crazed crowd in Section 236 to snag Jeter's history-making homer.

His father - wearing a Joe DiMaggio No. 5 throwback jersey - offered some protection by hurling himself on Lopez's back once the ball was firmly in hand.

"It's amazing," the Highland Mills, N.Y., resident, told the Daily News, beaming from ear to ear while keeping a death grip on the ball. "I just picked it up off the floor."

Lopez, 23, was sitting in the first row of his section in left field - the luckiest seat in the stadium - when Jeter's third-inning solo blast landed.

"We bought him tickets a couple of weeks ago for his birthday, as a present," said Lopez's girlfriend, Tara Johnson. "He's a huge Yankees fan."

Asked about the moment her boyfriend snagged the one-of-a-kind baseball, Johnson said simply, "It was awesome."

Although Lopez insisted he wanted nothing in return for the ball, the Yankees provided him with four seats in a Yankee Stadium suite for the rest of the season - including the playoffs and World Series.

Lopez - wearing a Yankees baseball cap - was accompanied by his dad and his girlfriend to the afternoon game against the Rays.

He was quickly hustled out of the stands by Yankees security and a city police officer.

A sold-out Yankee Stadium exploded in exultation as Jeter wrote a new chapter in the storied franchise's history with his hit - a no-doubt-about-it home run.

The entire Yankees bench poured onto the field to hug Jeter as he crossed home plate in the bottom of the third inning. The crowd howled in delight at the historic blast by their hometown hero.

Mayor Bloomberg joined the chorus by hailing Jeter as a symbol of the city where he's starred for 17 seasons.

"Derek is someone who loves this city and who has a long history of giving back to the place and the people who helped make me the superstar he is," Bloomberg said in a statement.

The 37-year-old future Hall of Famer became the first player to collect 3,000 hits in pinstripes, and only the 28th in the history of baseball.

No. 2,999 came in Jeter's first at-bat, a bouncing single through the left side of the Tampa Bay infield as the stadium crowd stood and cheered.

"It's amazing!" said Richard Martinez, 27, of the Bronx. "It feels great. It means a lot."

The typically taciturn Jeter managed a smile as he was greeted by first base coach Mick Kelleher.

Outside the Bronx ballpark, there were still hard feelings about Friday night's decision to declare a rainout.

"We came to see Derek Jeter," said Giovanni Cortez, 18, who was shut out by Friday's storm. "This sucks."


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Sources: AP, NY Daily News, Youtube, Google Maps

Obama Tosses First Pitch At Washington Nationals-Phillies Game

President Obama Opens Season With Nationals


A hundred years after President William Howard Taft started a baseball tradition with a low ceremonial first pitch, President Barack Obama went in the other direction Monday, sailing a high, wide toss at the Washington Nationals' home opener against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Just as Taft's toss forced pitcher Walter Johnson to make an athletic play, Obama's required Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman to lunge to prevent a wild pitch.

"I was a little disappointed with the pitch. It was high and outside," Obama said during a stint in the booth during the Nationals' television broadcast, joking that he was going for an intentional walk. "Fortunately, Zimmerman has a tall reach."

The president suggested his accuracy would have improved with a longer outing.

"If I had a whole inning, I'm telling you, I would have cleaned up," he said.

Zimmerman was more charitable, calling the pitch "OK. It was a little high and outside, but other than that, he got it there in the air."

He said that after the pitch, the president told him, "I wasn't going to bounce it."

Obama received a loud ovation from the packed crowd, with a few boos scattered in. Earlier, a video montage of presidential pitches in Washington elicited boos when it showed former President George W. Bush.

Obama sported khakis and a Nationals jacket, and when he got to the mound, he donned a cap from his favorite team, the Chicago White Sox.

"Bad touch there," Nationals manager Jim Riggleman said.

Commissioner Bud Selig saw the president before the cap came out.

"I said at one point when he had a Nationals jacket, 'I don't think I've ever been at a game when you didn't have a Sox jacket,' and he said 'I've got something coming,' and sure enough out came the White Sox hat," Selig said.

The president has said that he didn't play organized baseball as a kid and some of the sport's moves don't come naturally to him. Obama prepared for the game by throwing practice pitches to aides at the White House, but he looked awkward in his delivery Monday. On the mound, he double-clutched several times before airing out the pitch.

"I said balk right away," quipped Phillies catcher Brian Schneider.

The president was clearly going to err on throwing it too far rather than too short. He might have been overcompensating for his opening toss at last year's All-Star game in St. Louis, when Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols saved him the embarrassment of a short hop by moving up to scoop a pitch inches off the ground.

Taft got the Opening Day tradition started on April 14, 1910, in a game that also pitted Washington against Philadelphia. But those were different teams and a different league -- the old Nationals, aka original Senators, hosting the Athletics in the American League. Washington won the game, 3-0, behind Walter Johnson's 1-hitter.

From then on, every president through Richard Nixon made at least one Opening Day pitch in the nation's capital, until the expansion Senators left town after the 1971 season. Back then, presidents would make the toss from the stands, not the mound.

Obama saw Washington take a quick 1-0 lead, but the Phillies took control with a five-run fourth inning shortly after he left the ballpark. Philadelphia went on to win, 11-1.


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Sources: Politico, ESPN, Google Maps

Mark McGwire Used Steroids In 1998

Mark McGwire Admits To Steroid Use


Mark McGwire finally came clean Monday, admitting he used steroids when he broke Baseball's Home run record in 1998.

McGwire said in a statement sent to The Associated Press on Monday that he used steroids on and off for nearly a decade.

"I wish I had never touched steroids," McGwire said in a statement. "It was foolish and it was a mistake. I truly apologize. Looking back, I wish I had never played during the steroid era."

McGwire also used human growth hormone, a person close to McGwire said, speaking on condition of anonymity because McGwire didn't include that detail in his statement.

McGwire's decision to admit using steroids was prompted by his decision to become hitting coach of the St. Louis Cardinals, his final big league team. Tony La Russa, McGwire's manager in Oakland and St. Louis, has been among McGwire's biggest supporters and thinks returning to the field can restore the former slugger's reputation.

"I never knew when, but I always knew this day would come," McGwire said. "It's time for me to talk about the past and to confirm what people have suspected."

He became the second major baseball star in less than a year to admit using illegal steroids, following the New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez last February.

Others have been tainted but have denied knowingly using illegal drugs, including Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa and David Ortiz.

Bonds has been indicted on charges he made false statements to a federal grand jury and obstructed justice. Clemens is under investigation by a federal grand jury trying to determine whether he lied to a congressional committee.

"I'm sure people will wonder if I could have hit all those home runs had I never taken steroids," McGwire said. "I had good years when I didn't take any, and I had bad years when I didn't take any. I had good years when I took steroids, and I had bad years when I took steroids. But no matter what, I shouldn't have done it and for that I'm truly sorry."

Big Mac's reputation has been in tatters since March 17, 2005, when he refused to answer questions at a Congressional hearing. Instead, he repeatedly said "I'm not here to talk about the past" when asked whether he took illegal steroids when he hit a then-record 70 home runs in 1998 or at any other time.

"After all this time, I want to come clean," he said. "I was not in a position to do that five years ago in my congressional testimony, but now I feel an obligation to discuss this and to answer questions about it. I'll do that, and then I just want to help my team."

The person close to McGwire said McGwire made the decision not to answer questions at that hearing on the advice of his lawyers.

McGwire disappeared from the public eye following his retirement as a player following the 2001 season. When the Cardinals hired the 47-year-old as coach on Oct. 26, they said he would address questions before spring training, and Monday's statement broke his silence.

"I remember trying steroids very briefly in the 1989/1990 offseason and then after I was injured in 1993, I used steroids again," McGwire said in his statement. "I used them on occasion throughout the '90s, including during the 1998 season."

McGwire said he took steroids to get back on the field, sounding much like the Yankees' Andy Pettitte two years ago when he admitted using HGH.

"During the mid-'90s, I went on the DL seven times and missed 228 games over five years," McGwire said in the statement. "I experienced a lot of injuries, including a ribcage strain, a torn left heel muscle, a stress fracture of the left heel, and a torn right heel muscle. It was definitely a miserable bunch of years, and I told myself that steroids could help me recover faster. I thought they would help me heal and prevent injuries, too."

Since the congressional hearing, baseball owners and players toughened their drug program twice, increasing the penalty for a first steroids offense from 10 days to 50 games in November 2005 and strengthening the power of the independent administrator in April 2008, following the publication of the Mitchell Report.

"Baseball is really different now - it's been cleaned up," McGwire said. "The commissioner and the players' association implemented testing and they cracked down, and I'm glad they did."


Sources: AP, ESPN, Fox Sports

Pres. Obama Fourth President To Throw Out First Pitch At All-Star Game

NBC Sports----

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama plans to throw out the ceremonial first pitch before the All-Star game at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on July 14.

The White House said Tuesday that Major League Baseball's focus on community service matches with Obama's service initiative this summer, known as United We Serve.

"The central theme of the 2009 All-Star game is community service, celebrating the extraordinary work being done by ordinary people," baseball commissioner Bud Selig said. "We are thrilled that we can come together with President Obama, who has encouraged a renewed spirit of national service, and illustrate a call to action in our communities. President Obama will continue a great tradition that joins our nation's leader and the national pastime."

Obama, a White Sox fan, will be the fourth president to throw out the first pitch at an All-Star game, following John F. Kennedy (1962 in Washington), Richard Nixon (1970 in Cincinnati) and Gerald Ford (1976 in Philadelphia).

In addition, Franklin D. Roosevelt attended the 1937 game in Washington, and George H.W. Bush went to the 1991 game at Toronto with Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and the 1992 game at San Diego with President Carlos Salinas de Gortari of Mexico.

Ford (1978 in San Diego) and Ronald Reagan (1989 in Anaheim) attended as former presidents.

Obama didn't accept an invite from the Reds to throw out the first pitch at Saturday's Civil Rights Game in Cincinnati against the Chicago White Sox. The White Sox also were said to have invited Obama before their opener against Kansas City on April 6, and Nationals manager Manny Acta had hoped Obama would throw out the first pich prior to Washington's home opener against Philadelphia on April 13.

As a U.S. Senator, he threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the White Sox defeated the Anaheim Angels 2-1 in Game 2 of the 2005 AL championship series.


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Sources: NBC Sports, Real Clear Sports, Flickr, Google Maps