Saturday Open Thread

I’m a few days late on this, but don’t miss Andrew Marchand’s piece on Jean Afterman, the Yankees longtime assistant general manager. She was instrumental in getting Alfonso Soriano to the Yankees, but from the other side of the table — she worked for Soriano’s agent at the time and helped find a loophole that allowed him to leave the Hiroshima Carp in Japan and sign with the Yankees. After being hired by Brian Cashman, she helped lure Hideki Matsui to the Bronx. “You go east. But if you don’t come back with him, you just keep heading east. Don’t ever turn around,” said George Steinbrenner to Afterman before she left to recruit Matsui in Japan. Make sure you check it out. Really great stuff.

Here is an open thread for the rest of the day. The Mets are playing later and MLB Network is showing regional games throughout the afternoon and evening. The NBA playoffs begin today with a bunch of games on ABC and ESPN while the NHL playoffs continue with games on NBC and NBCSN. The (hockey) Rangers aren’t playing today though. Talk about those games, this afternoon’s win, or anything else here as long as it’s not religion or politics.