Jonathan Papelbon should probably keep his mouth shut.

After Hank Steinbrenner criticized Red Sox Nation in The Times’ Play magazine a few weeks ago, Papelbon railed into Hank. “I don’t know if he’s trying to stir things up or not,” the Bosox closer said. “I sure as hell don’t care, because he sure as hell hasn’t stepped on a baseball field. He needs to just stick to pencil-pushing, I guess.”

Hank fired back in a Post article.

“Being insulted by Papelbon is like being attacked by a mouse,” Steinbrenner said. “John Henry and I traded a couple of jabs good-naturedly. So now, all of a sudden, this player, this 20-something kid who really doesn’t know his way in the world, comes out with a personal insult. There’s no excuse for that.”

I have a feeling that if you were to ask the Red Sox their thoughts on this, they’d probably tell Papelbon to stay out of this. Let the big boys argue; you play the game on the field.

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Via a press release:

Shelley Duncan of the Yankees has been suspended for three games and fined an undisclosed amount for his violent and reckless actions, which incited the bench-clearing incident. Unless appealed, Duncan’s suspension is scheduled to begin on Monday, March 31st, when the Yankees host the Toronto Blue Jays in their first game of the 2008 Championship Season.

Jonny Gomes of the Rays has been suspended for two games and fined an undisclosed amount for his violent actions, which escalated the bench-clearing incident. Unless appealed, the suspension of Gomes is scheduled to begin on Monday, March 31st, when the Rays play at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore in their first game of the 2008 Championship Season.

Melky Cabrera of the Yankees has been suspended for three games and fined an undisclosed amount for his violent and aggressive actions during the incident. Unless appealed, Cabrera’s suspension is scheduled to begin on Monday, March 31st.

So Jonny Gomes gets two games for sprinting in from right field and escalating the incident while Duncan and Melky get three. That seems wrong to me.

In related news, Shelley Duncan says he will continue his aggressive play even while the Yankee veterans have asked him to tone it down. This could become an issue over the course of the season, and it will test Joe Girardi’s abilities to keep his players in line.

Speculation is that the Yanks will go with an outfield of Matsui in left and Damon in center with Giambi DHing on Opening Day. I have a feeling the Yanks may figure out a way to work Brett Gardner into that lineup instead, but we’ll see. Melky, have you ever heard of Wally Pipp? Careful out there with those punches.

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From Ken Rosenthal: The Yanks are close to a four-year deal with Robinson Cano. This would buy out all of his arbitration years for $30 million. Rosenthal says that the contract will include an option or two that will allow the Yanks to buy out some of Cano’s free agency.

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Why the man continues to be rewarded I’ll never understand. But the owners have spoken, and they’ve decided to extend Bud Selig’s reign as commissioner through 2012. I remember back in the early 90s when he became acting commissioner, my father said that the owners loved him because he was so easily manipulated.

George Steinbrenner weighed in on the success of Bud Selig:

“In my 35 years in the game, baseball has never had better leadership than it does right now,” Yankees principal owner George Steinbrenner said. “Bud’s ability to bring people together has steered the game to remarkable popularity and prosperity, and I am very pleased that he will carry on as commissioner for the next five years.”

I wonder what his son has to say about it. Kat O’Brien, where art thou?

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Two stories of note as the Jim Leyritz saga continues. None of the news is good for the former Yankee and one-time World Series hero.

Leo Standora at the Daily News notes that Leyritz’s BAC was twice the legal limit three hours after his fatal auto accident in December. The details are a bit chilling:

Fort Lauderdale cops said Wednesday a blood test taken nearly three hours after the 3:20 a.m. collision registered a .14 alcohol level. The legal limit in Florida is .08. The amount of alcohol in blood reaches its highest level about an hour after drinking.

A second blood test taken at 7:12 a.m., nearly four hours after the crash showed a .13 level…

Investigators who charged Leyritz with manslaughter said he was clearly drunk, citing his “red watery eyes, flushed face and the odor of an alcoholic beverage.” Leyritz stumbled, couldn’t follow instructions from cops, and missed three of six attempts to touch his nose with his finger, police said.

Still, his lawyer has said the case is “certainly not a slam dunk.” David Bogenschutz scoffed at the notion client had no defense.

I’m not a lawyer — yet, at least — but I have no idea what sort of defense Leyritz’s lawyers are going to conjure up here. It seems to me that they would be better off accepting a plea deal.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports that Fort Lauderdale police have said that Leyrtiz will face an additional manslaughter charge. Based on my reading of the Florida sentencing guidelines and the state’s definition of manslaughter as a felony of the second degree, Leyritz may be facing up to an additional 15 years in prison.

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If Bruce Sutter can do it, Goose can do it better. The former Yanks reliever was elected to the baseball Hall of Fame today. He was on 466 of 543 ballots, or 85.8 percent. Jim Rice, Andre Dawson, and Bert Blyleven were the next three. Rice came very close at 72.2 percent, just 14 votes shy.

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When last we saw Rudy Giuliani’s attempting to mix baseball and politics, he had managed to alienate Yankee fans by declaring his support for the Red Sox in the World Series. With the importance of New Hampshire in the presidential nomination cycle, Rudy needed to appeal to those New England voters any way he could.

Now, on the eve of the primary election in New Hampshire and with Rudy’s New Hampshire support all but gone (See Page 4 of that PDF), Rudy’s campaign is again suffering from baseball blunders. According to a story in the New York Post, Rudy’s campaign supporters in New Hampshire are wearing Yankee gear while trying to get Red Sox fans to vote for their candidate. Oops.

Kenneth Lovett of the Post had a great anonymous quote from someone in New Hampshire. “Some people really don’t think,” the source said. “You’re in the middle of Red Sox Nation wearing stuff from their enemy. It’s absolutely ridiculous. Can you image if people were running around The Bronx in Red Sox hats?”

While I have to take this anonymous Post story with a large grain of salt, I love this stuff. While some residents of New Hampshire and some residents of New York may both want Rudy in the White House, once baseball enters the picture, all bets are off.

Hat tip to Nick-YF at Yanksfan vs Soxfan.

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When the Yankees’ season unceremoniously ended at the hands of the Cleveland Indians in October, Bob Sheppard was out with a long bout of laryngitis. Until today, we hadn’t heard anything about Bob, and I had just assumed he had gotten better. If he had gotten worse, the news would be out there. In a weekend mailbag, Peter Abraham confirms that assumption: According to Yanks’ Media Director Jason Zillo, “Mr. Sheppard is feeling much better and is scheduled to resume his position behind the mic for Opening Day.” Phew.

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Jim Leyritz was reportedly arrested on suspicion of DUI and vehicular homicide early Friday morning. Miami’s Local 10 has more:

Police said Jim Leyritz was behind the wheel of a Ford SUV that collided with another vehicle at the intersection of Southwest Seventh Avenue and Second Street in the Himmarshee area of downtown Fort Lauderdale.

The impact caused the other car to roll over and the female driver of that vehicle was ejected and she died after being taken to Broward General Medical Center, police said.

Leyritz, a fan favorite when he played in the Bronx, currently works for MLB.com. Things do not look good for the King right now.

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A couple of things for you to devour on your lunch break, since nothing much is going on in Yankeeland:

• Some people aren’t too happy with current plans to replace the 22 acres of park used for New Yankee Stadium. The plan, as it stands now, is to put an artificial field atop Garage A, along with handball courts, basketball courts, a 400-meter track, and children’s play equipment. One side says that it’s not the same as an open-field park with real grass and trees. The other side says that “the rooftop park is all recreation activities, where you wouldn’t have a lot of trees anyway.” Plus, they say, a street-level park would likely be designed with artificial turf, anyway.
• Fans in Schenectady, NY, will be able to see 21 games next year on MyTV4. Is this the upstate equivalent of My9?
• If you’re going to hawk a Mickey Mantle card on eBay, make sure you can deliver the goods, lest ye end up in the slammer.

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