For his part, Hank betrays no worry about the competition in the American League, whether it’s the Cleveland Indians, who eliminated the Yankees last year; the Detroit Tigers, who added Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis this winter; or, above all, the Red Sox, who have not only won the World Series twice in the last four years but are arguably becoming a national phenomenon. “Red Sox Nation?” Hank says. “What a bunch of [expletive] that is. That was a creation of the Red Sox and ESPN, which is filled with Red Sox fans. Go anywhere in America and you won’t see Red Sox hats and jackets, you’ll see Yankee hats and jackets. This is a Yankee country. We’re going to put the Yankees back on top and restore the universe to order.”

According to an emotional e-mail sent to friends Thursday from Murcer’s wife, Kay, the Yankee broadcaster will undergo a brain biopsy on Monday in Houston after an MRI revealed an “area that doctors are concerned about.”

“Please pray that it will be determined to be necrosis (scar tissue from the radiation), and not another cancerous tumor,” Kay wrote in her e-mail. “It’s one of the two.”

One day after two top-ranking Congressional Committee members sent a letter to the Department of Justice asking it to determine if Roger Clemens committed perjury in sworn testimony, the FBI responded Thursday by launching an official investigation.

According an a report by The Associated Press, the FBI is looking into whether Clemens lied to Congress when he denied taking steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs.

The Congressional Committee that investigated the accuracy of the Mitchell Report on performance-enhancing drugs has sent a letter to the Department of Justice, asking that the top prosecuting arm in the U.S. determine whether Roger Clemens committed perjury in sworn testimony.

The top-ranking Committee members, Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Tom Davis (R-Va.), said in the letter that Clemens "committed perjury and made knowingly false statements during the Oversight and Government Reform Committee's investigation of the use of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs in professional baseball."

8) Just seeing images of Andrew Brackman at ST has us awed. Like you, we at NoMaas placed him in the Top-10 this year despite him undergoing major arm surgery. When talking to talent evaluators, what is/was the buzz about Brackman (not including the rumors of his injury), and what was it that led you to put him in the Top-10 in the end?

I've said many times, he had either the highest ceiling in the '07 draft class or the No. 2 ceiling behind David Price. That said, he got paid too much (whether they had to buy him out of the NBA or not, it was too much), and the other buzz always has been, is this guy going to be the kind of guy who thrives with this target on his back from this contract, in that media market? He seems to be a guy who does not want attention called to himself. That's the half-empty read on him. There are a lot of negatives if you want to nitpick. Bottom line is, he's got an 80 fastball and 70 breaking ball when he's right with sick athleticism and size that can't be taught. He's the classic high-risk, high-reward guy, and the Yankees really believe in him.

“The fans are very important to me,” Hughes said. “Without them, I wouldn’t have a job, basically. I try to give back as much as I can. It’s almost a no-brainer.”

As a homegrown Yankee with talent, Hughes was bound to be popular. But his blog has forged an uncommon connection. A young medium has further endeared a young player to the fans.

"We warn them about putting their private lives in the public arena," GM Brian Cashman said, "because it comes back to haunt you, depending on what you put out there."

And it's entirely possible, said Yankees director of media relations Jason Zillo, that in the very near future blogs could be banned for Yankee players. All it takes is one bad incident.

"It's a way to relate to your fans," Zillo said, "but you need to be hyper sensitive to the type of information you're putting out there and understand there can be ramifications."

Q: Jose Martinez from Suffolk County asks:
Fernando Martinez or Jose Tabata...which player makes their MLB debut first (and what year)?
A: John Manuel: Martinez should get there first but I see both getting there in '09, if things play out as scouts tell us they should. They both are bat-first guys when it's all said and done, and I think Martinez has a bit more offensive upside, but they are pretty close.

Q: bender from NC asks: Where would Brackman have been if healthy?
A: John Manuel: Ceiling-wise, he'd have to be top 10. That said, his career high in IP is 78, so he's a few years away from being big league ready not matter how high his ceiling is—and that would be assuming he was healthy.

Captain speaks out: Derek Jeter must have nothing to hide. Jeter told Bloomberg News on Sunday that not only is he not against conducting blood tests on players for banned substances, he doesn't think it's any invasion of a player's privacy, either.

"You can test for whatever you want to test for," the shortstop said. "We get pricked by needles anyway in Spring Training, so we have a lot of blood work to begin with."

Damon Oppenheimer, the man most responsible for Joba Chamberlain and Ian Kennedy becoming Yankees, was sitting behind his desk recently, recalling the circumstances that allowed him to draft the two pitchers, when suddenly he felt compelled to issue a warning of sorts.

"I hope people realize this isn't the norm," he said, speaking of how quickly Chamberlain and Kennedy rose through the minor league system. "This isn't the way it's going to be every year. I hope everybody's not getting spoiled by this."

Bob Sheppard, the Yankees' venerable public address announcer, recently signed a two-year extension. While he probably won't be ready for Opening Day -- last October's case of pneumonia took a great deal out of him -- Shepherd, believed to be 97, should return about two months into the regular season.

Instead, he plans on playing shortstop through the final three years of his current contract, and on remaining there for however many years he plays beyond 2010.

"That's the plan," Jeter said. "I haven't really thought about how long I'm playing. I take it one year at a time; I don't sit down and say, 'Well, I hope I'm playing in two-thousand whatever.' It's a tough question, because I haven't really thought about it much."

Wang's reps emphasized his 19-win total two straight seasons. They also tried went a little nuts in the hearing room when they described him as "the Michael Jordan of Taiwan,'' and actually produced a graphic depicting how the Taiwanese stock market fluctuated on days he pitched.

As the arbitrators ruled: Who cares about that?

MLB is a $6-billion business, with only about $3 million of that coming from Taiwan. Besides, Wang makes millions in endorsements in Taiwan, separate and apart from his Yankees salary. The Yankees pointed that out, and predictably, Wang suffered a tough loss, a rarity for pitcher who normally enjoys incredible support from his team.

All that playing time doesn’t necessarily make the player more valuable; rather, it increases the certainty with which we can evaluate a player and forecast his future. That doesn’t mean Triple-A Red Sox outfielder Brandon Moss is a better prospect than low Class A Blue Jays outfielder Travis Snider because Moss is closer to the majors—it means there is more certainty to which we can predict the value that Moss will provide to a major league team.

And the closer a player is to the majors, the less there is that can go wrong in his career, be it injuries, on-field problems or issues away from the field. All that said, the idea of anything being “certain” in baseball is somewhat misleading; we’re talking in terms of degrees of confidence.

Despite only occurring once a year, the Yankees vs. Media game has spawned its share of memorable moments in past seasons, including Journal News beat writer Peter Abraham's walk-off home run off Mike Mussina in 2004, Carl Pavano's perfect game in 2005, and a bench-clearing brawl in 2006 that saw Gary Sheffield attack Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan and ESPN Page 2 pop-culture writer Bill Simmons, who lost four teeth and received a gaping head wound that needed 45 stitches to repair.

Rodriguez also denied a claim last week by former Texas teammate John Rocker that doctors from management and the players’ association told A-Rod, Rafael Palmeiro, Ivan Rodriguez and Rocker following a spring training meeting how to effectively use steroids. Rodriguez and Rocker were with the Rangers in 2002.

“That did not happen,” A-Rod said. ...

“Andy is one of the greatest human beings I’ve ever met,” Rodriguez said. “I have two daughters—well, I have one and one on the way. If I had a daughter, I would want ‘em to marry Andy Pettitte. The age difference might be a little awkward, but in today’s day and age anything is possible.”