By now, most fans have heard about the Omaha, N.E. native -- he has a knack for pitching with both arms. And although that's quite an impressive feat, it had nothing to do with him winning a MiLBY for Best Short-Season Reliever.

The Creighton University alum finished his rookie campaign 1-0 with an 0.83 ERA and a New York-Penn League-leading 23 saves, allowing just three earned runs in 30 games with Class A Short-Season Staten Island. Venditte, however, couldn't believe the news.

"This is something my teammates would pull," Venditte laughed after hearing he'd won the award. "But I definitely didn't expect it. It's definitely an honor. I'm very fortunate, and it was a good experience for the summer."

"He made a mistake," Cashman said on Tuesday evening. "He apologized for it. Thank [goodness], no one was hurt, because it's a very serious issue. And I hope that's the end of it." ...

"He's part of our family," Cashman said. "We're going to support him, but at the same time, he knows that stuff like this can't happen."

“I wouldn’t say other than the fact that I did talk to him,” Cashman said. “I’ll leave it at that. … He’s an employee of ours. The sensitivity of some of that stuff, I wouldn’t even get into. Not because of him, but for any of our employees. There’s a proper protocol. … He has our support and that’s defined in a number of different ways.” ...

“I can’t say I’m confident about anything. I wouldn’t represent what goes on in other people’s lives,” Cashman said. “He knows we care a great deal about him. He knows he’s got all the support from us that we can provide because we do care about him. I don’t know what goes on in anybody’s personal life. But he’s part of our family.”

"He made a mistake," Cashman said. "He apologized for it. Thank God no one was hurt. It's a very serious issue. I hope that's the end of it." ...

"He knows that stuff like that can't happen," Cashman said. "And he's the first to admit that. And hopefully it's something he has and will learn from."

Star pitcher Chien-ming Wang and pianist Meng-chieh Liu were among 10 people who were selected Monday as the 10 most outstanding young men and women in Taiwan for 2008.

Wang, a Taiwan-born starting pitcher for the New York Yankees, was chosen in recognition of his outstanding performance in the United States major leagues, said Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng, who was on the panel of judges.

"New York, American League,'' Rollins, an Alameda, Calif. product, said. "They've got enough money, and they need him.''

For the 2008 Trenton Thunder, the Eastern League affiliate of the New York Yankees and Best Double-A Team MiLBY Award winner, the celebratory scene was familiar and yet wonderfully different.

A year after capturing its first-ever Eastern League title at Akron in 2007, Trenton got to pop the champagne in front of 3,000 cheering fans at Mercer County Waterfront Park as the circuit's first back-to-back champion in over a decade.

Theresa M. Collins, a history professor at Rutgers for 17 years, teaches the one-credit course at the Livingston campus in Piscataway, N.J. With 220 applicants, she said, Yankee Stadium was the most requested first-year research seminar this fall.

“The purpose of this course is to open up the minds of these students to the joys of research, especially in places you wouldn’t normally think of it — like Yankee Stadium,” she said. “We often discuss the potential for certain research projects related to the Stadium, which allows the students an opportunity to maximize their sense of learning in this field.”