1. Hanley Ramirez homers to beat the Yankees on June 19 at Pro Player Stadium, and after the game, Alex Rodriguez says how great it would be to have the Florida shortstop on the Yankees. He attempts to clarify the next day by saying that was not a shot at Derek Jeter, “It would just be great to have someone else in the lineup who could hit homers.” No one else in the lineup talks to A-Rod the rest of the season.
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2. Phil Hughes starts more games and wins more games in the majors in 2009 than Joba Chamberlain. Ian Kennedy goes 4-9 with a 5.00 ERA at Triple-A and is demoted to Double-A.
3. Bernie Williams is invited to play an acoustic version of the national anthem on Opening Day at the new stadium, and goes out on the field in full uniform in his latest effort to rekindle his career.
4. A-Rod does a photo shoot for High Times in which he is kissing a bong in one picture. He says afterward he does not consider it a big deal, that it was his unnamed cousini½’s bong. Then he gets into a car driven by Yuri Sucart in an off-limits area at the new Stadium and races off for his midnight date with Pat Benatar. “Love is a battlefield,” he yells from the open window.
5. It turns out that Brett Gardner plays the heck out of center field and steals 50 bases, and the position is no real problem. But neither Xavier Nady nor Nick Swisher produces above league-average results in right field. The Yanks obtain Magglio Ordonez from the Tigers, who accept Kei Igawa and middling prospects back because they so badly need to lower their staggering payroll.
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6. A.J. Burnett stays healthy and wins
17 games, just like CC Sabathia. Mark Teixeira produces a final line of .292, 33 homers, 111 RBIs that looks better on paper than it did in the games.