THE BLEEDING YANKEE BLUE NEWSSTAND

We're going to put together this Newsstand feature every once in a while and it will give you all a chance to focus alittle more on important nuggets and information that you're bound to miss if you reading recaps and opinion pieces... don't worry, we got your back.

SAYING WHAT YOU MEAN AND MEANING WHAT YOU SAY: A special thanks to the Epoch Times for quoting me correctly in a piece about what Opening Day means to me. Kristen Meriwether did the piece and did exactly what she said she would do. You never know how the media will portray you, but she did what she said she would do, a fair piece on Opening day from a Mets and Yankees fan perspective. Kudos to Kristen and Thank you. They run a great Sports column over there, shout out to Dave Martin too... Anyway, be sure to check out their Opening Day piece titled Baseball Kicks off in New York. It was very kind of them to reach out and ask me to contribute. You guys rock...hint, I'd do it again.
AARDSMA TWEETS...WHO KNEW?: David Aardsma apparently threw his first bullpen session and is on his way back from Tommy John Surgery. How do I know? He Tweeted it, read HERE. I love that athletes interact with the fans and Twitter is the future, we're getting news there before the news hits the web...talk about fast, it's awesome.

NO ONE CARES ABOUT BOBBY V: New York Post's George King III writes HERE that Valentine will do a weekly spot on Michael Kay's radio show: "Valentine confirmed he will do a weekly spot on ESPN 1050 Radio, which started Wednesday afternoon. Valentine, who managed the Mets from 1996-2002, will chat with host and Yankees play-by-play man Michael Kay." Seriously, there are a ton of guys out there that New Yorkers want to hear from...Bobby V? Really? Disappointing Kay, I'm not going to lie.

THE GREATEST NETTLES PICTURE I'VE EVER SEEN: No, I have no idea who took this photo, or where it came from, but if you grew up loving Graig Nettles manning third base, this brings a smile to your face. Truly one of the greatest defensive third basemen ever in the game. Enjoy this shot, I did. Also, read MY ALL-TIME YANKEES TEAM... Nettles is the 3B starter on my Yankees team, without question.

A SPECIAL THANK YOU: Bronx Baseball Daily mentioned our work with High Socks for Hope in their post yesterday HERE. We are trying to raise money for David and Erin's foundation and if you buy a Bleedingyankeeblue.com shirt during the regular season this year, we'll take $1 of that purchase and put it toward their fund. We will also give $1 of our own BYB money to them for every strikeout David gets this season. David clearly knows how important it is... he struck out 3 in Game 1. Nice! Thank you to Rob at BBD, my first friend in the blog world. Great work DRob!

A FINAL THOUGHT: Joe Girardi has received harsh criticism with the handling of the Yankees yesterday...the intentional walk that led to the Carlos Pena Grand Slam, read HERE. Let me say this... I get it. But this is Game 1 with 161 to go. Much like the players, the skipper can be rusty too and yes, "Binder Joe" struck again. I'm not going to sit here and defend him. What I am going to do is state that calling for Girardi's head is much too harsh this early on. Let the season play out, collect data...then we see where we are in May or July or August. I hate ripping on my team this early... we're the Yankees... we lost one we shouldn't have, but we move on now and we get it back today. That's my take anyway.

ORDER A BYB SHIRT NOW, DROB WEARS ONE! Also, Please comment, we have DISQUS, it's easier than ever. Let me know what you think and follow me on Twitter @BleednYankeeBlu and join the group Bleeding Yankee Blue on Facebook, just type it in.