WHY YANKEE NOTES MAKE THE WORLD GO 'ROUND

Spring is here, and here come the nuggets from camp that will quench your thirst until the first Spring Training game pitch is thrown.

Mariano Rivera: Hal Steinbrenner spoke to MLB.com HERE about Mariano Rivera and if, he decided this year WASN'T his last year, how Hal and the Yankees would certainly want him to return. Here are some quotes, definitely worth reading: "He's obviously a lifelong Yankee... When he decides to retire someday -- whenever that may be -- we all hope he's going to be wearing the pinstripes. No doubt about that.... If he were inclined [to return], we absolutely would be talking to him about coming back. Yes, of course." For an employer to speak so highly of one of their employees is something these days, isn't it? That quote will stay with me all season.

Austin Romine: Now that Jesus Montero is gone, Romine doesn’t have a shadow to climb out from behind and good for him, but not so fast. Word from Yankee camp is he will miss a day with a sore back. Bryan Hoch has that HERE. I wanted to tell you guys just to tell you, but to be honest... I didn't need to know. No disrespect to Hoch or course. The other news out of Hoch's piece though is Girardi envisions Francisco Cervelli as being Russell Martin's backup with Romine starting in Scranton. I see that, unless Romine dazzles everyone in Spring Training... we'll see. I'm fine with either.

Eric Chavez: Chavez says he's glad to be back with the New York Yankees and why wouldn’t he be? The guy is loved in New York and he only played 58 games last year because of injury. The difference between his injury and others is Eric Chavez is productive when he returns and last year he did exactly what we all expected. Think about it, if the guy wasn’t hurt, he probably would have had a great season last year on defense and with his bat. Any way, read about Chavez HERE. Here’s his quote:

“If there was no interest at all, in my mind I was probably going to shut it down... I wouldn’t say ‘here or nowhere’ — but this was obviously coming back to a place I was familiar with. ... I knew this was going to be a good team, obviously a team that was going to have an opportunity to go back to the playoffs.”

I really like Chavez. People criticize him for always being hurt and yes, I rip on him sometimes too because it's frustrating, but all I can say is, when he's on the field, he's productive. That means something.

If any other news comes out of Yankeeland, we'll bring it to you. Stay with us, it's almost Opening Day. Gotta love it.

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