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The easily recognizable swing from Mr. Jones. (Bill Richardson/BDD)

- He doesn't want to talk about it and for me to even consider the Atlanta Braves without him is weird, but manager Bobby Cox's contract ends at the end of the current season and a decision will have to be taken by then.

It's almost impossible to envision Cox wearing anything over than a cap, a pair of cleats and a jersey with "Braves" written across the chest. This is who he is. This is how he's lived virtually his entire life.

Sure, it's only natural for someone who's passed retirement age and can see 70 on the horizon to start considering the next phase of his life. But Cox talks about the future with a tinge of dread in his voice, as if he, too, can't imagine not waking up every day and heading to a baseball park.

"I don't know what I would do," he said. "You can only mow your lawn so much. You can only play so many rounds of golf. You can only go fishing so many times. I've been doing this my whole life. There's no substitute for it."

The years are catching up with him. He waddles around slower and slower on those two surgically replaced knees. The dark hair of youth has gone grey. Every year brings a new wrinkle or two to that weathered face.

- Ichiro Suzuki is 0-for-14 so far this Spring, even after he asked manager John McLaren for another at bat in yesterday's game that ended up a sharp liner.

Ichiro's worst career hitless streak was 0 for 24 from July 30 to Aug. 5, 2005, according to reporters from Japan. What, McLaren worried?

"It's not even on the radar screen, believe me," McLaren said. "If that's the only worry we have this year [in camp], I'll be a happy camper. He's working hard. Just one of those things ... I'm not concerned about it at all."

For the second time in the past three games, Ichiro swung at the first pitch he saw and grounded out to second base.

McLaren can only laugh. He joked with Ichiro to bunt.

"How many batting titles has he won? Five?" McLaren said. "I think it's funny."

Ichiro has won two U.S. major-league batting titles, and seven in Japan.

(reproduced with permission)

Tim Souers from Cubby-blue.com (please, please, put this site in your bookmarks) has a Passion for the Chicago Cubs and everyday I need my fix...and I'm not a Cubs fan!!

- Cincinnati Reds Scouting Director Chris Buckley and Director of Latin American scouting Tony Arias have invested two million dollars in a 16-year-old outfielder from the Dominican Republic, Juan Duran.

Duran, who bats and throws righthanded and checks in at roughly 6-foot-6, 190 pounds, likely will not play a game this year in the PL, however, where at 16 years old he would be by far the youngest player in the league. The Reds cannot assign him to the Gulf Coast League, since the GCL season ends on Aug. 27, so sending him to the GCL would void his contract.

Buckley and Arias were both with the Blue Jays when the team drafted outfielder Alex Rios as an 18-year-old with the 19th overall pick in the 1999 draft.

"He compares favorably, only he's bigger and stronger at this age than Rios was," Buckley said. "He's more physical, and he has shown some of the same feel for hitting that Alex displayed.

"We don't have a second-round pick this year so we wanted to be creative and get more talent any way we can."

- GQ's Nate Penn scored the first major interview with Hal Steinbrenner in twenty years and I suggest you take the time to read it.  After, you can listen to Penn in an interview with BP's Will Carroll here (mp3 download).

Not so much. Various sources say you "hate" and "avidly disdain" the media.
No truth to that. That was Bill Madden [of the New York Daily News]. Look, first of all, I don't hate anybody. It's a useless emotion. It accomplishes nothing. He even said I hate the players, which is certainly not true. We've all had issues with the media, okay, but at the same time, I understand, Hank understands, they're in business just like we're in business.

Am I comfortable dealing with the media? Probably not as comfortable as Hank is. Definitely not as comfortable as my dad was. Have I had disagreements with them in the past, disagreed with things they've written and the reasons they wrote them? Yes, of course. But again, I understand what the deal is.

If you really don't feel any enmity toward the media, I would actually be surprised. Your family has been tabloid fodder almost since the day your dad bought the team.
Maybe I'm numb to it. Maybe I'm just used to it. Look, I care very much what my family thinks of me, my close friends, but I try not to pay attention to what strangers think of me. You could drive yourself crazy doing that, particularly if you're reading the New York papers every day, which I tend not to do.

Was it always assumed during your childhood that you or Hank would one day take over the Yankees from your dad?
My dad would say, "Someday this is going to be yours." "We're counting on you, we're counting on Hank." "I'm not going to want to do this forever." I don't know [laughs] if that was true. George was very involved, and he loved it. He wanted us around, he wanted us here, but there was nothing that specific about duties. My background in grad school [Hal earned an MBA in 1994] led me to do certain things, like finance, that weren't his strong points. Hank always loved the baseball operations and knew the statistics for every player. We each had our strengths. I know he saw that.

In the audio interview, Carroll and Penn make an amusing comparison to George, Hank and Hal with the movie Godfather II (which is also the title of the article).  Hal is considered Michael Corleone, Hank is Sonny and of course, George is Vito.

When listening to the interview, I was thinking about this whole change at the top of the Yankees ownership structure and thought that I was pretty lucky to be seeing this all play out in front of me like that.

I am not a Yankees fan, but I am a baseball nut and when Steinbrenner took over the team in 1973, my parents had not even thought about having a baby.  So to see this change of guard and watch the way it affects the team's fans and baseball in general is really interesting and it had not really sunk in until I came across that article and interview last night.

Good stuff...

- The Mets pitching staff are using a pitching training method I always thought should be more widespread throughout the major and minor leagues: a thin rubber band stretched across home plate, representing the bottom of the strike zone.

The Mets cite statistical research that shows big league batters hit .220 against pitches at the bottom of the strike zone, so they want all their hurlers constantly working to keep the ball down.

Fastballs, curves, changeups, doesn't matter. Aim low, win big.

That starts in spring training with the rubber bands, fastened around poles or stakes that are planted in each batter's box in the bullpens at Tradition Field. The rubber bands are set at knee-level for an imaginary hitter and are thin enough that the ball's flight isn't altered before it hits the catcher's mitt.

In this elaborate era of computer scouting and video evaluation, the Mets still use a tried-and-tested teaching tool that you can buy at any corner drug store.

"High-tech — rubber bands," bullpen coach Guy Conti said with a smile.

- The best way to present this picture gallery, I think, is to simply copy and paste how SI presents it:

"Luminous paintings by Kadir Nelson re-create the power and majesty of the Negro leagues, in a time when some of the game's greats played in undeserved obscurity -- but with undiminished passion"

Please take the time to view the gallery