As a New York Yankees fan and admittedly quite learned in baseball lore, I never felt anyone would eclipse Lou Gehrig's record number of 23 grand slams. I certainly did not ever want to see this record fall, but I have resigned myself to its eventual demise, probably sooner...

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Current New York Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira's home run numbers over his career stack up favorably to Lou Gehrig, but Gehrig, the all-time great Yankees first baseman, has the upper hand in every other important offensive category. Teixeira, who has played for the Rangers, Braves, Angels and Yanks in his eight Major League Baseball seasons, has few peers, past or present, with the glove. Only this aspect of his game makes any comparison between which is the better of the two even remotely arguable among my fellow Yankee fans.

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Being a St. Louis Cardinals fan, I get excited on Opening Day. You can't beat the first game to start the new season. I have tabulated my top five historical games on Opening Day. This article will examine them and what they eventually led to. These are not listed in any particular order. 1. April 20, 1939 . This was a very important Opening Day ballgame. At the time, it seemed like just another game. However, on this date, Lou Gehrig played in his last Opening Day game and Ted Williams played in his first.

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Last year, Chris Perez pitched an exceptional 1.70 ERA with 23 saves in 27 tries. This year, he's back closing on the mound for the Cleveland Indians. Coming back netted him a cool $2.2 million salary for 2011. So what did he spend it on? A $20,000 baseball card . The card is a one-of-a-kind fold out booklet with the autographs of nine starting players from the 1927 New York Yankees. The famous lineup was nicknamed "Murderers' Row", and included baseball greats Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.

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For the love of baseball My love for baseball comes not just because I played softball for many years as a child and as an adult, but because baseball is American. I loved to hear the stories of Yankee greats: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra. Yankees fly south Each year the New York Yankees fly south for the winter to the George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida. Steinbrenner was the former owner of the Yankees from 1973 until he died of a heart attack at the age of 80 in July 2010.

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Quotes on New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who died Tuesday at age 80: "George was a giant of the game and his devotion to baseball was surpassed only by his devotion to his family and his beloved New York Yankees. He was and always will be as much of a New York Yankee as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford and all of the other Yankee...

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Bud Selig considers Arizona's new immigration law a political issue and is showing no signs that Major League Baseball will shift next year's All-Star game out of the state. A day after Milwaukee pitcher Yovani Gallardo and other All-Stars said they could envision boycotting the 2011 game at Phoenix in protest, the commissioner never mentioned a possible shift.

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Alex Rodriguez has tied Manny Ramirez for second place on the career list with his 21st grand slam. Rodriguez connected in the third inning against Oakland All-Star Trevor Cahill on Tuesday night. It was Rodriguez's third slam of the season. He needs two more to tie Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig for the most ever.

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This might be Brian Cashman’s greatest move ever…and no, I’m not talking about signing Hideki Matsui or Mike Mussina, or selling beer in plastic bottles instead of easy-to-spill cups — I’ll give Cash credit here.  I’m talking about the mid-season acquisition X-Man, Xavier Nady. The man has brass cajones.  In tonight’s 9-4 victory over the O’s, Nady singled in the go-ahead run and then tacked on a solo homer in the ninth for good measure.  When the Yanks win these days, it seems like Nady’s right in the middle of it.

In under a month as a Yankee, Nady is now hitting .319 with eight home runs and 21 RBIs.  Nice. And you know what’s nicer?  He shuts his mouth and does his job in a way that doesn’t command too much attention — of course he does get to hide behind the glowing lights that are A-Rod and Jeter.  If Cashman wants to make another good move here, he locks this 29-year-old up long-term.  Then again, Cashman may try to trade X-Man off to whatever team the Yankee GM winds up with next year…

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Derek Jeter got his 2,500 career hit tonight, putting him on pace to get to 3,000 sometime in 2011…assuming he doesn’t get injured or go into a major tailspin.  And every time I see Jeter move along on the all-time Yankee hit list, I can’t help think of Joe D and his service to Uncle Sam.  Yes, the Yankee Clipper spent three of his prime years playing ball for the U.S. Army during WWII.  Give DiMaggio 200 hits in each of those three years and he passes Lou Gehrig for first place on the list with around 2,800.

But I guess you can’t play the “what if?” game like so many Yankee fans do with Joe D or Mickey Mantle and his injuries…and his booze.  Personally, I’ll argue that the latter may have helped Mickey play better.

Check out the Yankee all-time list here.

Still, Joe D does not have the highest Yankee lifetime average.  That honor goes to Babe Ruth with a .349 lifetime mark…Jeter is currently fifth at .315 and DiMaggio was fourth at .325.

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