New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter was scratched from the starting lineup for Sunday night's game against the Orioles after bruising his right knee in the opener of the split doubleheader. The injury could keep him out of Monday's game, too. Jeter played in his 2,402nd game with New York on Sunday afternoon, breaking a tie with Mickey Mantle for most in a Yankees uniform.

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The 3,000 Hit Club is an elite group of baseball's greats. Musial. Ripken. Cobb. Mays. Not one of the 27, though, joined while wearing a Yankees uniform. Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig never did it. Neither did Joe DiMaggio or Mickey Mantle. Same for Bernie Williams and Don Mattingly. There's an All-Star roll call of Yankees who came up short for reasons that include illness, injury, wartime service...

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Gene Monahan was still in high school when he showed up at spring training with the New York Yankees in 1962. His eyes were wide as he looked around the clubhouse. There was Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, fresh off their historic chase of Babe Ruth's home run record. Over there was Tony Kubek and Bobby Richardson.

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It's difficult to find a "feel good, rookie-makes-the-bigs" story when you cover the New York Yankees. They remain my favorite team for many reasons, but even I recognize some of their drawbacks. Mickey Mantle may have started with the team as a rookie in 1951 to become the Hall of Fame player he was. But in 2011, either general manager Brian Cashman or manager Joe Girardi would have vetoed the Okie and signed a former outstanding player for millions.

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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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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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