Doug Davis, the D- backs’ left handed opener was diagnosed with thyroid cancer last Friday. He is suggested for surgery but made his start of the season with exhibition match at Friday night. He will also take part in regular super baseball season matches before undergoing surgery. Doug Davis who is 32 was acquired from Brewers by D-backs in 2006 November and his $22million contract with D-backs extends till 2009.

He is one of the most popular players of Arizona club and was very hard working. He used to do video and statistical scouting extensively to improve his performance. The D-backs players were shocked and surprised by the news but have declared their full support to Davis in overcoming the difficult situation. Bob Melvin, the manager of D-backs said that the team’s thoughts and prayers will be always there with Doug Davis who was a durable pitcher for the team in the super baseball matches for the last two years.

Miguel Cabrera has signed a long eight year contract with the Detroit Tigers recently and it is said to be the biggest contract signed in the history of Detroit Baseball team. Cabrera, a super baseball player, said that he felt good playing for the Detroit. He wanted to play for Detroit as it is a winning team and he has lots of friends in this part of the woods. Cabrera has signed a super duper deal with Detroit Tigers amounting to $152.3 million that makes him one of baseball’s highest played players.

Dave Dombrowski, the general manager of Detroit Tigers said that they wanted Cabrera in their team for more than two years and were successful in convincing him to stay with the Tigers for an extended period of eight years. Cabrera, who has a lot of fan following, will be assigned the goal of forming a core team that will be the team to beat in the coming years as most of the veteran players in the team are on the verge of retirement.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi confirmed that Chien Ming Wang will be in the starting line up for the Yankees opening day duel with Blue Jays in New York on 31st of March. Joe Girardi said that Wang has earned the starter position and his throwing ability for the past two years has made him capable to start the game for the Yankees. The start will be on Wang’s 28th birthday and his record of 19-7 wins last year after recovering from the hamstring injury speaks volume of his dedication towards the game.

Wang said that he was excited to be the starter on an Opening Day for the Yankees for the first time. But Wang’s performance this spring is not as good as his last season. His four Grapefruit starts this spring has him at 2-1 with 8.44 ERA in 10 2/3 innings. Wang said that he is hurt by the two losses and wants to prove his capability by performing well in the near future.

The New York Yankees players made a visit to the Virginia Tech campus to pay a pilgrimage visit to the Virginia Tech Memorial where the stone memorials of the 32 shoot out victims are placed. The shoot out massacre occurred on April 16th last year at the Blacksburg campus and the Yankees and about 200 onlookers viewed the 32 stone memorials that symbolized the victims of the shooting incident. The Yankees players took a detour through the stone memorials and also saw the classroom building where two of the shooter’s victims were slain.

The Virginia Tech President Charles Steger welcomed the Yankees players and briefly addressed them. The players later in the evening played an exhibition game of basketball against Virginia Tech. The Yankees had made a generous contribution of $ 1 million to the Virginia Tech’s “Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund” that will help in covering counseling, memorials as well as cover other costs of the victims and their families. Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees said that visiting the memorial site has made him more powerful and determined and such devastating incidents will even make time to stop. The players felt that if their visit to the Virginia Tech stone memorial has made people smile, then they are pretty happy that their visit to the campus was worthwhile.

Jeff Conine, the most popular players in the history of Florida Marlins, has decided to call it quits as a Marlin player. He is to sign a one day contract with the Marlins on March 28 and then retire as a member of the Marlins. Conine, who is aptly nicknamed as Mr. Marlin, has had two stints with the Florida team and has been a member of the team’s inaugural roster. The Marlins are to play their season opener against the Mets on March 31 and the management has decided to honor Conine during that game. The March 28 game in which Conine will be seen last in Marlin colors is an exhibition match against the New York Yankees at the Dolphin Stadium.

The 41 year old player has donned jersey number’s 19 and 18 while playing for the Marlins and the team has planned not to retire his numbers. His first stint with the Marlins was from 1993 to 97 and his second stint with the Marlins was from 2003 through till 2005. Conine has been playing in the Big league since 1990 when he debuted for the Royals and has a career batting average of .285 with 214 home runs and 1,071 RBIs.

The feud between the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays in their exhibition game has resulted in the MLB imposing ban on Yankees center fielder Melky Cabrera and first baseman Shelley Duncan for three games each in the regular season and the Ray outfielder Jonny Gomes has to sit out of two games after the start of the regular season. The manager of the Yankees Girardi, hitting Coach Kevin Long, third base coach Bobby as well as the players was also slapped a fine. MLB, foreseeing more danger brewing in the rematch between the two teams, has also reworked the umpire assignments for the spring training game.

Jerry Crawford, a veteran chief crew, has been included to the already existing three man crew to foresee the game. The clash started a week ago when the Rays prospect collided head on with Yankees catcher Cervelli and it resulted in breaking Francisco’s wrist. Then in the next practice game, Duncan of Yankees made a high slide into the Rays bench that resulted in Gomez attacking Duncan. The Rays manager Joe has decided not to play Gomez in the rematch and he wanted to cool the hot situation a bit. Gomez has been slapped a fine of $2,000. Both the teams will be meeting 18 times during the regular season this year.

The Twin’s player Francisco Liriano has adjusted to the fact that the reconstructive surgery on his left elbow ligament will take its due course to fully recover. Liriano found it were difficult to cope with the match conditions in his game against the Red Sox and gave away three runs on four hits in the game. The pitcher said that he was ready to face anything and realized that it will take time for him to get his game right as he has just started playing after a surgery lay off. Liriano’s 53 pitches in the game had only 28 strikes and he reckons that the inconsistency in his pitching was due to his lack of control over the slider and fast ball.

Liriano was a dejected man after the game against Red Sox and said that he was not able to pitch the ball in the spot that he wanted. The Twins manager Ron felt that they saw Liriano pitching with full extended arm in the third inning and said these are signs of him feeling better with his pitching arm. The pitching coach Rick Anderson also felt the same and said that it is only a matter of time for Liriano to come back to his own old self.

The famous actor Billy Crystal is going to play for New York Yankees on Thursday after signing a Minor League contract with the New York Yankees. The contract will be for just one day. Billy Crystal will play an exhibition match against Pittsburgh Pirates. Crystal is an ardent fan of New York Yankees and wanted to play with them. He is expected to work out with the team the day before the match and will be wearing No. 60 uniform for the match. He is going to celebrate his 60th birthday the day after the match.

The Yankees have received permission from the commissioner of baseball, Bud Selig, for taking Crystal to the team. Billy Crystal said that he was waiting for the last 50 years for this chance and thanked Yankees as well as Bud Selig for making his dream come true. Crystal was Captain of Long Beach High school team and has hit .348. Joe Giardi, the Yankees manager is not sure of the position to be given to this actor who is witty and humorous. Giardi said it is exciting to have Crystal in the team as he has helped Yankees in many ways and this is a way of thanking Crystal.

Nolan Ryan, the president of Texas Rangers is unhappy over MLB for ignoring the performance –enhancing drug issue for a long time. But, with the recent developments, Ryan feels that the sport is now heading in the right direction. Ryan expressed his view over the issue in a question and answer session at the Ball Park of Texas Rangers in Arlington. According to Ryan, “baseball turned its back on the problem and ignored it” and this has made it much tougher to tackle. Ryan announced his full support to the effort taken by major League Baseball in making the sport devoid of steroids and performance enhancing drugs.

He is hopeful that, baseball will be able to put out these problems as soon as possible. Ryan’s life is dedicated to baseball and he has a Major League Career of 27 years. He was a pitcher for the Rangers from 1989-93 and was made the president this January. He has made 324 career wins and has a record strikeout of 5,714. Nolan Ryan was inducted into the Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1999 because of his achievements. Jim Sundberg, the Vice president of Texas Rangers agrees with Ryan’s opinion.

The Giants left hand starter Noah Lowry is to undergo surgery in his throwing arm and is reported to be out of action for at least three weeks. Lowry was diagnosed to suffer from compartmental syndrome that was caused due to exertion in the forearm of his left hand. The manager for the Giants said that Lowry will be able to practice throwing only after two to three weeks and will not be available to join the starting rotation till late April. This medical condition can occur in both beginning as well as regular seasoned players and occurs due to repetitive muscular movements.

Dr. Gordon Brody is to perform the surgery on Lowry’s forearm and it will be a mild medical procedure. A small incision is to be made on the forearm and the fascia that is surrounding the forearm muscles will be released. In the last two exhibition matches Lowry played, he walked 12 of the 23 batters that faced him and also make five brilliant pitches on the fly. The manager of the Giants, Bochy said that this is not a common medical condition seen in baseball players. The injury to the leading winner of the last season has brought about unwarranted changes in the starting rotation for the Giants.