Iron Man Streak Ends

After posting on 2,129 consecutive mornings, our blogger-in-chief El Duque pulled himself out of the lineup with an unverified "groin discomfort." Like a durable Youkilis manning the hot corner, I'll be filling in on the AM shift until Duque returns. If he returns.

• Of course by now you know, Teix is toast.

• Yanks' Opening Day DL topped $60,000,000. Gloating was heard.

• "Super-excited" Swish has "nothing but the greatest memories, dude."

• The Nation's Dave Zirin explained Why MLB Owners Will Cheer The Death of Hugo Chavez:

[Chavez] told MLB that they would have to institute employee and player benefits and job protections. He wanted education and job training, subsidized by MLB, to be a part of the academies. He also insisted that teams pay out 10 percent of players’ signing bonuses to the government. Chávez effectively wanted to tax MLB for the human capital they blithely take from the country. 

As the CS Monitor put it, “The threat of expropriations and onerous foreign exchange controls make teams wary of doing business in Venezuela.”

• Chavez threw the first pitch at Shea the night Bobby V returned to the dugout in disguise after being ejected.

• The ball got caught in a University of Oregon pitcher's glove. He solved it: