ESPN Search

In ESPN The Magazine, Howard Bryant writes that Derek Jeter, though a great player statistically, can only truly be appreciated through intangibles: his amazing defensive moves, PED-free play and leadership of a franchise.

In ESPN the Magazine, Howard Bryant writes about how Yankees reliever Mariano Rivera refuses to retire after his May 3 ACL injury. By not walking away from the game, the once-unknowable player has revealed his true self.

Sooner or later, the Red Sox balloon was bound to burst. No franchise could be expected to sustain such a draining and taxing regimen for so long a time.

For a decade and a half, the Yankees and the Red Sox have been in a club by themselves. But the Tigers, the Rangers and the Angels are knocking on the door to superpower status.

Making a pennant run just got harder for teams that don't win their division. Howard Bryant was cynical about the playoff expansion before talking to players at spring training softened his stance.

Returning to St. Louis and with his free agency looming, Albert Pujols remains at the epicenter of the World Series, and the enigmatic slugger has an opportunity to embrace the stardom he's tried hard to avoid.

The Red Sox were able to break away from past failings to build a championship franchise. But it took only one month to allow ego, pettiness and division to tear down their greatest run of success.

It's bigger than his right arm. It's more powerful than his cutter. What sets Mariano Rivera apart from teammates and opponents alike? His faith.

Winning is everything, of course. And yet, fans of the Phillies, Red Sox and Yankees might not be experiencing the spontaneous joy that comes with it when the winning isn't expected.

Are you buying your team's vision for the future based on those hot prospects it just acquired by trade? A word of advice: Don't. Your favorite front office just surrendered.

Although there are more high-profile spots on the calendar, the next six weeks of the baseball season is by far the most intriguing. This period of discovery foreshadows the pennant finale and October glory.

The questions for baseball get stickier with Bartolo Colon's surgery. Where on the continuum of available therapies does rehabilitation and recovery end and gaming the system begin?

Entering a new season as the defending AL champions, the Rangers survived an offseason of uncommon turbulence that could make them stronger.

Bud Selig talks about parity, but winter moves shift the power in baseball even more firmly to the east. A salary cap or other equalizing measure would limit the ability of its biggest, most watched teams to dominate.

Derek Jeter in Boston? As a Dodger? It's a new morning for the Yankees' front office, and the sun is setting on the old shortstop. Here's why the unthinkable is suddenly possible.

San Francisco will always have the 2010 World Series championship to celebrate. But the rest of us should remember baseball the way it was in 2010, because it might never be the same.