Yankees agree to a four-year, $52 million contract extension with outfielder Brett Gardner

By Drew SilvaFeb 23, 2014, 1:41 PM EDT
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From Jack Curry of the YES Network comes word that the Yankees are on the verge of signing outfielder Brett Gardner to a four-year, $52 million contract extension. The deal, which will officially begin in 2015, also includes a $12.5 million club option (or $2 million buyout) for the 2019 season.

Gardner was arbitration-eligible for the third and final time this winter, so the new contract covers four years of free agency (with a possible fifth).

Gardner, 30, batted .273/.344/.416 with 24 steals and 81 runs in 145 games last year for New York.

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UPDATE, 1:51 p.m. ET: Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reports that it’s a done deal.

He gone! Hawk Harrelson called his last game yesterday

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By Craig CalcaterraSep 24, 2018, 9:33 AM EDT
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Ken Harrelson has been broadcasting for decades but yesterday was his last one. As of today the Hawk has hung up his mic and entered retirement. He gone!

Harrelson, 77, who played in the majors for nine seasons with the A’s, Red Sox, Indians and Senators and led the AL in RBI in 1968. He was also the White Sox’ general manager for a single season in the mid-80s. That didn’t go well — he famously fired Tony La Russa and Dave Dombrowski and traded away a young Bobby Bonilla, but his career as a broadcaster went swimmingly.

Harrelson served as a Red Sox broadcaster from 1975 through 1981. Despite his reputation as an unrepentant homer for his White Sox — who he called “the good guys,” as opposed to the “bad guys” playing them — he was actually fired as a Red Sox broadcaster for being critical of ownership. He then embarked on his first stint with the White Sox before his move into the front office, worked as a Yankees broadcaster from 1987-88 and worked games for NBC’s Game of the Week in the mid-1980s as well. He then returned to call games for the White Sox in 1990 and the rest is history.

Hawk will still be a team ambassador for Chicago so he not totally gone, but the White Sox broadcast booth is entering a new era.