Interesting Article from the New York Times today:

Willie Randolph’s squawking over negative visuals of him on SportsNet New York reminded Fox’s Tim McCarver of the reaction to his criticism of a previous manager and how he believed it prompted his firing as a Mets analyst after the 1998 season.

It was a Yankees-Mets game at Shea Stadium in June 1998 when McCarver said that Bobby Valentine should have brought in Brian Bohanon, a lefty, not the right-hander Mel Rojas, to relieve the injured Al Leiter and face Paul O’Neill, a left-handed batter.

Valentine had a rationale: left-handed hitters were batting .182 against Rojas.

“I said it was the wrong move, and, first pitch, O’Neill hit a home run,” McCarver said on Thursday in a telephone interview. The Yankees won, 8-4.

About a month later, McCarver said, he was summoned to a postgame meeting with Nelson Doubleday, a co-owner of the Mets, in Doubleday’s Shea Stadium suite. “He often wanted to talk — we’d talk socially — but this time he had a semi-ominous tone,” McCarver said.

McCarver said Doubleday told him Valentine and his coaches had been aboard his yacht in Nantucket on a recent off-day. McCarver said: “Nelson told me that Valentine said, ‘McCarver’s got to go,’ and Nelson told the manager, ‘I’ll handle it.’ ” Doubleday asked McCarver to soothe Valentine by telling him that he’s done a “hell of a job” with the players he had.

“And I said, ‘If I felt that way, I would have said it already,’ ” McCarver said. “At that point, I didn’t feel real good about keeping my job.”

During their talk, McCarver said, he asked Doubleday if their chat was in reference to his Bohanon-but-not-Rojas call. “He shook his head yes,” he said.

Doubleday dallied until February 1999 to tell McCarver he was gone, saying that Valentine had nothing to do with his dismissal. Later that year, Valentine said the same thing to McCarver. “I said, ‘It’s over and done with,’ ” McCarver said.

Valentine said in an e-mail message this week from Japan that he did not remember saying McCarver had to be fired. He said he could “hardly ever remember having a talk about anything serious with Nelson.”

His e-mail message also assessed Randolph’s recent criticism of SNY’s choice of camera angles, which, Randolph has said, cast him in an unflattering light.

“My mom always said the same thing, that the only time she saw me was when I looked like death warmed over,” he wrote. “I am sure it was not true, just as I am sure that one thing that Tim said could not have possibly gotten him fired.”

Doubleday did not respond to requests for comment.

McCarver was quickly hired by Fox-owned Channel 5 to call Yankees games. In July 2000, during the first game after the All-Star break, he and Bobby Murcer addressed the subject of Roger Clemens’s beaning of Mike Piazza less than a week earlier. The famous clip rolled, leading George Steinbrenner to burst into the Channel 5 booth, where he “went ballistic,” an astonished stage manager told McCarver and the producer, Leon Schweir.

Steinbrenner threatened that showing the clip — which he felt had been seen enough — imperiled the MSG Network’s contract renewal. (Channel 5 subleased its games from MSG.) “Thank God I had my headset on and couldn’t hear him,” McCarver said.

Flash ahead to Game 2 of that season’s World Series when Clemens fired the shard of a broken bat at Piazza. “The crowd was unusually quiet,” McCarver recalled, “and I said something like, ‘It’s clear that the crowd here tonight is embarrassed by the antics of Roger Clemens.’ ”

Steinbrenner did not appear, but a Yankees executive, whom McCarver would not identify, asked him that night to confirm what he had said. He did.

What happened next, McCarver insisted, was a tiny bit of retribution. After games, he said, he had typically left the booth, opened a door to enter the Yankees’ executive office and walked to the elevator, a route designed to avoid the crowd on the concourse. “That door to the office was locked,” he said. “I’m positive it was because of what I said.”

Schweir, who is now the executive producer of the Big Ten Network, said he rarely fielded complaints from Yankees officials about McCarver. But he related an episode when Steinbrenner entered the MSG production truck and beckoned him outside to show him the multitudinous peanut shells that were littering the parking lot. “He felt our technicians were not picking up their shells properly,” he said. “So the next day, there were chained posts into the pavement beyond which our crew couldn’t eat peanuts.”

McCarver is off this weekend from doing analysis work for Fox, which will carry the Mets-Rockies game Saturday at 3:30 p.m. But he recalled that before a Mets-Phillies game last month, he, Kenny Albert and Ken Rosenthal met with Randolph.

The Mets’ end-of-season collapse last September had not been mentioned, McCarver said. But, he said, as the Fox group was leaving, Randolph “smiled and said, tongue-in-cheek, ‘Enough about the collapse, guys.’ ”

“And I thought, It’s the third weekend of the season and Willie can’t be thinking that,” he said. “Talk about insecurity.”

E-mail: sportsbiz@nytimes.com

It's all systems go for Joba Chamberlain's transformation from bullpen maestro to hopeful rotation ace.

Just a day after Yankees GM Brian Cashman looked the 22-year-old phenom in the eye and asked him if his heart was into starting or remaining in the bullpen, there was Chamberlain pitching the final two innings of a Yanks' blowout last night, his first step in gaining the stamina to joining the starting rotation.

"[Chamberlain] looked me right in the eye and said, 'I want the opportunity to start,' Cashman said after the Yankees hammered Baltimore 8-0 to snap a four-game losing streak.

Cashman and manager Joe Girardi declined to give a timetable for Chamberlain making his first start with the Yankees, and Hank Steinbrenner would only say he's happy the process has begun. It is Steinbrenner - more than any other voice in the organization - who has pushed for Chamberlain to leave his setup role, with the hope of becoming the ace of the Yankees' rotation.

Steinbrenner told The Post late last night that he received a phone call from team president Randy Levine earlier in the day outlining the plan to begin using Chamberlain for extended duty. Girardi summoned the right-hander after Darrell Rasner (3-0) fired seven shutout innings, his third straight impressive start since joining the team earlier this month.

"This was always going to happen, it was the plan from the beginning," Steinbrenner said.

Told that Cashman had a chat with Chamberlain just to ensure his heart was into starting, Steinbrenner seemed surprised it was even an issue.

"Joba has made it clear for the last four months that he wants to be a starter," Steinbrenner said. "I said it four months ago: I know he wants to start."

Chamberlain, who threw 35 pitches over the two scoreless innings, said he is "excited" the process has begun. The plan does not call for Chamberlain returning to the minor leagues to hone his skills as a starter.

"We're going to be patient and make sure everything is taken care of and done the right way," Chamberlain said. "It's going to be a process, and we have that plan just to make sure my legs and my arm is going to be OK."

Eyebrows were raised when Chamberlain remained in the game to pitch the ninth inning, but that was before Girardi revealed that Chamberlain's transformation into starter had begun.

"This has been the plan for months, so we'll continue to stretch him out," Girardi said.

Some things never change. Kei Igawa was as bad as ever in his first MLB start of the 2008 season. Somehow he and Joe Girardi thought he pitched ok(???). Fortunately the rain out versus the Tigers on Sunday should allow the Yankees to skip Kei for his next start. Wow! How much did the Yankees pay for this stiff? Think of the payroll spent on Kevin Brown, Carl Pavano, and Kei Igawa.

The injuries keep mounting for the Yankees. Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon have missed time. Andy Pettitte, Alex Rodriguez, and Jorge Posada have all spent time on the DL. Did Camp Girardi overdo the Army attitude. Maybe Joe Torre knew more than what some originally though. He now has a young, talented team on the rise. The Yankees look like a very old team going nowhere.

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Darrell Rasner is making the start today versus Seattle. Recall that Rasner had his season cut short last year for the Yankees in a start against the New York Mets. A broken index finger ended Rasners's year. To make room for Rasner, Ian Kennedy has been sent to AAA to regain his confidence and delivery. Also, look for Kei Igawa to make a start for the Yankees later this week. Igawa was been pitching well at AAA SWB.

Here is the story on Rasner and Kennedy:

The New York Yankees optioned struggling pitcher Ian Kennedy to Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre prior to Sunday’s game against the Seattle Mariners.

One of New York’s top pitching prospects, Kennedy has been a major disappointment over the first month of the season, going 0-2 with an 8.37 ERA over six appearances - five starts.

Kennedy lasted just 4 2/3 innings in Thursday’s 8-4 loss to Detroit, allowing four runs and five hits with three walks. Although he was staked to an early 3-0 lead, Kennedy failed to work beyond the fifth inning for the fourth time in five starts this season.

The 23-year-old Kennedy also was sent to the minors to make room for Darrell Rasner, who was recalled from Scranton to start Sunday’s matinee contest against the Mariners.

Rasner, 27, went 4-0 with a 0.87 ERA in five starts for Scranton. The righthander posted a 1-3 record with a 4.01 ERA in six starts with New York last season.

The Yankees made another roster move Sunday, transferring injured reliever Brian Bruney to the 60-day disabled list.

Phil Hughes is out for at least two months... The Yankee season becomes even more critical now with Posada and Rodriguez out as well.....

Phil Hughes has a stress fracture in one of his ribs, and the New York Yankees’ pitcher is expected to be sidelined for at least two months.

The news comes at an inopportune time for the injury-depleted Yankees, also missing three-time MVP Alex Rodriguez, All-Star catcher Jorge Posada and reliever Brian Bruney.

“I say no on crisis mode,” general manager Brian Cashman said. “I say this is what every team that wants to get to the promised land has to deal with at one point or another, and deal with it. And if you can’t, you’re not championship-worthy.”

Hughes, placed on the 15-day disabled list Thursday, had tests that revealed a stress fracture in the ninth rib on his right side. He will be shut down for four weeks and then re-evaluated. Cashman said the team probably can’t expect the 21-year-old right-hander back before July.

Hughes is 0-4 with a 9.00 ERA in six outings this year, an alarming start for a touted youngster who was expected to be a key member of New York’s rotation.

“His fastball command has been uncommonly off. Now we get an idea why,” Cashman said.

Still, Hughes refused to offer the injury as an explanation or excuse for his struggles.

“I really don’t think it was an issue in my performance,” he said. “Subconsciously, I may have been doing something different or whatever. But it’s still something that I want to work out as far as performing well when I get back.”

When the Yankees put Hughes on the DL, they initially said he had a strained right oblique muscle. Both he and the team were surprised to receive a more serious prognosis.

“At least for me, I was in disbelief,” Hughes said. “I was expecting to get the results of the MRI and have some small muscle strain or something like that. For it to be this, especially with the way things are going pitching-wise and everything else, it’s just not a fun time right now.”

Read the full story here.