Yankees broadcaster Bobby Murcer is receiving medical care in Oklahoma after treatment for cancer forced him to curtail his schedule this month.

The 62-year-old former star outfielder had surgery in December 2006, four days after being diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. He returned to the broadcast booth last season. His March biopsy showed no cancer, and Murcer broadcast his first game of the season May 2.

Murcer is also recovering from shingles. His family released a statement Monday through the team saying he is getting help in his hometown of Oklahoma City and has shown “some measured improvement in recent days.”

“Bobby remains hopeful that he will be able to resume his broadcasting work down the road, but for now, is appreciative of the thoughts and prayers of his fans, and wants them to know that he is aware that he is in their hearts, as they are in his,” the family said.

Murcer played 17 seasons in the majors with the Yankees, San Francisco Giants and Chicago Cubs from 1965-83. He batted .277 with 252 home runs. He has been a Yankees broadcaster for 23 seasons.

The Yankees are top dog when it comes to weiners.

Yankee Stadium tied for first place with Wrigley Field for best stadium hot dog in a national survey.

Baseball fans from around the nation tapped New York and Chicago dogs as best, according to the poll released by the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council.

And spectators watching the Subway Series heartily endorsed the survey's scrumptious results.

"They're delicious!" said Stephanie Gavigan, 24, from Forest Hills, who said she picks up a dog at every Yankee game because "it would be sacrilegious if you didn't."

Out-of-towners agreed, putting Yankee Stadium dogs - they sell Nathan's Famous - above frankfurters from their hometowns.

"I think they're pretty good," said Seth Muller, 21, a deejay from Florida in town for the Subway Series. "They're better than in Florida, that's for sure."

While the Red Sox won the World Series last year, they trailed the Yankees and Cubs when it comes to hot dogs. Boston's Fenway Park came in second in the poll, followed by Detroit's Comerica Park and Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

"Nothing goes hand-in-hand like a baseball game and a hot dog, two of America's most treasured icons," said Tom Super of the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council."

Mets fan Lauren Mayer, 22, of Patchogue, L.I., was able to put her team allegiances aside long enough to enjoy her hot dog yesterday.

"The hot dog was awesome," she said after polishing one off at Yankee Stadium. "It was very juicy."

But was it better than a frankfurter from Shea?

"Nothing's better than in Shea," she said.

cmelago@nydailynews.com

With Rich Schapiro

The Yankees have to hope the result of a single game doesn't determine the fate of their season. If it does, Sunday's has the potential to haunt them.

How would they feel looking back on it and knowing they lost to a sub-.500 Mets team with Bobby Abreu, Jason Giambi and Robinson Cano all given the day off?

Manager Joe Girardi took a calculated gamble in assembling an almost entirely righthanded lineup to face starter Oliver Perez. He'd used the Bombers' conventional lefty-heavy batting order against the Mets' southpaw on May 18 and it managed only two runs. Noting that Perez was holding lefthanded hitters to a .167 average, he benched several regulars to create a batting order in which Johnny Damon was the only lefty.

It failed even more miserably, managing a single run on just three hits in seven innings against Perez in a 3-1 loss at Shea.

Full Article from the NY Daily News HERE.

Dropping Carl Pavano into the Yankees clubhouse might prove to be too much of a challenge, but there is a chance the "American Idle" could be ready to pitch before Phil Hughes.

"I haven't asked, but it's possible," GM Brian Cashman said last night. "Pavano should be ready by August and Hughes in August."

Considering Pavano, who is trying to rebound from last year's Tommy John surgery, is throwing curveballs off a mound and Hughes (fractured rib) isn't even on a mound, Pavano would be considered ahead of Hughes.

"The rehabs are different," Cashman said. "Phil Hughes will start throwing from flat ground, but it won't be as long (as Pavano's)."

Pavano is in the fourth and final year of a $40 million contract that has been dominated by injuries that have limited him to 19 games and teammates not believing he was as hurt as he said he was at times. Pavano appeared in two games at the start of last year and hasn't pitched since.

Hideki Matsui was placed on the 15-day disabled list Friday with a sore left knee, leaving the New York Yankees without one of their key sluggers.

The team also optioned reliever Ross Ohlendorf to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and recalled left-hander Kei Igawa from its top farm club.

Matsui missed the Yankees’ 15-6 loss to the New York Mets in the opener of a rare two-stadium Subway Series doubleheader. He hit in the batting cage and ran in the outfield before the game, but the Yankees opted to place him on the DL, retroactive to Monday, after the loss.

Manager Joe Girardi said he hopes Matsui’s balky knee won’t keep him out longer than a couple of weeks.

“I hope it settles down,” Girardi said.

Matsui had right knee surgery during the offseason, but it’s his left knee that is hurting. He is batting .323 with seven homers and 34 RBIs in 69 games.

The Yankees purchased right-hander Sidney Ponson’s contract from Triple-A and started him in the second game against the Mets.

Ohlendorf struggled with his command and was roughed up in the opener. He gave up a grand slam to Carlos Delgado and was charged with six runs and five hits in 1 1-3 innings. He is 1-1 with a 6.53 ERA in 25 appearances.

The Yankees spent $46 million to bring Igawa over from Japan before last season, but he has been a major bust. After going 2-3 with a 6.25 ERA for the Yankees last year, he made one start for them this season and was tagged by Detroit for six runs and 11 hits in three innings on May 9.

Less than 24 hours after the Staten Island Yankees arrived in New York, Pat Venditte's new teammates got a bit of a laugh when they walked past his locker in the clubhouse and saw the Omaha native with a reporter on either side.

"He's a celebrity," one fellow Baby Bomber chuckled. "He pitches with both arms."

For a 20th-round draft pick who had yet to make his first professional appearance at the time, Venditte had certainly made quite a splash since being selected by the Yankees on June 6. Venditte's almost unheard of ability to pitch with either arm has landed the Creighton alum interviews on XM satellite radio and on Ed Randall's program on WFAN, as well as an appearance in the pages of the Daily News.

When Venditte made his professional debut against Brooklyn last Thursday, it turned into SportsCenter fodder, as switch-hitting Cyclones catcher Ralph Henriquez tried to throw him off by stepping in on either side of the plate.

Full Article from the NY Daily News HERE.

Wang Out At Least 10 Weeks

Two summers ago, when the Yankees lost two starting outfielders to serious injuries, Brian Cashman knew he needed replacements. Other teams also knew it, and gave him trade proposals designed for the desperate shopper. The Kansas City Royals, for example, offered the aging outfielder Reggie Sanders for the top pitching prospect Phil Hughes.

Cashman, the Yankees’ general manager, politely passed. He filled in with spare parts until the day before the trading deadline, when he finally acquired the best available outfielder, Bobby Abreu, in a trade.

Full Article from the NY Times News HERE.

Cano to Dodgers?

There was a reported trade between the Dodgers and Yankees with an end result of Robinson Cano moving to the Dodgers for starting pitcher Brad Penny. This was reported by numerous outlets including Peter Gammons. However, the trade was put on hold as Penny undergoes an MRI for a balky shoulder. (Penny MRI Story HERE).

This story has a few holes. For one, if the Dodgers obtained Cano, what happens to current Dodger second baseman Jeff Kent? A move to third base? What then would happen current Dodger third baseman Blake Dewitt and backup Andy LaRoche? And who would the Yankees plug in their vacant second base position?

Personally, I would like to see a Jeff Kent/Brad Penny trade to the Yankees for Ian Kennedy/Robinson Cano. The Yankees get their starter to replace injured Chien Mein Wang and a replacement for Cano. The Dodgers get two players with very high ceilings in Cano and Kennedy. Plus, Ian returns to Southern California where he played college baseball (USC).

Wang Out For Season???

They won't be sure until Chien-Ming Wang exits the Carl Pavano Memorial MRI tube tomorrow and the test is examined, but there is a strong belief in the Yankees' universe that Chien-Ming Wang's season could be over due to a Lisfranc fracture in his right foot.

Wang suffered what was diagnosed by Astros team doctor John Duggan as a sprain on the top of the foot while scoring on Derek Jeter's single to right in the sixth inning of the Yankees' 13-0 victory over Houston today in front of 43,165.

Full Article from the NY Post News HERE.

More than two months into the season, Joe Girardi looks a lot like Joe Torre. Girardi, too, will always go first and often to his old reliables, before foraging elsewhere on the bench or in the bullpen.

You get the feeling that if Bernie Williams were in the vicinity, Melky Cabrera wouldn't be getting much playing time.

You can't blame Girardi, really. Who would you rather send out to the mound in the ninth inning of a close game, Mariano Rivera or Kyle Farnsworth? Who would you rather have playing shortstop on a day game after a night game, Derek Jeter or Alberto Gonzalez? Who would you rather have catching, a slightly sore Jorge Posada or Jose Molina?

Those are rhetorical questions. We all know the answers, and that is why Girardi arguably has overused his core players, the ones who still remember what it feels like to win championships. He wants to play them. They want to play, at any cost. And so you have a worrisome situation which may grow worse by August or September, if you are inclined to think negatively.

Full Article from the New York Daily News HERE:

Chien-Ming Wang finally looked like Chien-Ming Wang Tuesday night, against a team that might well become the Yankees' primary roadblock to a wild-card berth in October.

His pitch count was minuscule. The usually patient Oakland batters swung early and grounded out often. Double plays returned to the menu in great numbers, along with Wang's searing sinker. The Yanks nipped the A's, 3-1, moving a game closer to the Red Sox, Rays and any number of teams that may sabotage Joe Girardi's rookie managerial season in the Bronx.

But by now, we are suspicious of such apparent recoveries and strides. We have learned that these Yankees are fickle performers, often following happy victories with deflating defeats. They haven't given us much of a hint about where this season is going, except that it has gone nowhere thus far.

They are not quite yet in desperate straits, like the Mets. They are treading water, but with a history of post-All Star surges. We know only one thing for sure. Nobody is talking about the Yankees as a championship team anymore - not this year, anyway - and that means the arrow continues to point in the wrong direction for this franchise.

Full Article from the New York Daily News HERE:

He told little white lies ... and he took little blue pills.

Roger Clemens, whose claims he never took steroids are under federal investigation, has apparently discovered the benefits of another performance-enhancing drug sweeping the sports world - Viagra.

Clemens stashed the clearly marked, diamond-shaped pills in a GNC vitamin bottle in his locker at Yankee Stadium, according to a source familiar with the clubhouse, perhaps keeping the drug undercover to avoid the inevitable wisecracks about all the girlfriends he needed to please.

Clemens wasn't alone. The pitcher, who is believed to have scored the drug from a teammate, joined the burgeoning number of athletes who have turned Vitamin V and its over-the-counter substitutes into one of the hottest drugs in locker rooms.

The drug is so widely used for off-label purposes that it has drawn the attention of anti-doping officials and law-enforcement agencies in the United States and beyond.

"All my athletes took it," BALCO founder Victor Conte, whose acolytes included Jason Giambi, Barry Bonds and Marion Jones, said of an over-the-counter supplement he claimed mimicked the effects of Viagra.

"It's bigger than creatine. It's the biggest product in nutritional supplements."

Among the off-label uses for Viagra, which first went on the market in 1998, it:

Full Article from the New York Daily News HERE: