The Angels were not happy with the way Mark Teixeira spurned their efforts to re-sign him last winter, but the first baseman hopes that there are no hard feelings against him. "I hope there are no hard feelings between Arte and myself," Teixeira said in Yankee Stadium before facing his ex-team for the first time Thursday. "I loved that organization. Arte, [Manager Mike] Scioscia, it's first class, top to bottom. But your wife and kids being happy is more important than your personal desires." Teixeira enjoyed his brief tenure with the club. "After the season, my wife and I stayed in L.A. for 10 days. I thought there was a really good chance I'd be back. It would be different if my family or my wife's family was from the West Coast." But Teixeira's parents live in Baltimore, and his wife's parents live in Atlanta. Their proximity to New York, combined with the Yankees' top-dollar offer, persuaded Teixeira. "I'm a businessman, too, and in the end, the Yankees made the best offer, and it was the best situation for my family," Teixeira said. "I get to see my parents every week I'm home, and they get to see their grandkids. That's pretty special."

Matt Garza gave up an infield single to Jacoby Ellsbury to lead off the seventh, the first hit he yielded in the game. The ball went just by Garza's reach and was fielded cleanly by Jason Bartlett, but his throw was too late.

Aramis Ramirez, sidelined since coming out of last Friday's game in St. Louis with a strained left calf, underwent an MRI on Thursday. The test showed inflammation, but general manager Jim Hendry said the third baseman was expected to be back in action within a few days and did not need the full 15 days off. Lou Piniella and athletic trainer Mark O'Neal watched Ramirez as he ran in the outfield prior to Thursday's game. "He went through a fairly extensive array of stretching and running exercises, and he's much better than he was in Phoenix two days ago," Piniella said. "The feeling is, the next few days we can get him out there to play."

Until further notice, John Smoltz will stay under the supervision of Boston's Major League training staff. After conferring with Smoltz this weekend, the Red Sox will try to get a better handle on how to proceed with his program. Smoltz had started throwing batting practice last week, and was nearing a start in an extended spring training game before he and the club decided to apply the brakes. "I think the way he put it was, if he was already in the game, he wouldn't think about [slowing down]," said manager Terry Francona. "OK, but he's not. The whole idea is to look at the big picture, so that's basically what it is."

When Alex Rodriguez was asked if he had been truthful when he said that the only time he had taken performance-enhancing drugs was as a member of the Texas Rangers, he ended the interview and walked away. Selena Roberts' new book, now set for a May 4 release, reports that Rodriguez may have done the drugs as early as high school. "Not really" was Rodriguez's response when asked if he was concerned that these new allegations would overshadow his return to the Yankee lineup. "I'm in a good place. I think more importantly, physically, I'm getting better every day. We've had a good week here. We've worked extremely hard, and I'm just very anxious to do what God put me on this earth to do, and that's play baseball."

Derek Jeter purchased a lease for a suite in the new Yankee Stadium this season in order to accommodate his family and friends. A taem spokesman said the box was big enough for 12, but wouldn't say how much it cost. Jeter paid full price for a suite of its size, which range in cost from $600,000-$850,000 and he wasn't granted an employee discount.

The A's and Rays are not even close to building new stadiums, so it begs the question of where they could potentially move to. San Antonio, Las Vegas and even Mexico were mentioned in a recent article by Jaysto Stark of ESPN. "I think Mexico will have a team," says a source. "I now think that's going to happen. It might be 20 years from now, but it will happen."

The Matt Holliday experiment in Oakland has not gone according to plan. "Then they've got issues," said an executive of one contender. "Every day that goes by when he doesn't hit any home runs, the price [they can ask in a deal] goes down. So do they just try to [dump] the money? "Or suppose they wind up keeping him all year. Do they decide not to offer him arbitration to get the [compensation] picks? Do they say, 'We can't risk paying this guy $13 million next year just to get those picks?' So this could get really interesting."

Excluding the new stadiums in New York, which are smaller than their old versions, the average crowd at a baseball game this April was just 287 customers smaller than the average game last April; even with one fewer weekend to draw from. "Quite frankly, it's too early to draw any definitive conclusions," said Bud Selig. "But we have to be encouraged -- in fact, very encouraged -- by what we've seen over the first 3? weeks." "The national pastime has survived recessions, depressions, scandals and wars," one agent told ESPN. "In many ways and for many reasons, the game is indeed recession-proof. The commissioner knew, or should have known, that the MLB Network, MLB.com, the national TV package and season-ticket sales, etc., guaranteed that the revenues in the industry in 2009 would at least be comparable to the $6.6 billion in revenues generated in 2008. He overdramatized the potential financial losses so as to limit and to artificially control spending on free agency."

Alex Rodriguez was asked about the details of Selena Roberts' book about him, but declined to comment. "I'm not going there," said Rodriguez. "I'm just so excited about being back on the field and playing baseball. My team has won two games [in a row] up there and hopefully I can come back and help them win some more."