I was at the Yankee season opener in Baltimore and wrote this column about how expensive newcomers C.C. Sabathia and Mark Teixeira both had miserable debuts. My colleague, George King, and I tried to think of recent vintage Yankees who had extended poor starts and still managed to pull it together and have a good term with the Yankees. I thought of only two and it is probably only 1 1-2. The most obvious is Tino Martinez, who was just brutal for most of his first month in 1996. Then he had a big series, coincidentally, in Camden Yards and was off to a memorable Yankee career. The other one occurred that year, as well. Dwight Gooden was almost outright waived in April 1996, but pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre, in particular, felt Gooden could be improved. David Cone suffered an aneurysm, which forced the Yanks to stick with Gooden. In May, Gooden pitched a no-hitter and for about a three-month period Gooden helped save what became a championship season by pitching like an ace for the last time in his career.

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