7:05PM EDT
Over the weeks that passed, Mussina added to his arrangement, mixing in a wooden shelf, a John Deere calendar and the type of retro automobile advertisements you'd expect to see in a 1950s repair shop. When the Yankees went north to New York, Mussina left all but the white-erase board, and the jury is out if he'll ever see the rest of his decorations again.
At 39 and in the final year of his contract, Mussina is entering a season of uncertainty. His track record says that he has the know-how to succeed as a big league pitcher -- one doesn't log 250 victories by accident. But the scars of last August, when Mussina lost his spot in the starting rotation and was banished to long relief, remain in the minds of many.
"I'm looking at it as any other year," Mussina said. "I'm going to play the year as best I can, and when it's all done, I'll sit down and figure out what I'm going to do. It doesn't do me any good to think about it now.
"When next year rolls around, we'll figure it out then, based on how I feel and how I did. Why evaluate now? I don't know what's going to happen in the next six months. It's just like any other contract. You've just got to play."
Mussina was 11-10 with a 5.15 ERA in 28 games for New York last season, but Yankees manager Joe Girardi prefers to look at the positives from the numbers. Mussina logged three victories in September, prompting Girardi to question those who bury aging hurlers at the first sign of fatigue.
"It wasn't like his last month was his tough month," Girardi said. "Pitchers are going to have months like that. Mike has been a model of consistency over his whole career, so I think people are sometimes a little bit shocked when things go really haywire.
"I look at his last month and Spring Training and think he feels pretty good about himself. We feel good about him. I think that's the important thing."
Now the veteran stalwart of a starting rotation quickly leaning upon youth, Mussina has done his best to play mentor. He rearranged the lockers of the Yankees' spring clubhouse so that Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy would be nearby Lake Mussina for any impromptu pitching discussions that broke out.
Though Kennedy characterizes Mussina more as a "big brother," the consensus is that having Mussina around to guide the young hurlers into their respective bright futures will pay dividends down the road -- no matter what Mussina does in 2009.
The game is changing, Mussina says. Even though he can sympathize with Hughes, Kennedy and Joba Chamberlain as young vaunted hurlers, having played that role with the Orioles in the early 1990s, it isn't quite the same.
"I wasn't on a team that had expectations this high," Mussina said. "I was the only guy that young at the time being moved into the rotation, and it was a different era. It was almost 20 years ago. The stuff these guys go through in the Minor Leagues, we didn't do. We weren't protected quite this much. They put us out there to see if we would survive."
Pitching matchup
NYY: RHP Mike Mussina (0-0, -.-- ERA)
The 39-year-old Mussina makes his first bid to match Bob Gibson on baseball's all-time wins list with 251. Mussina will be looking to put a disappointing 2007 campaign, in which opponents batted .311, behind him. He was 2-0 with a 2.13 ERA in two starts against the Blue Jays last year.
TOR: RHP A.J. Burnett (0-0, -.-- ERA)
Burnett, who has been on the disabled list four times in his first two seasons with Toronto, is aiming for a healthy campaign. The right-hander is signed through 2010, but he has the ability to opt out of his contract following this season.
Tidbits
Abreu is .325 (13-40) with one home run and eight RBIs career vs. Burnett. ... A-Rod is .357 (5-for-14) with two homers and six RBIs vs. Burnett. ... Thomas is .375 (30-for-80) with nine home runs and 21 RBIs career vs. Mussina. ... Jorge Posada has caught in at least one game for the Yankees in the last 14 seasons, becoming the first backstop to appear with the same team in 14 consecutive years since Milwaukee's Charlie Moore (1973-86), according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
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