Mark Teixeira

Two and a half million dollars a season. That was the difference between what the Angels offered Mark Teixeira last winter to stay in Anaheim and what the New York Yankees paid him to move to the Bronx. Chump change in baseball's high-rent district, where Teixeira lives. He'll pay three times that much just in taxes. In reality, however, the two sides were much further apart. Like 2,100 miles apart.

at New York 2, Detroit 1: Joba Chamberlain (5-2) won for the first time in nearly a month and the Yankees got home runs from Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez to complete a three-game sweep of the American League Central leaders. Tampa Bay 4, at Kansas City 3: Gabe Gross drew a bases-loaded walk to force in the tiebreaking run with two out in the eighth inning. The Royals, who have lost six consecutive games and eight of nine, blew a 3-0 lead.

After deciding to leave the Angels and sign with the New York Yankees last winter, Mark Teixeira reached out to former teammate Torii Hunter to wish him well. And he told him he had another wish as well. "I told Torii in December I hope we play them in the ALCS," Teixeira said Wednesday. "And we're getting our wish." Teixeira turned down a fortune from the Angels to accept an even bigger fortune from the Yankees -- $180 million over eight years. And the move paid off handsomely for both teams.

Reggie Jackson threw the ceremonial first pitch Friday night, but Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira carved their own niches as the newest Mr. Octobers. After enduring a history of miserable postseason play, Rodriguez, the highly magnified third baseman, refueled the Yankees' offense in dramatic style. Rodriguez ripped a score-tying, two-run home run off All-Star closer Joe Nathan in the bottom of the ninth inning, and Teixeira led off the bottom of the 11th with a line-drive home run just inside the left-field foul pole off Jose Mijares to give the Yankees a 4-3 victory against the Twins.

All he ever wanted was a chance to play. That's why, as a skinny 8-year-old growing up in Cuba, he picked up a baseball in the first place. That's why, two weeks before his 21st birthday, he left Cuba and everything he had ever known to come to the U.S. And that's why Kendry Morales, perhaps alone among his Angels teammates, cheered Mark Teixeira's decision to bolt Anaheim for Yankee Stadium after last season, leaving first base open for him. "The only thing I needed was the opportunity to play every day," Morales says.