TAIPEI, Taiwan — New York Yankees star Robinson Cano faced his father again in batting practice, reviving the partnership that helped the son win the Home Run Derby at this year’s All-Star game.

Robinson Cano was a bit less dominant this time, hitting a few of father Jose’s pitches over the wall at the Xinzhuang baseball stadium near Taipei, but lining several others short of the fence.

Monday’s workout in Xinzhuang came less than 24 hours after the Canos and a squad of Major Leaguers stepped off a trans-Pacific flight in Taipei. The team will play a local squad in five exhibition games around the island later this week.

Jose pitched for two Taiwanese professional teams in the 1990s, as well as pitching six games for the Houston Astros in 1989.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

AP Photo/Wally Santana

Curtis Granderson, left, and Robinson Cano of the New York Yankees joke in an interview during a practice session for the Taiwan All Star Series in Xinzhuang, Taiwan, Monday, Oct. 31, 2011. The major leaguers will play five baseball games against Taiwan’s team from Nov. 1-6.

New York Yankees star Robinson Cano faced his father again in batting practice, reviving the partnership that helped the son win the Home Run Derby at this year’s All-Star game.

Robinson Cano was a bit less dominant this time, hitting a few of father Jose’s pitches over the wall at the Xinzhuang baseball stadium near Taipei, but lining several others short of the fence.

Monday’s workout in Xinzhuang came less than 24 hours after the Canos and a squad of Major Leaguers stepped off a trans-Pacific flight in Taipei. The team will play a local squad in five exhibition games around the island later this week.

Jose pitched for two Taiwanese professional teams in the 1990s, as well as pitching six games for the Houston Astros in 1989.

As expected the sweet swing of Robinson Cano will be back in the Bronx next season. (Patrick McDermott)

The New York Yankees have exercised club options on second baseman Robinson Cano and right fielder Nick Swisher for the 2012 season.

Although picking the option $14 million option for Cano, arguably their best hitter was seen as a mere formality the $10.25 million one for Swisher was not such a slam dunk.

The 30-year old Swisher hit .260 with 23 home runs and drove in 85 while drawing a team-high 95 walks this past season but collected just four hits in 19 postseason at bats. The playoff struggles are a continuation of the past three years as the Ohio State alum is now a career .160 (16 for 100) hitter in the Fall Classic as a Yankee.

The 29-year old Cano who led the team with a .302 average, 188 hits, and 46 doubles while drilling 28 home runs and driving in 118 has another team option for 2013 at $15 million.

The New York Yankees have exercised the 2012 options on the contracts of second baseman Robinson Cano and right fielder Nick Swisher, the team announced Saturday.

Next season, Cano and Swisher are set to make $14 and $10.25 million, respectively.

This season, Cano, who won the 2011 Home Run Derby in Phoenix, hit .302 with 28 home runs and 118 runs batted in.

Cano is a three-time all-star, has won one Gold Glove Award and is a two-time Silver Slugger Award winner.

Swisher, a 2010 AL All-Star, hit .260 with 23 homers and drove in 85 runs.

The Yankees have another option on Cano next year. When they exercise it, the second baseman will be owed $15 million in 2013.

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.

It certainly appears there are a number of teams pre-ordained to be consistently successful, to write the miracle fantasy all sports fans will remember forever.

Yahoo! Contributor Network

The St. Louis Cardinals fall neatly into this group that includes the leader, the New York Yankees, as well as the Los Angeles Lakers, the Boston Celtics, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Green Bay Packers, and the Detroit Red Wings, to name a few. There are more, to be sure, but they escape me at this moment of sports despair as I watch, once again, a team I don’t like…a team that handed the New York Mets several of their many, many painful moments through the years…somehow overcomes an obstacle course worth of hurdles to advance to the brink of another championship.

You’ll forgive me, I hope, if not once but twice during the Game Six of St. Louis Cardinals-Texas Rangers I happily envisioned the elusive third strike that would have ended the World Series with a Ranger celebration. The image I painted included either David Freese(notes) or Lance Berkman(notes) staring hypnotically at a called strike the way Carlos Beltran(notes) once did with me in attendance in 2006.

But no, of course not. These traumas don’t happen often to the Cardinals and Yankees of the world. Do the Cardinals really need another legacy moment? Another championship to lift into a trophy case already bursting at the seams?

It’s amazing how many events and decisions have to join together in wretched unison to conspire in the development of such an unlikely result as Game Six provided. Ranger manager Ron Washington acted as if he needed to push Tony La Russa off the second guess griddle. I had so many questions about Ranger managerial decisions, I actually began to write them down.

Why was Colby Lewis(notes) batting with the bases loaded in a close game in the fifth inning, especially when he was destined to pitch only one more inning? Is he Tim Lincecum(notes)? C.C. Sabathia(notes)? Why was Derek Holland(notes), the only dominating Texas pitcher so far this post season, not the choice for Game 7…fully rested? Is Matt Harrison(notes) Tim Lincecum? Or C.C. Sabathia? Why did Holland pitch in this Game 6, and not be held ready for Game 7 if he was needed? And when used, why in a tie game? It sure seemed like Washington was rolling the dice, seeking to end it. So then, why not bring Feliz, the closer, back in with a two run lead in the 10^th inning and the bottom of the order due to bat? He can’t be saving him for Game 7. He wasn’t saving Holland. And why pinch hit with two outs and little chance of scoring in the 11^th inning, thereby taking out the only reliable pitcher left in the Ranger bullpen? In favor of someone I never heard of?

How did Ron Washington guide this team to this point? It’s pre-ordained. I’m tired of it.

Glenn Vallach has been a New York Mets fan since foolishly abandoning the mighty Yankees in his youth after Mickey Mantle retired. Since the fond, fleeting memories of the Tom Seaver, Cleon Jones, Tommie Agee years, he sits quietly yearning for a fraction of the success enjoyed annually by the team that inhabits the borough in which I was born…waiting and hoping…waiting and hoping.

Sources:

• · Yahoo! Sports St. Louis Cardinals page
• · Yahoo! Sports Texas Rangers page
• · Yahoo! Sports Lance Berkman page
• · Yahoo! Sports David Freese page
• · Ronald Blum, AP Sports Writer, Feliz, Feldman & Lowe form infamous Texas trio
• · By Ben Walker, AP Baseball Writer, Cardinals stun Texas, force World Series to Game 7

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.

	   2011 -- St. Louis 10, Texas 9, 11 innings, Game 6.
	   2005 -- Chicago White Sox 7, Houston 5, 14 innings, Game 3.
	   2003 -- Florida 4, New York Yankees 3, 12 innings, Game 4.
	   2001 -- New York Yankees 3, Arizona 2, 12 innings, Game 5.
	   2001 -- New York Yankees 4, Arizona 3, 10 innings, Game 4.
	   2000 -- New York Yankees 4, New York Mets 3, 12 innings, Game 1.
	   1999 -- New York Yankees 6, Atlanta 5, 10 innings, Game 3.
	   1997 -- Florida 3, Cleveland 2, 11 innings, Game 7.
	   1996 -- New York Yankees 8, Atlanta 6, 10 innings, Game 4.
	   1992 -- Toronto 4, Atlanta 3, 11 innings, Game 6.
	   1991 -- Minnesota 1, Atlanta 0, 10 innings, Game 7.
	   1991 -- Minnesota 4, Atlanta 3, 11 innings, Game 6.
	   1991 -- Atlanta 5, Minnesota 4, 12 innings, Game 3.
	   1990 -- Cincinnati 5, Oakland 4, 10 innings, Game 2.
	   1986 -- New York Mets 6, Boston 5, 10 innings, Game 6.
	   1980 -- Kansas City 4, Philadelphia 3, 10 innings, Game 3.
	   1978 -- New York Yankees 4, Los Angeles 3, 10 innings, Game 4.
	   1977 -- New York Yankees 4, Los Angeles 3, 12 innings, Game 1.
	   1975 -- Boston 7, Cincinnati 6, 12 innings, Game 6.
	   1975 -- Cincinnati 6, Boston 5, 10 innings, Game 3.
	   1973 -- Oakland 3, New York Mets 2, 11 innings, Game 3.
	   1973 -- New York Mets 10, Oakland 7, 12 innings, Game 2.
	   1971 -- Baltimore 3, Pittsburgh 2, 10 innings, Game 6.
	   1969 -- New York Mets 2, Baltimore 1, 10 innings, Game 4.
	   1964 -- St. Louis 5, New York Yankees 2, 10 innings, Game 5.
	   1958 -- New York Yankees 4, Milwaukee 3, 10 innings, Game 6.
	   1958 -- Milwaukee 4, New York Yankees 3, 10 innings, Game 1.
	   1957 -- Milwaukee 7, New York Yankees 5, 10 innings, Game 4.
	   1956 -- Brooklyn 1, New York Yankees 0, 10 innings, Game 6.
	   1954 -- New York Giants 5, Cleveland 2, 10 innings, Game 1.
	   1952 -- Brooklyn 6, New York Yankees 5, 11 innings, Game 5.
	   1950 -- New York Yankees 2, Philadelphia Phillies 1, 10 innings, Game 2.
	   1946 -- Boston Red Sox 3, St. Louis Cardinals 2, 10 innings, Game 1.
	   1945 -- Chicago Cubs 8, Detroit 7, 12 innings, Game 6.
	   1944 -- St. Louis Cardinals 3, St. Louis Browns 2, 11 innings, Game 1.
	   1939 -- New York Yankees 7, Cincinnati 4, 10 innings, Game 4.
	   1936 -- New York Giants 5, New York Yankees 4, 10 innings, Game 5.
	   1935 -- Detroit 6, Chicago Cubs 5, 11 innings, Game 3.
	   1934 -- Detroit 3, St. Louis Cardinals 2, 12 innings, Game 2.
	   1933 -- New York Giants 4, Washington 3, 10 innings, Game 5
	   1933 -- New York Giants 2, Washington 1, 11 innings, Game 4.
	   1926 -- New York Yankees 3, St. Louis Cardinals 2, 10 innings, Game 5.
	   1924 -- Washington 4, New York Giants 3, 12 innings, Game 7.
	   1924 -- New York Giants 4, Washington 3, 12 innings, Game 1.
	   1922 -- New York Giants 3, New York Yankess 3, tie, 10 innings, Game 2.
	   1919 -- Chicago White Sox 5, Cincinnati 4, 10 innings, Game 6.
	   1916 -- Boston Red Sox 2, Brooklyn 1, 14 innings, Game 2.
	   1914 -- Boston Braves 5, Philadelphia Athletics 4, 12 innings, Game 3.
	   1913 -- New York Giants 3, Philadelphia Athletics 0, 10 innings, Game 2.
	   1912 -- Boston Red Sox 3, New York Giants 2, 10 innings, Game 8.
	   1912 -- Boston Red Sox 6, New York Giants 6, tie, 11 innings, Game 2.
	   1911 -- New York Giants 4, Philadelphia Athletics 3, 10 innings, Game 5.
	   1911 -- Philadelphia Athletics 3, New York Giants 2, 11 innings, Game 3.
	   1910 -- Chicago Cubs 4, Philadelphia Athletics 3, 10 innings, Game 4.
	   1907 -- Chicago Cubs 3, Detroit 3, tie, 12 innings, Game 1.