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Seeing an old teammate back in town fired up Nick Swisher on Friday.

After watching former Yankees catcher Jorge Posada throw out the ceremonial first pitch, Swisher cleared the bases in the bottom of the first inning with a long double that ignited the Yankees to a 5-0 win against the Angels.

"The power of Jorge Posada today, fellas," Swisher said. "Such a great day and to be able to acknowledge him for all the things he's done for baseball and for this organization and for this city. It was just nice to be up in the spotlight like that and be able to come through and put us up on the board early and then (Hiroki) Kuroda and the boys took care of the rest."

Posada, the former Yankees catcher, retired in the offseason and the team brought him back for the ceremonial first pitch before Friday's home opener. After Posada threw out the pitch, Swisher and all the other starters individually congratulated Posada on the mound. The outfielder spoke admiringly about Posada, who won five titles with the team.

Swisher carried his momentum from Wednesday's game against Baltimore to the team's home opener. His go-ahead two-run homer in the 10th inning powered the Yankees to the sweep over the Orioles Wednesday. Friday, his double gave the Yankees all the offense they would need, putting the team up 3-0 after his ball just got over the head of Peter Bourjos in center.

Swisher went 2-for-4 on the day, adding a single in the eighth, to raise his average to .250. He leads the team with nine RBIs, with five coming in the last two games.

"In a situation like that, you got a team that a lot of people think, you know, pretty good squad, and to be able to be up 3-0 in the bottom of the first inning definitely puts a little momentum on our side," Swisher said.

In the last year of his contract, Swisher entered this season with the mindset of preventing a repeat of last year's "stressful" season. The outfielder batted .260 with 23 home runs and 85 RBIs, his fewest homers as a Yankee, and his averaged was stuck in the low .200s in June. He also struggled in the playoffs, hitting 4-for-19 with one homer in the ALDS loss against Detroit.

This season, he's determined to have fun when he's playing the game, forgetting about the stress. So far, as he's helped the Yankees win their fourth straight game after losing the first three of the year, Swisher is certainly having plenty of fun. Especially with an old friend around.

"He does so much for this game and this organization," Swisher said of Posada. "The tributes they played for him between innings, it kind of gives you Goosebumps a little bit because he's what a true Yankee is and you just want to try to follow in the footsteps of a guy like that."

Jorge Posada is used to catching pitches behind the plate.

On Friday, though, Posada threw one from the mound -- to his father, Jorge Sr.

The recently retired Yankees catcher threw out the ceremonial first pitch prior to his former team’s home opener at Yankee Stadium.

Posada’s offering was a bit high, but he still received a ton of applause from the appreciative sellout crowd.

Posada’s former teammates stood behind the mound, and he hugged each and every one of them before walking off the field. The scoreboard read “Thank You Jorge.”

“It’s gonna be great. I hope he throws a strike,” Alex Rodriguez said before the game. “It’s gonna be weird, you know?”

“I can’t wait to see that,” added Robinson Cano.

Posada, 40, played 16 seasons for the Yankees from 1996-2011. He was a five-time All-Star and five-time World Series champion.

Wearing a gray Muhammad Ali shirt that said, "The Greatest," Derek Jeter did not make any news, but offered some nuggets during his news conference on his first day of spring training.

The most interesting item: Jeter, who turns 38 in June, said he would walk away from his contract if his play every deteriorated to a point where he wasn't playing up to his desired level.

Here are the top seven takeaways from the presser:

1.) Mariano Rivera said he only wants to leave on top. Does Jeter feel the same way?

"If I didn't think I was capable of playing the game at a high level, then I would go home. If I wasn't enjoying myself, enjoying the competition, then it would be time to go home. Right now, I think I'm capable and I'm going to enjoy myself. I can't comment on what would force me to retire or go home or stop playing. I have a lot of confidence and I have always had a lot of confidence. If that starts to waver, then I wouldn't do it."

Jeter -- who has two more years on his contract after this season -- did say he would walk away from a contract if he stopped playing well.

"Yeah, I've always said that," Jeter said. "I'm not just playing just to play. I still enjoy it. That [the contract] has nothing to do with it."

2) Jeter was shocked about a couple of things.

• How last season ended when the Yankees lost in Detroit.

• When he heard the Yankees had acquired Michael Pineda.

"I was shocked when we got Pineda," Jeter said. "We faced him, I believe, only one time last year. You are talking about someone who is what, 22, 23 years old? With an arm like that, you don't usually acquire guys like that too often. I was pretty excited about it. I think the organization as a whole was excited about it because that doesn't happen too often. You feel bad that [Jesus] Montero has to leave, but you are excited to have a guy like that on your team for a long time."

3.) With Jorge Posada retired, joining Andy Pettitte and, maybe soon, Rivera, what is it like for Jeter?

"It is awkward, just because you are so used to seeing someone," Jeter said. "With Andy, he was the dumb one of the group who left and went to Houston for a few years. We sort of got used to him not being here. Jorge, it hasn't hit me yet. Pitchers and catchers are on a different schedule anyway, so you really don't see each other too often. That will be a tough one because everyone knows we were together all the time."

4.) On the first half of last year: "I don't think 3,000 hits had any effect on how I performed."

5.) Could his whole 2012 be like his second half? "Why not?"

6.) Jeter thought getting hurt during his pursuit of 3,000 was a "blessing in disguise," because he was able to revert back to his original style of hitting after experimenting with Kevin Long in the spring. He said his timing was off the whole first half and then he went back to the fundamentals.

7.) He expects to get days off, like he did last year, to keep himself fresh. He still doesn't like that idea, but feels as if Joe Girardi will use him the same way.

"It is a long season, but you do have to pace yourself," a resigned Jeter finally said.

What type of year do you think Jeter will have?

He would play hardball again.

Prior to the 2011 season, Yankees GM Brian Cashman took a hard line with the team's captain and shortstop, Derek Jeter, as the two tried to work on a new deal for the veteran.

When asked on Tuesday whether he would have done anything differently in hindsight, the GM didn't have any alternative negotiating strategy in mind.

"Umm … no," Cashman said, eliciting laughs and applause from the sold-out crowed at Sacred Heart University that was attending "A Conversation with Brian Cashman and Theo Epstein."

Before the two sides agreed on a three-year, $51 million contract, things got ugly between the negotiators. Cashman told ESPNNewYork.com that he felt the Yankees made a "fair and appropriate" offer to Jeter, and encouraged him to test the market to see if there was another deal out there that he preferred. Ian O'Connor's book, "The Captain: The Journey of Derek Jeter" said that the contract negotiations damaged the relations between the two.

At Jeter's news conference for the contract, the shortstop said he was not happy that details from the negotiations were leaked to the public, even using the word "angry" to describe his feelings. He said he was uncomfortable and the process was not enjoyable for him.

Despite that, Cashman wouldn't have changed how it all went down.

NO DEAL FOR JORGE: Former catcher Jorge Posada retired last week after 17 seasons with the Yankees, not getting offered a deal from the team after his contract expired this season. Cashman said Tuesday that it was not tough for him to sit through the retirement knowing that Posada could still be playing if the Yankees had decided to offer a contract.

"It was more of a celebration of what he had done for us. It was an hour-long bouquet-throwing ceremony to what Jorge had meant to the franchise. It wasn't tough, really, I would say being there," Cashman said before the event. "A decision at his age and what he was doing and how he would fit with this club moving forward, it just didn't look like a fit. He made a decision because he wanted to retire in a Yankee uniform. It wasn't hard, it was just time. I understood that and I guess he did, too, but he was an amazing Yankee. One of the best catchers in our history and strength up the middle."

HENDRY ON BOARD: The Yankees hired former Cubs GM Jim Hendry as a special assignment scout on Wednesday, a move Cashman was pleased with.

"He can scout amateur players, he scouts pro players for us, he's as connected in the game as you can possibly be," Cashman said before the event. "Everybody loves this man. He's wired with the agents, he's wired with the media, he's wired with the baseball community in the college ranks as well as the pro ranks, so he's just going to be an invaluable resource for me and for this franchise. I have a great deal of respect for Jim and he had a lot of choices and I'm glad he chose us."

Seeing the Yankees trade their young catcher, Jesus Montero, didn't come as a surprise to new Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine.

"I thought that was kind of in their plans," Valentine said on Sunday at Rippowam Middle School in his hometown of Stamford, Conn. "He helped their plans come to fruition by the way he played that last month of the season. I didn't really ever think he was going to be their catcher of the future but maybe."

Valentine, who is never one to shy away from giving his opinion, previously didn't seem that impressed that the Yankees acquired touted rookie pitcher Michael Pineda from Seattle in exchange for Montero.

"Pineda, when I saw him in the first half (last season), he looked unhittable. In the second half, he looked OK," Valentine told reporters in mid-January. "I don't know. (Seattle) saw a lot of him, and they traded him."

While Valentine said the trade didn't surprise him, he did not elaborate on why. The Yankees also traded away reliever Hector Noesi in the deal and received a minor league pitcher.

"I don't know," Valentine said when asked if he thought Montero was going to be used as a trade chip in the future. "I don't know what the Yankees are doing, I think Brian (Cashman) is a real smart guy, one of the great managers in the game of baseball, and I don't know what his plan was."

Though the new manager has been making national headlines since taking over as Boston's skipper, he did not make any proclamations or take any shots at the Yankees. He was talking at his old high school as part of an Annual Hot Stove Report to sponsor Ed Randall's Fans For the Cure.

Valentine said he had no idea if Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez is still the same player he used to be. He also said doesn't know who is the AL East favorite and did not compare his pitching staff to the rest of division for lack of knowledge on other rotations as well as his own.

"Right now, it looks like it's really tough, the AL East, but the entire American League looks like it's incredibly tough," Valentine said. "I'll know a lot more about it when I see it up close and personal, that's for sure."

The former Mets manager praised former Yankees catcher Jorge Posada, who retired earlier this week after 17 seasons in Pinstripes.

"It means that he had a fabulous career, a guy with one team with that many rings, meaning that much to his community and his teammates," Valentine said of what Posada's loss will mean to the Yankees. "He'll be missed, his presence will be missed, that's for sure."

Since he's only in his first few months as the manager, Valentine said he does not believe that he has experienced the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry in full force just yet. The Red Sox will face the Yankees for the first time this season on April 20 at Fenway Park.

"But what I have experienced has been mind-boggling," Valentine said. "The knowledge, just to know what I look like, it seems like they know what car I drive and they're always there to say something special and right now everything that been said is 'Welcome to Boston and good luck with Boston' and I love that. I'm sure that will change a little. I hope what it changes to is 'Great job with Boston."

Jorge Posada seemed perfectly content and happy with his decision to retire at Tuesday's news conference, but there was one aspect of his final season as a Yankee that still clearly rankled him: the decision made by the front office before the 2011 season no to even consider Posada as a possible catcher for the team. In fact, Posada never caught an inning, in a game or even in a bullpen session, at spring training.

"I never even got the chance to fight for my job, and that's probably the toughest thing as a human being, not being able to do your job,'' Posada said. "I felt demoted.''

Still, Posada said he approached his new assignment as the team's DH with enthusiasm -- until he got off to a rough start and soon lost half his job, against left-handed pitchers.

"I looked forward to being a DH, I really did,'' he said. "But when you're not going good and you can't go back to what you were good at, it's really tough to keep going.''

Posada said he did not blame Joe Girardi for what he considered his "demotion,'' but the two did not appear to have any interaction at th enews conference, although it is possible they spoke out of the presence of the media.

"I don't have an issue with him, I really don't,'' Posada said. "It was one of those things whereI think he was put in that situation. I think it came from upstairs. I don't have a problem with Joe.''

Said Girardi: "When you're a manager you're asked to make some tough decisions. I don't look back with any regrets. I love Jorge Posada. We shared so many great moments together. I'm not going to let one tough situation take away from the relationship that we have.''

In a private moment after his press conference, I asked Jorge Posada if he thinks he will be at Old Timers Day this year.

"I don't think this year," Posada said. "You've got to take it easy."

Posada, 40, says he has no plans on what he is going to do now. The only thing he knows for sure he is going to spend a lot of time with his family. Posada has no real plans of how he could eventually return to baseball, but he seems to be interested in doing so one day.

Here is the full news story on Jorge Posada announcing his retirement.

Wally and I will have you covered at Jorge Posada's retirement presser. In the meantime, here is the question of the day.

What would you like to tell Jorge today? What is your best memory?

The YES Network will televise Jorge Posada's retirement press conference live from Yankee Stadium beginning at 11 a.m. As Don King used to say, if you can't be on on the scene, be sure to catch it on the screen. (Of course, King didn't care where you watched it. On the scene or on the screen, you had to pay him either way.)

Jorge Posada will officially announce his retirement at a Yankee Stadium news conference on Tuesday morning. Word leaked out a couple of weeks ago that Posada, 40, would retire after 17 seasons, all spent with the Yankees, and at Saturday night's annual awards dinner of the New York chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America, a video of Posada thanking the fans for their support and the media for their coverage of him was played in the ballroom.

Although Posada struggled through a 2011 season in which he hit .235 with 14 HRs and 44 RBI, finishes his career with a .273 batting average, 275 HRs and 1065 RBI, numbers which are certainly worthy of consideration for Cooperstown.

Which leads us to today's question: If you had a Hall of Fame vote, does Posada get it?

Within this Insider piece, Buster Olney explains why stubbornness was a key to Jorge Posada's success, and recaps his Hall of Fame credentials.

Is Jorgie a Hall of Famer in your eyes? Why or why not?

Other than as a member of the enemy or a paying customer, that is:

The only way, it seems, that Jorge Posada will return to the Yankees for 2012 is if for some reason, an irresistible trade arises in the next six weeks that persuades the Yankees to part with Jesus Montero, a prospect that seems rather remote at this point.

According to sources I have spoken with, the Yankees see Posada as strictly a left-handed hitting DH, a luxury they cannot afford to carry as long as Montero, who is expected to assume most of the DH duties in 2012, is on the roster.

Backup catcher, maybe? Out of the question. Aside from the fact Posada caught in just one game all last season, one source listed the Yankees catching depth chart for 2012 as follows: Russell Martin, Montero, Francisco Cervelli.

"I just don't see a spot for him right now," the source said.

Do you?

In this story by Adam Rubin, Jorge Posada's agent said that he nor his client have contacted the Mets about a job.

Jorge Posada still wants to play and, according to SI.com, his agent called the Mets to see if they would be interested in having him.

The Mets apparently said, "Thanks, but no thanks."

If only Omar were still around.

Anyway, let's get the conversation started today.

Question of the Day: Who do you want to be your long-term catcher? (A) Russell Martin (B) Jesus Montero (C) Austin Romine (D) Gary Sanchez (E) Joe Mauer (F) Bring back Jorge