Unless you're a huge sports fanatic, you may find it hard to keep up with all the new players in professional sports. I used to be pretty good at it back when I collected baseball cards, or when I was able to watch news and highlights every night. These days, I don't have the time to track it all, especially with the increased action due to the salary cap, free agency and blockbuster trades. But let's say I wanted to quickly check up on my favorite baseball players -- maybe Ichiro or Dontrelle Willis. The new Sports Shortcut in Yahoo! Search will let me do just that.

Search for Dontrelle Willis, and there's the D-train's personable smile, along with the vital stats. Want to settle a bar bet about his ERA, strikeouts, or even his player number? Done. Need a quick recap of his last performance? Try the Game Log. Want to see when the Marlins are coming to town? Didn't think so ;-) (Try the Scores & Schedule link). You can also click the Photos link to see more images, like action shots.

For you Yahoo! Fantasy Sports owners, you might find the fantasy ranks useful for "heat checks." It looks like Ichiro hasn't been doing well for the last month, but Robinson Cano is burning up the Bronx! There's also a small "Notes" link next to the player's name that Yahoo! Fantasy Sports owners might recognize.

We've also added images to the News Shortcut. So, if you're searching for Barry Bonds breaking the home run record, for example, you'll now see pictures incorporated with the news results.

I hope that you baseball fans find this useful. We've got almost all MLB players (even Aaron bleepin' Boone!). We also plan to roll out the NFL, NBA and NHL as they rotate into season, so stay tuned.

Try it out and let us know what you think.

Ya-Bing Chu
Product Manager, Yahoo! Search

P.S. Yes, I'm a Red Sox fan.