Baseball Page 1116 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Hero White Sox Fan Snags Flying Bat, Saves Baby
Eileen Depesa thought quickly—and acted quicker, with a one-handed snag of Tyler Flowers's runaway bat that seemed to be heading right for the infant sitting directly behind her. The gentleman next to her, ducking for cover? He did not acquit himself nearly so well....

Dodgers Catcher Hurts Himself Celebrating Josh Beckett's No-Hitter
We can forgive Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis's exuberance at witnessing the greatness that was Josh Beckett's gem of a game yesterday. Not that the backup had anything to do with it, but still. What we can't forgive is the clumsiness that saw him stepping on a catcher's mask, tweaking his ankle, and en...

The Mets Can't Hit And Can't Pitch But They Sure Can Fire People
The Mets made a rare double-switch today when they released 11-year veteran pitcher Jose Valverde and axed their hitting coach. ...

Benches Clear In Red Sox-Rays When Yunel Escobar Steals Third
After the Rays built a five-run lead in the bottom of the seventh inning, Yunel Escobar stole third base. A couple of Red Sox players saw that as disrespectful, and it wasn't long before benches cleared and players pushed each other around....

Josh Beckett Pitches First Dodgers No-Hitter Since 1996
Josh Beckett showed he still had some gas left in the tank by no-hitting the Philadelphia Phillies in today's 6-0 victory at Citizens Bank Park....

Astros Prospect's First Home Run Of Season Caught By His Dad
Conrad Gregor, a Houston Astros prospect currently playing for the Quad Cities River Bandits, unintentionally gave a souvenir to his father, who was attending Saturday's game....

Manny Ramirez Is Back In Baseball As A Player-Coach
The Chicago Cubs have hired Manny Ramirez as a player-coach for their Triple-A affiliate, the Iowa Cubs. Yes, really....

Philly Vendor Catches Foul Ball In Beer Bucket On His Head
A beer vendor at Citizens Bank Park earned a spot on the highlight reel when he caught Carlos Ruiz's foul ball in the bucket of brews on his head....

LSU Completes Off-The-Skull 5-6 Putout
Earlier this month we presented an out-of-this-world catch made by an LSU baseball player. Today's play is just as impressive, for a totally different reason....

Miguel Cabrera Touches Adrian Beltre's Head; Beltre Flips Out
Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre hates when anyone touches his head. When someone touches his head, a switch flips, and he gets so angry. He's always been like this, and it's always been hilarious. So, when Miguel Cabrera touched his head during a break in play last night, Beltre was unsurprising...

What The "Palace Intrigue" Over Bud Selig's Successor Is Really About
If Bud Selig's commissionership were a heist movie, we'd now be at the part where the thieves were gathered in a dimly lit room to count out the loot, and Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf would be the one with a gun in his hand, telling everyone to back away from the table slowly....

Chris Sale Remains Impossible
Last night, pitching against the Yankees, Chris Sale struck out Brendan Ryan on a diving change-up that had Ryan so far out in front and swinging so hard that his bat flew out of his hands, helicoptering across the infield and landing near the lip of the grass. On the next pitch, Sale threw pretty m...

Pedro Martinez Says Pitching Is All About Properly Sexing The Baseball
Our pals at Fangraphs got Pedro Martinez to sit down with them and wax on about his thoughts on pitching, and the results are fantastic. You should read the entire interview—Martinez is one of the smartest pitchers to ever play and he says a lot of wise and illuminating things—but we felt compelled ...

Chuck Knoblauch And The Retweeted Ass: A Short, NSFW Story
It began with an email on Wednesday night/early Thursday. Our tipster pointed out that former MLB player Chuck Knoblauch had retweeted a photo of what appeared to be a bare ass on his Twitter. Indeed, there was a naked ass, but it wasn't a particularly compelling story at the time. I screencapped it...

Yu Darvish Throws An Eephus Pitch, And Torii Hunter's Brain Breaks
In today's day game between the Rangers and Tigers, Yu Darvish got creative with an 0-2 count and two outs against Torii Hunter. The Rangers pitcher didn't get strike three, but he caused Torii Hunter to get a "Program Not Responding" message in his head....

Yasiel Puig Makes A Marvelous Diving Catch; Mets Fans Cheer For Him
Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig made a pretty sweet catch tonight to take what seemed like a sure hit away from Mets shortstop Wilmer Flores....

Yasiel Puig And Fat Joe Give People Bat-Flipping Lessons
I can't even begin to fathom how this bit came together, but I do know that watching Fat Joe and Yasiel Puig urge random strangers to celebrate their recent accomplishments with a good bat flip was a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be....

The Cubs' Continued Boning Of Jeff Samardzija Is Historically Egregious
Jeff Samardzija has started 10 games for the Cubs this year, and in those 10 games he has pitched 68 innings, struck out 54 batters, and allowed just 11 earned runs. In three of those starts, he allowed zero earned runs; he allowed just one earned run in three other starts. Jeff Samardzija has a 1.4...

Giants Pitcher Santiago Casilla Hurts Himself On Meaningless Groundout
The Giants had a four-run lead in the top of the ninth, which makes it all the more frustrating that reliever Santiago Casilla hurt himself while trying to get a useless infield single....

Alex Guerrero Could Miss Up To Five Weeks From Miguel Olivo's Ear Bite
Last night, Miguel Olivo bit teammate Alex Guerrero's ear during a dugout fight at an Albuquerque Isotopes game. Olivo has been removed from the roster while the Dodgers investigate the incident. Meanwhile, Guerrero may miss some significant time....