Baseball Page 1202 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Mariano Rivera Hopes To Be Back This Season
Every morning, the fine folks at Sports Radio Interviews sift through the a.m. drive-time chatter to bring you the best interviews with coaches, players, and personalities across the sports landscape. Today: Rivera's not making predictions, but he's not ruling anything out....

Try To Look Surprised: Ozzie Guillen And Bryce Harper Have Beef
Ozzie Guillen is upset about something or other, bemused sources tell exhausted beat reporters. Also Bryce Harper did something with something and something something professional something something respect for the game....

Chone Figgins Is Bad At Cheating, Too
Let's start with the good: Chone Figgins was on base! Twice, actually! In a rare start, he went 0-1 with two walks, lowering his average to .185. Look, that's as much "good" as you're going to get. As put by Lookout Landing, who's also responsible for this wonderful gif,...

San Francisco Giants Almost Give Game Away In One Of The Worst Ways Imaginable
It's the bottom top of the ninth, and San Francisco is protecting a 2-1 lead over the Astros. Two out, 1-2 count, man on second. The Giants' Santiago Casilla gets Chris Snyder to swing and miss. Ballga—woops! The ball got away from Hector Sanchez and so he quickly airmails it to first base, pulling...

Jay Cutler: I AM SO JACKED UP FOR "TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME"
Relax, Jay. Relax. It's only July and the Cubs stink anyway. We appreciate the enthusiasm, though. ...

Bud Selig Is Not Against Change, Just Change That Matters
We've had a busy week around here and things were bound to fall through the cracks. So, I hope you don't mind if we take a spin in the Wayback Machine to Tuesday last so we can talk about your favorite doofus uncle, Bud Selig. Great, thanks....

ESPN Reports The Diamondbacks-Cubs Game Is Being Delayed By Snow
As far as we know, there is no snow at Wrigley Field on July 13. But we will update you if we learn that there is snow at Wrigley Field on July 13....

Zack Greinke Is Doing Something That Hasn't Been Done In Baseball Since 1917
From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's Tom Haudricourt: "Zack Greinke will be first pitcher to start 3 consecutive games in same MLB season since White Sox's Red Faber in 1917 (Elias)." Greinke was tossed from a Saturday start after four pitches. So he came back on Sunday and started—poorly (three ru...

Last Night's <em>The Franchise: Miami Marlins</em> Distilled Down To Its Motherfucking Essence
The Miami Marlins all-access curse-fest that is The Franchise premiered last night on Showtime, and the first episode made for enjoyable viewing (more enjoyable, at least, than the ESPY Awards, which it ran against). Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria bet the house on the 2012 season, hoping a new stadiu...

R.A. Dickey Saved The All-Star Game's Ratings
"Tony La Russa's decision not to start R.A. Dickey in Tuesday's All-Star Game turned out to be a good one for Fox. Ratings for the telecast peaked at a 9.0 between 10 p.m.-10:15 p.m. when the Mets knuckler entered the game in the sixth inning." R.A. Dickey: still the best. [NYDN]...

Filmmaker Jon Paley Is Here To Discuss His Documentary About How MLB Takes Advantage Of Dominican Prospects
The video above is a clip from Ballplayer: Pelotero, Jon Paley's film about the shady practices of MLB scouts in their pursuit of young talent in the Dominican Republic. The film, which is being produced by Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine, is being released Friday. It follows Dominican prospects M...

Baseball Player Who Said He'd Never Live In Racist South Carolina Assigned To South Carolina Team
Outfielder Robert Refsnyder, who was born in South Korea, took some heckling from South Carolina fans at the College World Series last month when his Arizona Wildcats beat the Gamecocks. Refsnyder ran to Twitter and declared he "will never live in South Carolina because they can't accept Asians play...

Phillies Announcer Melts Down: "Somebody Figure Out How To Fucking Get Scott Hairston Out!"
Scott Hairston owns the Phillies. Just plain steals their lunch and eats it in front of them, then poops in the bag and gives it back. He's a journeyman against everyone else, an All-Star against Philly....

Ben Sheets Will Return To The Majors This Sunday
Heading into this season, it looked like the Atlanta Braves were in possession of a stacked starting rotation. A trio of dynamic young arms—Tommy Hanson, Brandon Beachy, and Mike Minor—were set to team up with proven veterans Tim Hudson and Jair Jurrjens. What's more, the Braves had prospects like ...

Kansas City's Smoky Air Turned Bryce Harper Into A Zombie
The National League spanked the AL in last night's All-Star Game, which may actually be news to you given ratings almost certainly went down yet again for the Midsummer Classic....

MLB's Plan To Drain Every Last Ounce Of Fun From The Home Run Derby Takes Shape
Kansas City Royals fans were pissed off that Robinson Cano didn't pick Billy Butler for the Home Run Derby, so they booed him. Mercilessly. And each time he failed to hit a home run, compared to the zero times he successfully did, they cheered him. (Burke went ahead and isolated the crowd audio, s...

Ryan Howard: "I'm Going To Go Out There And Give 100 Percent Of 85 Percent."
Every morning, the fine folks at Sports Radio Interviews sift through the a.m. drive-time chatter to bring you the best interviews with coaches, players, and personalities across the sports landscape. Today: Howard isn't healthy, but he's healthy enough....

Bryce Harper Has A Bat Rack In The Trunk Of His Customized Mercedes-Benz
From the Washington Post comes a visual tour through Bryce Harper's customized Mercedes-Benz AMG. It's a snazzy car, but not nearly as ostentatious as some other customized vehicles that we've seen from athletes in the past. Although Harper gets plenty of points for subtlety, that doesn't mean that...

Berman Got Back: Your Home Run Derby Supercut, Featuring Sir Mix-A-Lot
Perhaps on advisement from his superiors, the very popular Chris Berman was noticeably restrained during last night's Home Run Derby. In fact, his "backbackback" catchphrase found limited use; Berman only uttered "back" 79 times. That's still plenty enough for us to have fun with, and so here's B...

Your Home Run Derby Open Thread
Do you want to know the terrifying truth, and see All-Stars sock a few dingers? The Home Run Derby is on ESPN now, right now, and it's going to be Bermanly unbearable, and also fun to watch because it's fricking home runs, you Communist. Matt Kemp captains the Senior Circuit, Robinson Cano the Arcad...