Baseball Page 1221 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Tim Wakefield Is Retiring After 19 Weird, Fluttery Seasons And 200 Wins
The knuckleballer's mystique has long fascinated us. Our curiosity was only further piqued when Phil Niekro, Charlie Hough, R.A. Dickey, and Tim Wakefield went on a two-day retreat together in Georgia in the offseason. They're a fraternity of oddballs who throw odd balls....

Gary Carter Went Out With A Win
There's a great line in the New York Times obituary of Gary Carter that says he "may have led the 1986 Mets in hugging teammates."...

Fox Sports Typo Has Gary Carter Growing Up In The Great Depression
Presumably it was a typo that gave Gary Carter the birth year of 1926 in Foxsports.com's front page splash, but it's an odd typo considering it's not close to his actual birth year of 1954. An emailer suggests he was confused with professional bowler Don Carter. We wish the Kid had another 28 years ...

Gary Carter Has Died
After months of increasingly dire reports of Gary Carter's battle with brain cancer, the Hall of Fame catcher passed away today at the age of 57. The news was first reported by the Times's Richard Sandomir....

The Rays Now Lead The AL East In Mascots
Say hello to DJ Kitty, who has crossed over from scoreboard videos to a real live man-in-suit. Don't worry, there's still a home for Raymond (who, as I learned from his bio, is actually a Canus Manta Whatthefluffalus). It's just that the Rays wanted to be the first team to get their mascot-to-specta...

The Baltimore Orioles Have Pissed Off Korea
This fresh-faced young man is Kim Seong-Min, who as recently as last month was a regular high school student in South Korea. But he's a lefty pitcher, which automatically makes him one of the most desirable people on Earth, and the Orioles swooped in to cause an international incident and get their ...

C.C. Sabathia And His Wife Are Spending Valentine’s Night With Dinosaurs And Twitter
C.C. Sabathia's wife tweeted the above photo of her and her husband at New York's American Museum of Natural History a few minutes ago, adding this:...

Somebody Took The Time To Compile Baseball's 10 Worst Swings From The 2011 Season
The only criterion were swings at pitches outside the strike zone. [SB Nation]...

This MLB Fan Cave Candidate Has Tattoos Of All 30 Mascots
Benjamin Christensen might be an Oakland A's fan, but he has every MLB team covered, with the American League on the right side of his torso and the National League on the left. But the designs for many of them are more intricate than you think:...

Useful Things: A 1990 List Of Payphone Numbers In MLB Ballparks
How would you get a live baseball score in the time before smartphones? Before the internet, or widespread cable access, or cellphones at all? It was a bitch, until in the summer of 1990, Beckett Monthly deputized readers to collect the numbers for payphones at every MLB stadium. The thinking being ...

After Signing Cuban Defector With Weird Workout Video, Have The A's Had The Strangest Offseason Ever?
What is going on Oakland? (No, not this.) Billy Beane's done some things. He traded two young All-Star starters, Gio Gonzalez and Trevor Cahill, to the Nationals and Diamondbacks. He traded away his closer, Andrew Bailey, and Craig Breslow, another reliable reliever. Then he traded away two more sta...

AccuWeather Predicts A One Hundred Percent Chance Of Derek Holland
Last night, Derek Holland dropped by News 8's studio to give Peter Delkus a hand with the weather forecasting. What followed was a clinic on how to be a goofball Major League Baseball player who reads the weather for a local news broadcast. Highlights include the weatherman—"meteorologist"—calling...

The Orioles Can't Even Sign Potential Prospects Without Getting Their Scouts Banned In Other Countries
The Baltimore Orioles are dragging a streak of 14 consecutive losing seasons into 2012. Last month, they made a move that could pay significant future dividends when they inked 17-year-old Kim Seong-min to a $550,000 contract. A lefthander considered to be South Korea's best pitching prospect, Kim i...

What Happened On The Night Josh Hamilton Had A Relapse, (Alleged) Bathroom Sex? One Eyewitness Account
We got an email this afternoon from a man who says he was at the same Dallas bar as Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton on the night Hamilton had a relapse and (allegedly) bathroom sex. Here's our source's version of events:...

Ozzie Guillen Has Some Refreshing Opinions About The NBA
While he waits for the Miami Marlins to report to spring training, new manager Ozzie Guillen still has some time to take to Twitter to discuss the NBA. For instance, he is tired of hearing the constant criticism of LeBron James:...

Professional Athlete Used Recreational Drug
Via the Boston Globe: "Dennis 'Oil Can' Boyd's new tell-all book, 'They Call Me Oil Can: My Life in Baseball,' which hits bookstores in June, should be a blockbuster if the stories are similar to what the former Red Sox pitcher told WBZ's Jon Miller yesterday at JetBlue Park. Boyd, who spent eight o...

Source: Someone Tried To Sell A Dallas TV Station A Josh Hamilton Sex Tape From The Night Of His Relapse
Someone is shopping a videotape allegedly showing Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton, on the night of his recent relapse, having sex in the bathroom of Sherlock's, a Dallas bar. A local television station was offered the tape for $41,000, an employee at the station tells us. The station declined...

Nationals "Take Back The Park" From Phillies Fans, Give It Right Back To Them
Every time the Phillies visit Nationals Park, it feels like a home game for them. The stands are filled with fans who made the two-hour drive south to cheer for the Phillies, and it’s disheartening for Nats fans to be outnumbered in their own stadium. The same thing happens when the Yankees visit Ba...

The Pittsburgh Pirates Are Pretty Much Willing To Give Anyone A Tryout
Per Jim Bowden, they've invited Dmitri Young to their spring training complex for a workout next week. Dmitri Young. He's 38 and hasn't played a big-league game in four years. I half-expect the Pirates' next move to be ... oh, never mind. [WHYGAVS]...

The Mariners Probably Just Pulled Off The Best Signing Of The Offseason
Stand down, Edwin-Jackson-to-the-Nats. Relax, Broxton-to-the-Royals and Madson-to-the-Reds. We have a new steal in an offseason filled with ridiculous splurges (C.J.-Wilson-to-the-Angels, Pujols-to-the-Angels, Reyes-to-the-Marlins, Heath-Bell-to-the-Marlins) and not too many bargains. The Seattle Ma...