Baseball Page 1235 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

And Your MLB Wild-Card Teams Are The St. Louis Cardinals And The Tampa Bay Rays
The Cardinals beat the Astros 8-0 behind Chris Carpenter's complete game two-hitter. Sounds simple. But the rest wasn't. They'd have to wait a while to get all all celebratory in the locker room....

Bartolo Colon-O-Meter: The End Is The Beginning
It was a frightful beating that gave rise to Deadspin's ongoing search for the meaning of Bartolo Colon—the 38-year-old Yankees starter got knocked out of the first inning against the Blue Jays, surrendering 8 runs (3 earned), an outing so bad it raised questions about the pitcher's very purpose in ...

An MLB Umpire Forgot The Count Last Night And Held The Game Up By Making A Phone Call (Video)
Part of Gary Cederstrom's job as a home-plate umpire is to keep track of the count for every batter, no matter what the scoreboard or any television graphic might indicate. But last night, with Adam Dunn batting with two outs and no one on in the bottom of the fourth, Cederstrom apparently got caugh...

SprtsCntr: The Wild-Card Races Tie It All Together
What is ESPN prattling on about right now? We condense your morning SportsCenter to its essence....

How Has Steve Bartman Avoided Showing Up On The Internet After All These Years?
It seems strange—miraculous, even—that sites like ours or other media outlets have yet to catch even a glimpse of Steve Bartman post-hibernation. No candid cellphone pic popping up on a Chicagoan's Facebook page. No first-hand account of a Bartman sighting at the laundromat or the gym or an Applebee...

Giants Rookie Conor Gillaspie Had A Very Rookie Inside-The-Park Homer Last Night (Video)
There are two things that make this—Conor Gillaspie's first major league home run—a very rookie home run: 1. The stumble and trip as he is waved home ( "Honestly, I was pretty embarrassed," he said after the game. "I didn't want to get up"); and 2. The fact that once he had made it home and set al...

This Evening: Let's Watch 10 Stadium Demolitions In A Row
Your p.m. roundup for Sept. 27, the day we learned red wine wasn't the blood-pressure cure we thought it was. H/T to Robert for the video. Got any stories or photos for us? Tip your editors....

Matt Kemp Poses Shirtless, Sometimes Spends Too Much On Clothes, Wants A Woman He Can Shop With
Matt Kemp, the Dodgers outfielder who counts Rihanna among his ex-girlfriends, is having an MVP-caliber season. He recently gave an interview to Flaunt magazine in which he revealed a bit about his tastes in both clothes and women....

Atlanta Braves Have Had A Rough September, According To Newspaper's Middle School Line Graph
This is a real graph that accompanied a real article in the real Atlanta Journal-Constitution today. The Braves lost to the Phillies 4-2 last night, and are now just a game ahead of the Cardinals for the NL wild card—all thanks to this carefully-plotted "September Swoon." It's really exciting that t...

Ozzie Guillen Says The White Sox Should Fire Him, Because He "Had A Great Team And They Played Like Shit"
This was a part of a droll press conference, in which Ozzie also said that the Marlins should be interested in him, because, "fuck it, they should be, I'm bad."...

This Evening: Big Papi, Little Pee-Pee
Your p.m. roundup for Sept. 26, the day we learned about spontaneous human combustion. Photo via Mocksession; H/T to Brad. Got any stories or photos for us? Tip your editors....

Old Man Jack McKeon Will Retire After Wednesday's Game
Well, this half-season at the helm of the moribund Marlins was not what I had in mind when I was told about an all-expenses-paid vacation in South Florida, the 80-year-old manager thought to himself, shortly before notifying the Marlins brass of his resignation via telegraph. [Twitter]...

Forget Boston, The Braves Are Going To Blow Their Playoff Spot
Folks fret a lot about the national sports media—we suppose this includes Deadspin—overcovering Boston sports. When it comes to John Lackey's personal calamities, we pay attention with good reason. But maybe the Red Sox's collapse, hanging over all of Lackey's baggage, is too big a deal. There's ano...

John Lackey And The Convenient Myth Of The Boston Spotlight
It may or may not be true that some players simply can't cut it in Boston. But it's an absolute truism that everyone in Boston wants it to be true. In a vacuum, the obvious question is "did John Lackey's personal issues, including his marital problems and wife's illness, contribute to a sub-par seas...

Ravaged By Irene: Oddibe McDowell's Water Bill Is $73.07 This Month Because Of A $21.00 Stormwater Fee
The former journeyman outfielder only used four thousand gallons of water during the last billing cycle, but Hurricane Irene's deluge in Broward County means that McDowell has an extra $21.00 in water bill fees. Cruel, cruel world....

Jayson Werth Meddled With The Nationals "Presidents Race" Again Today
You have to hand it to Jayson Werth: If he's the least bit concerned about being 21 games behind the playoff-bound team he left last year for money, he's not showing it....

Former Orioles Pitcher Mike Flanagan Threatened To Commit Suicide Several Times Before Doing So
The Baltimore Sun is reporting, based on police records released via Public Information Act request, that Cy Young Award winner and Orioles broadcaster Mike Flanagan's suicide did not come as a complete surprise to those closest to him....

They Cried Tears Of Joy And Praised The Heavens When The Brewers Clinched A Division Title
Your morning roundup for Sept. 24, a day you no longer have to worry about getting hit by a falling satellite unless you already got hit, in which case wouldn't be reading this because you're not alive to fret. Got any stories or photos for us? Tip your editors....

Deadspin's Guide To <em>Moneyball</em>
The much-delayed Moneyball film finally pops into your area cinemaplex today, marking one of nerds' few victories in a September filled with Red Sox defeats. We take particular interest in this film, and not just because we've long yearned to see someone portraying Chad Bradford dance across the scr...

Yes, The Marlins Let "Leo Nunez" Play For Several Months Even Though They Knew He Forged His Identity
"A person familiar with Nunez's immigration status told The Associated Press on Thursday that his real name is Juan Carlos Oviedo, and he's 29, a year older than listed in the team media guide. The person also said the Marlins have been aware of the issue for several months." [AP, via ESPN]...