Baseball Page 1243 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

This Evening: Could Theo Epstein Be Jamming With The Cubs Next Season?
Your p.m. roundup for Oct. 4, the day we saw the worst ad campaign ever. The report on Epstein being granted permission to speak with the Cubs is here. Got any stories or photos for us? Tip your editors....

A Homemade Infographic To Help Explain Who Is Still Chasing The Pennant And Who Is Not
Adrian Beltre, who the Boston Red Sox decided not to keep around this year, hit three home runs this afternoon, carrying the Texas Rangers into the American League Championship Series. That's two more homers than any Red Sox third baseman hit in any game this year. Just one of those subtle statistic...

Do Not Fret, Yankees Fans: A.J. Burnett May Have Been A Victim Of Bad Home Run Luck This Year
Sam Miller of the Orange County Register tweeted this last night, and it's kind of amazing. (Ignore his mention of Jered Weaver.) Tonight's scaring-everyone-shitless Yankees starter A.J. Burnett's xFIP (expected Fielding-Independent Pitching) was 3.86 this year. xFIP is on a scale roughly equivalent...

A Cameraman Wiped Out During Today's Rangers-Rays Game (Updated With Video)
A cameraman wiped out while tracking Adrian Beltre on his trot home after a solo shot in the second inning. We'll have video shortly, of course....

Josh Hamilton Wants The Rangers To Keep Raiding The Angels For Players
First Vlad Guerrero, now Mike Napoli. What's next? "I think we're going to look at who we can get from the Angels next year." [Hardball Talk]...

Here's The Delmon Young Home Run That Gave Detroit A 5-4 Victory
And the freaky-fast Justin Verlander just got through a scoreless eighth. Hope there's a comfortable wall somewhere on 8 Mile, because the Yankees' backs are up against it....

A.J. Pierzynski Will Be Irritating You On World Series Broadcasts This Year
Fox Sports announced today, per USA Today, that once-blond nuisance (and current White Sox starting catcher) AJ Pierzynski would join Eric Karros' pompadour and the formerly frosted, still gelled tips of Chris Rose on Fox's World Series pregame and postgame coverage. Yuck. (We presume Jeanne Zelasko...

Yankees Suspend Beer Vendor For Joking With Red Sox Pitcher
Steve Lazarus has been hawking beers at Yankee Stadium for 35 years. But he didn't get to work the first two games of the ALDS over the weekend because the team has accused him of "harrassing" Red Sox pitcher Alfredo Aceves. According to what Lazarus told the New York Post, this is how his encounte...

Your "Brewers Fans Were Mean To The Guy In The Horse Mask" NLDS (And Yankees/Tigers) Open Thread
When they came for the man (or woman) who silently drank beer through a horse mask at Miller Park, Brewers fans were not silent. In fact, they chanted "asshole" as the furry was ejected....

Your ALDS Open Thread
Tampa Bay and Texas start their Game 2 at 7:07 p.m. Rays are up a road game....

Here's Slow-Motion Video Of Brewers Girl Looking Down Her Shirt On Live TV
What is it with you tipsters? You slow down TBS footage of a Diamondback approaching the plate, calling it "That Brewers lady behind home plate," describing it as "Slo-mo, 23 seconds. Fun w/boobs" and expecting it to get posted?...

Your NLDS Games 1 Open Thread
Milwaukee hosts Arizona, first pitch scheduled for 2:07 p.m. eastern. Then, the Cardinals try to beat Roy Halladay and the Phillies starting at 5:07 p.m....

Looks Like Klan Sheets Now Come Emblazoned With Your Favorite Baseball Team's Logo
Tipster Loren F. thinks he saw "Klan ponchos at Yankee game." In perceiving it so, he wonders whether "this usher feels slightly uncomfortable during the rain delay?!" Don't know. Bigger question: They turned on the Braves quickly enough to get new regalia?...

October In September: Welcome To The MLB Playoffs
Are you excited? We are excited. The calendar doesn't say October yet, but the baseball does, and that's what matters. The Red Sox and Braves are dead, dammit, and the division series are alive! Viewing guide | Open thread | The four minutes that got us here, in split screen...

The Undervaluing Of <em>Moneyball</em>; Or, What You Can Learn By Watching With A Bunch Of Old People
Although advanced baseball analysis had been around for years, Michael Lewis's 2003 book Moneyball, about the Oakland A's General Manager Billy Beane's using it to build their roster, helped to start an online industry of carping about player evaluation and team structure. The release of the 2011 fi...

Hey, Baseball, You Should Be Terrified Of The Tigers Bullpen
Terror, terror! Everybody's made a big stink about how terrifying Detroit's ace, Justin Verlander, is. We, of course, agree: nine strikeouts, two walks, and six hits per nine is plenty terrifying. And everyone's made a similar stink about how un-terrifying Detroit's other starters—Doug Fister, Max S...

Your Viewing Guide To The 2011 MLB Playoffs
It's October (almost)! And you know what that means: everyone you know will now pretend to have cared about baseball for the past six months so that they can safely pretend to care about it for the next month. Prepare yourself for those unendurable office talks with the guy who just learned that the...

Roy Halladay Came Here To Bury, Not Praise The Cardinals
Crossing Broad brings us this tale of how Roy Halladay gives a menacing, literate answer to a reporter's silly softball:...

Terry Francona Out As Manager Of Red Sox, Who Promised "No Scapegoats," To Be Replaced By (INSERT HIGH-PROFILE MANAGER HERE)
You already know the story of the Red Sox's epic collapse—an eight-and-a-half-game wild card lead, blown to bits, that 99.6 percent chance of making the playoffs, turned to zero. Now, according to pretty much every national baseball writer (Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal had it first last night), the Red...

Big Yankees Fan Sings And Dances In Celebration Of The Big Red Sox Choke
Well, "Big Yankees Fan" Michael LaPayower didn't even wait 24 hours to stick it to the chokedog Boston Red Sox. And you know what, there's not a damn thing they can do about it....