Baseball Page 1354 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The Poor Astros Will Be Sent To Slaughter On Baseball's Opening Night
MLB just announced which two teams will be facing off in the first game of the 2013 season, and the matchup is a curious one. On one side there are the Texas Rangers, a team that has proven itself to be one of the most exciting and watchable squads in baseball over the course of the last three seas...

2012 Deadspin Hall Of Fame Nominee: Fat Chipper Jones
He showed up for spring training looking like a fat ass. His fatness touched off a debate about whether he was fat. Eventually, Fat Chipper himself chewed the fat, and soon there was no denying what everyone else could see. He tried masking it. He found himself a Playboy-model girlfriend. He even ar...

According To Exit Polls, Nobody Will Make The Baseball Hall Of Fame
The results of 2013 Baseball Hall of Fame voting will be announced on Wednesday, and this year represents a unique ballot. Steroid users, suspected steroid users, a cocaine user, a catcher, Jack Morris. Want a preview? Baseball Think Factory has compiled the votes from every writer that made their v...

Torii Hunter Says Homosexuality Is "Not Right" (Then Claims He Was Misquoted)
On Saturday, Kevin Baxter of the Los Angeles Times wrote a column about the obstacles that a potentially gay athlete still faces in today's locker room culture. Included in the piece is the following quote from Detroit Tigers center fielder Torii Hunter:...


ESPN Writer Has The Single Best Strategy For Dealing With The Hall Of Fame's Steroid Problem
Though we blast the self-important BBWAA members who deal in absolutes, there's no denying that the Hall of Fame has itself a pickle. Bonds and Clemens, the consensus best hitter and pitcher of MLB's last 20 years, are eligible this year, the most obvious examples of players who would get in based s...

Venezuelan MLB Players Spend More Time Worrying About Being Kidnapped Than Most Professional Athletes
Becoming a professional baseball player should mean you're pretty much set, right? Forget the odds that a fringe (or star) professional athlete will go broke before he's a certain age—if you spend much of your twenties and thirties making millions or near millions of dollars for playing a game, you'...

Brandon McCarthy Is A Woman, According To His Driver's License
The mistake is right there on the Diamondbacks' pitcher's new Texas driver's license, which was tweeted out this afternoon by McCarthy's wife, Amanda. But I dunno, Brandon. Those nails look pretty feminine to me....

Don't Be Terrible, Be Good, And Win: How To Pitch, According To Fox Game Of The Week Scouting Reports
Originally published in Baseball Prospectus....

Alex Rodriguez Has Given Himself A New Nickname, So Everyone Be Sure To Call Him That
Say hello to Captain Rodriguez. A-Rod has been spending the holidays in Florida with his family (and Torrie Wilson), and he's documenting it all on his Facebook page. He put this photo up yesterday, but quickly deleted it. Maybe because the Yankees already have a captain, or maybe because he realize...

Fat Chipper Jones Is Apparently No Longer Fat
The debate continues: Fat Chipper earlier today tweeted the photo you see here (click to make it bigger), inviting us all to help him out. "What's wrong with this pic folks?" he asked. We've been looking at it all afternoon, and we're stumped. We can only surmise that he looks thinner because of his...

Ugueth Urbina Is Out Of Prison, Still Has His Fastball
It's odd that no one's really gotten to the bottom of what happened with decorated reliever Ugueth Urbina in Venezuela in 2005. Just before the season began, his mother was rescued from kidnappers in a commando-style operation, after being held for ransom for five months. Just after the season, in w...

Andruw Jones Charged With Battery After Alleged Domestic Dispute
There aren't many specific details yet known, but the AP is reporting that former major leaguer Andruw Jones started his Christmas Day in jail after he was arrested on a battery charge early this morning in the Atlanta suburb of Duluth. Seems police were called to respond to a domestic dispute betwe...

The Meaning Of Ryan Freel's "9 Or 10" Concussions
Ryan Freel was "tough." In baseball parlance, that means hustling on every pitch, giving up your body to make the play. These types of players are celebrated, of course. In August 2006, the Cincinnati Enquirer paid tribute to just the latest example of Freel's toughness, a diving catch on the warnin...

How Not To Vote For The Baseball Hall Of Fame, In Three Easy Steps
The results for the most recent Baseball Hall of Fame ballot will be revealed on January 9, 2013. As we draw nearer, there will be more and more ballot explanation columns from BBWAA members. Maybe they feel defensive about their choices, maybe guilty....

Carlton Fisk's Home Robbed Of Thousands Of Dollars In Collectible Coins; Carlton Fisk Had Thousands Of Dollars Worth Of Collectible Coins
Burglars broke into Carlton Fisk's home in Manatee, FL yesterday, according to a lengthy report in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Despite the presence of valuable baseball memorabilia and, presumably, electronics, jewelry and other frequently pilfered items, the burglars took only one thing:...

Josh Hamilton Blames All His Late-Season Struggles On Quitting Tobacco
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: Anaheim is getting a chaw-free Hamilton....

The 15 Best Peter Gammons Tweets Of 2012
Longtime baseball analyst Peter Gammons also shares his insight and knowledge via his Twitter account. Even when the season is over, Gammons will offer up his aperçus about baseball and life in general. Here are his best tweets from 2012....

There May Be A Lot Of Empty Seats At Yankee Stadium This Year
Last week, Major League Baseball renewed its partnership with StubHub, making the service the official secondary ticket marketplace of MLB. The New York Yankees are not very happy about this, and have decided to strike out on their own, creating a partnership with Ticketmaster....

Matt Bush Chose An Extra Year In Prison Because He Can't Trust Himself To Stay Clean
Matt Bush, the first overall draft pick in 2004, never made the majors. A series of incidents and arrests derailed his career, culminating in a DUI hit-and-run this spring that left a 72-year-old man crippled....