baseball Page 288 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Mike Piazza's Book Tour Produced An Excellent Illustration Of The Absurdity Of Steroid Handwringing
Mike Piazza wrote a memoir, and if early releases are any indication, it's mostly about how weird a human being he is. Perhaps because of his eccentric streak, many apparently hoped that the book would be a tell-all about the steroid era, like Jose Canseco's Juiced from someone who isn't (as much of...

Is Trevor Bauer's Terrible New Rap Song A Diss Track Directed At Miguel Montero?
Trevor Bauer is one of the most highly touted pitching prospects in baseball. He is also a terrible, terrible rapper and possibly kind of a dick. When he was traded from the Arizona Diamondbacks to the Cleveland Indians in the offseason, his former teammate and catcher Miguel Montero made some poin...

Economists Disagree Over How Influential Jose Canseco Was In Spreading Steroids, Start Getting Personal
With advance apologies for giving any more press to Jose Canseco, you might want to check out a little contretemps happening over at Econ Journal Watch about Canseco's role as the Johnny Appleseed of baseball steroids. There's been a debate for a few years now about Canseco's claims to have spread t...

Todd Helton Got A DUI This Morning And Posed For An Unfortunate Mugshot
Colorado Rockies first baseman Todd Helton was arrested early this morning for driving under the influence of alcohol in Thornton, Colo. According to police, Helton was pulled over a few blocks away from his home at 2:39 a.m. Helton just released a statement on the incident, via the Denver Post:...

Mark Grace Gets Jail Time For All Those DUIs He's Been Collecting
Former MLB first baseman and Diamondbacks color commentator Mark Grace is going to jail because he can't stop driving around Arizona while drunk. Earlier today, Grace pleaded guilty to endangerment and DUI, and was sentenced to four months of work-release jail time and three years of supervised pro...

The Art Of The Japanese Bat Flip
This video was put together by some unknown Japanese hero a year ago, but it's making the rounds today (I think it popped up first on Fangraphs last week). And that's 100 percent of the background on the video you're going to get....
![Rejoice: The New Mascot In The Washington Nationals' Presidents Race Is William Taft, Our Fattest And Sleepiest President [Update]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/18cp6zbk5fvosjpg.jpg)
Rejoice: The New Mascot In The Washington Nationals' Presidents Race Is William Taft, Our Fattest And Sleepiest President [Update]
At a fan fest today, the Nationals will announce the addition of a new American president to their much-beloved mascot race, which already saw a shake-up late in the Nationals' season when Teddy Roosevelt won for the first time ever. Crowd-pleasers that the Nationals are, they understood that fans ...

A Lip Reader Deciphers The Umpire-Manager Arguments Of 2012
Originally published in Baseball Prospectus....

Delmon Young Can Earn $600,000 In Bonus Money By Not Being A Fat Mess
On Tuesday, the Philadelphia Phillies signed Delmon Young, noted anti-semite and worst player to ever win the ALCS MVP, to a one-year, $750,000 contract. Today, we learned that Young's contract has one very peculiar stipulation. From the AP:...

Cardinals Great Stan Musial Dead At 92
Baseball Hall of Famer and unquestionable great Stan "The Man" Musial passed away tonight at 92. Musial started his major league career in 1941 and would play his last game in September of 1963; in the intervening seasons he made 24 All-Star teams, missing out only once, when he was serving in the U...

Drive A Legendary Cincinnati Sportswriter To Reds Games, Get Free Reds Tickets (And Gas Money, Too)
Hal McCoy, one of the go-to baseball writers on the Pete Rose investigation, the man that nicknamed the Reds the "Big Red Machine," and a winner of the J.G Taylor Spink Award (the highest that the BBWAA gives to its members) could use a favor:...

RIP Earl Weaver, The Irascible, Cigarette-Smoking Orioles Manager Who Was Moneyball Before "Moneyball" Existed
Earl Weaver, who managed the Orioles for 15 seasons from 1968-1982 (and another two from 1985-1986) passed away on Friday night at the age 82. In 11 of his 17 seasons, the Orioles won 90 or more games, and in his first three at the helm he guided Baltimore to three World Series, one of which, the 1...

Bruce Chen Is Switching Teams For The World Baseball Classic
When you think of Bruce Chen, you think: trailblazer. The journeyman starter may have to fight to crack the Royals' rotation in spring training, but he's going to make some baseball history in March. Chen will become the first major leaguer to play for China when he pitches in the 2013 World Basebal...

"What A Joke This Sport Is!" Jeff Van Gundy Is Not A Fan Of The Designated Hitter Rule
The Thunder's beat-down of the Lakers last night got a little boring towards the end, as beat-downs will, and unlike some spectators, Mike Breen and Jeff Van Gundy were contractually obligated to remain in their seats. Naturally, talk turned to the designated hitter, and—like many people, but in h...

Meet Pud Galvin, The Monkey Testicle-Drinking Rebuttal To The Argument That PED Users Shouldn't Be In The Hall Of Fame
Many hours have been lost this winter writing (and deliberately not writing) about who deserves to be enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame, and why everyone else is wrong about that. One contentious point: Shouldn't amphetamines—or "greenies"—which were widely used in the majors for decades before...

Jon Heyman Just Can't Make Up His Mind About Barry Bonds And The Hall Of Fame
In April of 2011, baseball writer Jon Heyman wrote a column titled, "Why Barry Bonds Belongs In The Hall" for SI.com. The piece laid out a surprisingly well reasoned argument for why Bonds should not be excluded from the Hall of Fame, despite his being surrounded by allegations of steroid use....

Who Was On The Ballots Of The Hall Of Fame Voters Refusing To Go Public?
For just the second time, the Baseball Writers' Association of America has given its voters the option of having their Hall of Fame ballots made public. Of the 569 voters who cast ballots, only 108 chose to reveal who they voted for. (Of course, many more discussed their selections in their own colu...

Here's Ken Rosenthal Comparing The Sabermetrics Community To The Tea Party
Fox MLB reporter Ken Rosenthal was on the MLB Network today, talking about the Hall of Fame vote and bow ties and whatever else it is Ken Rosenthal likes to talk about these days. At some point, the conversation turned to Jack Morris and his continued inability to garner enough votes to get into t...
![A Vote For Roger Clemens Was A Vote For Barry Bonds: The Politics Of The Hall Of Fame Ballot, By The Numbers [UPDATE]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/18azwl896gdgujpg.jpg)
A Vote For Roger Clemens Was A Vote For Barry Bonds: The Politics Of The Hall Of Fame Ballot, By The Numbers [UPDATE]
Hall of fame ballots follow their own own internal logic. For instance, regardless of how they feel about steroids, almost all voters agree with both or neither of the following statements:...

To Get You To Come To Cooperstown, The Hall Of Fame Will Re-Honor Lou Gehrig and Rogers Hornsby
See that guy over there? That's James "Deacon" White. He played mostly third base and catcher, and had a .740 career OPS. His best years came in the Ulysses S. Grant administration. He's the only baseball player entering the Hall of Fame this year....