baseball Page 303 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Your Opening Day Open Thread
It seems like just yesterday that Tim Lincecum and the Giants were donning their dong-hats as world champions, but baseball is here again, and we're so happy about it. In the early-afternoon block, we've got Tigers-Yankees, Braves-Nationals, and Brewers-Reds. Express your giddiness, joy, and/or curs...

Take A Look At Tim Lincecum's Brand New Jordanesque Logo
Tim Lincecum will be on the mound (and on the Magazine cover) as the Giants open their season this evening with an 8 p.m. EST game against the Dodgers. There's always been something about Lincecum that suggests an aversion to selling-out or going for products (it's the long hair; I'm stereotyping) s...

How To Throw A Knuckleball, Starring Jim Bouton
This is the first of an occasional video series in which someone good at something doable teaches you how to do it. Today we have Jim Bouton, former major leaguer and author of the great Ball Four, demonstrating his old signature pitch, the knuckleball....

Keeping An Eye On CBS's Eye On Sports Stories About Eye Injuries
We haven't exactly lived up to the return challenge to never post anything regarding "death" or "spin" since we pointed out Eye On Baseball's story on Luis Salazar's lost left eye a few weeks ago, but we do feel it is our new duty to keep an eye on the CBS sports blogs' eye injury stories. Today: Ma...

Watch Manny Ramirez Almost Kill Roy Oswalt
Roy Oswalt was struck "in the upper body" with a line drive hit off of Manny Ramirez's bat today in Port Charlotte, Fla. Crossing Broad captured the video, and while at first glance it appears to hit him in the back of the head, initial reports state that he was struck above the right shoulder and...

The Best Sports Apps for Your Smartphone
March Madness is here, spring training is afoot, and fantasy players of all sports are honing their picks. Sports fans have unprecedented access to games, scores, and sports news from anywhere with there smartphones. Today we're rounding up the best… [Lifehacker] ...

CBS Runs A Misguided "Eye On Baseball" Story About Luis Salazar's Lost Left Eye
Luis Salazar, the single-A manager for the Atlanta Braves who was struck by a foul ball and airlifted from the field a week ago, lost his left eye in surgery after the injury. And instead of running this story on the CBS Sports main page, which tactfully does not include the word "eye" in large capi...

This Is What It Feels Like To Be Almost Killed By A Baseball. Twice.
Freak accidents like the one Gunnar Sandberg experienced last year are a terrifying part of the game. I've been hit in the head with a baseball twice — once as a pitcher and once as a hitter, which is in the video you see here. These incidents occurred within 18 months of each other. The first tim...

<em>MLB 11 The Show</em> is Still The Finest in the Field
I've seen the big leagues, son. I've squinted at the lights at Fenway as the sun makes a cotton candy sky behind the Citgo sign in left. But I ain't there right now. I'm down here chewing on grass, pitching… [Kotaku] ...

This SportsCenter Anchor is Dedicated to a Different Show
To get their playing styles correct, Berthiaume matches certain stats from that player's year with ones similar to players in the current roster, then uses the latter's ratings in building out the player. For example, to derive Ott's contact rating… [Kotaku] ...

Baseball Rivals Play Dueling Cameras
Kotaku may have kicked off a fad last year, with our post on how to make your video game baseball presentation conform to real life broadcasting angles. MLB 2K11 directly cited the work as an inspiration behind its new broadcast… [Kotaku] ...

A Million Dollars and No Change for a Perfectly Humble Gamer
You can do a lot of crazy stuff when you win a million bucks. When he did, Wade McGilberry was approached by a long-lost relative with a pitch for buying into a pineapple farm. No thanks, Wade said. What he really wanted was a Harley. And with the dough he won from MLB 2K10, you're damn right he bou...

Pitchers Will Soon Be Able To Protect Their Brains With Wholly-Nerdy Half-Helmets
Last year, a high school pitcher named Gunnar Sandberg was struck directly in the head with a line drive to the pitchers mound. He was in a medically-induced coma for a month following the incident. This week, Easton-Bell released the first helmet specially designed for pitchers, known in-house as "...

Really Tall Pitcher Hopes To Evolve From Open-Heart Surgery Patient To Novelty Story To Pro
Barry University pitcher Frank Szczepanik is 7-foot-2, which is four inches taller than the man he grew up idolizing, Randy Johnson. The novelty aspect has been covered a bunch lately, but the interesting aside is that, while in high school in Linden, NJ, he underwent open-heart surgery because of ...

Big Yankees Fan Reports For Spring Training
Should've seen this one coming. With pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring Training in Florida and Arizona, Big Yankees Fan Michael LaPayower figured it was as good a time as any to break out the camera and start galavanting about....

Rinku And Dinesh Are Coming To A Crappy Disney Movie Near You
Disney has hired screenwriter Tom McCarthy to write the script for "Million Dollar Arm," the inspiring story of two young Indian men who won a reality show and then got signed by the most miserable team in the major leagues. Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel requested in 2009 that we not equate their sto...

HS Baseball Coach Cuts Double-Amputee Pitcher; Quickly Becomes Worst Human Ever
This young man is Anthony Burruto, a sophomore at Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando and an aspiring pitcher. Burruto was born without a shinbone in his left leg and without a fibula in his right, and doctors amputated his lower legs when he was just a baby. He's been playing baseball since he was ...

The Baby-Holding, Foul-Ball-Catching Dads Are Not Going Away
Having learned nothing, a man attending last night's Tigers-Indians match caught a foul ball off the bounce, while holding a baby that may be his and standing perilously close to a railing. Someone put a stop to these monsters. [Sportress of Blogitude]...

Ken Burns High-Fives People When You Cry, And Other Things I Learned While Working On <em>Baseball</em>
In 1993, Alex Belth left college and began working on Ken Burns's Baseball documentary, whose coda, The Tenth Inning, is airing now on PBS. Here, Belth recalls his time with Burns, his encounter with Carly Simon, and Roger Angell's clicking lozenge....

Here's Ted Williams Talking About His Final Home Run
Updike, Schmupdike. Here's The Splendid Splinter in his own words, talking about his last home run, how he knew it was going to happen, and depriving the fans of the hat tip they wanted oh so much....