baseball Page 375 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Shirtless Nationals' Fans Are Put On Notice By Team Reps
There are usually three types of people who take their shirts off at ballparks:...

David Ortiz Is Keeping Unusual Company
David Ortiz is still recovering from his injury — he won't be back for a while, but at least the cast is off — so he's keeping busy the only way he knows how: By hanging out with the crazyman that is James Woods....

Hank Steinbrenner Is Just Boiling Over With Ideas
Pity the poor New York media. (A group in which, it occurs to us with a start, we are about to be considered a member.) They're so wistful for the old days of George Steinbrenner that they're desperately trying to shoehorn son Hank, the slow one, into the role. It's not working....

At Last, The Mets Put Willie Randolph Out Of His Misery
We find it fitting, after at least nine months of fervid speculation, Willie Randolph was fired as manager of the Mets at 3:30 a.m. ET. That's too late for the tabloids to slap it on the front page, which is just a tragedy in New York City; tabloids are the reason we have managerial deathwatches....

Is Boston Ready To Host A Championship Celebration?
As mentioned last week, the Leitch family is heading to Fenway Park this Saturday — tentative pitching matchup: Josh Beckett vs. Mitchell Boggs. You're toast, Sox! — and we are hopeful that the Yawkey Way faithful will show us the appropriate respect. That is to say: We hope they won't throw anythi...

Naked People Are Stridently Anti-Willie Randolph
We don't deal with a lot of public relations people around here, which is one of the many pleasures of writing on the Internets. (For now.) But for some reason, we are on the mailing list for Rick's Cabaret in New York City — we don't know why! Swear! — and we received the following email today: "RI...

Goodnight, Baseball Hall Of Fame Game
It's a sad day, folks: Today marks the last ever Hall of Fame game in Cooperstown, N.Y. As much fun as it might have been, it does seem like a pain for players, to go all the way to Cooperstown in the middle of the season for an exhibition game, though we do hope it throws the Cubs (who are playing...

Griffey May Be Headed To The Unlikliest Of Places
Ken Griffey Jr. is considering waiving his no-trade clause to move over to the Tampa Bay Rays, according to SI.com, and you know what that means: An aging-slugger arms race in the AL East. Tampa Bay's show of force will have to be met in kind by the Yankees, who of course will sign Barry Bonds the f...

Cardinals Are Just Barely Hanging On
In George Carlin's noted examination of the differences between baseball and football, he describes baseball as "A 19th century pastoral game. Baseball begins in the spring; the season of new life. The idea is to go home. I just want to go home." True, for the most part; save for the occasional har...

If I May Talk About The Non-Golf Tigers For A Second
So it took until the middle of June for the Tigers to win five games in a row, and it just happened when most of the fans were on the precipice of giving up on the team. There were even trade rumors surrounding Magglio Ordoñez — a thought which is a mere two degrees less blasphemous than heliocentri...

Presenting Dr. Joe Morgan's Players Of The Day
Caught up in all the hysteria this weekend was Joe Morgan being awarded an honorary doctorate from California State University-East Bay. Don't be too impressed, because I'm pretty sure one summer those came free with the purchase of an In-N-Out Burger combo of equal or lesser value....

Chipper Jones Is Hitting EVERYTHING This Season
And I mean everything. Don't believe me? let's go through the ways. He's hitting for power, hitting for average, hitting lefties, hitting righties, hitting to all fields, hitting fastballs, hitting breaking balls, hitting sideways and slantways and longways and backways and frontways and squareways ...

Rock Out With Your Box Out
ESPN once again begins its summer programming guaranteed to annoy and alienate most of its viewers, though this time instead of "Who's Now-ing" people into a self-mutilating rage, they'll induce copious amounts of ear blood. Awful Announcing points us to the latest in silly synergistic promotional a...

So, Is Vegetarianism Really Hurting Prince Fielder?
Much has been made out of Prince Fielder's vegetarianism, and whether or not it actually affects his performance on the field. Reporter Pete Croatto investigated the story....

Milton Bradley Has Got His Eye On YOU, Pal
So here's the text of what Royals' TV broadcaster Jim Ryan Lefebvre said that so totally pissed off Milton Bradley on Wednesday. Bradley, you may recall, heard the comments on the radio in the clubhouse following Wednesday's game, and sprinted up four levels at Kauffman Stadium to dismember "introdu...

Lenny Dykstra, Still Pretending To Understand Stocks
By now, despite what The New Yorker and Bernard Goldberg would like you to think, we generally understand that everybody knows Lenny Dykstra is not actually some kind of financial genius. Apparently not, though: a Forbes magazine investigation has revealed that Dykstra doesn't even make his own stoc...

So What's With All The Grand Slams All Of A Sudden?
So how come all the fat pitches with the bases loaded the past few days? Hideki Matsui celebrated his 34th birthday with a grand slam on Thursday to lead the Yankees over the Athletics 4-1; helping Andy Pettitte move into a tie for fourth place on the team career wins list....

Bad Apple LSU Fans Keep Making Matters Worse
Ah, LSU ... first you get ugly, and then you show up at the College World Series (kind of) and get a little uglier. For the record, you'd get your ass kicked in Game 2 as well....

Jose Lima Has An Eye For Talent
Jose Lima might never actually retire from baseball, but if he's looking to get into scouting duty sometime down the line, he's clearly well on his way....

Dance The Night Away With The Ft. Myers Miracle
Time to put down your drink, turn up the music (it''s Shining Star by Earth Wind and Fire, I believe) and step to the rhythm of Minor Enterprise. Come on, who's dancing?...