minor-league Page 12 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The Braves' Brief Ryan Howard Experiment Is Over
Last week, former Phillies superstar Ryan Howard insisted that his wretched play with the Braves’ AAA affiliate did not signal the rapidly approaching end of his playing career. Howard joined the Braves minor league system this year after 13 seasons with the Phillies, and while he was a world-class ...

Ryan Howard, Hitting .188 In Triple-A: "There's More Left In The Tank"
Ryan Howard’s last five seasons in Philadelphia made him a poster child for the dangers of a long-term, back-loaded contract. Watching him at the end was almost painful—struggling to keep his OPS over the .700 mark, a decade after he crushed 58 home runs as MVP....

Brewers Minor Leaguer Stays Patient, Gets Baserunner With Hidden-Ball Trick
Third baseman Lucas Erceg of the Class-A Carolina Mudcats took his sweet time to get the Buies Creek Astros’ Kyle Tucker off the bag after Tucker and teammate Dexture McCall executed a double steal. There’s a moment where it seems everyone in the stadium, including Tucker, should know that Erceg sti...

Minor League Hockey Teams Knock The Stuffing Out Of Each Other
The ECHL’s Orlando Solar Bears and Florida Everblades broke out into a line brawl in the last minute of Game 4 of their divisional semifinals Saturday. The result was hectic and loud, like every facet of minor league hockey....

If At First You Don't Succeed, Try Again And Again And Again And Again And Again And Again And Again And Again And Again And Again And Again
If baseball is inherently a game of failure, the slog through the minor leagues can sometimes seem like a study in ignominious repetition. The long bus rides, bad hotels, and sparsely-attended games in forgettable towns: I imagine it can all start to feel like throwing a beach ball into the wind....

Tim Tebow Kills Baseball In First At-Bat; Ball Passes Over Outfielders' Heads For Home Run<em></em><em></em>
Tim Tebow, author and former college football quarterback, kicked off his time with the class-A Columbia Fireflies this evening with a bang. The motivational speaker stepped up to the plate against the Augusta Greenjackets and socked a dinger in his very first at-bat....

The FBI Is Now Investigating Hartford's Disaster Of A Minor-League Stadium Deal
The Rockies’ Double-A affiliate in Hartford, Conn. has run into plenty of problems since deciding to build a taxpayer-funded ballpark two years ago, including but not limited to lawsuits and construction delays. Here’s a new one: an FBI probe into how public money has been spent on the new park....

The Pawtucket Red Sox Have Gotten 9,000 Postcards Trying To Convince Them To Move To Massachusetts
The Pawtucket Red Sox have spent the better part of two years involved in discussions about the possibility of moving the team—first to Providence; then maybe out to Massachusetts, in Worcester or Springfield; potentially just to a new stadium in Pawtucket. ...

New Baseball Team Picks A Name And I Learn About A Scary New Animal
A team from Fond du Lac, Wisc., will field a team in the Northwoods League, a collegiate summer baseball league, beginning next year. Today they announced the team name. It’s that....

New Orleans Baby Cakes Mascot Fulfills Commitment To The Minor-League Snarl<em></em>
The AAA baseball team formerly known as the New Orleans Zephyrs will henceforth be known as the New Orleans Baby Cakes. This is undoubtedly a unique mascot, one that will surely draw internet ire the same way that fellow New Orleanian King Cake Baby (deservedly) did, but Baby Cakes is a good mascot....

Tebow's Latest Miracle: Hitting A Walk-Off Single<em></em>
Jesus walked on water; Tim Tebow walked off against the Mesa Solar Sox. Tebow’s minor league career has thus far been marked by miracles, a marked inability to hit the baseball, and a minor injury, but tonight, he slapped a walk-off single for the Scottsdale Scorpions. ...

Minor League Baseball Team's New Logo Is A Musclebound, Horny Shrimp
If you woke up one day to discover that you were suddenly a millionaire named Ken Babby, what’s one of the first things you’d do? Would you use your wealth to humiliate a group of grown men by forcing them to wear uniforms featuring a cartoon shrimp humping the state of Florida? Why, yes—yes you wou...

Thou Shalt Not Steal: Tim Tebow Injured Trying To Take Second
Tim Tebow performed a great feat today, reaching base twice against the Peoria Javelinas. He hit a single in his first at-bat, and he now somehow has a three-game hitting streak. Tebow reached on a fielder’s choice in the fourth, then tried to steal second. ...

After 3 Days, Jesus Rose From The Dead. After 4 Days, Tim Tebow Is 0-12 In The Arizona Fall League<em></em>
Blessed are the merciful, such as Tim Tebow, who is showing mercy to any and all baseballs he could hit in the Arizona Fall League....
![Tim Tebow Closer To Sainthood After Healing Sick Fan For Second Confirmed Miracle [Update]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/ucv9crmbazar5jvbcv47.jpg)
Tim Tebow Closer To Sainthood After Healing Sick Fan For Second Confirmed Miracle [Update]
Let me tell you the story of Saint Timothy of Gainesville....
![Hell Yes Tim Tebow's Teammates Should Be Trying To Make Money Off Him [Update]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/yxbpmfj0ezmbwn0slhvl.jpg)
Hell Yes Tim Tebow's Teammates Should Be Trying To Make Money Off Him [Update]
Patrick Mazeika is a catcher currently playing Class A ball in the Mets’ organization. This classifies him both as a person who is struggling to make a living and also as a teammate of ultra-famous Tim Tebow. To Mazeika’s credit, he seems to have found a way to turn the latter circumstance into a lu...

Rob Manfred On Not Paying Minor Leaguers A Living Wage: "It's Not Really About The Money"
The bipartisan “Save America’s Pastime Act,” introduced over the summer, is some simmering, unconscionable bullshit that doesn’t even try all that hard to hide its Disney villain-esque desire to portray the fate of Baseball At Large as antithetical to paying its employees a living wage. What it actu...

Chihuahuas Come Up With Physics-Defying Groundout
I learned a new baseball rule tonight thanks to the Las Vegas 51s and the El Paso Chihuahuas. In the top of the seventh inning, 51s first baseman Eric Campbell fouled one towards the dugout. Thing is, he hit it with such a serious curve that it sliced right back into play before it passed first base...

Three Minor Leaguers Arrested After Wild Bar Brawl
On Sunday night, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ AAA affiliate Indianapolis Indians beat the Toledo Mud Hens, the Tigers’ AAA club, 6-2. After the game, several players from both clubs went to The Bronze Boar, a sports bar across the street from the Mud Hens’ stadium. Pirates prospects Gift Ngoepe and Dovyd...

What's Going On With Blake Rutherford?
Saturday night, the Yankees’ rookie league affiliate, the Pulaski Yankees, tweeted rather cryptically about Blake Rutherford, the team’s first-round pick in this year’s MLB draft. Less than two hours later, they deleted the tweet, elevating the cryptic factor....