MLB Page 140 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The Cruel Bill Allowing MLB To Keep Screwing Over Minor-Leaguers Is Now Law
President Donald Trump signed the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill into law today, just hours after he threatened to veto it. That avoids a government shutdown and does a whole lot of other things, too, but the portion most directly relevant to professional sports is the Save America’s Pastime Ac...
Yankees Broadcasters Share Heartwarming Anecdote About People Who Died At The Grand Canyon
Opening Day is just six days away. People are getting pretty bored of spring training. During today’s Red Sox-Yankees tilt in Tampa, YES announcers Ken Singleton and John Flaherty held an impromptu book club, discussing that classic tome chronicling people who have died at the Grand Canyon....
Tom Hallion Puts On A Ridiculous Spring Ump Show With Five Silly Ejections
Spring training is long. By this point, just about everyone is tired of it. Umpire Tom Hallion was apparently especially tired of it Thursday. Hallion ejected five guys—in three separate incidents, none of them particularly meaningful—in yesterday’s Tigers-Phillies game....
Spring Training Baseball Means This Guy Hitting A Double Through A Hole In The Wall<em></em><em></em>
Rob Refsnyder, a utility guy who featured in a few games with both the Yankees and Blue Jays before heading to Cleveland at the end of 2017, notched what could very well be the most memorable play of his career today in a random spring training at-bat....
Congress Is Likely Getting Ready To Legalize The Underpayment Of Minor League Baseball Players
The national spending bill that’s expected to pass later Congress this week includes a provision exempting minor-league baseball players from labor standards—meaning that paying players paltry wages would go from being an incredibly stupid tradition to being codified in federal law. ...
Baseball Hall Of Fame Retires Chief Wahoo Before The Cleveland Indians
Cleveland Indians legend Jim Thome got a well-deserved first-ballot Hall of Fame nod this year, and after some apparent discussion, as well as a specific request by Thome, the slugger will go in on a plaque bearing the Cleveland “Block C” logo, rather than the “Chief Wahoo” Native American caricatur...
Ronald Acuña's Stupid Demotion And The Things We Don't Even Notice Anymore
Let’s do the first things first: barring catastrophic injury or equally catastrophic organizational cynicism, Ronald Acuña will be playing left field for the Atlanta Braves sometime fairly soon. This is because Ronald Acuña, who is the consensus top positional prospect in the minors, looks for all t...
Russell Martin Makes A Cool Catch, Trips, Falls, Gets Hit In The Face
Spring training is for trying your absolute hardest—up to but not inclusive of any effort that might land you on the DL for Opening Day. Blue Jays catcher Russell Martin very nearly tried too hard today. ...
Bob Uecker’s Latest Malady Was A Venomous<em></em> Spider Bite
Bob Uecker is 84 years old and still going strong, but the longtime Brewers broadcaster has had some health issues in recent years. His latest scare was when a venomous brown recluse spider bit him in October after last season. From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s Tom Haudricourt:...
Justin Turner Breaks Wrist On HBP
Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner will miss opening day, and likely at least the first month of the season, after suffering a broken wrist when being hit by a pitch in Monday night’s spring training game against the A’s....
Martín Pérez Killed And Ate The Bull That Injured Him: "Good Meat"
One of the stranger injuries of baseball’s offseason was Texas Rangers pitcher Martín Pérez’s broken elbow, the result of a bull that startled him and caused him to fall on his ranch in Venezuela. ...
The New Tax Bill Could Unintentionally Force Sports Teams To Pay Taxes On Trades
A single word in the sweeping tax bill that House Republicans passed in December could lead to a host of unintended consequences for American pro sports teams when making trades, according to a report from Jim Tankersley in the New York Times. ...
Let's Remember Some Guys: 1988 Baseball Guys
We’re back on Let’s Remember Some Guys, and we’re here to remember some more guys. This time, we’re going farther back in time than we’ve ever gone before: to 1988, and a Topps pack that comes with a very generous offer of a trip to spring training, but pairs it with some extremely gross old gum....
MLB Tells Aaron Judge To Stop Saying Nice Things About Manny Machado<em></em>
Speaking to reporters before yesterday’s spring training game between the Yankees and the Orioles, Aaron Judge praised Orioles star Manny Machado and said he’d sort of limply recruited Machado. “Adding him to our lineup that we already got would be something special,” Judge said. “I told him he’d lo...
Minor League Baseball's New Extra Innings Format Turns The Rulebook Into Nonsense<em></em>
A few weeks after Major League Baseball announced a series of surface-level rule changes aimed at improving pace of play, Minor League Baseball has announced that it’ll start experimenting with something more significant. During extra-inning games this season, a runner will automatically be placed o...
Video Emerges Of Former Astros Prospect Beating His Girlfriend After 2016 Practice
Former Houston Astros prospect Danry Vasquez has been released by his current Atlantic League club after video of a domestic violence incident became public this week. The video shows the player hitting his girlfriend multiple times after a practice with the Corpus Christi Hooks, the Astros’ Double-...
I Can't Stop Watching This Perfect Stealth Pickoff
Unless you have a strong love of beefy minor-league catchers and/or guys who spent six years in the Phillies’ farm system without making it to Double-A, there’s no good reason for you to have heard of Willians Astudillo. Or, at least, there wasn’t until yesterday—when he pulled off this beautifully ...
Jose Altuve's Day At The White House Looked Pretty Awkward
The Houston Astros visited the White House today to be honored for their 2017 World Series win, which puts reasonable-minded players in a bit of a pickle. The traditional post-championship White House visit is a potentially once-in-a-lifetime honor. Having to tolerate Donald Trump in the flesh and b...
What A Depressing Offseason
The caveats are caveats, but they do exist. Mike Moustakas is not a superstar, for reasons that are easy enough to identify. He has mostly been a decent defender at an important position, but his defense was unexpectedly and undeniably poor last year; he is a good hitter with real power, but not an ...
Jake Arrieta Finally Rejoins The Ranks Of The Employed, Signs With The Phillies
Jake Arrieta, National League Cy Young Award winner, World Series hero, thrower of two career no-hitters, recently the ace of the Chicago Cubs rotation, is reportedly set to join the Philadelphia Phillies, a team that won 66 games in 2017:...