spring-training Page 5 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Suitors of Spring
Nice piece by Jane Gross—who we've heard from round these parts before—in the Times:...
Why Is This Ump Calling Pitches From Behind The Mound?
Spring training, breezy and noncompetitive, tends to present certain spectacles that would have no business in regular season baseball. Hooters ball girls. Life-sized Al Roker Yankees Weebles. The Royals in first place. But in yesterday's Angels-Brewers game, something happened that we've never eve...
Mets Utility Player Jordany Valdespin Took A Fastball Right To The Dick
It's been a day of highs and lows for Jordany Valdespin. First, he took Justin Verlander deep to lead off his team's spring training game against the Tigers:...
Someone Put A Yankees Uniform On Al Roker And Now He Looks Like A Giant Baby
Oh man, and he's wearing white pants. This could end poorly....
Hooters Ball Girl Sabotages Spring Training Game, Throws Perfectly Fair Ball Into The Stands
This play, from a Tampa Bay-Philadelphia spring training game in Florida this weekend, was apparently the second mistaken fair ball giveaway of the morning....
Spring Training Long And Boring, Baseball Players Report
Baseball! It's the perfect sport for a laid-back afternoon, but it can drag. After what seems like an eternity of game after game, inning after inning, baking under the hot sun and trying not to get injured, you finally power through the dog days and arrive at the games that really matter: opening d...
Red Sox Pitcher Clocked At 111 MPH (While Driving Drunk)
That would be Sidd Finch territory, if it was the speed of his fastball and not the speed of his pickup truck....
A Half-Blind Pitcher With Almost No Depth Perception Is Trying To Make The Rays, And He's Impressing Coaches
In February of 2006, then-Mariners prospect Juan Sandoval, at that time hoping for a promotion to Class AAA, was eating at a restaurant in his hometown of Bonao in the Dominican Republic. A bouncer at the restaurant got into an argument with a drunk patron, and the patron went to retrieve his shotgu...
Luke Scott Hath Slain The Hellboar
Everyone's favorite gun-humping birther, Luke Scott, arrived at the Tampa Bay Rays' spring training facility with a special guest: the stuffed head of a slain hellboar. How did Scott come to claim this bloody prize? By sticking the beast with a spear, of course! Scott told Rays Report that the boar...
Poor Son Of A Bitch Mat Gamel Tore His ACL For The Second Time In Two Years
It super sucks to be Mat Gamel right now. The Milwaukee Brewers' corner infielder, who was at one time a fairly promising prospect, will miss the entire 2013 season after tearing his ACL. Gamel's injury is all the more depressing due to the fact that he just finished a rehab stint after tearing the...
Tim Lincecum Had A Very Zen Offseason
Now that spring training has officially kicked off, it's time for baseball writers to spend the next two months filling column space while absolutely nothing of consequence happens. Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal got started today, asking various members of the San Francisco Giants to share their favori...
Alfredo Aceves Is In Mid-Season Form
Alfredo Aceves began tossing batting practice this morning, pretty standard procedure for this time of year. Alfredo Aceves does not know the meaning of pretty standard. So, instead of using it as a slow and steady way to ease into spring training and build arm strength, he used it as another opport...
You Know Spring Training Is Here When You Read Sentences Like "Denard Span Said He Started Screaming And Making Noises To Discourage The Bird"
There is no baseball, no real, meaningful baseball for another 44 days. But the dead zone of the sports calendar has quickened considerably by the advent of spring training. Camps in Arizona and Florida stir to life, as co-workers who haven't seen each other since September get back together for som...
The Second Weird Baseball Injury Of 2013: Red Sox Prospect Bryce Brentz Shot Himself In The Leg
How hard are guns to clean, really? "Man shot in leg while cleaning gun," "Man shoots self while cleaning gun," "SAPD: Man shoots self while cleaning gun," "Florida Man Shoots Himself In Crotch With Flare Gun." (The guy with the flare gun wasn't cleaning it—but the story does note that this Septembe...
Joe Maddon Wears Short Shorts
The Rays like to have fun, and nothing screams fun like booty shorts. For the Rays' pregame workout on Saturday, the entire team decided to don short pants, because they're a bunch of guys! Hanging out together! Showing a little thigh!...
The Yankees Quit A Tie Game And Went Home, And Bobby Valentine Is Furious
It's only March, but new Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine is already in midseason antagonistic prick form. The latest controversy? A stupid spring training game, because the Yankees and the Red Sox can't even play a simple spring training game without being children....
C.J. Wilson Tweets Mike Napoli's Phone Number. It's Less "Good Prank, Guy" And More "Wow, Dick Move."
Oh good, I see we've reached that point of spring training where everyone's bored and ready for real baseball to start. Tis the silly season, when online personality and sometime pitcher C.J. Wilson takes to Twitter and posts former teammate Mike Napoli's cell phone number to the world....
Miguel Cabrera Bleeds All Over The Infield After Taking Grounder To The Face
Cabrera, by necessity the Tigers' new third baseman, got a rude welcome to the hot corner in today's spring training game in Clearwater. A Hunter Pence grounder took a bad hop and caught Cabrera directly in the sunglasses, which cut open his cheek and ruined a perfectly good uniform with human blo...
A Reminder That You Are Not Allowed To Blow A Ball Foul
Apparently, everything happened in that Dodgers-Royals game yesterday. With a KC bunt slowly rolling down the line and stubbornly refusing to go foul, Jerry Hairston dropped to all fours and blew....
Dee Gordon Walks, Keeps On Going To Second
Dodgers speedster Dee Gordon takes advantage of a Royals' lapse in concentration, and after drawing a walk, takes off for second before the next batter steps in. On one hand, that move relies on the element of surprise and can only be pulled off once in a blue moon, so why waste it in spring train...