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Mitch Maier of the Kansas City Royals suffered three broken bones when hit in the face by a pitch from Cleveland Indians left-hander Zach Jackson in the fifth inning Wednesday night.
Maier was taken to a hospital for X-rays, which revealed the fractures below his right eye.
The 26-year-old returned to the Royals’ clubhouse after Kansas City’s 8-5 loss, his right eye swollen shut.
With ...
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MLB
Kansas City Royals
Cleveland Indians
Zach Jackson
One step closer to a ML roster…
Yes, folks, I sat down for a two-hour or so interview with A’s owner Lewis Wolff today at his Los Angeles office and he confirmed to me that he’s in negotiations to bring Rickey Henderson back to the Oakland Athletics, where the greatest player in Oakland history will be when he is eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2009.
Lew wasn’t specific with the capacity ...
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MLB
Oakland Athletics
Rickey Henderson
Hall of Fame
Lewis Wolff
The Baseball Hall of Fame has reversed one of the most egregious decisions the institution ever made.
“Bull Durham,’‘ the best baseball movie ever made, is getting its day, as the Hall of Fame will salute the film Sept. 19 as part of its three-day Film Festival.
Five years ago, then-Hall of Fame President Dale Petroskey canceled a 15th anniversary celebration of the 1988 film. His shaky ...
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MLB
Hall of Fame
Ray Durham
Whew!...Good thing he didn’t talk about his etching experiences in the Vietnam War!
If a story sounds too good to be true, it probably is. The story we ran on Winter Garden artist Mark Pulliam in our August issue (“The Natural”) certainly sounded like a good one, but much of it wasn’t true.
Associate editor Jay Boyar’s profile of Pulliam described the artist as living a Zelig-like life, ...
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MLB
New York Yankees
Being George Metkovich?
Actor John Cusack is facing a backlash over an article he wrote for Huffington Post Chicago after readers accused the star of a string of embarrassing mistakes.
...The column, written while the actor was working in Bangkok, focuses on Cusack’s memories of the area and his love of the local baseball teams, the Cubs and the White Sox.
But readers have accused Cusack ...
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MLB
Chicago Cubs
Chicago White Sox
Wrigley Field
HA! Back in your hole, you pathetic Mickey Welch Fan Club members!
Tom Glavine got the news he was looking for Wednesday. He needs surgery to repair the torn flexor tendon in his elbow, but he does not need ligament transplant surgery.
That means with a four-to-five month rehabilitation, he’ll at least have a chance to return to pitch next season, if the Braves are open to the ...
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MLB
Tom Glavine
Atlanta Braves
Mickey Welch
Ricciardi’s roster shenanigans with pitcher Scott Richmond really toast the backbacon of columnist Bob Elliotti—er, Elliott.
The Jays recalled the 28-year-old, one start before Olympic rosters had to be filed, had him start twice more and then demoted him to triple-A Syracuse on Friday.
Jays management appeared surprised when some Canadians reacted angrily to Canada going into the Olympics ...
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MLB
Toronto Blue Jays
J.P. Ricciardi
Scott Richmond
Randy Johnson
Colorado Rockies
The Archdeacon of Doom is back! As Jon Daly does a bang-up job on speedster Evar Swanson.
On Sunday, September 15, 1929, there was a field day held at Crosley Field between games of a Reds-Braves doubleheader. The club offered $100 if anyone could circle the bases from a standing start in less than 13.8 seconds and beat Hans Lobert’s 19-year-old major league record. Among the participants ...
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MLB
“Bill James Online is the place to “hang” with Bill James.” And that’s just what Salfino has done. Sorta.
Let’s focus on the two defensive positions that get the most action, shortstop and center field. James looks at a player’s plus/minus number, which is how many plays they have netted relative to those an average fielder at his position would make. There’s no formula involved here; ...
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MLB
James Shields
Yunel Escobar
J.J. Hardy
Jack Wilson
Mike Aviles
Submitted without comment, other than to say that someone may as well post the follow up to the piece from the other day.
I apologize.
I got so rattled after hearing Jeff Kent criticize Vin Scully, I had Kent batting ahead of Manny Ramirez in paragraph one and behind him in paragraph two in Sunday’s column…
snip
“I said it to you—because I knew you’d write it tongue in cheek,” Kent said. ...
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MLB
Jeff Kent
Los Angeles Angels
Vin Scully
Manny Ramirez
Your professional print and broadcast bloviators have brainwashed too many of you into believing that the answer to all of the Rangers pitching problems is for Tom Hicks to “open up his wallet” and pay for it. Sounds good. And most of you seem to believe it.
The only problem is that it isn’t true. Going out and spending money on free agent starters hasn’t worked here, and generally doesn’t ...
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MLB
Texas Rangers
Jon Daniels
Nolan Ryan
As the professional baseball owners gather to consider instant replay, SSNN has learned that many of the owners are interested in using the technology to take another look at the hiring of Commissioner Bud Selig over a decade ago.
“I think a lot of us would like to take another quick look at that call,” said Drayton McLane, owner of the Houston Astros. “You know, just to make sure we didn’t ...
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MLB
Bud Selig
Drayton McLane
Houston Astros
Looking down the lists of leaders, the only Cub in the top 20 in homers is Alfonso Soriano with 22. Yeah, he’s missed two months, and yeah, his projected total tells you he would be right there with Howard and Adam Dunn for the league lead, but tough. You get hurt, you lose at-bats. Happens. Sure, he carried the team for a while earlier in the season, but he also carried his Cubbie Blue ...
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MLB
Chicago Cubs
Alfonso Soriano
Ryan Howard
Adam Dunn
Aramis Ramirez
Hey, any “self-proclaimed statistics aficionados” out there? Murray needs help.
As much as the Yankees miss Wang, they would have missed him a lot less if they had Santana. Mike Mussina’s surprising performance would have been more of a luxury than a necessity. The injuries to Hughes and Kennedy and their inability to win even one game between them would not have been so devastating.
Nor ...
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MLB
Joba Chamberlain
New York Yankees
New York Mets
Chien-Ming Wang
Mike Mussina
Well tilt my unburnished Bristol Stool Scale...Miguel Cabrera?
For the most part, it looks like a two horse race. If the White Sox win the Central, Quentin’s 40+ homers and 120+ RBIs will be enough. If the Twins somehow continue to rake with runners in scoring position and make the playoffs, Morneau should win his second MVP.
There are a few other possible scenarios, none of which seem ...
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MLB
Al Reyes
Alex Rodriguez
After manager Ned Yost allowed CC Sabathia to throw 130 pitches Monday night against Houston for his fifth complete game in nine starts since coming from Cleveland, there was speculation among national media that the Brewers are going to “use up” Sabathia since they have little chance of keeping him as an upcoming free agent.
From all appearances, it seems Yost would have to dip pretty deep ...
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MLB
C.C. Sabathia
Ned Yost
Milwaukee Brewers
Houston Astros
Cleveland Indians
and other Robo-notes…
A scout who saw Astros right-hander Roy Oswalt allow the Diamondbacks one hit in eight shutout innings Sunday says, “He was magnificent, as good as I’ve seen him in three or four years. He was up to 95 mph. He commanded both sides of the plate. He had slider command away to right-handed hitters, and that Bugs Bunny curveball.” Another scout who attended the game also had ...
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MLB
Milwaukee Brewers
Ken Rosenthal
C.C. Sabathia
Houston Astros
Roy Oswalt
Well, outside of Arthur Shawcross’ mother...I guess so.
Still, Mets fans still like to bash him for his makeup and all those blatantly stupid plays in the field and believe it has been holding him back from realizing his full potential. Dayton Moore, the General Manager of the Kansas City Royals, likes to say that, to succeed in baseball, you must have intelligence, integrity, and passion. ...
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MLB
Jose Reyes
New York Mets
WOOSH! That didn’t take long...Edes off the Red Sox and onto the Rays.
It’s much easier to watch on the field than on TV,” said Maddon, who after being ejected in the sixth inning joined baseball’s living Buddha, Don Zimmer, in the back of the Rays’ clubhouse.
“TV really creates way too much drama about an event,” he said, his voice cracking as he ranted. “I’ve always felt that. So you’re ...
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MLB
Tampa Bay Rays
Joe Maddon
Don Zimmer
Los Angeles Angels
Chicago Cubs
It’s that time of year again! Fans Scouting Report fever...Catch It! (you know Johnny Damon won’t)
It’s the 6th Annual Fans’ Scouting Report.
Every year, I get a jump in participation, from the first year where I had close to 500 ballots, to last year where it exceeded 2000 ballots. If you’ve enjoyed my blog, appreciated my work, or somehow wondered what you could do in return, this ...
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