MLB: Big Unit departs early with injury

Weeeee! Pitchers batting...more fun than hanging around the drug tunnels of Ibiza!

Randy Johnson walked off the mound in the fourth inning of the Giants’ series finale with the Houston Astros on Sunday at AT&T Park, leaving the game with what the team announced as a strained left shoulder.

Johnson flung his bat away mid-swing when he struck out in the third inning against the Astros’ Roy Oswalt and immediately grabbed his shoulder. He spoke with the Giants training staff afterward but came out to pitch the top of the fourth inning. He quickly allowed two solo home runs and committed a throwing error to allow the Astros’ fourth run of the game to score for a 4-0 Houston advantage.

Johnson grabbed his left shoulder again after his final miscue before gesturing that he needed manager Bruce Bochy to lift him from the game. Johnson lasted 3 2/3 innings. He threw 60 pitches and struck out two batters.

Bluefield Daily Telegraph: Woodson: Baseball needs to shine again

“(hikes!!)”...about sez it all.

Baseball has taken a beating over the last decade or so, really since the World Series was canceled in 1994.

Since then, baseball — under the so-called leadership of Bud Selig — has tried to regroup — for good or bad — behind such innovations as interleague play, wildcard teams, expanded playoffs, realignment, escalating salaries, an All-Star game tie, the ill-fated Baseball Network, juiced baseballs, expansion, dilution of pitching, over-saturation of televised games, steroids and even a suspended World Series baseball game, and a three-inning finale.

Baseball needs pennant races, a thrilling final three months of the season, and a great postseason.

The sport desperately needs a must-see World Series, a matchup with a buzz. We haven’t had one of those in a while. We need Reds-Red Sox from ‘75 or Braves-Twins in ‘91.

...What has happened to “America’s Pastime”? For one thing, it isn’t anymore, not even close. Football (college and pro), basketball (ditto), NASCAR (hikes!!) and golf (when Tiger plays) have passed it by.

Tim Brown: Who is Manny Ramirez now?

Torre was manager of the Yankees, of course, when Jason Giambi came off his BALCO grand jury testimony and humiliatingly public apologies to discover he had neither the stroke nor the stomach to be a middle-of-the-order hitter anymore, an affliction that lasted more than a year.

Teammates of Giambi’s swear he was spent emotionally, that he lost his nerve before losing his swing. With help from hitting coach Don Mattingly, Giambi reinvented himself, but a process that began early in 2004 wasn’t complete until halfway through the 2005 season, ending a very long, very trying period in which Giambi qualified as a big league player in salary and uniform only.

Manny, they’re sure, is different. He is far more confident than Giambi ever was and a more complete hitter. Then, so is Alex Rodriguez, and between his ailing hip and a spring in which he copped to years of steroid use, Rodriguez has been slow to rediscover his stroke. Manny’s agent contends Manny was not seeking performance enhancement (not baseball performance, anyway) when all this began and received none of those benefits and was not covering for any past steroid use, which the Dodgers would be only too happy to believe. Manny, you may have heard, has denied nothing, confirmed nothing.

“I think everybody is a separate case and we’re going to have to wait and see,” Torre said. “The only thing I do know is Manny is a legitimately good hitter. While Jason was more a power guy, Manny is probably a little more adept at using the whole field. He has his whole career.”

All-Star Game Rosters

ASG Rosters are being posted as they are unveiled to our eyes.

Madden: Omar Minaya’s Mets have issues with injuries and inside the clubhouse

Down to his last tube and final 78 from his Ipana Troubadors lonely room tribute...Madden brusha ups his column.

Nevertheless, there’s still no getting around the fact the Mets are presently a depleted mess, plagued not only by this unfathomable rash of injuries to their most important players, but by the same inner turmoil that eventually led to Willie Randolph’s demise. I’m told that assistant GM Tony Bernazard, whom Randolph found to be an intrusive influence in the clubhouse, especially with the Latin players, has been no less undermining with Jerry Manuel. For whatever reason, Bernazard seems to have the Wilpons’ ears, even more so than Minaya, and in organization meetings he’s never reticent to suggest areas where the manager might be doing a better job. I’m also told the Met high command ordered Manuel to tone down the not-so-subtle pleas for help in his pre and postgame mediafests and his periodic candor about his team’s deficiencies.

Is there help coming? If not here already, with the Mets having been practically unwatchable as they wallow in mediocrity, it’s highly doubtful Minaya will pull off any significant deals. He apparently had little interest in Pittsburgh’s speedy outfielder Nyjer Morgan and didn’t have the major league ready power arm the Indians wanted for Mark DeRosa. More than anything, Minaya’s biggest problem is he’s a victim of his own fallow farm system.

Plain Dealer/Pluto: Matt LaPorta is still in the minors because of Grady Sizemore’s cranky elbow

Matt LaPorta is still in the minors because of Grady Sizemore’s cranky elbow an absurd need to carry 13 pitchers on the 25-man…

1. The reason Matt LaPorta isn’t in Cleveland is Grady Sizemore’s cranky elbow, which will probably require postseason surgery. It also means the Indians need to rest him twice a week, and that means Ben Francisco has to play center. The natural move would be to send the struggling Francisco to the minors and promote LaPorta. But the CFs on the roster are Francisco and Sizemore.

...

3. LaPorta deserves a promotion. He entered the weekend hitting .300 with 10 HR, 38 RBI and a .909 OPS. Since June 1, he is a .300 hitter with five HR and 24 RBI in 114 at-bats. On the season, the right-handed batter is hitting .319 vs. RHP and .344 with runners in scoring position. He is hitting only .205 (9-of-44) vs. LHP. He does an acceptable job in left field or first base. If the Indians were to flip LaPorta and Francisco, Shin-Soo Choo would have to fill in at CF, and he struggled in that spot with Seattle a few years ago.

washingtonpost.com: The Jerk Who Saved Baseball

Mike Gimbel, director of Powered by Me, a Towson-based nonprofit that teaches about the dangers of steroids, says Canseco did a great service not only to baseball but to everyone who loves sports.

“I’m a recovering addict, and I’ve been in the substance-abuse field for 30 years,” Gimbel said, “and I’m a big proponent of being honest and telling the people around you who and what you are. That’s what Canseco did.”

Still, Canseco is “a jerk,” Gimbel said. And it’s hard to argue. He didn’t set out to reform the game. He set out to make a buck and to punish the baseball establishment for perceived slights. But sometimes it takes a jerk to change the world.

Kovacevic: Giants eye Sanchez, LaRoche

The Pirates and San Francisco have had trade talks regarding second baseman Freddy Sanchez and, to a lesser extent, first baseman Adam LaRoche, each of whom can be a free agent after this season.

The Giants have had a scout following Sanchez, a source confirmed yesterday, and their interest in LaRoche goes back several months. Their preference at first base, though, is for a right-handed bat.

Sanchez has a vesting option in his contract that allows him to trigger an $8.5 million option if he achieves 635 plate appearances or 600 plate appearances plus an All-Star berth. The latter will be known today when selections are made.

LaRoche is the Pirates’ second-highest paid player at $7.05 million, and there is some skepticism within the team that he can be moved with about half of that amount still due.

Thanks to Ralph Birkofer the Season.

Olbermann: It Disgusts Me

Wow! The constant misspelling of Hoda Kotb doesn’t bother you...yet this does?

But first, let’s take you out to San Diego where Manny Ramirez is just back from a 50-game suspension. For cheating. For cutting corners. For breaking rules. For lying. For deception. For letting down his teammates. For contributing to suspicions against every honest player. For raising a giant middle finger to sportsmanship. For abusing the fans. For risking that for which Lou Gehrig would’ve given anything - his own health.

Ramirez, of course, homered today in his first at bat. And some people cheered. As if he were just back from an injury, or a death in the family. As if he were a hero. As if he were an honest man. As if he were somehow worthy of sharing the meaningfulness of this day with Lou Gehrig.

Credit to Fox’s Tim McCarver - who has never gotten enough of it for this one quality he has shown, often at such great risk to his own security and even employment - for his honesty in pointing out the inappropriateness of the reaction to Ramirez’s return. He is not making a comeback. He is out on parole and it will be years - if ever - before many of us will believe he did not do something illegal, improper, or immoral, this morning.

...This is Lou Gehrig’s day. The rest of the juicers may come back and play tomorrow and there will not be boycotts. The Dodgers will probably go to the World Series, carried in part by a great flaming fraud like Ramirez. And judging by the brainless response of fans who would cheer anybody if they hit the ball 425 feet for their team, and boo anybody if they hit the ball 425 feet for their opponents, there will not even be significant repercussions.

But today, there should have been. Manny Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez and the others of the PED era did not belong in baseball today, and that they did not show the requisite awareness of their own shame, only makes it worse. Lord, send us a ‘roider who has the presence of mind to say: “On this day I do my penance; I don’t yet belong on the field even with just the memory of this man, I hope you’ll forgive me and I can again earn your trust.”

tampabay.com: Tampa Bay Rays minor-league affiliate’s Ladies Night promotion causing a stir

The Tampa Bay Rays Hudson Valley (N.Y.) minor-league team has a promotion planned for Tuesday that has turned into a bit of a battle of the sexes.

The (aptly named) Renegades planned Tuesday’s promotion to honor women by keeping men outside the gates for the first five innings, dressing their male employees in ladies clothing and offering spa treatments.

The idea, hatched by Tyler Tumminia, a female executive with the ownership group, was to spotlight women in baseball (Yankees assistant general manager Jean Afterman will throw out the first pitch) and salute the purchasing power of female fans.

But then the naysayers started squawking, with Duchess County officials requesting the promotion be canceled due to human rights issues and a sponsor, the New York Lottery, asking out (though several others bought in just for the night).

“It’s gotten a bit overblown,” said team president Jeff Goldklang, who has no plans to cancel. “We’re a bit surprised. We were trying to have a little fun, create a unique kind of Ladies Night and poke a little fun at the political correctness that’s taken over.”

seattlePI.com: Buhner ‘still bleeds Mariners blue’

When Jay Buhner learned in 1988 he was being traded to the Seattle Mariners, his first thought was, “Oh, crap!”

It was a reasonable reaction. Buhner was a New York Yankee, and while the Yankees were wandering baseball’s desert at the time, Buhner knew pinstripe tradition would eventually lift them out of the sand.

...

A power hitter and a good outfielder, Buhner figured he’d make his mark and parlay it into a sweet deal somewhere else. But he never left Seattle. His heyday—1995-97—coincided with the Mariners’ emergence as a contender. He is one of only three players in the Mariners Hall of Fame, and he still draws a crowd eight years after his battered body told him it was time to quit the game.

man… Jay Buhner is only 44.

Steve Kettman: A review of the unmaking of ‘Moneyball: The Movie’

I wonder if Ike Farrell of the Farrelly Brothers will get involved…

“Moneyball" strikes again. In the six years since the book was published and became a massive bestseller, its title has been the most loaded word in baseball, the mere mention of which could start bar-room brawls, or at least heated late-night arguments with plenty of red-faced shouting and banging of beer bottles.

If you think I’m exaggerating, ask any of the baseball scouts who went from honored symbols of baseball wisdom, fodder for some of Roger Angell’s most finely wrought portraiture, to allegedly outmoded relics, made redundant by Sabermetrics and data crunching.

“Moneyball” has been exalted in some circles with a reverence both cloying and embarrassing and blamed by others for everything from the Steroid Era to the demise of old-school, narrative-driven baseball storytelling in favor of trendy — and shallow — number-fetishizing.

...I was the San Francisco Chronicle’s A’s beat writer from ‘94 to ‘99 and used to watch Beane follow Alderson around at spring training, dressed in a matching outfit, doing whatever Alderson did. Personally, I’d pay 10 bucks in a heartbeat to see Brad Pitt as Beane, dressed in shorts, plaid shirt and straw hat, meekly following around whatever actor was tagged to play Alderson — or better yet, Alderson himself. He served in the Marines during the Vietnam War and appeared in recruiting posters, ramrod straight in dress whites, as the embodiment of “the few, the proud.”

Cincinnati Enquirer/Fay: Please don’t mortgage future

Friday night’s loss was one of those games that make it hard – no, impossible – to stick to the old it’s-one-of-162 adage.

It was a very ugly ending to what could have been a very uplifting night for the home team.

My thoughts on the 7-4 loss to the great Albert Pujols: The killer was Arthur Rhodes walking Jarrett Hoffpauir, who was making his major league debut, on four pitches; I might have used Francisco Cordero to pitch to Pujols.

But what I took mostly out of the game had nothing to do with the outcome. Sure it would have been nice for the Reds to win. But as David Weathers pointed out, you don’t win the division on July 3. However, you can make decisions that affect the organization long term.

And it would be foolish right now to trade Homer Bailey or any of the other top arms to rent a bat for less than three months.

There’s sentiment among fans and pundits that the Reds need to make a big splash of a trade.

I wouldn’t if it meant giving up Bailey or Zach Stewart, the third-round draft pick from last year who has zipped through the minors.

Why? I don’t think this team is a Matt Holliday away from making the playoffs.

Detroit News/Gage: Facts are what count with Maggs

It’s irrefutable evidence, however, that Ordonez is not helping the team—and if he’s not helping the team with an option for $18 million in the works for next year, the Tigers have a predicament.

Predicaments must be reported—but in a way that doesn’t resemble piling on.

There is a flip side to piling on that is equally unacceptable. It manifests itself in the words of those—such as one of our Tiger Talk forum participants Thursday—who “would love to see Maggs play for a team that actually appreciates what he has accomplished.”

Meaning the Tigers don’t? That’s unfair. The proof of appreciation shouldn’t cost $18 million.

There are two approaches to this dilemma. There are those being portrayed as “Maggs bashers” for thinking the Tigers should cut bait before his option kicks in—which it will do with another 184 plate appearances.

There are also those who think management is at fault for including such a clause in his contract—and that if it comes back to bite the Tigers, they deserve it.

NBC Sports/Short: Five Breakthrough First Half Performers

Ben Zobrist: Zobrist showed promise with a .318/.429/.459 line in the minors, but he went deep just 23 times in 1336 at-bats. As a result, he was never viewed as anything more than a utility player when the Astros dealt him to Rays as part of the Aubrey Huff trade back in 2006. But finally handed an every day role this season, the man dubbed “Zorillia” is hitting a surprising .292/.412/.620 with 16 bombs and 46 RBI. The power looks to be for real, as the 28-year-old has homered 28 times in last 407 major league at-bats dating back to last season. Only Albert Pujols, Joe Mauer and Prince Fielder have hit at a higher OPS this season. If you managed to pluck Zobrist off the waiver wire in your fantasy league, chances are your fellow owners hate you right now.

Baltimore Sun/Schmuck: Orioles on the verge of … something

Here’s a review of what we know as the All-Star break approaches, and things we’ll need to keep an eye on in the second half of the season:

The youth movement

Your patience, if you were one of the patient ones, looks like it is starting to pay off. Left fielder Nolan Reimold was just named American League Rookie of the Month for June and his main competition was across the clubhouse. Reimold has emerged as one of the early favorites for Rookie of the Year and pitcher Brad Bergesen is right there with him. Matt Wieters is coming along, though—by some accounts—he was already supposed to be Johnny Bench by now.

The best news, of course, is that this year’s infusion of young talent appears to be just the tip of the player development iceberg. If all goes well, maybe the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox will collide with it in a year or two and start to sink.

...

The front office

MacPhail has been very consistent in his stewardship of the organization’s improving talent, holding back some of the top young prospects in the face of a growing clamor to rush them onto the major league roster.

The much-criticized Felix Pie experiment did produce a potential marquee left fielder ... it just wasn’t Pie. The jury remains out on Rich Hill, but both former Chicago Cubs have served MacPhail’s greater purpose, even if that purpose was not always clear to the fan base.

Washington Post: Rizzo Promises to Deal Only if Offers Are Right (RR)

The Washington Nationals have baseball’s worst record, a stockpile of tradable veterans and a regular lineup with six of eight position players aged 29 or older. But acting general manager Mike Rizzo said yesterday that he feels no obligation to conduct a fire sale, and downplayed the notion that the weeks leading to the July 31 trading deadline would result in team-altering player movement.

“A big transition period? I don’t think that,” Rizzo said. “We’ll make deals based on good baseball decisions. ‘Fire sale’ means you want to dump people. We don’t want to dump people.”

Among those on Washington’s 40-man roster, only two players—third baseman Ryan Zimmerman and catcher Jesús Flores—have the entrenched status where you can assume they’ll be starting in 2011. Adam Dunn’s two-year, $20 million contract expires at the end of 2010. Cristian Guzmán’s two-year, $16 million expires at the same time. Nick Johnson, currently earning $5.5 million, will be a free agent at year’s end. Another veteran in the group drawing trade interest, corner outfielder Josh Willingham, is under club control (and arbitration eligible) for two more years.

also from the Post: Dunn’s 300th Sparks Nats To a Victory

the Nats’ holiday jerseys (photo with the Dunn story) were hideous.

SERBY’S SUNDAY Q & A WITH… DEREK JETER

Q: Can you envision yourself playing another position for the Yankees than shortstop?

A: Can I envision? No.

Q: What if they asked you?

A: You’re speaking in all hypotheticals.

Q: I know.

A: I can’t answer that question.

Q: Anyway, I was listening to radio, and they were talking about maybe . . .

A: I don’t listen to the radio, so . . . wherever you’re going with that question, I don’t even want to hear it.

Q: But your last day as a Yankee, whenever that will be, you want to be at shortstop.

A: You asked me, “Can I envision myself playing another position?’ My answer to that question is no, I can’t envision it,” so . . .

L.A. Times: Game (not) over for Gagne

“He might be the one to revive baseball in Quebec,” said Pierre-Luc Nappert, the Capitales’ director of media relations. “He has the power to do it.”

Gagne is in Quebec to revive his career. He is trying to work his way back from a partially torn rotator cuff, with four appearances so far and a fastball Laplante put at 84-87 mph. He should get stronger, and presumably better, and if so he could get a minor league contract in August, or a spring training invitation next year.

He is in baseball limbo here, not because of the Mitchell Report, but because of his shoulder. What was once a national outrage over baseball’s steroid era has evolved into a national fatigue.

If Ramirez hits, Dodgers fans cheer.

“Everybody makes mistakes,” Gagne said. “You keep going. You do what you do. What Manny does best is hit balls. Manny is an entertainer.

“That’s not just in L.A. It’s anywhere. If you’re a fan, you want to see your team win. You want to see characters. You want to see guys work hard. You want to see something special.”

There was no better entertainer in L.A. than Gagne, back in the day.

“That’s why I keep going to the ballpark,” he said. “I’m searching for that again.”

Gagne relives it every day. His 5-year-old son scampers about in a Dodgers cap. His 3-year-old daughter is named Bluu—yes, he said, for Dodger blue.

N.Y. Times: Cheers for Ramirez in San Diego, but Certainly Not From the Padres

This is not likely to endear him to many fans, and it has bothered some opposing players.

“There doesn’t seem to be genuine remorse,” Padres pitcher Chris Young said. “The guy could set a great example and come out and say what I did was wrong, explain what he did, why he did it and show — especially the kids out there — that this is wrong. But kids aren’t hearing anything like that out of his mouth, and it sets a horrible example.

“It’s unfortunate because the guy has the power and the superstardom to really set the example and become an outspoken advocate against steroid use, but he’s going to hide behind Scott Boras,” referring to Ramirez’s agent. “It’s shameful.”

Bill Plaschke: A burst from Manny, a dud from the bullpen

From now through October, all of the noise will surround Ramirez, whose presence Saturday elicited standing ovations, a barrage of boos, angry showdowns between fans, flapping banners in the seats.

And one big boom.

Oh no he didn’t. Oh, yes, he did.

Ramirez clobbered a hanging mistake by Josh Geer on the fourth pitch he saw, knocking the ball into the left-field stands in the first inning as Petco erupted in a minute of happy, angry, solid noise.

That was the old Manny, taking him all of five at-bats to leave the yard.

Soon thereafter, though, fans saw some of the potentially new Manny, as he confronted first-base umpire Sam Holbrook after being called out on a grounder.

It was the first time I have seen Ramirez argue with anyone since becoming a Dodger, but before you accuse him of ‘roid rage, listen again to the boss.

“I think it was just because he ran hard and didn’t get anything out of it,” Torre said with a grin.

Old Manny, new Manny, then old Manny again when he jumped late and turned the wrong way and barely caught a routine fly ball from Everth Cabrera in the fifth.

Bill Plaschke is an personal expert on roid rage.

MLB: Podsednik deserves trip to St. Louis

Yes...and I deserve to man the Alexis Texas table at the next EXXXOTICA convention.

Back at the start of the 2009 season, when Scott Podsednik was sitting at home in Texas, waiting for a call to begin work as a Major League baseball player once again, being selected as an All-Star had to be quite a distance removed from his thought process.

Fifty-six games played later, with Podsednik having emerged as the White Sox first-half Most Valuable Player, the veteran leadoff man still doesn’t seem to be banking on his name being called during the MLB All-Star Selection Show presented by Pepsi at 12 p.m. CT on Sunday.

Yet, Podsednik certainly deserves the honor.

“It has crossed my mind,” said Podsednik of being a White Sox All-Star representative in St. Louis. “But right now, I’m really planning on taking the four off-days and relaxing and spending time with family and getting my body prepared to play [74] more games and finish it out strong.”

Kovacevic: Pirates’ Indian pitchers make pro debuts

MIAMI—Dinesh Patel and Rinku Singh, the Pirates’ Indian-born pitchers, made their professional debuts this afternoon for Bradenton of the rookie-level Gulf Coast League, each working an inning of relief against the New York Yankees’ affiliate.

Patel, the right-hander, pitched a scoreless inning with a strikeout, and needed just nine pitches, seven of which were strikes.

Singh, the left-hander, allowed a run on two hits with a strikeout and wild pitch. He needed 20 pitches.

Patel?  How am I gonna make a living on these deadbeats?

Singh, in his fractured English, described the experience on the duo’s blog: “I getting in bullpen and feeling nervous warming up out there. They calling your name, and I feeling little nervous. After first pitching, I feeling good. ??? I think next time I doing much better now I knowing how feeling on mound. I wish we winning game so I feeling happy on total.”

The Yankees won, 4-2.

“Same Rinku I feeling little nervous,” Patel wrote on the blog. “In bullpen, they saying my name and my heart going very fast. I think I doing good, but I sad we losing. It not matter if we doing good if team not winning.”

The box score is here.  Quite the lineup for the GCL Pirates!

DH Doumit
LF Milledge
1B Rodriguez, G
CF Freeman, W
3B Gonzalez, El
RF De La Cruz, M
C Marquez
SS Gonzalez, B
2B Ngoepe

MLB: Bannister not sold on day-night split

Look out Prospectus Idol 2010!

Those that know Brian Bannister know he is an analytical guy.

He studies stats. He looks at trends. Simply put, Bannister explores the game of baseball.

So the easy answer is, yes, Bannister has looked at his extreme day-night splits.

He’s seen the numbers—a 15-6 career record with a 4.31 ERA during the day, and a 13-26 record with a 4.83 ERA at night.

And Bannister thinks he has the answer. It’s nothing more than one of those curious baseball oddities, he says.

“I have the exact same opponent batting average and my ERA is almost identical [in day and night games],” Bannister said. “So the answer to that is my team scores more runs for me during the day.”

MLB: Dunn reaches milestone with 300th homer

While Nyjer Morgan is still stuck at 3.

Nationals outfielder Adam Dunn hit career home run No. 300 in a 5-3 victory over the Braves at Nationals Park on Saturday afternoon.

It was Dunn’s 22nd home run of the season, and he also received his first curtain call of the year. The Nationals then had a video montage of all the home runs Dunn hit this year.

Dunn becomes the 123rd member of the 300-home run club and just the 13th player to reach the 300-homer plateau before the age of 30.

...How many more home runs can Dunn hit? Can he reach 500 home runs?

“That’s an incredible number,” Dunn said. “There are a lot of things that have to go right. You have to stay healthy. You have to be very productive for a long time. I’m going to sit here and say I don’t know.”

TSN: Richmond to DL

NEW YORK—The Toronto Blue Jays have placed right-hander Scott Richmond of North Vancouver, B.C., on the 15-day disabled list with a sore shoulder.

Richmond is 6-5 with a 3.69 earned-run average in 16 games, 13 starts, this season. He has gone seven innings in each of his last two starts, going 1-1 and allowing just five runs.

The Mets don’t know injury woes.

NYT: Kilgannon: Why Short Al From Brooklyn, Talkative Fan, Calls No More

Bruce from Bayside likes the Cleveland Indians, while Bruce from Flushing is a Yankees man. There is Marc in the Bronx (Denver Broncos) and Miriam from Forest Hills (Islanders and Mets). Regular listeners know that Jerry from Queens is Jerry Seinfeld, a proud FANdroid and occasional host of the show.

Short Al from Brooklyn was a Mets devotee who, having been a regular at Ebbets Field since boyhood, provided an old-timer’s perspective. He called in the predawn hours nearly every day since WFAN went on the air in 1987, becoming a favorite of Steve Somers, a host known as “The Schmoozer” who shared Al’s love for the Mets but prodded him to get to the point by saying, “Time is short, and so are you.”

Short Al suddenly disappeared from WFAN’s airwaves last year, leading some listeners to worry that he had joined the great lineup of FANdroids who have died, including John from Sandy Hook and Doris from Rego Park. “I can’t tell you how many times people called in and asked, ‘Why hasn’t he been calling? What happened?’ ” said Marc Malusis, another of WFAN’s overnight hosts.

The mystery is here answered!

Short Al is 5-foot-4, and he tells the story of his life as a baseball fan as though writing a script worthy of Kevin Costner.

Growing up in Coney Island, he said, he worked as a child in a penny arcade on the Boardwalk for money to go to Brooklyn Dodgers games. In 1934, at age 7, he went alone to his first game at Ebbets Field, by bus, trolley and subway. On June 15, 1938, he said, he was there when the Cincinnati Reds pitcher Johnny Vander Meer pitched a no-hitter against the Dodgers — four days after pitching a no-hitter against the Boston Braves, the only major leaguer ever to achieve such a consecutive feat. Short Al himself did not play serious baseball, but he ran track at Lincoln High School.

“I got my speed by selling ice cream illegally on the beach,” he said. “You had to be fast, to run away from the cops.

“I started boxing at age 7 because I was a little guy and got beat up in school,” he added. “I had 130 amateur fights and I was never knocked out because I have no neck, which is good for boxers and baseball catchers. Look at Yogi Berra and Johnny Bench.”

Tiger Woods calls foul on Yankees for cost of seats at new Stadium

Tiger Woods is working on his stinger shot off the course as well. He went deep on the Yankees Friday with a swipe at what the “Evil Empire” is charging for admission to the new Yankee Stadium.

Complying with a trend in golf, the AT&T National host is letting kids under 12 in for free this week.

“We don’t want to have what happened at Yankee Stadium,” Woods said. “Tickets are so overpriced that you can’t bring the family. We want to have everyone come out and enjoy being in a family atmosphere, walk around, have a good time and not have it cost an arm and a leg.”

The Daily News brings us this story!

Kids Prefer Cheese: Mr Pujols: Walk him, just walk him

Summary: 8th inning, two outs, you are ahead 3-0, the next two guys in the line-up are in deep slumps. Your bullpen is the best in the major leagues (Cincy has an amazing bullpen).

Do you pitch to Mr. Pujols? It is radical to suggest, but I say: No, you do not. Walk him. Yes, I know the bases are loaded. But. Walk. Him. It’s still just 3-1 and neither of the next two batters are likely to do anything except fly out.

They pitch to Mr. Pujols.

Mr. Pujol hits a long homer, a grand slam, the big salami with extra cheese and pickles. Even Mike Shannon, who has been drunk since 1973, notes in this video that “maybe you think about walking him.”

SNY: Salfino: Injury-plagued Mets need Santana to right the ship

All aboard the eternal caravan of reincarnation…

There are lots of stories around the Web and even in the mainstream press about Santana’s decreasing velocity. But let’s break some ground, courtesy of my friends at Baseball Info Solutions, and present Santana’s average fastball velocity month-by-month since he’s began his Mets career. Of course, March of 2008 was just one start:

He’s about 1.6 MPH off his Mets peak. My benchmark for significant concern over loss of velocity is two MPH, given that’s what scouts use to grade fastballs—88 is below average, 90 is average, 92 is plus, 94 is plus-plus. And I’m not talking peak velocity here, but average fastball velocity for starters. So Santana, by this measure, is very close to stepping down one tier in velocity, which would be significant.

On the other hand, Santana’s average fastball velocity as a Met for all the months prior to June of this year was 91.15. He’s been very effective in those months, obviously. So now our velocity loss is just 0.8 miles per hour, or one half the difference as measured by peak to trough. Looking at it this way, which I think is most reasonable, gives us due cause to be skeptical that velocity is the root cause of his recent struggles.

That leaves two other options—decreased effectiveness of his other offerings, most likely his heralded changeup, and just a random slump that will soon melt away as mysteriously as it formed.