I couldn't quite make out most of the article so I didn't want to make it the link of the day, but the Toledo News-Bee 100 years ago today had a headline which read COBB TO DO BLACKFACE?.

I'm sure he would have done it in the most racially sensitive way possible.

Today's Birthday Team features three of the players who made it possible for the '78 Yankees to win the AL East: Ron Guidry, Lou Piniella, and Mike Torrez.

C: Tom Satriano
1B/Bench Coach: Charlie Grimm
2B: Aaron Ward
3B: Joel Youngblood
LF/Manager: Lou Piniella
CF: Dode Paskert
RF: Tony Gonzalez

SP: Ron Guidry
SP: Mike Torrez
SP: Tommy Hanson
SP: Randy Wells
SP/SS: Joe Yeager
RP: Ryan Madson

Spare Bench Bat: Carlos Quentin
Defensive Replacement: Darren Lewis
Fun Names: Buck Hooker, Braggo Roth, Goody Rosen

Braggo Roth's SABR biography is a fun read. Roth, as you might guess from the nickname, was a giant pain in the butt who wore out his welcome everywhere he ever played with his constant attempts at self-promotion. In an amazing bit of irony, he suffered an untimely death when the car he was riding in was plowed into by...a newspaper truck. Even in Roth's death, newspapers played a role.

1 - Knowing Cobb, it probably involved him punching himself in the face.

I think the tepid battle but heated sports radio debate over Quentin/Piniella just isn't going to be worth it and I'm not sure either will really take to a bench role. I think the only way to solve this is to trade Tony Gonzalez to Oct 28 for all-time PH leader Lenny Harris.

Oh, man. Don't tell Barry Larkin you want to trade Lenny Harris. He'll flip out.

Butch Huskey said he was fined $100 by home plate umpire Bill Hohn for throwing his helmet...

I didn't know umps could levy fines. Can they still do this?

Braggo Roth, he of the 124 career OPS+, also wants to know why he's on the bench. In fact, he's probably complaining about it to the press right now.

"I have a better lifetime OPS+ than Tim Raines, Paul Molitor, and Dave Parker, and this young hothead Piniella thinks he can relegate me to the funny names category! He's got a funny eye-talian name, let's put him in the names category and I'll play the dad-gum outfield!"

"Hey Braggo? I'm the manager. What I say goes.

Also, your career was over at age 28 and how many 150-hit seasons did you have? None? That's what I thought. Enjoy life as a fifth outfielder."

10 years ago today was the greatest game Odalis Perez ever had - both on the mound and at the plate.

HR and a 1-0 shutout, right? I remember that game.

The all-birthday team has an umpire: Don Denkinger.

The all-birthday team also has a two-time Stanley Cup winner: Aaron Ward.

(admittedly, different guy with the same name but still pretty cool).

Here's the list of all the 1-0 shutouts thrown in 2012.
Of the six, four of them by one pitcher, and three of those in one calendar month.

                                                        
Rk              Player       Date  Tm Opp   Rslt  AppDec
1        Lucas Harrell 2012-06-27 HOU SDP W  1-0 SHO9  W
2      Felix Hernandez 2012-06-28 SEA BOS W  1-0 SHO9  W
3      Edinson Volquez 2012-07-19 SDP HOU W  1-0 SHO9  W
4      Felix Hernandez 2012-08-04 SEA NYY W  1-0 SHO9  W
5      Felix Hernandez 2012-08-15 SEA TBR W  1-0 SHO9  W
6      Felix Hernandez 2012-08-27 SEA MIN W  1-0 SHO9  W

Have a new CBA question:

Under the new CBA, you cannot get draft pick compensation unless a departing FA was with your team for one year. So the Angels cannot receive compensation for Zack Greinke if he signs elsewhere. But does the team that signed Zack Greinke lose compensation for signing him? Before, you had to offer a tender to Greinke, but since the Angels cannot get compensation anyway, there seems to be no point to offering him a tender. But would they anyway just to get another team to lose their pick? Is that how it works?

[15] no.

Here is the part of the CBA that deals with it:

Only Players who have been with their Clubs for the entire season will be subject
to compensation.

and then:

A Club that signs a player subject to compensation will forfeit its first round
selection, unless it selects in the top 10, in which case it will forfeit its secondhighest
selection in the draft.

THanks.

Last minute shopping? Reports circulating that Jason Vargas, Kevin Millwod, Oswalt and Dice-k are all on or have cleared waivers.

Is it true that Joel Youngblood got hits for the Aug. 28 birthday team and the Dec. 11 team on the same day?

HR and a 1-0 shutout, right? I remember that game.

I used that game as an example of how context affects value in a baseball game.

Game of the day (yesterday): Blue Jays 8, Yankees 7 (11). The teams traded solo homers early – Robinson Cano off of Henderson Alvarez in the bottom of the first, and Adam Lind against David Phelps in the top of the second. The score stayed knotted at 1 until… well, until Cano’s next plate appearance leading off the bottom of the fourth, which also resulted in a solo homer. Alvarez then walked Mark Teixeira, and one out later, allowed singles to Eric Chavez and Russell Martin. Martin’s single both scored Teixeira and nailed Alvarez in the leg, resulting in his removal from the game; Aaron Laffey recorded the final two outs of the inning, but the first of those was an RBI groundout that put New York ahead 4-1.

The teams traded identical home runs in the fifth – Kelly Johnson and Derek Jeter led off the two halves of the inning with walks, and Yorvit Torrealba and Nick Swisher both followed up by sending 2-1 pitches over the wall. The Yanks would strand two extra runners later in the inning, but still maintained a 6-3 lead. That advantage was reduced in the seventh when Torrealba singled with one out, moved to second on a grounder, and scored on Adeiny Hechevarria’s single. Toronto then picked up a pair of two-out singles against David Robertson in the eighth, but couldn’t score; New York moved Eric Chavez as far as third in the bottom of the inning, but left him there.

Rafael Soriano came on to pitch the ninth. Moises Sierra singled with one out, and Rajai Davis did the same with two. Next up was Colby Rasmus, who took ball one, then launched the 1-0 pitch into the right field seats, giving the Jays their first lead of the game.

It didn’t last long. Derek Jeter hit Casey Janssen’s second pitch of the day to the opposite field, getting just enough to clear the right field fence (welcome to New Yankee Stadium) and tie the game. Janssen retired the next three New Yorkers he faced, and both teams worked perfect tenth innings. In the eleventh, Torrealba led off with a single against Derek Lowe. Mike McCoy pinch ran for the catcher, and on an errant pickoff attempt, scampered to third. After Sierra struck out, Hechevarria brought McCoy home with a groundout, and Darren Oliver worked around a walk to Ichiro to secure the win.

Toronto used 11 position players in this game. The second-highest OPS of anyone in the lineup was Rasmus’s .729, and there were only three over .700. That’s not so great – and that’s after their 12 hits and 3 homers from today are factored in.

Honorable mention: Brewers 15, Cubs 4. It’s not all that close to Yanks-Jays, but it is the #2 game of the day, and roughly 90th percentile on the season. Which is impressive, since it was an 11-run game.

Game of the day (last year): Indians 8, Royals 7. This one beats not one, but two extra-inning games, so you know it's good.

Cleveland drew first blood against Danny Duffy in the second, as Shelley Duncan reached on a one-out infield hit, moved up on a groundout, and scored on Jack Hannahan's single to center. The Royals countered in the top of the fourth. Alex Gordon led off with a double against the alleged Fausto Carmona, and scored two outs later on a hit by Eric Hosmer. Jeff Francoeur also singled, and Mike Moustakas doubled both runners home to put KC in the lead. But the Indians responded quickly, as Jim Thome walked, Jason Donald singled, and Hannahan delivered a two-out, two-run triple to tie the score in the bottom of the inning.

The Royals struck again in the top of the fifth. Salvador Perez led off with a hit, and Gordon walked with one out. Melky Cabrera then doubled, scoring Perez; Gordon came for home as well, but was thrown out on the play. After Duffy worked a scoreless fifth and Carmona matched him in the sixth, Duffy came up against Thome with one out and nobody on base. Thome, having been reacquired by the Indians one day earlier, celebrated his return with his 602nd career home run, tying the game at 4 and chasing Duffy from the mound. Aaron Crow came on, allowed a walk and a hit, but preserved the tie.

Carmona returned to the mound for the seventh, but on a predictably short leash. He hit Johnny Giovatella with a pitch, induced Perez to ground out, and got Alcides Escobar to ground to first as well - but Carlos Santana's error on the play allowed the runners to reach the corners with one out, and exhausted Carmona's supply of leash. Tony Sipp took his place, and immediately served up a 3-run homer to Gordon.

Cleveland picked up a run in the seventh on doubles by Kosuke Fukudome and Asdrubal Cabrera, and put runners on second and third with one out later in the inning before Tim Collins and Louis Coleman recorded a strikeout and foulout, respectively, to end the frame. Coleman allowed a leadoff hit to Donald in the eighth, then coaxed a double play ball from Hannahan. Lonnie Chisenhall singled, however, and Fukudome walked to put the tying runs on once more. Cabrera made sure to cash them in this time, launching a go-ahead 3-run homer to right. Chris Perez allowed the tying run to reach second in the ninth (two separate times, actually, as the first runner was thrown out on a fielder's choice), but didn't let it get further than that.

Five blown leads, two of them multi-run leads, one of those in the eighth inning. Three RBI each by Hannahan and Gordon, and neither of them had the game's highest total. And a chance to slip in a dig at Fausto Carmona. That's good stuff, baseball - a top-50 game of the year so far, and yet another thriller courtesy of the '11 Royals, who are the most exciting team in either the '11 or '12 season to date, and by a lot (the distance between them and the '11 Reds, #2 so far, is the same as the distance from the Reds to the '11 Indians and '12 Cardinals, in a rough tie for 17th.)

"Fausto Carmona" reverting to Roberto Hernandez is one of the most unfortunate occurrences in the history of baseball nomenclature.

I think Dan called him Fauxsto Carmona. That should be his new name.

Days between Lew Ford's two most recent MLB homers at the end of the day yesterday: 1856.

Days between Lew Ford's two most recent MLB homers now: 1.