After being called up from Triple-A Toledo earlier in the day and returning from exile, Brandon Inge said he was going to make sure that the Tigers had more fun.
Inge and the Tigers had plenty of fun on Saturday, as they defeated the Indians, 10-1, and extended their lead in the American League Central to 3 1/2 games with help from Inge, who went 2-for-4 with a home run and two RBIs.
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Inge led off the second inning with a 380-foot blast to left field on the third pitch he saw, drawing an ...
Jose Altuve hit an inside-the-park drive for his first major league home run, a leadoff shot that sent the Houston Astros over the San Francisco Giants 7-5 Saturday night.
Altuve had three hits and fellow rookie J.D. Martinez homered, doubled and drove in four runs as the Astros matched a season high with their fourth straight win.
...
Aubrey Huff homered and Cody Ross and Pablo Sandoval each drove in two runs for the Giants, who have lost three in a row and 16 of 22.
Wow! I haven’t seen a Crane exposed like this…since “Take Off Your Clothes and Smile” was first scripted!
Mike Quade is not going to be the manager on the North Side next season, so why drag on the inevitable? Then there’s the 190-pound clown in the room that is team president Crane Kenney. To hear Ricketts talk about Kenney doing a “good job’’ running the business end of things for the organization was one of those throw-up-in-your-mouth moments. Kenney a liability, too
Chipper Jones said he will return to play for the Braves in 2012, ending speculation that the 39-year-old third baseman might retire after this season and walk away with a year left on his contract.
Unlike petitioning for Jason Heyward to play through injuries that obviously hurt him at the plate, Chipper made some comments about something he is qualified to make comments on. Chipper critiqued Heyward’s swing and spoke of ways he feels he can improve it at the plate.
As if Jews haven’t suffered enough, it turns out that Ralph Branca is a member of our tribe. The man who served up Bobby Thompson’s Shot Heard Round The World in 1951 recently learned that his mother was a closeted Jew. The full story, told in poignant detail in a recent New York Times article by Joshua Prager, suggests that Branca’s hidden religion may have had major ramifications for baseball.
I got as far as “ESPN’s Colin Cowherd, one of the more astute radio talk show hosts around.” when my head had a mega-splosion. Costco’s Kirkland Signature to the rescue!
Joe Sheehan maintains that using advanced statistics — FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching) and xFIP (advanced FIP) — indicates that “Burnett is the team’s third best starter behind Sabathia and [Bartolo] Colon.” This strikes me as intolerably fancy. “There’s an argument,” Sheehan writes, “to be made that Burnett isn’t ...
roen·i·ckes: Sound made while hocking every loogy.
No left-handers in the bullpen? No problem, says Brewers manager Ron Roenicke.
He remains all right with the Brewers’ all-righty relief corps, and said there is a strong chance they will go without a lefty reliever until rosters expand Sept. 1.
“I like our bullpen the way it is,” he said. “I just can’t imagine our bullpen being any better than what it has been, so why have a left-hander in there? If it’s a lights-out lefty, that’s ...
Edward Norton is a fine actor who starred in such films as “Fight Club,” “Primal Fear” and “Rounders.” He is also a Columbia native and one of the most famous people to admit in public that he is still an Orioles fan.
Norton turned 42 today. What does he want for his birthday? For Cal Ripken to come save his Orioles.
“Thanks for all the nice messages. People have been asking what I want for my birthday. This:” Norton wrote on Twitter, linking to a site asking for ...
McClelland…and?...and?...and?...and?...and…just ####### say it!
Even so, I find this widespread attempted canonization of Thome somewhat laughable, as if there’s no way he could ever have been involved with performance-enhancing drugs.
Maybe he used HGH. There was no testing. Or maybe, unlike dopey Manny Ramirez, he was just smart enough not to get caught. And maybe, because he was such a “nice guy,” some who cover baseball for a living are giving him a free pass.
Bryce Harper likely will not play again this season, Nationals manager Davey Johnson said Friday.
Harper, the Nationals’ top prospect, was carried off the field on Thursday night in Akron after suffering a strained right hamstring while running from first to third base.
“He probably won’t play the rest of the year, as far as I know,” Johnson told MASN. “There’s only a few days left. You take a chance of aggravating it and it becomes more of a serious injury.”
“I have a contract and a commitment to the Dodgers,” Colletti said. “Until somebody tells me otherwise, that is where my focus is and where my efforts will be.”
Colletti, who has been the Dodgers GM since November 2005, signed a long-term contract extension in October 2009. The actual length of that extension has never been made public, and while Colletti does have an escape clause, it doesn’t kick in until after next season.
However, with the Dodgers presently in bankruptcy and a question of ...
Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Jose Tabata has signed a contract extension for six years, a source close to the negotiations told ESPNdeportes.com on Friday.
Tabata’s new deal with the Pirates is guaranteed through the 2016 season and includes a restructuring of his contract for 2011. The team has options for 2017, 2018 and 2019 for a total of $37.25 million.
His salary increases to $500,000 this season, along with a $1 million signing bonus in 2011. Tabata will make $750,000 in 2012, $1 ...
Ruth’s name appeared on 75.6 percent of the 55,834 fan ballots cast from Aug. 8-18. DiMaggio garnered 46 percent of the vote to finish second, Gehrig was third at 43.4 percent and Mantle fourth with 42.8 percent.
Robinson, the only non-Yankee inductee, got 41.2 percent of the vote to easily outdistance Lawrence Taylor, Willie Mays and Joe Namath for the fifth and final spot.
Looks like an Engelberg 930 Autopantsload special to me.
Fortunately for me I am not a baseball fan, or I would be digging deep in my pockets for Joe DiMaggio’s shotgun, which will be auctioned at James D. Julia’s in Maine this October. See, it’s a Winchester Model 21, which is the American double I yearn for – although I’m not sure why I want a 21 instead of a Fox or a Parker. I just do.
But there’s more: this isn’t just any Winchester Model 21 belonging to Joe DiMaggio. It’s ...
Mitchell doesn’t express many regrets about what happened on the ball field. When I asked him one of his favorite memories it wasn’t the World Series, winning the MVP, or the barehanded catch; it was playing shortstop, a position he manned 24 times in his career. Looking back he does wish he went to college, and understands and accepts what happened throughout his career. He is involved with a charity called Athletes for Education, which assists ...
Not exactly baseball related but I’m guessing I’m not the only one who remembers him as a 12 year old baseball player.
While playing for Trumbull, Conn., Drury pitched a complete-game five-hitter and drove in two runs to lead his hometown team to the 1989 Little League World Series title. It seems only fitting that he announced the end of his athletic career while this year’s Little League World Series is being played in Williamsport, Pa.
All this and Snooki too! (so ‘H8R’ doesn’t stand for ‘He Ate Ruth’)
Barry Bonds will try to rehabilitate his tarnished image by confronting a fan who hates him on the upcoming reality show “H8R.”
On the show, the MLB home-run king will watch a tape of one of his biggest detractors chewing him out, and then confront his “H8R”—who won’t know the slugger has been watching him—face-to-face.
It’ll be up to Bonds to convince the guy that he isn’t so bad, after all.
The Chicago Cubs relieved Jim Hendry of his duties as vice president and general manager on Friday, according to a source familiar with the situation.
Hendry was hired in 1996 as director of player development. He was promoted to scouting director the next season. The 55-year-old Florida native was promoted to general manager in 2002 after serving as assistant to then-president Andy MacPhail.
Under Hendry, the Cubs hired two high-profile managers in Dusty Baker in the fall of 2002 and Lou ...
*After Tuesday’s loss, La Russa spoke of the 30th home run and gave a sarcastic take to Rick Hummel of the Post-Dispatch: “He’s definitely had a (lousy) year. I wonder where all the experts are now?” And after Wednesday’s win, Pujols told Hummel: “Sometimes, it’s easier to write a story than it is to go out there and hit a baseball. Most (critics) probably never even played the game. They probably never threw ...
It is a legitimate possibility that the Rangers could lose either one of those guys at any moment, and while losing one player for six weeks isn’t usually enough to blow a six-game lead, Hamilton and Cruz are fairly irreplaceable and it would help. The Angels, meanwhile, have had quite a run of health this year, with, basically, only Kendrys Morales on the DL right now. But even if they did lose a player to an injury, you almost wouldn’t notice. ...
But Beckett says what he wants to say how he wants to say it. He doesn’t care and and it’s beautiful. For example:
Question: “What did (Alex) Gordon hit in his first two at-bats?
Beckett: “Why would I want to talk about those? We just won the game. Why would I want to talk about a home run that I gave up?”
And right on schedule…
“This travel has been horrible. I don’t know who the [expletive] made that doubleheader that day. They [the Rays] come back one more time. We haven’t exactly been ...
But it was one game that had a fatal feel to it when former Angel Mike Napoli broke a scoreless duel between Angels ace Jered Weaver and Rangers starter Colby Lewis with a solo home run leading off the seventh inning. Napoli crushed the high fastball from Weaver 400 feet over the center field wall and seemed to crush his former teammates’ hopes in the dirt around home plate as he stood and admired it briefly—but long enough to draw an icy stare from ...
The National Baseball Hall of Fame has created the Allan H. “Bud” Selig Center for the Archives of Major League Baseball Commissioners, Hall Chairman Jane Forbes Clark announced Wednesday night at a dinner with Commissioner Selig and representatives from the 30 MLB teams.
The center houses documents and photos of MLB’s nine commissioners and features a conference center and workspace for research and archival study. Wednesday’s dinner capped the first day of the quarterly Owners’ Meetings, ...
Raines has been on the Hall of Fame ballot since 2008, receiving 37.5 percent of the vote this year — well short of the 75 percent needed to get elected. Raines will remain eligible for the next 11 years as long as he gets 5 percent of the vote. Raines said his numbers over a 23-year career — a .294 batting average, 2,605 hits, 980 RBIs and 808 stolen bases (fifth all-time) as well as the status of one of the best leadoff hitters to play ...
Tom Jones, the Brewers’ great first baseman, had a close call in the fifth inning of today’s game when he was hit just below the right temple by a terrific shoot thrown by Peters.
Milwaukee needs a first baseman, but players are rather shy of offers. That Milwaukee first base job seems to be hoodooed. Dan McGann suicided; Pat Hynes, who was there before him, was murdered, and Quate Bateman, who was ...
Joe Mauer can now add right field to his list of positions he’s played in his big league career.
Mauer, who also made his debut at first base earlier this year, made his first-ever start in right field on Thursday against the Yankees.
Mauer was forced to play in the outfield for the first time in his professional career, as the club has been hit by a recent rash of injuries, including Michael Cuddyer (neck herniation), Matt Tolbert (sprained left wrist) and Denard Span (migraines). ...
Bob Stanley was brought in to save the defense? Who knew!
A former U.S. representative who prodded the Justice Department investigation that led to charges against Roger Clemens for lying to Congress said the pitcher has paid his dues, and he doesn’t see a reason to continue putting him on trial.
“I think he’s suffered enough,” said former Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, who was the top Republican on the committee in 2008, when Mr. Clemens testified he had not used steroids.
