Last night the boys were all seated in the hotel lobby. All was quiet for a moment, then [Claude] Hendrix turned to [Rebel] Keene and said: “Tell us of the greatest game you ever played.”
Keene likes to talk and he launched out on his subject with fervor…Not a murmur was heard from the crowd until “Rebel” was reaching the climax. Then [Elmer] Steele groaned. Hendrix laughed, and the whole bunch yawned, stretched, got up and walked away, leaving Keene right ...
The Royals avoided a three-game sweep Wednesday night by escaping with a 5-4 victory over the New York Yankees at Kauffman Stadium.
Make that ESCAPE. Capital letters.
Joakim Soria concluded a 40-pitch ninth inning by striking out Jorge Posada with the bases loaded after nearly — but not quite — blowing a two-run lead.
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“He got up to 40 pitches,” manager Ned Yost said, “and you start to worry if he’s getting gassed. But the thing about Jack is you know he has that ability to ...
Pitching for the Hagerstown Suns of the Class A South Atlantic League, Strasburg was rocked for four hits — three of them doubles to the wall — and five earned runs by the visiting Lexington Legends while recording just five outs, three of them by strikeout. Three runs had already scored and 25 pitches had left Strasburg’s hand before he recorded his first out of the game.
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Strasburg’s velocity was fine, as his fastball sat at 96 to 98 mph and touched 99 mph at least once on the ...
Fausto Carmona allowed four hits over 8 1-3 innings and the Cleveland Indians beat the White Sox 4-1 on Wednesday night.
Buehrle (10-6) allowed a season-high 12 hits and had his streak of consecutive starts allowing three runs or less snapped at 18 games. Buehrle allowed four runs in 7 1-3 innings.
“I was on a pretty good roll,” Buehrle said. “But everything has to come to an end sometime.”
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Chicago remained 3 1/2 games behind the Tigers and dropped 1 1/2 games behind the Indians ...
Greinke won his fifth straight start and Jerry Hairston Jr. singled in two runs to lift the Brewers to a 3-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday night for their 19th victory in 21 games.
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Greinke, the 2009 AL Cy Young winner, scattered five hits and struck out eight over seven innings to lower his ERA to 1.57 over this five-game winning streak.
“It wasn’t a great outing, but I made big pitches when they needed to be made,” Greinke said.
For the first time ever, a Marlins starter gave up more than 10 runs in a game. The Rockies logged 11 runs on 11 hits off [Ricky] Nolasco on their way to a series-clinching 12-5 victory. Not all the Marlins history was negative. Mike Stanton matched the club record by homering in his fourth straight game.
The Rockies batted around in both the first and third innings, scoring five and six runs, respectively. Carlos Gonzalez capped the six-hit third with a three-run homer to left. Not all of the ...
The Atlanta Braves are bringing back infielder Wes Helms, signing him to a minor league deal less than a week after he was released by the Florida Marlins.
The Braves said Wednesday that Helms will report to Triple-A Gwinnett this weekend and likely join the Braves when the rosters are expanded Sept. 1 to provide another right-handed bat off the bench.
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Also, Atlanta activated right-hander Jair Jurrjens from the disabled list to start against the San Francisco Giants. Right-hander Randall ...
If you think Yankee Nation has been in deep distress and debate lately over the investment return from pitcher A. J. Burnett, imagine what awaits Rodriguez all the way through 2017 if his physical decline continues at the rate it has been going.
There was hip surgery in 2009, a visit to the disabled list last season for a calf injury and this year’s breakdown to go along with eye-opening drop-offs in power numbers. Is it a stretch to imagine a day when Rodriguez’s 10-year deal that could ...
So even while Hannahan was at bat in the game, Speed booked the first flight in the morning . . . back to Cleveland, even knowing that would likely be too late. His next step was calling about private planes. They were available, but they cost $35,000 . . . seven percent of his annual salary—that’s a lot of money on a gamble that it would be the night Jenny gave birth.
At some point after the game, teammate Justin Masterson asked Hannahan what was happening and as soon as Hannahan ...
Sammy Sosa knows all about life after baseball, and planned on reaching out to Carlos Zambrano to remind him that once you retire, “it’s a whole different ballgame.”
Sosa, 42, who played 18 seasons in the Major Leagues, including 1992-2004 with the Cubs and was a teammate of Zambrano’s for his final three seasons with the club, said Wednesday he planned on calling the Cubs pitcher, who is currently on the disqualified list. Zambrano served up five home runs to the Braves last Friday in ...
I have a picture of Joe Pepitone’s thing…but I certainly can’t show it here.
A big tip o’ the Monsanto Toupeé to fellow author and baseball obsessive Maxwell Kates, who dug up this amazing 1972 file photo of Joe Pepitone (taken on my sixth birthday!) and posted it on the Big Hair & Plastic Grass Facebook page.
As some of you know by now, Joe Pepitone is one of my favorite baseball characters — his autobiography, Joe, You Coulda Made Us Proud, totally blew my 12 year-old mind when I first ...
Bridgehampton, N.Y., out on the East End of Long Island, is Red Sox territory. The bars along Main Street are decked out in red and will only show Yankees games if there’s nothing else on. TVs receive the Hartford network affiliates. Carl Yastrzemski was born on a nearby potato farm and still holds a handful of records at the town’s high school. Bridgehampton, you might say, sits beyond the Evil Empire’s borders.
In 2008, Tracy and Kevin Carey began selling caps and t-shirts emblazoned with ...
Teams won on the last at-bat in 10% of games this season — 181 games overall — entering Tuesday, the highest percentage since 1987, according to research by USA TODAY and Baseball-Reference.com. There had already been 51 walk-off homers this year, compared with 33 in 1993 when [Dennis] Eckersley originated the term, walking off the mound after a defeat.
LLWS:
The Little League World Series starts tomorrow. Schedule and TV listings are at the link above. If you are filling out a bracket (and if you ARE filling out a bracket, WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU THESE KIDS ARE 12 YEARS OLD), it could be difficult this year, as the opening games of the double-elimination tournament seem pretty balanced, with the exception of Venezuela vs. the Netherlands (but then again, maybe young Honkballers are just as Cinderella as adult ones).
A follow-up from North of the Border on the whole idea of game in B.C. Place.
The stadium is undergoing a $563 million renovation for a Sept. 30 reopening and its floor and lower bowl will remain convertible for baseball. But Major League Baseball needs to approve the new centre-hung, high definition scoreboard. The giant video “shoebox” will be suspended from the housing for the retractable roofing fabric.
“We have asked MLB for a ruling on the scoreboard and required height but as yet we ...
PITTSBURGH—Class AA Springfield righthander Shelby Miller, the crown jewel of the Cardinals’ farm system as the team’s top pick in the 2009 draft, has been suspended indefinitely by the organization, Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak said tonight
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According to several sources familiar with the situation, the incident in question involved an altercation at a Springfield apartment complex with alcohol also being involved. This is believed to be the second such instance for the ...
Singles going steady…but they’re next to last in triples!
Because Cincinnati fans are no different from fans anywhere, many would like to run Baker out of town. And in truth, this hasn’t been Baker’s finest job. His light touch kept players such as Bruce and Stubbs relaxed last season. The pair responded by playing well in September.
Baker had ample clubhouse help last season from veterans Scott Rolen, Arthur Rhodes and Orlando Cabrera. This year, Cabrera and Rhodes are elsewhere and Rolen ...
Screw Sabermetrics! More pics of Flush Flaherty in Triathlong-johns…while every other MLB package team is showing/talking Thome’s 600th HR!
Last night, John Flaherty said something that, at the very least, bordered on willful ignorance. After the results of the Toyota Text Poll were revealed, the booth was having a conversation about the stats used–BA/HR/RB/R–in the poll. David Cone, of course, wondered where WAR was and mused about defense and runs created. Flash would have none of it.
Baseball lifers like me who are looking down the barrel of our Biblical three score years and ten, or can still see 70 in the rear view mirror (an awkward age), can particularly enjoy Congdon’s treatment of the fifties, baseball’s golden age, and pretty golden in other ways as well.
Baseball was golden in the fifties because so much attention was focused on this sport ...
Marlborough (New Zealand) Express, August 16, 1911:
At Sisson, California, butterflies in countless millions invaded a baseball field and stopped the game and drove the spectators into shelter. Automobile traffic was stopped, as the drivers were unable to see where they were going.
Well it’s about time Corky revisited his Rickey-less HOF ballo…huh, oh…it’s only about the Ray Chapman beaning.
After the fatal beaning, bitterness against Carl Mays spread across the country, despite appeals by Cleveland manager Tris Speaker to cool it on the hatred.
Mays thought the incident kept him out of the Hall of Fame. But Fred Lieb insisted that was not the case. Mays had the statistics — 207 victories, a lifetime earned run average of 2.92, a winning percentage of .620.
I would say the Cubs have no chance of unloading combustible righty Carlos Zambrano this offseason, but the Vernon Wells trade showed that even the game’s worst contracts can be moved.
Is Carlos Zambrano the most untradeable player in the majors?
Halladay had a line of 9 IP, 14 K, 1 BB, 0 HR - and loses - while a guy released by Pittsburgh goes 3-4 with 3 RBIs in his first start with his new team. #YouNeverKnow
[Lyle Overbay] came in 3-for-10 with two RBIs lifetime against [Roy Halladay].
The appetizer? Overbay smoked a 2-1 pitch to right to drive in Chris Young in the second inning.
Then Overbay delivered the decisive blow in a 3-2 victory over the Phillies, ripping a go-ahead two-run double off Halladay to the wall in ...
From the moment they were sued last year for $1 billion by the trustee for the victims of Bernard L. Madoff’s fraud, the owners of the Mets have fought every aspect of the enormous claim. ........
They also derided the trustee’s bid to force them to pay back hundreds of millions more — the trustee claimed the owners had been willfully blind to evidence Madoff might have been a fraud — as a gross overreach that was backed by distorted or fabricated evidence.
The Boston Red Sox turned their first triple play in 17 years on Tuesday night against the Tampa Bay Rays.
B.J. Upton and Casey Kotchman started the top of the fourth inning with singles off of Erik Bedard, who got out of the jam when Sean Rodriguez hit a hard grounder to third.
Jed Lowrie fielded it cleanly, stepped on the base and fired it to Dustin Pedroia, who got the ball off quickly to Adrian Gonzalez at first and beat Rodriguez to the bag.
Already banged up for the playoff race, the World Series champion San Francisco Giants received another blow Tuesday night when starting pitcher Jonathan Sanchez left the game with a sprained left ankle.
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The Giants, mired in a skid that knocked them out of first place in the NL West, began the day putting two players on the 15-day disabled list: outfielder Carlos Beltran and reliever Sergio Romo. At least two other players were unavailable for the game against Atlanta, the team they are ...
So why not digest the accomplishments of modern sluggers on similar grounds? Because players cheated, we’re told. It wasn’t Ruth’s fault that the country was rife with institutional racism at the time, or Koufax’s fault that he pitched at the most favorable time for pitchers since the Dead Ball Era. But players who were found to have taken performance-enhancing drugs, conventional wisdom goes, should be stripped of their accomplishments, of their ...
