Rico Brogna: Either You Are A Hall Of Famer Or You Are Not!

“Piazza! Piazza!” Little RICO Act.

Barry Bonds in recent years has been a heated debate. Should he or shouldn’t he get in the HOF? And if the answer is yes, should Barry be a first ballot HOF? C’mon man! This guy was unbelievable, PED’s or whatever! There is one thing you need to ask yourself, “Is Barry Bonds and his performance on the field during his career worthy of HOF entry? As my son would say (he’s 8 years old), “Duh!” ‘Nuff said. Barry is simply one of the best to ever ...

Jamie McCourt-Ron Burkle ‘deal’ is denied

MLB initially claimed Frank McCourt had diverted more than $100 million from team revenue for personal use.

In a generally unrelated filing in divorce court, attorneys for Frank McCourt dismissed that claim as “patently false.”

“Even taking the commissioner’s false claim that $100 million was taken out of the Dodgers at face value,” the filing read, “it is difficult to understand how the commissioner can complain about this when he pays himself a salary of approximately $20 million a year ...

Astros’ failure to launch no reason to deal

A contrarian view from David Schoenfield as the trade deadline approaches:

It all fell apart for the Houston Astros on … well, on Opening Day.

...

This has led to speculation that the club is shopping around two of its three best players, All-Star right fielder Hunter Pence and lefty starter Wandy Rodriguez. The Astros, after all, have little talent on the big-league roster and a farm system widely considered one of the most barren in the majors. They may as trade a couple of their few ...

The Electric Dock Ellis Acid Test: An Attempt To Recreate His Drug-Addled No-Hitter, On Xbox

Turn on, tune in, Doumit.

I took my first strip of the stuff… at approximately 12:30 in the afternoon and it took about 30 minutes for the first burst of spastic wooziness to arrive. The games began, with an MLB2K11 custom-generated Dock Ellis leading the 2011 Pirates against the 2011 San Diego Padres, a considerably less fearsome offensive bunch than the woeful ‘70 Pads, who at least had homer-thumping Nate Colbert in the cleanup spot… We’d agreed in advance that once I gave up a hit, I’d start ...

MSNBC Hardball Talk: Hideki Irabu found dead; suicide suspected

If indeed true, RIP.

This is just breaking and, at present, we only have links to stories in Japanese, but apparently former Yankees pitcher Hideki Irabu was found dead at his California home yesterday.  Suicide is suspected.

Irabu has had a troubled post-baseball career. He was arrested in Gardena, California last year for drunk driving.  Back in 2008 he was arrested for assaulting a bar manager in Japan after allegedly consuming 20 glasses of beer.

After achieving stardom in Japan, ...

Rasmus’ dad blasts Tony La Russa

“Colby Rasmus family blames Cards manager for trade”

Tony Rasmus didn’t throw the first stone, but he was firing back.

In June of 2010 the father visited his son in St. Louis and worked on hitting: “We didn’t do anything serious. Colby told Tony about it. After last June that was the end of that,” said Tony Rasmus, who said four weeks ago the Cards and Colby were involved in talks on a four-year deal.

“Evidently Tony (La Russa) has absolutely made that stuff up. He’s got it on ...

Fukudome heading to Indians for prospects

The Cubs will deal outfielder Kosuke Fukudome to the Indians on Thursday for two Minor Leaguers.

The two sides were close to finalizing a deal with only minor details still being worked out. A source indicated that Cleveland expected Fukudome to waive his no-trade clause to approve the deal to the Indians.

Details were still being finalized as to which Minor Leaguers were to go to Chicago in the deal.

Vecsey: An Underachieving Symbol of the Mets’ Lost Decade

Why do they always misspell Beltran…Minaya?

As the Beltran era ends, he was not the only one caught up in the miasma of underperformance. Omar Minaya, brought back to run the club after the 2004 season, brought in not only Beltran but Pedro Martinez, Carlos Delgado, Johan Santana and Francisco Rodriguez, all of them now gone except for Santana, who is trying to pitch again after surgery.

The managers were Willie Randolph, who was sabotaged by the front office — not Minaya — and by some ...

Healey: Peter Nash Way Off Base With Barry Halper Smear

Checking Most Viewed | Top Rated on Epic Rap Battles of History now. Back in 5.

The newspaper industry is in enough trouble these days without printing smear jobs written by “journalists” who have a conflict of interest about the very subject they are writing about.  But this past week, the New York Post did just that by publishing this gem by Peter J. Nash about deceased baseball memorabilia collector Barry Halper.

What the New York Post doesn’t tell you is that Nash is involved in a ...

NC Times: Sean Burroughs is back, but not his old habits

Burroughs, now 30, had it all, going from Little League World Series star to hitting .286 as the Padres’ third baseman in 2003. But from that station he morphed into a Las Vegas druggie, addicted to the bright lights and his next buzz. It was a combination that extinguished his baseball career for nearly four years and Burroughs said, “left me on death’s door.

“I wanted to be a rock star in Las Vegas, even though I didn’t play an instrument or sing. I went there for the party and I lived it ...

Grainy 39-second film offers rare glimpse of famed black baseball player John Wesley Donaldson

The first time Pete Gorton met Rich Oxley, Oxley told him not to say a word.

“Just watch,” Oxley said as he turned on a film projector at his house in White Bear Lake.

The grainy 39-second black-and-white film that followed showed a loose and limber fireballer hurling a fastball in 1925.

...Oxley realized he had a key piece of Donaldson’s story in his basement. Those 39 seconds of film - the only known reel ever shot of Donaldson - were carefully preserved in a dark-green metal film ...

Stolen Car Containing Willie McCovey Memorabilia Recovered in California

Please be a stretch limo, please be a stretch limo…bah!

When a man in Walnut Creek, California had his car stolen from the parking lot while he ran into a McDonald’s for coffee, he was obviously having a bad case of the Mondays. The man left his keys in the ignition when he went inside the restaurant. When he returned, his car was gone. However, the stolen Hyundai was not even the worst part for the owner.

In the back seat of the car were several balls and bats from former Giants Hall of ...

Father Raymond J. de Souza: Honouring Roger Maris, baseball’s moral champion

ABANDON THE WAY OF HATRED!

Bonds, McGwire and Sosa put up six seasons between them with more than 61 home runs, the old record held by Maris. Absent the steroid era, Maris would still have the record. If Maris were in the Hall, while the steroid triplets were kept out, it would be fitting way to honour the real home run record — held by a decent man who brought honour to the game.

Yet Roger Maris is not in the Hall of Fame, despite his record, despite being a two-time league MVP, despite ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 7-28-2011

Thomas Busch, “Searching For Victory”:

Sometime in late March or early April, 1911, Charley [Faust] set out for Wichita, Kansas (the nearest “big city”), in search of some diversion from the drudgery of farm routine. There he found a fortune teller who, for five dollars, told him he would become the greatest pitcher the world had ever known if he would join the New York Giants. Three times she told him this, and added that when he had established himself and helped the Giants to win a pennant, ...

Wolfman-Arent: How Roger Goodell Burned Baseball, and Buried the Past

The day I stopped gambling was the day I stopped watching football.

Mark it down, carve it in granite, encase it in flowing eulogies.

On July 25, 2011 the National Football League finally laid baseball to rest. Not only did players and owners agree to a new collective bargaining agreement, but they did so with emphasis - as if to prove one last time that football, not baseball, is now America’s game.

Whether it was a power play or mere coincidence I do not know, but it is clear the timing of ...

Weeks Headed to DL

Weeks injured his left ankle running out an infield hit in the second inning. His foot hit the bag at an odd angle and he tumbled over the base and into foul territory.

Weeks was helped off the field and X-rays proved negative. But a magnetic resonance imaging exam was being performed Wednesday night to check for ligament damage.

“He’s going to be out a while,” said Roenicke, who indicated Weeks would go on the disabled list. “This isn’t going to be a couple days.

...Read More...

Tulo's Fishy Mullet (mrams) Posted: July 28, 2011 at 03:53 AM | 8 comment(s)
  Beats: general

Isaacs: I Take Me Out To The New Ball Park

Doug Siskiyou chipmunks are go! Stan Isaacs finally gets around to visiting Citi Field for the first time…

I was back in New York recently for my first look at the Mets’ new ball park, the second-year Citi Field. My first reaction was that-like all the new ball parks-it seemed as if as many people were at the food stands eating as were in the stands watching the game.

...The Mets hit three balls off the outfield fences against the Phillies for doubles; they would have been home runs in just ...

Seattle PI: Rick Kaminski, ‘The Peanut Man,’ dies at 67

Anyone who has ever been to a Mariners game will remember Rick. With the death of Dave Niehaus last year, and The Peanut Man this year, the two most loved figures associated with the team who never wore the uniform are now gone…

Rick Kaminski, known to generations of Mariners fans as The Peanut Man, working games since the team’s first season in 1977, has died.

Kaminski, 67, was hospitalized this week after a brain aneurysm. His partner, Candi Mindt-Keener, announced Wednesday that he died ...

Angels’ Ervin Santana throws no-hitter against Cleveland Indians

Ervin Santana turned in a performance Wednesday that won’t soon be forgotten, pitching a no-hitter against the Cleveland Indians in a 3-1 Angels win.

Santana was as efficient as he was dominating, needing just 105 pitches—76 of them strikes—to give the Angels their first complete-game no-hitter since Mike Witt’s perfect game at Texas in 1984. And the Indians came close to a hit just once, when Howie Kendrick made a sliding, back-handed stop of Jason Kipnis’ ground ball leading off the sixth ...

Yankees Talking To Several Teams About Robinson Cano: ‘He’s Good And We’re Going To Keep Him’

I guess this is one rumor we can put to bed:

“Brian Cashman called me up this past week and asked what we’d be willing to give up for Robinson Cano, but before I could even answer, he said, ‘Whatever it is, it wouldn’t be enough, because we just love the guy,’” an executive within the Blue Jays organization told reporters.

Good thinking.

Beltran to Giants

@TBrownYahoo Tim Brown
Looks like Beltran is indeed going to SF, according to source. Logistics being worked out.

The newest star of The Franchise!

espn.com: Yankees HOPE Week makes big splash

The Yankees signed autographs, posed for the pictures with the kids, and even engaged in a couple games of ping pong.

But then things really got interesting. After taking a big group photo—including all the Yankees, and all the children—water balloons were distributed to everyone. Now, I had seen the buckets of water balloons earlier, and (naturally?) assumed we were going to play a harmless game of water balloon toss—you know, to see which pair could toss and catch the balloon the longest ...

White Sox trade Jackson, Teahen to Blue Jays; Rasmus Toronto-bound?

CHICAGO—The Chicago White Sox have traded starting pitcher Edwin Jackson and infielder Mark Teahen to the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for reliever Jason Frasor and minor leaguers, which is expected to be the precursor of a deal that would send Cardinals center fielder Colby Rasmus to Toronto.

No word on the prospects.

Is it Rasmus or La Russa in St. Louis?

Soap operas are being taken off network TV, but at least we still have baseball.

By the way he’s portrayed, you’d expect St. Louis center fielder Colby Rasmus to be the guy with the badly dyed goatee and have ominous music every time he appears on screen. That’s at least the way Cardinals manager Tony La Russa (speaking of bad dye jobs) keeps playing it.

The latest barb? Speaking to KSDK-TV in St. Louis, La Russa said Rasmus doesn’t listen to the team’s coaches.

“No, he doesn’t listen to the ...

Kernan: Yankees’ Sabathia looks twice the ‘Cys’

Those who ignore history are bound to repeat Kernan.

Sabathia won his major-league-high 15th game. That is what aces do, and this is why Sabathia has the edge over all other AL starters this year, including the incredible Tigers right-hander Justin Verlander.

You can point to Verlander’s statistical advantages over Sabathia, and the Angels’ Jered Weaver is rolling, but give CC the edge. If Verlander or Weaver outduels CC the last nine weeks, give ‘em the Cy Young, but right now it is ...

Kilgore: The Nationals, in last place and Davey Johnson’s close to a ‘boiling point’

Beat the NL? They can’t even Beat Takeshi!

One month ago today, on an idyllic day in Southern California, Davey Johnson walked into the Washington Nationals dugout and managed his first baseball game in 11 years. He loved every minute, he said afterward, even though they lost. He savored the challenge and could not wait for more.

After the 10-game stretch coming out of the all-star break, some of that verve, at least outwardly, has drained from Johnson. It is hard to love every minute of ...

Baseball kissed by Marilyn Monroe and signed by Joe DiMaggio to be sold at auction

Monkey Business starring Miss Lois L’oreal! (and look for the blonde bombshell in the sequel The Sixty Year Pitch!)

It’s been locked in a box and stored in a closet for the best part of half a century. But this baseball is expected to fetch at least $20,000 when it is sold at auction

This is no ordinary baseball. Not only is it signed by the New York Yankees baseball team – including legend Joe DiMaggio – it also still bears the lipstick of Marilyn Monroe from when the blonde bombshell ...

Schoenfield: We have a new worst call ever

Last night’s Meals on Weals game that will forever leave a mark on Pirate fans…

Did I stay up until 2 a.m. watching the Pirates-Braves game that ended on the most controversial call since Jim Joyce ruined Armando Galarraga’s perfect game?

Yes, I did.

And it was something.

Twitter exploded immediately, with sympathy coming from across the country for America’s team. A Pirates fan who has lived in Italy for 19 years was watching the game and tweeted me in horror. Other Pirates fans called it ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 7-27-2011

Deseret News, July 28, 1987:

The longest winning streak in professional baseball history is history at 29 games.  The Billings Mustangs…outlasted the [Salt Lake Trappers] 7-5 Monday night in Cobb Stadium before 4,219 fans.

...

The Trappers are now a remarkable 32-4 in the Pioneer League.

The Trappers actually had a losing record that year in games not played during the 29-game streak.  Other odd facts about the 1987 Salt Lake Trappers:  They pulled off the streak without the benefit of a Major ...

Sullivan: Brendan Ryan Delivers Heroics In Mariners’ Latest Loss

Remember July 5th?  That is the last time the Mariners won a game.

At some point later in the game, I happened across the following tweet from Joe Posnanski:

You get the feeling the Mariners will remember Loss No. 17 as the “time we got that hit off C.C. Sabathia.”
...
That single felt like a win. Of course that sounds stupid. Of course that sounds humiliating. But the loss was already all but official, and for me it was the first triumphant moment in weeks. It felt better than Miguel Olivo’s ...