A crazy catcher, a slap-hitting infield, and a deep pitching staff on today's Birthday Team.

And Mike Crudale.

C: Darren Daulton
1B: Gus Suhr
2B: Luis Sojo
3B: Bill Cissell
SS: Luis Rivera
LF: Ed Sauer
CF: Frenchy Bordagaray
RF: Buzz Arlett

SP: A.J. Burnett
SP: Sid Hudson
SP: Cliff Melton
SP: Bart Johnson
SP: Kirby White
RP: Gary Lavelle

Owner: Eddie Einhorn
Manager: Jimmy Williams
Umpire: Larry Barnett
Not that one: John Dowd
Blogger: Aaron Gleeman
And: Mike Crudale

Here's the latest from Dutch:

Darren Daulton Enterprises (DDE) is delighted to announce a business partnership with www.NIMAOL.com. The partnership is part of a plan to become the fastest growing website in modern history.

As opposed to the growth records set by Howtobuildawheel.com back in the earliest days of the internet.

New article up at THT: 10 who did the most to help their Cooperstown case in 2012. Man, there's got to be a more concise way of titling that. Anyhow, it's a top ten list with 12 people on it - only nine of whom are players.

Today also marks the 40th anniversary of Steinbrenner buying the Yankees.

The top of the Birthday League Standings:

January 5            17   7  .708 ----
January 23           15   8  .652  1.5 
January 12           14   8  .636  2.0 
January 7            13   9  .591  3.0

News and notes:
* January 28 catcher Dick Lowe has a hit in all 20 games in which he's appeared. This is frustrating, as Lowe was 1-for-3 in a one game MLB career. He's the only catcher they have, though, so he'll end up playing every day. A limitation of the format, I guess.

* George Selkirk (January 4) is 19 for his last 38.

* Otis Nixon (January 9) has 21 steals in 23 games.

* Brady Anderson (January 18) leads the league with 14.2 RC/27.

* Brandon "The Vulture" Medders (January 26) leads the league with 5 wins despite having no starts, 12 relief appearances, and a 7.53 ERA.

Stats, standings, box scores, and leaders here.

I would have thought Laporte had seen enough fowls.

Darren Daulton Enterprises (DDE) is delighted to announce a business partnership with www.NIMAOL.com. The partnership is part of a plan to become the fastest growing website in modern history.

Wasn't the world supposed to end already according to him?

In the wake of the Miguel Tejada signing, I was trying to think of guys that retired/went unsigned a whole year late in their career after age 38 or so and then came back.

Here are some examples. Is that all of them? Tony Fernandez is one omission.

Sosa took his age 37 season off.

Fernando Tatis wasn't as old, but had two different gaps in his playing record (I don't know if he was playing anywhere during these hiati).

Tejada hasn't exactly been out for a year. He had 151 PA for the Orioles' Triple-A team last season before being dumped.

Out of MLB for a year. I'll accept players that were in the minors, but out of MLB for a full season.

MLB Network's Clubhouse Confidential show tweets:

Special guest @billjamesonline talks #HOF voting w/Brian Kenny and baseball strategy w/Larry Bowa on @CHConfidential today at 5:30&7:30pE.

nimaol.com is a securities lawsuit waiting to happen. I highly recommend the "About Us" page.