Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 8-12-2011

Providence Evening Tribune, August 12, 1911:

Philadelphia, Aug. 12—Because he “knew” Ty Cobb, Raymond Cobb, who was arrested with 39 alleged “hoboes” in a raid along the waterfront, was allowed by Magistrate Carey to go free yesterday.

...

[Raymond Cobb] stated that he hailed from Detroit.  “Are you related to Ty Cobb?” asked Magistrated Carey.

“No, but I know him well,” answered Raymond.

“Discharged,” said the Magistrate.

He’s lucky he didn’t have to face Magistrate Morris. ...Read More...

Yahoo.com: How Jose Bautista Went From Baseball Vagabond To The Game’s Best Slugger

In his free time, Bautista reads books on exceptionality. “I’m trying to understand why mediocre people become good at what they do,” he says, “and why good people become the best.” So he mixes other players’ post-career musings on success with real mental protein. He’s gotten into Malcolm Gladwell. He recently finished “Outliers.”

The Baltimore Orioles selected him as a Rule 5 pick in December 2003 and replaced him in late May with 27-year-old Jose Leon, who had 66 at-bats that year and ...

Brazil: The A’s tipping point

Can’t…get…past…The Stinkiness Factor chapter.

In the year 2000, author Malcolm Gladwell wrote a bestseller titled “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference”.  While the book explores compelling observations of sociological behavior, it’s main emphasis is the phenomena of how epidemics begin.  Specifically, the one tangible which can be retrospectively credited as the beginning of mass change.  In other words, the tipping point.

This is exactly what the Oakland ...

Curt Flood

Here’s a brilliant post, or rather essay, celebrating Curt Flood’s heroism and his legacy.

The author concludes with a rousing endorsement for Flood’s selection to Cooperstown.  All I can say is “Here, Here!!!”

It’s worth the read.

Royals Review: Kyle Davies Has Not Had a Good Week

Kyle Davies’ mugshot is historically awful.

Fired by the Royals and popped with a drunken & disorderly within 24 hours. Not a banner week for now former Royal Kyle Davies.

If the veritable Florida Arrests website is to be believed, Davies was arrested for “disorderly intoxication” at 3 AM on August 9… He was officially released by the Royals the next day.

Two schools of thought on this one: 1) he found out he was going to be released and had himself a night 2) he had himself a night and earned ...

NY Times: The Struggles of [Mariano] Rivera Cast a Pall Over a Win

On a normal day, a late tie-breaking grand slam by Robinson Cano, another big home run from Curtis Granderson and a record-tying save by Mariano Rivera would leave Yankees fans with feelings of joy and satisfaction.

But this was no normal day, and although the Yankees came away with an important 6-5 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday thanks to a critical mistake by the Angels and Cano’s ability to capitalize, Rivera did nothing to allay fears about his recent slump.

Rivera ...

ESPN: Tigers end 13-game losing streak in Cleveland

Justin Verlander gave Detroit exactly what it needed, becoming baseball’s first 17-game winner as the division-leading Tigers avoided being swept by Cleveland and opened a three-game lead in the AL Central with a 4-3 win over the second-place Indians on Thursday night.

Verlander (17-5) allowed three hits and struck out 10 in seven dominant innings to earn career win No. 100 as the Tigers ended a 13-game losing streak in Cleveland. He was also on the mound for Detroit’s previous win at ...

STL Post-Dispatch: Cards land veteran lefty Rhodes

Veteran leftthander Arthur Rhodes, 41, has elected to sign with the Cardinals and will be activated Friday for the opener of the series against Colorado at Busch Stadiuim.

Rhodes’ agent, Dan Horwits, said this afternoon that the lefty had accepted the Cardinals offer. And general manager John Mozeliak a few moments afterward confirmed that Rhodes had been added as a second lefthander in the bullpen, to go with Marc Rzepczynski, recently acquired from Toronto.

“Given our bullpen, I think it ...

LAT - Do not adjust your Internet: Mike Marshall and Tony Phillips fight

(Mike) Marshall, the former Dodgers outfielder now managing the Chico Outlaws of the independent North American Baseball League, was suspended three games for fighting Monday with Tony Phillips.

Yep, that Tony Phillips, the one who played in the major leagues for 18 seasons. And is still playing for the independent Yuma Scorpions—managed by Jose Canseco.

Don’t worry if it feels a tad surreal. It should.

Tech-savvy players use iPads to gain edge over opponents - MLB News | FOX Sports on MSN

Just wait until the iPad goes 3D.

“For me [Matt Diaz], film study makes baseball a lot more fun. There’s another level of intellect involved. That’s one of the beautiful things about this sport. You don’t have to be the world’s greatest athlete to succeed at it. I’ve been doing film study since eighth grade, when my mom would film my swing from the bleachers so I could watch it.”

Paul Lukas: Uni Watch on the Confederate flag

More great work by Lukas here…

Roy White has good reason to remember 1965. He was called up to the Bronx that September, his first cup of coffee in the majors. Over the next 14 seasons, he put together a solid if unspectacular big league career, all of it spent with the Yankees.

White is now 67 years old and runs a charitable foundation. As I prepared to call him, I imagined what it must have been like for a black man to be forced to wear the Confederate flag in the mid-1960s. I figured the ...

S.I.: Will Carroll: Under The Knife

Just wanted to point out this nifty “Boog” Sciambi riff by Carroll…

The Moneyball movie is coming out soon and with a trailer that makes the story seem like a cross between Seabiscuit and Hoosiers, a whole population of people who haven’t read the book, seen the term used and misused for the better part of a decade, and don’t know much about the Oakland A’s during the Billy Beane era will learn.

Unfortunately, they’ll learn the Hollywood-twisted version of advanced baseball statistics, the ...

Melewski: The Orioles are hitting a lot of home runs, but it hasn’t translated to wins

Jumpin’ Jakucki’s! The O’s are next to last in walks…..(pant/pant pass dem temazies!)

But all those homers have not translated into wins. While the Orioles rank fourth in the AL in home runs, they rank last in the AL in wins.

...Hitting homers is not a bad thing. But I do think homers can be overrated. The Orioles are scoring a little more this year, averaging 4.1 runs per game, up from last season’s 3.8 mark.

But I prefer an offense that has variety. It has some players with speed, some ...

Jack O’Connell: Granderson adds to MVP resume

Here’s a few quarters…go make some phone calls.

Chants of “MVP” could not be detected both times Curtis Granderson circled the bases on home runs Wednesday night, but it shouldn’t be long now before the chorus becomes a regular feature at Yankee Stadium.

Granderson surely belongs in the conversation for American League Most Valuable Player. Some media types seem ready to just hand the trophy over to Red Sox first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, who is the favorite at this point, but after ...

ABQ Journal:  Little League’s Antics Spur Uproar

Washington Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg was unimpressed with Caesar Garcia on Tuesday, never mind the Altamont Little Leaguer’s three-run home run Tuesday in a nationally televised Southwest Regional game from Waco, Texas.
Garcia and his father, in turn, are unimpressed with Strasburg.

Twitter “journalism” at its finest, and further proof that not much of newsworthy consequence occurs in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Lauber: Power outage for Adrian Gonzalez

When Adrian Gonzalez agreed to compete in the Home Run Derby, he shrugged off the notion that his swing might be adversely affected. But he has only one homer since the All-Star break.

Coincidence?

“No, I completely buy that,” Red Sox [team stats] hitting coach Dave Magadan said before Gonzalez was 0-for-4 in last night’s 5-2 loss to the Twins. “He’s a guy, when he takes batting practice, he doesn’t hit too many balls to the pull side (right field). To go in there in the Home Run ...

Moment #55: Jim Bouton’s ‘Ball Four’ TV show includes gay ballplayer

That Barton was no fink..as Outsports’ continues its series on the 100 most important moments in gay sports history.

Major League pitcher Jim Bouton had caused quite a stir with his 1970 book, Ball Four. The book chronicled his 1969 season in the Major Leagues and brought to the public eye the rampant womanizing and drug use taking place in Major League Baseball. Bouton was spurned for the book by many in baseball.

In 1976 he co-created and co-wrote a sitcom for CBS with the same name as his ...

Lamberts: Catching up with former Detroit Tiger Steve Kemp

Nothing left to spill, I guess.

When I was looking up information about you on the internet, Wikipedia.com listed you as Steven “Ashtray” Kemp.

“That just goes to show you you can’t believe everything you read on the ‘net. My kids asked me about that once. Maybe some fan was mad at me about something and decided to give me a nickname. But I have no clue. I never smoked, so I have no idea where that came from.”

Have you read Stephen King’s book “Cujo” or are you familiar ...

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 8-11-2011

100-year-old newspaper war!

Youngstown Vindicator, August 10, 1911:

East Liverpool, Aug. 10.—Hugh Tate, first baseman for the Youngstown ball team playing here Wednesday afternoon, had his right wrist shattered by being struck with a fast shoot pitched by Richie of the local team.  Dr. J.L. Pyle…declared the bone in Tate’s wrist had been broken into at least ten pieces.

Not so fast, my friend.

Youngstown Vindicator, August 11, 1911:

The town of East Liverpool must be a wonderful place.  They ...

Slate: Why Are They Using Baseball Bats Instead of Cricket Bats in the U.K. Riots?

It’s the fault of all those baseball hooligans!

Many people in the U.K. seem to associate baseball bats with violence, perhaps on account of the long association between the two in American films (like The Warriors), television shows (like The Sopranos), and video games (like Grand Theft Auto). The idea of baseball-related combat has become so common in England that theater companies regularly call BaseballSoftballUK, the country’s development agency for the two sports, seeking bats for staged ...

Arizona Republic: Arizona Diamondbacks defeat Houston Astros to take NL West lead

And the Diamondbacks, by virtue of their 6-3 win at Chase Field on Wednesday night, really are a first-place team again. Coupled with San Francisco’s 9-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates earlier in the day, the Diamondbacks leapfrogged the Giants, whom they now lead by a half-game in the NL West.

It was a game in which order was restored in the Diamondbacks’ universe. They had been hammered by these Astros on Monday and then needed every ounce of effort - and every inch of closer J.J. Putz’s ...

ESPN: C.J. Wilson rips A’s fans, mound

Rangers pitcher C.J. Wilson made it clear that he won’t have the Oakland A’s on his list of potential free-agent destinations this winter.

The lefty is slated to open a three-game series at Oakland on Friday night, and on Wednesday before the Rangers closed their homestand against the Seattle Mariners with a 4-3 loss, Wilson said he finds little to like about the team or its home on the east side of the Bay.

“I hate pitching there. The mound sucks, the fans suck. There’s no fans there,” ...

MLB.com: Hitting clinic welcomes Ubaldo to Cleveland

On Wednesday night, [Ubaldo] Jimenez made his much-anticipated home debut for the Indians in exactly that scenario. Facing Detroit in an integral game, Jimenez was the beneficiary of a wealth of offense, allowing him to settle in and shut down the Tigers in a 10-3 win at Progressive Field.

The victory shaved the first-place Tigers’ lead over the Tribe (58-56) to just two games in the American League Central.
...
The Indians have now beaten Detroit 13 consecutive times at home… Working with the ...

Yahoo: Wolf, Brewers beat Cards for 13th win in 14 games

Thus far, TLR’s psych-op campaign he unleashed last week in Milwaukee has been about as successful as the Bay of Pigs.

The Milwaukee Brewers showed no sense of satisfaction in the clubhouse, even though they’d just won for the 13th time in 14 games and appeared to be pulling away in the NL Central. Far from it.

After working eight sharp innings in a 5-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday night, Randy Wolf noted it’s still early. The Brewers are 8-3 against the Cardinals, ...

Florida Marlins OF Logan Morrison takes more jabs at DLed Hanley Ramirez

Logan the orator strikes again!

Having missed his eighth consecutive game Wednesday after spraining his left shoulder last week in New York, Ramirez will now sit out at least six more. For the second time this season the Marlins placed him on the disabled list. He is eligible to return for the start of a four-game series at San Diego, but will miss the next two three-game sets at home against the Giants and on the road at Colorado.

Logan Morrison talking about the team’s offensive struggles ...

Castle: Spectacular Santo statue reminds of HOF’s unfinished business

Sort of like those unfinished Omri Amrany clangers in Washington?

The impact of Ron Santo’s statue outside Wrigley Field goes far beyond sculptor Lou Cella’s spectacular three-color depiction of the third baseman, standing on one leg and leaning right, ready to fire the ball cross-body to first in his patented 1960s image.

The statue’s unveiling on a beautiful Wednesday afternoon spoke so much of Santo’s character and reach to the masses, who packed both Addison Street and Sheffield Avenue ...

SEC Charges Former Professional Baseball Player Doug DeCinces and Three Others with Insider Trading

Washington, D.C., Aug. 4, 2011 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged former professional baseball player Doug DeCinces and three others with insider trading ahead of a company buyout. The SEC alleges that DeCinces and his associates made more than $1.7 million in illegal profits when Abbott Park, Ill.-based Abbott Laboratories Inc. announced its plan to purchase Advanced Medical Optics Inc. through a tender offer.

The SEC alleges that DeCinces, who lives in Laguna Beach, ...

Jack Curry: It’s simple: A.J. Burnett needs to sit

But…but…how’s he supposed to catch Tim Wakefield on the active Wild Pitch list?! He’s only 15 behind in 1,267 less innings! NO FAIR!

If the Yankees took Posada’s job away from him, they should be able to take Burnett’s job away from him, too. Even if it’s a temporary move, the Yankees could tell Burnett that he’s being bypassed in the rotation for one turn to work with pitching coach Larry Rothschild to improve. The Yankees can tell Burnett that he’s important to their success, so ...

There’s no cryogenics in baseball! Icy technique seen strengthening wooden bats

Ted Williams/Richard Kuklinski…oh, the choices.

Over the past few decades, companies have shifted how they manufacture bats, resulting in an uptick in the number of splintered wooden bats in professional games. According to a published report, two entrepreneurs are working to fortify wooden bats as they endeavor to reduce the number of breaks that occur during Major League Baseball games.

...Nevertheless, two MLB fans, Jim Cortez and Greg Kendra, have developed a method they affirm can help ...

Royals Release Kyle Davies

Time ran out Wednesday morning on the Royals’ willingness to wait for right-hander Kyle Davies to develop into a reliable starting pitcher.

The Royals requested unconditional release waivers on Davies, 27, in order to clear space on their 40-man roster for the arrival of catcher Salvador Perez from Class AAA Omaha.