Remember this morning’s post about Milton Bradley getting benched, getting mad and not hanging around for the media after that?  Yeah, seems he didn’t even hang around for the end of the game. According to Mike Salk of ESPN 710 in Seattle, he Bradley left the team and the ballpark mid-game: The Mariners appear to…

Ex-ballplayers Rondell White, Cliff Floyd, Gregg Jeffries and Todd Hundley — and current ballplayers David Wright and Jason Marquis — were allegedly defrauded in a real estate scam.  So says the complaint White and Floyd have filed in federal court anyway: The lawsuit claims that [Defendant Stephen] Hill, who had served as White and Floyd’s…

“This idea we’re trying to discourage people from coming is a bunch of crap. Every Wednesday, we have almost 9,000 $2 tickets. … It should be embarrassing to all of us that we can’t draw people at $2.” – Lew Wolff, bristling at the suggestion that he and the Athletics have tried to sabotage the…

After eight consecutive scoreless appearances Fernando Nieve finally gave up a run last night. Two of them, in fact, blowing a two-run lead in the eighth inning by serving up back-to-back homers to Joey Votto and Scott Rolen. New York went on to win anyway, but Nieve’s incredibly heavy workload figures to catch up with…

Um, yeah.  Whoever was responsible for the spelling on the cake at the U.S. Senate party honoring the Braves’ skipper on Monday either needs to (a) hire a proofreader; or (b) fire the 13 year-old boy they currently have in the position. Not that I didn’t laugh way more than a 36 year-old father of…

This press release is . . . interesting: YES Network, FSN Northwest and DIRECTV will present the first-ever Major League Baseball telecasts in 3D on Saturday, July 10 and Sunday, July 11 when the New York Yankees take on the Seattle Mariners.  DIRECTV and Panasonic will be presenting sponsors of the two 3D telecasts. The…

And may have cost the Reds the game. Phillips had already hit a homer off John Maine last night. In the third inning he hit another blast. Only problems: (a) it didn’t go out of the park; and (b) Phillips admired his handiwork with a casual trot out of the batter’s box and wound up…

Livan Hernandez threw 123 pitches against the Braves last night and after the game a reporter asked Jim Riggleman if he was concerned about it. Which is rather shocking to me, because it’s Livan Hernandez we’re talking about here. The 35 year-old (at least) Livan Hernandez. The Livan Hernandez who has averaged close to 200…

The reigning MVP has an MRI on his BLH (bruised left heel) and the news is positive: it’s a soft tissue bruise as opposed to a bone bruise. Doctors and people like that who know about such things tell La Velle Neal of the Strib that the soft tissue stuff is far preferable due to…

We could probably just use Ozzie Guillen for a quote of the day every day, but we try to be fair to the other competitors.  Personally, I prefer fun Ozzie Guillen quotes that are accompanied by some surprising insight. For example, when asked about his future as the manager of the struggling White Sox, and…

After hitting .215 with a lowly .561 OPS through 22 games, Yunel Escobar was placed on the disabled list Tuesday because of a strained groin. Atlanta called up 24-year-old prospect Brandon Hicks from Triple-A to take his roster spot, but he’s little more than a utility man after putting up terrible numbers in the minors,…

Milton Bradley returned to the cleanup spot last night after a few weeks either hurt or batting elsewhere. He went 0 for 3, and struck out looking twice.  After the second one, Don Wakamatsu lifted him from the game. Whether Bradley’s benching was to save him from himself — Bradley, you may be shocked to…

In case you missed it last night, here’s my remembrance of the great Ernie Harwell. Here’s a more thorough obit in the Detroit Free Press.

Cole Hamels nearly gave the Phillies’ bullpen a night off Tuesday, out-dueling Adam Wainwright while taking a shutout into the ninth inning of a 1-0 game. Back-to-back doubles tied the game, at which point Charlie Manuel brought in Brad Lidge to get out of the jam … and he actually did. Lidge got three outs…

As I mentioned last night, another guy jumped onto the field in Philadelphia. This guy was quite a piece of work.  First, check out his Twitter page right before it happened: “turn on the phillies game, im about to be on the feild!!!!!!!!!!” You know what that means: his charge just went from second degree…

Already platooning with Mike Lowell because he can’t hit lefties, Big Papi is now seemingly unable to hit righties too.  His line last night was ugly:  0-for-4, with two strikeouts and two double plays. As I mentioned in this morning’s recaps, the second double play came with the game tied 1-1, the based juiced and…

Twins 4, Tigers 3: Nick Blackburn gave up 11 hits in a complete game. This had me thinking about the concept of “scattering” hits last night. I mean, I wanted to say that Blackburn scattered 11 hits over nine innings, but 11 seemed like too many. I was thinking that scattering applies to eight hits…

For the second day in a row a fan has run onto the field in Philadelphia. This time it was in the ninth inning of the just-completed Phillies-Cardinals game.  The man hopped the outfield wall, ran on the warning track and was apprehended without incident. And without tasers, I feel obligated to add.  Which is…

Jon Heyman of SI.com provides an interesting wrinkle on the Bryce Harper-Nationals connection, as the club is working to sign College of Southern Nevada coach Tim Chambers as an “associate scout.” Nationals assistant general manager Roy Clark insists that the potential hiring is unrelated to Harper, pointing out that he previously employed Chambers when he…

I knew this day was coming since September. It actually came later than I thought it would, based on all we heard about his diagnosis. But neither its inevitability nor its delay softens my sorrow. Ernie Harwell has died at the age of 92.  I wrote this back in September, but it bears repeating: I…