So I’m hitting the road and heading up to Cleveland to take in the Indians-Tigers game tonight. But it’s not just any ballgame for me. I’ve been invited by the Indians to sit in the “Tribe Social Deck.”  Basically: blogger press box in the left field bleachers with WiFi and all of that stuff. Can’t…

Nutrisystem dropped Lawrence Taylor as a spokesperson following yesterday’s rape charge and today they replaced him on the website with … Matt Stairs. After being short and stocky for the first 17 seasons of his career, Stairs dropped 30 pounds during the offseason and claimed a spot on the Padres’ bench at age 42. And…

An announcement of two new initiatives from Sandy Alderson’s Office of Major League Baseball in the Dominican Republic: First, in cooperation with independent trainers, MLB has launched workshops that will educate unsigned young players about the dangers of performance-enhancing substances. Second, beginning today, MLB will institute a comprehensive registration and drug testing program for unsigned…

Kerry Wood had an ugly first rehab appearance at Double-A, allowing six runs while recording just two outs Monday, but bounced back with a scoreless inning Wednesday to apparently convince the Indians he’s ready to return. Wood has been sidelined since straining his back in the middle of spring training, but the Indians activated him…

The Wall Street Journal hired a public opinion polling firm to conduct a survey of New Yorkers in an effort to figure out the differences between Mets fans and Yankees fans. Among the results: Sixty percent of the survey’s baseball fans were Yankees fans, 33% were Mets fans. They break down how you’d expect geographically,…

Stephen Strasburg will make his Triple-A debut tonight and after averaging about 2,500 fans per game the Syracuse Chiefs have already sold out their 11,071-seat ballpark with hopes of additional walk-up sales making it the largest crowd in the venue’s 14-year history. Chiefs general manager John Simone told MLB.com that the Nationals haven’t informed him…

For as much as we all love baseball, we sometimes take it for granted, overlooking its beauties and its wonders. I received an email just after midnight that reminded me why I love this game so much, and I feel obligated to share it with you.  It’s long, but I encourage you to read it…

As Craig noted in his morning roundup, last night Andre Ethier hit a game-winning grand slam against the Brewers for his 11th walk-off hit since 2008. Thanks to Baseball-Reference.com’s amazing Play Index, here’s the walk-off leaderboard during that time: Andre Ethier 11 Kurt Suzuki 5 Miguel Tejada 5 Alfonso Soriano 4 Jorge Cantu 4 Jose…

Ken Rosenthal thinks so: The GM is arguably the most important person in any organization — more important, perhaps, than even a superstar player. But baseball’s dirty little secret is that the sport’s highest-ranking executives are absurdly underpaid. Most general managers earn between $500,000 and $2 million annually, major league sources say. Only a few…

Milton Bradley must sit out five games after the Mariners placed him on the restricted list yesterday, but Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times writes that “he’ll be gone at least a week and likely longer.” According to Baker, the perpetually disgruntled outfielder “will remain in Seattle and work out on his own, but won’t…

Starlin Castro is the Cubs’ number one prospect and, according to Keith Law, who has seen him play, is one of the most exciting prospects in all of baseball. He has an electric bat with decent pop for a middle infielder, good range at shortstop and an arm Cubs’ fans haven’t seen since Shawon Dunston.…

It took me a minute to realize that this video of a 1979 Wiffleball game was nothing but a stunning recreation.  Kudos to filmmakers Perry Jenkins and Travis Kurtz for getting all of the details of the so very, very wrong fashions of the late 70s so very, very right.  And I’m pretty sure that…

No word yet as to whether the inflammation in Andy Pettitte’s pitching elbow is going to cause him to miss a start, but if Brian Cashman has anything to say about it he will: “We’ll gather all the troops tomorrow [meaning today] and we’ll make a decision on his next start. I’m inclined personally to…

Indians games appear on SportsTime Ohio, and after most games a fellow by the name of Bruce Drennan comes on with a show called “All Bets are Off.” It’s basically talk radio on television, but since this is the Midwest it’s fairly tame as far as those things go. But sometimes Drennan goes a little…

That’s what Matthew Futterman at the Wall Street Journal suggests after noting just how imbalanced the American and National Leagues have become: The American League is clearly the stronger of the two, based on interleague records and the differences in performance of players who jump from one league to the other. Since interleague play began…

Bob Raissman of the Daily News observes that, based on the fact that FOX is giving an unusually-large portion of the nation the Yankees-Sox game tomorrow and based on the fact that the schedule makers have put so many Yankees-Sox games late in the season, baseball was banking on those two titans to slug it…

Scott Olsen had his no hitter broken up with one out in the top of the eighth inning against the Braves.  If he had actually no-hit Atlanta, it would have been the second time on the young season that it happened (See, Jimenez, Ubaldo). That wouldn’t have been good. Indeed, after the game, Chipper Jones said…

Can’t say I’ve ever seen this one before. In the fourth inning of last night’s Pirates-Cubs game, Lastings Milledge launched a ball towards left field.  The fireworks fired! The music played! Lastings began to circle the bases and . . . got tagged out between second and third.  Wha? Seems that the ball merely bounced…

Dodgers 7, Brewers 3:  Walkoff slam for Andre Ethier! Jonathan Broxton had blown a two-run lead in the top of the ninth, but Either untied it with authority to end it. It was Ethier’s second game-ending hit of the season and 11th since the start of 2008. Video here. Rangers 13, Royals 12: Texas jumped…

Astros outfielder Carlos Lee told Brian McTaggart of MLB.com Thursday that he might retire after the 2012 season, when his current contract runs out. “I don’t know if I’m going to play after this contract is up. I’m ready to go home,” said Lee.  “We spend so much time away from our family.  I can’t…