For those who missed it due to all of the McGwire hoopla, the Marlins were taken to the woodshed yesterday over pocketing revenue sharing money instead of using it for its intended purpose. The upshot: the Union had the Marlins dead to rights on violating Article XXIV(B)(5)(a)of the Basic Agreement, which commits teams to spending…

Prepare yourself for the best ten minutes you’ll have today. Highlights from (roughly) 1909-1920.  Oh, and ask yourself at the 1:32 mark of the video: how much deader would the Deadball Era have been if they, you know, actually had a pitcher’s mound?

  If you need any more evidence that NBC is destroying its late night lineup by driving off Conan O’Brien, look no further than Monday night’s appearance by David Ortiz on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. (kudos to Dan Lamothe at Red Sox Monster) We all know that celebrities use talk shows to promote things…

Come buy an A-Rod souvenir! This from AP: The ball Alex Rodriguez hit for his 500th home run will be auctioned off online. SCP Auctions said bidding will begin Jan. 20 for the ball recovered by a college student at the old Yankee Stadium when A-Rod hit No. 500 on Aug. 4, 2007. Considering A-Rod…

MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon has a story on the Reds’ efforts to get Aroldis Chapman, dating back to his appearances in the World Baseball Classic.  They scouted him pretty heavily, stayed out of the hot stove reports, had a private workout for him no one reported, made an offer, went back and forth with the Hendricks…

The New York Time’s Richard Sandomir has the backstory on how Mark McGwire’s confession came to be. In blog years this is very old — it came out last night for cryin’ out loud — but it’s definitely worth a read: The one-day plan — coordinated over the past month by Ari Fleischer, a former…

Ramon Castro, who first was a Blue Jay and then wasn’t a Blue Jay is now a White Sox. It’s a one year, $1 million deal. He hit .219/.292/.406 in 171 plate appearances on the season, catching about 400 innings. That means that he is yet another catcher who is demonstrably superior to Jason Kendall, yet…

We know that Scott Boras has complained about teams like the Marlins pocketing revenue sharing money instead of using it on players. We know that John Henry has complained too.  Now, with the release of separate statements from the league, the Marlins and the Players’ Association, that the Marlins are on double secret probation. Her’s…

I’m surprised it took him a day to find a microphone.  Anyway, you’ve been right more than you’ve been wrong about this Jose, so you’re probably entitled to a few minutes of the floor: “I’ve got no problems with a few of the things he’s saying, but again, it’s ironic and strange that Mark McGwire…

FOX’s Jon Paul Morosi reports that Bengie Molina as lowered his asking price and that, as a result, he may be a step closer to joining the Mets. The holdup all along has been years, not money, so it’s unclear whether the Molina is now willing to deal with a single year and an option…

I haven’t voted for him because he wouldn’t come forward and say anything, but now that he did and admitted he cheated, I probably still won’t vote for him. – The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s Tom Haudricourt, approaching the sublime.

I only mention this because, just like the will-Bonds-be-the-next-to-apologize thing, tons of people are asking me if I think Congress will get back into the steroids thing in light of Mark McGwire’s admission. No and no. The first no is based on the legalities involved. The only reason they’d have to haul McGwire back or…

FanHouse’s Ed Price tweets that the Mets have scouted Carlos Delgado a handful of times as he plays in Puerto Rico this winter, and that he’s “not moving well.”  One would think that this would preclude his return as a first baseman. Price suggests that the Blue Jays have scouted him as well. If Price’s…

Yahoo!’s Jeff Passan reports that Aroldis Chapman’s six year contract has an incentive clause in it that could make it a very different deal than it’s currently constructed: If he’s in the Majors by mid-May, it turns into a three-year, $25.25 million deal with three years of arbitration to follow. I can only assume that…

The Cubs are reportedly interested in Ben Sheets who, in turn, is interested in playing for the Cubs. I love it when true love blooms. The problem: Sheets reportedly has been asking for a two-year deal averaging around $10 million to $12 million per year.  The Cubs would be right to balk at such an…

I think the best bit of McGwire spleen I’ve seen so far comes from the New York Post’s Kevin Kernan. Unlike a lot of the cutesy people who are trying to explain why, exactly, McGwire’s apology doesn’t cut the mustard and parsing words and all of that, Kernan just lets fly about the evils of…

Jason at IIATMS has an excellent post exposing just how differently Bud Selig, and by extension Major League Baseball, are treating the Mark McGwire business than they treated the Alex Rodriguez business. My take: Rodriguez and his agent and his contract bug Selig on some primal level, so it’s easy for him to slip into…

Let’s cleanse the palate a bit, shall we? lar from Wezen-Ball is a friggin’ genius. Using his collection of the “Complete Peanuts”, volumes 1 through 12, he went through and counted all of the wins, losses, and other various stats put up (and against) Charlie Brown’s baseball team between 1951 and 1970.  Here’s the introduction. …

In both his statement yesterday and during his interview with Bob Costas last night, McGwire repeatedly said that he took steroids to recover from injuries. When asked if he thought steroids helped him, you know, hit the living crap out of the baseball, he said no. He called them performance “equalizers,” not performance “enhancers,” and…

Hank Aaron on Mark McGwire’s mea culpa: “I think that it’s wonderful that he did this. It takes a big man to admit this and I want to commend him for that. A lot of people make mistakes, and for him to stand up and admit what he has done in the past, I think…