baseball – Page 18

Mexican Baseball Manager "Held" For Three Nights In Crazy Alleged Extortion Scheme

The manager of a Mexican League baseball team, Francisco “Paquin” Estrada, was reported missing Thursday morning, and then found hours later.

Here's Some Ominous News About David Price

Spring training is just underway, and Red Sox fans have already been given something to panic about. There’s something wrong with David Price, and although we don’t have any specifics yet, it doesn’t sound good:

Red Sox Introduce New "Sleep Room" At Fenway Park For Players To Take Better Naps

With teams looking to exploit every possibility for a competitive advantage, it’s not surprising that one basic indicator of physical performance has been getting some more attention lately: sleep. The Red Sox are one team that’s taken notice, and they’re getting really into it.

Sonny Gray Pulled From World Baseball Classic Over Insurance Issues

Oakland A’s pitcher Sonny Gray has been pulled from next month’s World Baseball Classic due to an oddly specific clause from the tournament’s insurance carrier.

Jake Peavy Had A Truly Terrible 2016

Jake Peavy’s 2016 season ended with a career-worst 5.54 ERA, a 1.43 WHIP, and divorce papers. According to ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick, Peavy’s wife Katie, a childhood friend he married at 19 years old, filed for divorce in October, right after the Giants were eliminated in the NLDS by the Cubs.

Baseball's New Intentional Walk Scheme Is A Pointless, Off-Target Act Of Surrender

Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred, in collaboration with his quisling associates in the players’ union, is apparently ready to do away with the normal and basic baseball act of four balls leading to a walk. He and they have agreed to a scheme by which the intentional walk doesn’t physically occur, but is…

MLB Is Reportedly Introducing An Automatic Intentional Walk

According to a report from ESPN’s Howard Bryant, Major League Baseball and the players’ union have agreed on a plan to scrap current intentional walk rules and allow managers to signal from the dugout and automatically send the batter to first base. The rule, like the proposed change to extra innings where teams would…

Mike Piazza Shits On St. Louis And Major League Soccer At The Same Time, Achieves Glory

Mike Piazza, Hall of Famer and the best-hitting catcher in major-league history, is having a fine time in Italy these days. Much of it has to do with Reggiana, the third-tier soccer club in which he purchased a majority stake last year, and the New York Times’s Andrew Keh wrote a wonderful story about this for…

Youth Baseball Games In Panama Are Rowdier Than Anything In MLB

PANAMA CITY, Panama — Baseball was on. Real, true baseball. A sweltering Friday night, a flashy casino in the heart of Panama City, an enormous projector looming over the slot machines, showing the game. To this American, whose offseason antsiness is fading into the inevitable letdown of spring training, catching a…

Dexter Fowler Isn't Sweating The "Stick To Sports" Crowd

Over the weekend, Cardinals outfielder Dexter Fowler was asked what he thought about Donald Trump’s Muslim travel ban. Fowler has a personal stake in the ban, as his wife is from Iran and his sister in law recently cancelled a return trip from Qatar because she didn’t want to be detained. Given these circumstances,…

The Game That Brought Jim Bouton Back From Exile

This profile originally appeared in the June 12, 1978 issue of New Times. It is reprinted here with the author’s permission.

Yordano Ventura's Toxicology Report Will Not Be Made Public

Three weeks ago, Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reported that the fate of the $20 million left on Yordano Ventura’s contract would depend on whether he was legally drunk when he died in a car crash last month. A clause in the Kansas City Royals pitcher’s contract noted that payment would be invalidated if he died or was…

Blake Swihart Appears To Have A Case Of The Yips

In baseball, there is perhaps no sadder sight than that of an otherwise healthy and capable professional player struggling to do something as simple as throwing the ball a short distance. The yips are the worst boogeyman in sports, and although it’s not clear that Red Sox catcher Blake Swihart is dealing with that…

Mike Ilitch Was No Saint

If you only went by what you read in the Detroit papers this week, you’d think Mike Ilitch—the pizza baron and owner of the Detroit Red Wings and Tigers who died last week at the age of 87—was a god incarnate. And for the last three decades, if you’d asked anyone in Michigan, you’d have gotten the sense he was revered…

Chris Christie Tries Sports Bloviating, Is Bad At That, Too

Chris Christie, a man who lacks charm, wit, or the support of either major political party, went on SNY TV last night to stan for Mets by taking weak-ass shots at the Phillies.

MLB Agent Goes On Trial For His Role In Smuggling Cuban Prospects Into America

The federal trial is underway in Miami for agent Bartolo Hernandez and trainer Julio Estrada, who are accused of participating in smuggling operations that brought Cuban baseball players to America.

Scott Boras Has A Lot Of Ideas On How To Fix The Business Side Of Baseball

Baseball agent Scott Boras was a guest on Jonah Keri’s podcast this week for an hour-and-a-half conversation that managed to be as dense as it was sprawling. Boras talked about the issues with a hypothetical international draft, suggested the idea of giving more money to prospects who aren’t in college, and didn’t…

Prince Fielder's First Project In Retirement Is Launching His Own Cooking Show

It’s now been six months since Prince Fielder tearfully announced that a second spinal fusion surgery meant he would be forced to retire from baseball at the age of 32, and it sounds like the guy is doing just fine. In an interview with Jerry Crasnick of ESPN, Fielder seems to be making peace with the sudden ending of…

We Regret To Inform You That Trevor Bauer Is At It Again

Indians pitcher and drone enthusiast Trevor Bauer maintains a very active Twitter account. He often uses it to mix it up with fans and reporters, and also to express his trash opinions.

Actually, Extra Innings Should Stay Just As They Are

Yesterday we learned that Major League Baseball is testing out a new rule designed to limit extra innings at the World Baseball Classic and in some of the minor leagues. Already in practice in international baseball, this year the Arizona League and the Gulf Coast League will all start innings 10 and beyond and the…

Reports: Disgusting Rich Person Jeffrey Loria Is Close To Selling The Marlins

According to two reports, one from Forbes and one from the Associated Press, Miami Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria is close to selling his team to an unidentified New York businessman, perhaps for as much as $1.6 fucking billion.

Goodbye To Javier López, The Giants' Unsung Badass

The San Francisco Giants won three World Series between 2010 and 2014, and each was nerve-wracking in its own way. In 2010 they qualified for the postseason on the final day, and had an inordinate amount of playoff games decided by a single run; in 2012 they went down 0-2 in the NLDS and 1-3 in the NLCS before winning…

Here Are The World Baseball Classic Rosters

A snowstorm is blanketing the Northeast, but baseball is oh so close. Pitchers and catchers start reporting next Tuesday, and this is a special spring: It’s almost time for the quadrennial World Baseball Classic.

Report: MLB To Experiment With Starting Extra Innings With A Runner On Second

Baseball is a wonderful sport where opposing teams club small white orbs to death and run around in their pajamas, and the only problem with it is that games are interminable. As you may recall, the seventh inning of Game 5 of the 2016 NLDS took approximately an hour and the entire game lasted close to five. Too long!…

Andrew McCutchen Makes The Inevitable Move To Right Field Like A Champ

Andrew McCutchen will start another year in Pirates uniform, it turns out—but it won’t be in center field.

Apropos Of Nothing, Here's Chris Sale In A Red Sox Outfit

Courtesy of the Boston Globe’s Pete Abraham, on Twitter:

There's Another Cespedes And He's Got A Great Arm, Too

When the world first got a look at Yoenis Cespedes in his insane showcase video in 2011, Kevin Goldstein—then of Baseball Prospectus and now Director of Pro Scouting for the Astros—declared him “arguably the best all-around player to come out of Cuba in a generation.” Now, a second Cespedes will try to reach that hype.

Shohei Otani Won't Pitch In The WBC, But He Might Get A Chance To Smash Dingers

Unfortunately for Team Japan, who have won two of the first three World Baseball Classics, Shohei Otani won’t be able to pitch in this year’s tournament due to a sore right ankle. He was scheduled to start the team’s first game on March 7 against Cuba but recently told reporters in Arizona, where the Hokkaido…

The Cardinals' Hacking Scandal Stands Alone In The History Of Cheating In Baseball

The St. Louis Cardinals scandal—in which then-scouting director Chris Correa used a former colleague’s password to access the Houston Astros’ player database over 50 times in 16 months—is unprecedented in baseball history. This must have made Commissioner Rob Manfred’s decision on how to punish the Cardinals all the…

Sean Rodriguez's Family Hospitalized After A Deadly Crash With A Stolen Police Car

Atlanta Braves infielder Sean Rodriguez and his family were in a serious car crash involving a stolen police cruiser around 1:45 pm on Saturday in Miami.