How well do you know the rules of the game?

SportsNation wanted to find out how well they’re known among those in MLB, so:

ESPN’s baseball crew teamed up with a rules expert to create and administer a quiz to current MLB players, managers/coaches and the media. The results were less than impressive.

Here are the ten questions, of which I got a mere five correct (1, 3, 4, 7, 9).

Good luck!

San Jose filed suit against Major League Baseball for refusing to act for four years on the city’s efforts to move the A’s from Oakland to the South Bay. The legal action takes aim both at the Giants’ claim to the area and MLB’s monopoly of the professional sport:

“For years, MLB has unlawfully conspired to control the location and relocation of major league men’s professional baseball clubs under the guise of an ‘antitrust exemption’ applied to the business of baseball,” said the 44-page complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose. The suit, which accuses MLB of a “blatant conspiracy,” is being handled at no cost to the city by the Burlingame law firm of Joseph W. Cotchett, which has handled some of the largest antitrust cases in the nation and represented the NFL in similar litigation.

MLB had no comment on the lawsuit Tuesday.

A’s owner Lew Wolff said he had “no details” about the lawsuit. He said that “nothing’s changed” as far as his team’s quest for a San Jose ballpark but added: “I’m not in favor of legal action or legal threats to solve business issues.” …

The Giants’ territorial rights to the San Jose area originated in the early 1990s. The Giants were considering Santa Clara County for a new stadium to replace frigid, windy Candlestick Park, where they had played since 1960, two years after moving from New York to San Francisco.

Previous A’s owners had allowed the territorial reshuffling to accommodate the Giants’ move south, farther away from Oakland. After two failed attempts to secure voter approval for taxes to build a new South Bay ballpark, the Giants privately financed AT&T Park in San Francisco, the team’s home since 2000.

But the territorial division remained, giving the counties of Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and Monterey to the Giants, Alameda and Contra Costa to the A’s. The two teams disputed the intent of that split in dueling news releases a year ago. The A’s argued it was only “subject to relocating” the Giants to Santa Clara County, which the teams had shared when the A’s came from Kansas City in 1968. The Giants countered that MLB owners including the A’s repeatedly reaffirmed the territorial split, which the Giants relied upon in financing their ballpark.

More here.

Via NFL.com on the recent re-airing of ring-gate: 

You might recall that Kraft in 2005 joined a cadre of businessmen to meet with Russian president Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg. The Patriots owner walked into that meeting with a jewel-laced Super Bowl XXXIX ring on his finger but left empty-handed.

“I showed the president my most recent Super Bowlring,” Kraft said at the time, per The Boston Globe. Putin “was clearly taken with its uniqueness … at that point, I decided to give him the ring as a symbol of the respect and admiration that I have for the Russian people and the leadership of President Putin.”

Not so fast. Kraft now admits Putin nabbed the ring — worth upwards of $25,000 — without his consent.

“I took out the ring and showed it to (Putin),” Kraft said this week, per the New York Post. “And he put it on and he goes, ’I can kill someone with this ring,’ I put my hand out and he put it in his pocket, and three KGB guys got around him and walked out.”

Kraft kept his wits about him and complied with a call from the White House, in which a George W. Bush handler told him: “ ’It would really be in the best interest of U.S.-Soviet relations if you meant to give the ring as a present.’ “

But Putin denies:

Putin’s spokesman rebuts Kraft’s claim, telling CNN that Putin did not steal the ring and instead was given it as a gift. He even called Kraft’s comments “weird.” “I was standing 20 centimeters away from him and Mr. Putin and saw and heard how Mr. Kraft gave this ring as a gift,” the spokesman said Sunday.

Exit question: Has Putin killed anyone with the ring yet?

Here’s the quote that has Mets fans and players angry:

“Kirk Nieuwenhuis, just up from Triple-A, takes Carlos Marmol deep. Nieuwenuis with a three-run, walk-off home run. The Mets with four in the bottom of the ninth to win it, 4-3, and a team fourteen games under .500 celebrates as if it just won the seventh game of the World Series. Another indication of the ongoing decline of western civilization.”

Lighten up, Bob. 

What’s that rather pungent odor coming from the East Bay?

A sewage problem at the Coliseum forced the Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners to use the same locker room after Sunday’s game.

The pipes backed up on the lower levels of the stadium during Oakland’s 10–2 victory, creating a stink and pools of water in the clubhouses used by both teams and the umpires.

The A’s and Mariners moved to a higher floor and cleaned up postgame in the locker room occupied by the Oakland Raiders during NFL games.

Coliseum officials said the six-day homestand, which drew 171,756 fans, overtaxed the plumbing system at the 47-year-old stadium.

Club officials claim that drainage management is an ongoing issue at O.Co.

“There is a blockage somewhere on the clubhouse level,” A’s vice president of stadium operations David Rinetti said. According to Rinetti, the team deals with this issue on a regular basis because of the age of the building, “but never to this extent.”

“Make sure everybody finds out about this sewage thing,” Oakland starter A. J. Griffin told an Associated Press reporter. “We need to get a new stadium.”

More here, here, and here.

Good morning.

Here are several links from the past week that will make your Monday a bit more bearable:

•  Free Miguel Olivo! The twelve-year veteran backstop walked out on his Miami teammates after the organization refused to release him. According to Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald:

Olivo’s playing time dried up after Jeff Mathis returned from the disabled list on May 14, leaving the Marlins with three catchers on the roster. With Mathis and Rob Brantly sharing the catching duties, Olivo had started just once — as a designated hitter — since May 12.

Olivo said he has asked to be released three separate times, but his requests were always refused.

“They say we need you for pinch-hitting,” Olivo said. “I said I’ve never been a pinch-hitter in my life. That’s not my game.”

• River Avenue Blues’ Matt Warden interviews YES announcer and former outfielder Ken Singleton and peppers him with numerous questions, including whether he would have enjoyed playing for the Steinbrenner Yankees, what enabled him to be such a patient hitter, and when he learned to switch-hit. 
• In a piece on the Tigers’ bullpen, Ben Horrow of Beyond the Boxscore distinguishes between the quality of the relievers currently on the club and how they are used in the later innings.
• Horrow’s colleague, Max Weinstein, demonstrates that the Cardinals, who were hitting an astonishingly high .341 with runners in scoring position a few days ago, are likely to see that number regress over time.

• Chirs McShane of Amazin’ Avenue says that the above win-probability chart from yesterday’s ninth-inning, comeback win by the Mets is pretty sweet.
• The Washington Post ’s Barry Svrluga tells us all we need to know about what goes on during batting practice, including:

The game’s starting outfielders spend time at their positions, getting reads on balls off the bat. Relief pitchers and other players who aren’t in the starting lineup are assigned here as well. They chat, jog, strech and stand around while shagging balls from the bater and a coach hitting in short center. They return them to a helmeted bat boy in short center, who periodically refills the pitcher’s basket. On the first day of a road trip, coaches will hit extra flies to the corners so fielders get accustomed to the quirks of the park.

• For those who want to know about “The Economics of Bobbleheads,” “son of ptbarnum” of Athletics Nation has the shaky details.

• Thankfully, Alex Cobb suffered only a minor concussion from this batted ball on Saturday and was released from the hospital yesterday. He was immediately placed on the seven-day concussion list.

That’s it. Have a walk-off week!

What is wrong with people?

An 11-year-old boy’s rendition of the national anthem at Game 3 of the NBA finals brought the usual appreciative applause Tuesday, but outside AT&T Center in San Antonio, his performance brought a darker reaction from some posters on social media — and eventually an online backlash against their racist comments.

Here’s a sampling of some of the unkind tweets that went flying around the Internet about Sebastien De La Cruz:

– “Why they got a Mexican kid singing the national anthem -___-”from Daniel Gilmore.

– “How you singing the national anthem looking like an illegal immigrant” from Andre Lacey, proud father and firefighter from Augusta, Georgia.

– “Why is a foreigner singing the national anthem. I realize that’s San Antonio but that still ain’t Mexico” from Lewie Groh.

– “Who let this illegal alien sing our national anthem?” from Matt Cyrus.

And the list went on and on.

More tweets here. And if past surveys of Americans are any indication, there’s a good chance that anybody that complained doesn’t even know the lyrics to the song.

And here’s the video of him singing it — live. No lip-synching for him. Here’s hoping President Ted Cruz has him at the White House for the inauguration. 

Assuming this report from the Daily Telegraph (Australia) is accurate, here’s more evidence that timing is everything:

US Major League Baseball is coming to Sydney, with the opening series of next season — between the LA Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks — to be played at the Sydney Cricket Ground next March.

In a $13 million coup for the state government, the opening series of the MLB will be held at the SCG on Saturday March 22 and Sunday March 23 — the first time a competitive US baseball fixture will be held in Australia and only the sixth time one has been staged outside America. . . . 

Ironically — or perhaps fortuitously for sports fans who like to see a bit of biff — the Dodgers and Diamondbacks had a huge brawl in their game yesterday, with the entire squads of both teams running across the field to fight each other.

A similar spectacle can’t be predicted next year but the Dodgers and Diamondbacks will be in Sydney for six days, when they will play the two games and open the doors to their training sessions.

Hey, do you know what would increase interest for any skeptical Aussies? Ten-cent drafts of Foster’s. C’mon, what on Earth could go wrong?

More here and here.

Here’s seven-plus minutes of Vin Scully calling last night’s bench-clearing brawl in Dodger Stadium.

I particularly enjoyed this line, uttered at 0:59: “There’s no sense calling off names. They’re all there.”

The Dodgers scored three runs in the eighth inning to win this gladiator festival, 5–3.

The no. 1 pick of the Pirates in 2011, Gerrit Cole, made a triumphant debut this evening, giving up only two runs in six and a third innings against the Giants and opposing pitcher Tim Lincecum.

The 22-year old power pitcher struck out the first batter he faced on three pitches, but interestingly only K’d one other batter in the Bucs’ 8-2 victory.

To be sure, Cole will have to string together a few more starts like tonight’s to be considered a viable contender for Rookie of the Year honors and justify what some shmoe on this blog predicted a few months back.

I realize that, at this point, a post about Tim Tebow is nothing but click bait, but I can’t let the signing of the world’s pre-eminent backup go by unmentioned. Days after refuting reports emanating from Foxborough that he hated Tebow as a player, New England coach Bill Belichick thumbed his nose at conventional wisdom (not to mention fans of the forward pass) by offering a roster spot to a quarterback who completes fewer than half of his throws and rarely found the field for a Jets team that had arguably the league’s worst quarterback play in 2012.

To me, the move is a stroke of genius. Possessor of the league’s best offense, Belichick has nothing to lose by bringing in a player of Tebow’s unique skill set and reuniting him with the coach (Pats offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels) for whom he had some success in Denver. If any team can find a way to use Tebow’s size, power, versatility and determination, it’s the team that was able to wring impressive production from less-than-prototypical skill players like Wes Welker and Danny Woodhead and troubled retreads like Randy Moss. If it doesn’t work, no harm done; just sit back and count the money generated by moving a few warehouses’ worth of Tebow jerseys.

Tebow is still the same guy over whom Jon Gruden once gushed: “He’s the strongest human being who’s ever played the position. Ever. He will kick the living (expletive) out of a defensive lineman. He’ll fight anybody. He is rare. Tebow is the kind of guy who could revolutionize the game. He’s the ‘Wildcat’ who can throw. This guy here is 250 pounds of concrete cyanide.”

If anyone can creatively unleash that “concrete cyanide” on the league, it’s Bill Belichick. And no one is better suited to squelching the accompanying circus. As Belichick himself said today: “We’ve already talked enough about him. We’ll see how it goes.”

— Rob Doster is Senior Editor for Athlon Sports.

Whoa. Talk about a penalty for excessive celebration . . .

TMZ reports:

Chad Johnson was just arrested and placed in handcuffs inside a Florida courtroom … after the judge in his probation violation hearing ordered the ex-NFL star to spend 30 days in jail. 

The move comes after Johnson pissed off the Broward County judge by slapping his male lawyer’s butt during the hearing. 

As we previously reported, Johnson’s attorney was thiiiis close to sealing a deal that would have kept Johnson OUT of jail for violating his probation earlier this year. 

But the butt slap enraged the judge … and she took the deal off the table. 

Now, Johnson’s punishment is much harsher than what was originally proposed — and he has been ordered to spend 30 days in jail. 

His probation was also extended until December 21, 2013 … and he must complete an additional 25 hours of community service along with extra therapy sessions. 

The rest here.

I have no idea if it’s a good move or not, but it certainly gets in the heads of NY Jets’ fans. All it will take is one game-winning TD by Tebow in a Pats-Jets game to start the hang-wringing in New York and New Jersey.

What nonsense.

In case you haven’t seen it yet, do watch Billy Corben’s 30 for 30 documentary titled, “Broke” on pro athletes and their money woes. It’s a great piece of honest journalism, and not the least bit racist. Via Black Sports Online, which disagrees with Stern’s assertion:

In a recent interview with Lee Hawkins of the Wall Street Journal, NBA Commissioner David Stern talked about how rookies coming into the league handle their sudden influx of fame and wealth. To that point, Stern referenced the ESPN’s 30 for 30 “Broke” by Billy Corben, calling it “mildly racist”, presumably because most of the subject’s covered in the documentary about bad financial decisions made by pro athletes are African-American.

So 80% of YOUR league is black, and of the Top 50 highest players in the league only a handful of them are white (of which Kevin Love is the only white American) and you are surprised that a documentary that features your league would have a heavy emphasis on black players?

As if insinuating racism isn’t enough, he attacks the veracity of the Sports Illustrated piece “Broke” was based on. The problem is that the producers of the film were not trying to prove or disprove the SI piece; they were using it as starting point to stimulate a discussion that hopefully changes the culture of spending by pro athletes. (ESPN’s statement on the matter confirms that.)

Despite the fact that many athletes have publicly lauded director Billy Corben’s work as something that should be shown to all athletes entering professional sports, Stern tries to undercut the film’s credibility. Much like WWE’s Vince McMahon tries to humble talent that was imported from other companies by saddling them with horrible gimmicks (think Dusty Rhodes in yellow polka dots), Stern doesn’t give credit to something because it isn’t coming from his office. They have a rookie symposium, and I strongly believe the movie should be on the schedule of events.

By bashing the film’s credibility, David Stern is indirectly telling his incoming athletes that they should not heed the films warning because it predominately focuses on black athletes. He doesn’t want a group of young, mostly black, athletes who are about to come into a lot of money to learn a valuable lesson because its focused on young, mostly black, athletes who came into a lot of money. It’s like Antoine Walker and Allen Iverson don’t exist in Stern’s world.

The other thing that is interesting about Stern’s insinuation is that one of the major focuses in the film, Bernie Kosar, isn’t even black. Heck, it’s pretty safe to assume that telling Kosar’s story was one of the primary reasons the film was even made. (Corben also directed 30 for 30’s “The U” which features a pretty heavy dose of Kosar and they are both University of Miami graduates).

The rest here.

Good morning.

Here are several links from the past week that will make your Monday a bit more bearable:

• The Astros’ fan base has had little to cheer about of late, but Thursday the club used the No. 1 pick in MLB’s 2013 amateur draft to select Stanford University senior Mark Appel. (All of the picks from the first and second rounds may be found here, courtesy of Baseball Nation’s Marc Normadin.) Nick J. Faleris of Baseball Prospectus summarizes the right-hander’s abilities thus:

Appel has always graded out well, but this spring he has dramatically improved his aggression in the zone—a hole in his game that often limited the utility of his stuff in the past.  This spring, the senior standout has taken his game to the next level, dropping one-half of a pitch off of his average pitches-per-batter and working ahead much more consistently.  The results speak for themselves, as Appel has improved his strikeout rate, lowered his walk rate, and decreased his batting average against.  To the extent Appel has run into issues with his stuff on a game-by-game basis, he has reacted admirably, rotating his pitch selection to find the most effective weapon and battling. 

• Meanwhile, David Schoenfield of ESPN’s SweetSpot asks, “Should the draft be abolished or changed?”
• Daniel Nava is coming into his own, notes Paul Swydan of Fangraphs, and the Red Sox deserve credit for being patient with the 30-year-old outfielder.
• High Heat Stats’ David Hruska profiles Alex Cobb and his success, noting that the righthander sports a new “harder, spiked-grip curve,” which he picked up from watching former teammate James Shields.
• When rehashing the Nationals brass’ controversial decision to shut down Stephen Strasburg toward the end of last season, Tom Tango reminds his blog’s readers that they should not confuse process with outcome.
• On a related note, the Washington Post’s Thomas Boswell argues that the Nats possess an “ultra-macho team culture of playing with ‘minor’ injuries,” which is backfiring on the underperforming club.
  
  

• Yasiel Puig continues to amaze. Here he is on Thursday evening clocking a grand slam in only his fourth MLB game.
• In response to Puig’s sparkling debut, Jay Jaffe of Sports Illustrated lists a number of players who made a splash in their maiden appearances, including Jason Jennings of the Rockies on August 23, 2001:

Jennings gets to stand as the lone pitcher on this list because not only did he throw a five-hit shutout against the Mets, he collected three hits in five trips to the plate himself, including an RBI single off Grant Roberts in the seventh and a homer off Donnie Wall in the ninth. That made him the just the ninth pitcher since 1916 to homer in his debut, and the first to do so while spinning a shutout. Jennings actually only pitched seven games and 39 1/3 innings that year, and so retained his rookie eligibility into the following season, when his 16-8 record with a 4.52 ERA and .306/.348/.371 showing with the bat was enough to win NL Rookie of the Year honors.

• According to Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic via NBC’s Hardball Talk, Brandon McCarthy, who was struck in the head with a batted ball last season, suffered a seizure last week. Thankfully, a subsequent CT scan showed no new head trauma.

That’s it. Have a walk-off week!

Matt Birk, you’ve just won the Super Bowl — what are you going to do? Not go to the White House and meet the man who said, “God bless Planned Parenthood,” that’s what:

Retired six-time Pro Bowl center and former Viking Matt Birk skipped the Baltimore Ravens’ visit to the White House on Wednesday for political reasons.

Specifically, the St. Paul native took issue with President Barack Obama’s support of Planned Parenthood.

Birk is a staunch Catholic father of six children who’s against abortion and has taken a strong pro-life stance. Birk has also spoken out in the past in favor of traditional marriage prior to same-sex marriage becoming legal last year in Maryland.

“I wasn’t there,” Birk said in an interview on KFAN-FM. “I would say that I have great respect for the office of the presidency, but about five or six weeks ago, our President made a comment in a speech and he said, ‘God bless Planned Parenthood.’ 

The rest here.

Americans for Tax Reform has come up with a list of the highest-paid athletes after taxes, highlighting some of noteworthy differences between Sports Illustrated’s list.

The SI rankings take into account salary, winnings, bonuses, and endorsements before federal and state taxes kick in, which can ultimately effect how much an athlete makes. For example, because of Texas’s economically friendly rates, Houston Texans quarterback Matt Schaub jumps up 11 spots on ATR’s list to 16th after being 27th on SI’s.

Take a look, it’s pretty interesting.

Blake Baxter of The College Fix chronicles the sports scandals that continue to nag Rutgers:

The latest controversy involves Julie Hermann, who was hired as Athletic Director to replace Tim Pernetti. Pernetti was forced to resign in the fallout of the embarrassing scandal. Recently, allegations were made that Hermann, herself, has a shadowy past that has included actions not unlike the very behavior her predecessor was fired for enabling. Now, there is an outcry for not only her ouster, but also for that of the only person still standing in the original scandal’s aftermath – Rutgers University President Robert Barchi.

Watch last night’s throw from Yasiel Puig that nailed baserunner Chris Denorfia on his way back to first base, thereby sealing a 2-1 victory for the Dodgers. At the plate, Puig, a Cuban defector signed this past offseason, had two hits in his MLB debut.

Writing in Fangraphs before the game, Marc Hulet summed up his thoughts about Puig’s potential impact thusly: “One thing is for certain, it will be an entertaining show.”

Indeed.

Good morning.

Here are several links from the past week that will make your Monday a bit more bearable:

• Watch the Yankee and Red Sox benches react to a thunder clap that’s a bit too close for comfort. Boston won last night’s rain-shortened game, 3–0.
• According to ESPN1500’s (Twin Cities) Brandon Warne, the Twins organization appears to have moved away from the “pitch to contact” philosophy and appear to be embracing power pitchers instead.
• Baseball Nation’s Rob Neyer chronicles the Royals’ hitting-coach follies, which include the surprise hiring of Hall of Famer George Brett.
• Meanwhile, Rany Jazayerli at his Rany on the Royals blog expresses his disgust at the front office:

Dayton Moore doesn’t [have a wonning season since taking over as general manger]. And he’s had seven [years]. And this winter, he traded one of the most significant prospect packages this century in order to jump-start the rebuilding process and win in 2013. And the Royals are 22-29. A year after they went 71-91, two years after they went 70-92, they’re on pace to go . . . 70–92.

 

So I think it’s time we acknowledge the elephant in the room, and stop worrying about who the hitting coach is. Yes, Jack Maloof deserved to get fired – if not for his performance, than for his ridiculous comments to Jeff Flanagan in this column, comments that I said on Twitter ought to end his career, and – shockingly – actually did end his career. (Although in retrospect, given how fast the move was made, I wonder if Maloof already knew he was being let go and decided to go out with a bang.)

• Beyond the Boxscore’s Lance Rinker asks if Eric Wedge was right to blame sabermetrics for Dustin Ackley’s demotion to the minors.
• Rinker’s colleague, Matt Hunter, breaks down Chris Davis’s amazing first two months of the season.
• Matt Meyers of ESPN’s Sweet Spot discusses Stephen Strasburg’s strained right oblique and reminds us that “pitcher injuries are incredibly unpredictable:”

While the Nationals had the best interests of Strasburg and the organization in mind when they shut him down last season, they had no way of knowing if they could prevent an injury. He could end up on the disabled list because of the injury he suffered tonight – and that could cost them a playoff spot.

(Another perfect example of this phenomenon is Orioles prospect Dylan Bundy. The O’s could not have been more careful with him last year, limiting him to outings of fewer than five innings for most of the season. Yet he’s suffered arm soreness this year and has yet to pitch an inning.)

• Joe Pepitone’s 1973 Topps baseball card offers the Hardball Times’ Bruce Markusen an opportunity to recap the Brooklyn native’s career, noting, among other things, that the first player to bring a blow dryer into the clubhouse also donned a hairpiece. 

• May was very kind to Domonic Brown. Above is a .gif showing all twelve of the young slugger’s dingers of the month, courtesy of Crashburn Alley’s Bill Baer.

That’s it. Have a walk-off week!