With all due respect to Jhonny Peralta and his walk-off dinger off Andrew Bailey last night, this is how all games should end:

The Fangraphs boxscore from yesterday afternoon’s exciting A’s–Rangers affair may be found here.

Via USA Today: Court clerk: No arrest warrant issued for Aaron Hernandez.

Or anybody else yet for that matter.

Updates to follow.

Back-to-back NBA champions! Full coverage here from today’s Miami Herald.

I guess turning over his smashed cell phone and home-security system were a red-flag of sorts to the police: 

New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez is now the subject of an arrest warrant drawn up on obstruction of justice charges based on the possible destruction of evidence in connection with the shooting death of his friend, ABC News has learned.

Police sources told ABC News on Thursday that a major investigative tool – the security system at Hernandez’s home, which included video – had been intentionally destroyed. His cell phone was handed over to police “in pieces,” and appeared to have been smashed.

Police also want to know why a team of house cleaners were hired on Monday to scrub Hernandez’s mansion, the sources said.

Evidence is mounting that Hernandez and the victim, Odin Lloyd, 27, a semi-pro football player, had been together at several nightclubs during the course of the weekend, including the night before Lloyd’s body was found, several law enforcement sources told ABC News.

You know, Tim Tebow might make a pretty good tight end. . .

Amazing: A goalkeeper in a Bosnian amateur soccer league played the whole game with a bullet in his head. He had no idea he had been accidentally hit by a stray bullet from someone dangerously celebrating a wedding.

Apparently, the price for tonight’s Game 7 between the Spurs and Heat in Miami is pretty steep on one ticket-exchange website:

Yikes! I wanted to know if there was a less expensive way to gain entry to the arena:

(Crosses fingers.)

From Serena Williams’s website:

 ”What happened in Steubenville was a real shock for me. I was deeply saddened. For someone to be raped, and at only sixteen, is such a horrible tragedy! For both families involved — that of the rape victim and of the accused. I am currently reaching out to the girl’s family to let her know that I am deeply sorry for what was written in the Rolling Stone article. What was written — what I supposedly said — is insensitive and hurtful, and I by no means would say or insinuate that she was at all to blame.

“I have fought all of my career for women’s equality, women’s equal rights, respect in their fields — anything I could do to support women I have done. My prayers and support always goes out to the rape victim. In this case, most especially, to an innocent sixteen year old child.”

Why is it a “tragedy” for those found guilty of rape?  

And I’m glad she’s reaching out to the girl’s family for what she “supposedly said.”

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!

On the side of the rapists. Via an interview she gave to Rolling Stone:

We watch the news for a while, and the infamous Steubenville rape case flashes on the TV – two high school football players raped a drunk 16-year-old, while other students watched and texted details of the crime. Serena just shakes her head. “Do you think it was fair, what they got? They did something stupid, but I don’t know. I’m not blaming the girl, but if you’re a 16-year-old and you’re drunk like that, your parents should teach you: Don’t take drinks from other people. She’s 16, why was she that drunk where she doesn’t remember? It could have been much worse. She’s lucky. Obviously, I don’t know, maybe she wasn’t a virgin, but she shouldn’t have put herself in that position, unless they slipped her something, then that’s different.”

They “did something stupid?” 

No. Filming yourself trying to skateboard down stairs is “stupid.” Filming yourself sexually-assaulting a drunk girl is a crime. Serena should be ashamed of herself.

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.