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!

AP:

The president of Ohio State University said Notre Dame was never invited to join the Big Ten because the university’s priests are not good partners, joking that “those damn Catholics” can’t be trusted, according to a recording of a meeting he attended late last year.

At the December meeting of the school’s Athletic Council, Gordon Gee also took shots at schools in the Southeastern Conference and the University of Louisville, according to the recording, obtained by The Associated Press under a public records request.

The university called the statements inappropriate and said Gee is undergoing a “remediation plan” because of the remarks.

Gee apologized in a statement released to the AP.

“The comments I made were just plain wrong, and in no way do they reflect what the university stands for,” he said. “They were a poor attempt at humor and entirely inappropriate.”

Gee, who has taken heat previously for uncouth remarks, told members of the council that he negotiated with Notre Dame officials during his first term at Ohio State, which began more than two decades ago.

“The fathers are holy on Sunday, and they’re holy hell on the rest of the week,” Gee said to laughter at the Dec. 5 meeting attended by Athletic Director Gene Smith and several other athletic department members, along with professors and students.

“You just can’t trust those damn Catholics on a Thursday or a Friday, and so, literally, I can say that,” said Gee, a Mormon.

The rest here.

What’s his remediation plan? To learn better jokes?

Better luck next year. But until then, ”U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!”

Via the Independent:

An American daredevil has defied health and safety warnings to win the annual Cheese Rolling competition.

Kenny Rackers, 27, travelled more than 4,000 miles from Colorado Springs to a steep hill in Gloucestershire to take part in the world-famous event. The estate agent, who wore a US stars and stripes morph suit, had travelled to the UK to compete in the race having seen previous events on the television.

“I came over specially for this and I did what I had to do to win,” he said afterwards. “It feels great, I trained a long time for this and got hurt on the hill practising. I came three days early and I took a bad spill, but I came to win and that’s what I did. I came 3,000 or 4,000 miles just for this race. I put it on my bucket list and today it was to win and that’s what I did.”

You read that? Nothing stops an American athlete in pursuit of glory:

Jimmy Davies, manager of Liverpool County Premier League side, Waterloo Dock, will step down after 50 years in the position. As manager of the amateur team, he even washed the team’s uniforms. He won’t sit back, though, saying he’ll return to watch his team and “haunt them like a spectre from the touchline.”

Sir Alex Ferguson, who recently retired after almost 27 years as manager of Manchester United, has nothing on him (in terms of longevity, at any rate).

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

There’s a point Ervin Mears Jr. wants people to understand, and it’s the reason he filed a federal lawsuit when his son was ousted from the high school track team:

“Children have rights,” Mears, 68, said, “just like any adult.”

In this case, he said, it’s the right to run.

On May 6, Mawusimensah Mears, a sophomore at Sterling Regional High School in Camden County, was kicked off the team, the suit says.

Eleven days later, his father sued in Camden, naming the coach, athletic director, principal, superintendent, and school board.

The suit says his son was subjected to bullying and harassment. It seeks $40 million plus 2012 and 2013 varsity letters and championship jackets.

The jackets are a nice touch, because if you win $40 million, why not get the jackets for free? Oh, there’s more:

He ran track in high school and the military and said his son “comes from a family of track winners.” The boy was the “undefeated champ” in the 200-, 400-, and 800-meter runs as an eighth grader at a Catholic school in 2010, the suit says.

Eighth grade superstar! And the dad is worried his son is going to lose out on a college scholarship. . .

It’s unfair, Mears said, that his son wasn’t allowed to compete, even though he may have been faster than some seniors who raced. “If he doesn’t qualify, then the clock will say he’s not fast enough,” said Mears, who worries his son may be losing out on the possibility of a college athletic scholarship.

A scholarship? Um, maybe somebody needs to tell this father that scholarship money for ‘Track and Field’ is a fraction of what football players or basketball players get. But the father isn’t done:

“Participation in extracurricular activities is a right,” Mears said.

Not allowing his son to participate constitutes bullying, harassment, and an “abusive school environment” in which the sophomore’s rights to due process and freedom of speech were impeded, the suit says.

Running sprints is now a First Amendment issue? The whole, sad piece here. 

Good morning.

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

• Once upon a time, Jim Johnson could do no wrong when he took the mound in a save situation. Recently, Johnson has been plain awful. Bill Chuck of Baseball Analytics wrote last Tuesday that Johnson’s lack of control is the primary reason for his recent spate of poor performances. (He blew another save opportunity on Sunday.)
• Cole Hamels is undoubtedly the recipient of anemic run support but Crashburn Alley’s Bill Baer notes that the southpaw is having a subpar year regardless.
• The staff of Baseball Nation ask, “What is the worst conversation in baseball?” Here’s Grant Brisbee’s No. 1 peeve:

The DH debate is stale. I don’t think anyone will debate that. Yet for some reason, whenever a DH/no-DH argument comes up on the Internet, it becomes a holy war.

Here’s what the debate boils down to:

If your grandfather took a job in the St. Louis area in 1932, moving his whole family across the country: You don’t like the DH.

If your grandfather moved to Dallas in 1932 because he could crash on Cousin Ralphie’s floor for a while: You like the DH.

That is, you’re probably a fan of an American League or National League team because of events out of your control. Where you were born. Where you grew up. Who your parents rooted for. And because of that, you’re going to like or dislike the DH, and no one will ever, ever, ever, ever change your mind.

But by all means, argue about it on the Internet. You’ll convince people to change their minds, I’m sure.”

• Astros skipper Bo Porter informed Brian T. Smith of the Houston Chronicle that batting average is the “most overrated statistic in baseball.”
• Jonah Keri of Grantland profiles David Ortiz, who entered Monday evening’s game with an uber-impressive .433 weighted on-base average in 142 plate appearances. Keri notes, among other things, that Big Papi, at 37, is having incredible success against fastballs at or above 93 miles per hour.
• Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci covers the “10 early-season trends to watch,” which is headlined by the paucity of offensive production in the bigs:

When you go to a baseball game today you will see fewer hits on average than at any time since 1972 — and yet the game is taking more than 20 minutes longer to play. That’s more than 20 minutes of added dead time without the ball put in play.

• Utilizing wOBA differential, Dave Cameron of Fangraphs argues that the 2013 Cubs are considerably better than their won–loss record (20–30) indicates.
• According to ESPN Sweet Spot’s Mark Simon, the Diamondbacks have the best defensive team on the diamond, leading the majors in defensive runs saved.

• First-base umpire Jeff Nelson said that, in all of his years of umpiring, he had never seen anything like the above play in a game between the Rangers and Mariners game . In acknowledging the blown call, Nelson explained how he missed the pitcher jumping in front to take the throw: “When you umpire that play, your focus goes to the bag, and you watch the foot touch the bag and listen for the ball hitting the mitt.”

That’s it. Have a walk-off week!

Are hot streaks only random statistical variations? On Twitter last Sunday evening, Keith Law of ESPN and Brandon McCarthy of the Diamondbacks debated the “locked in” issue, which was well documented here.

Subsequently, Tom Tango, an analytics adviser for the Cubs and co-author of The Book, engaged former Astros third baseman Morgan Ensberg on his Tangotiger blog, and an interesting exchange ensued. Here’s an extended excerpt:

From Apr 15 to Apr 23, 2006, you hit 8 HR in 8 games, on 37 plate appearances. Your BA/OBP/SLG was: .452/.541/1.290

From Apr 24 to May 3, 2006, you hit 0 HR in 8 games, on 37 plate appearances. Your BA/OBP/SLG was: .129/.270/.226

I’d love for you to post this. I can (and have) been talking about this for years, but we need a Nixon-goes-to-China person to make the non-believers believe.

Tom
 

I think we may be thinking the same thing, just at different times.

If the question is, “Does the 4th ab of a guy who “appears” to be Locked-In have a higher chance of getting a hit”?. . . . then it is up to historical chance. However, the problem is that you are looking at a single outcome, a hit.

The guy may have lost the feeling on the last before his last ab.

Am I confused with the question?

Morgan
 

We are looking at all outcomes (walks, singles, doubles, HR, etc). And THOSE outcomes match their seasonal record.

By the time he comes up the 4th time, then what he was feeling in the two hours prior to that is now IRRELEVANT. It was completely transient. There was no carryover effect.

This is the point we’re trying to make. You may FEEL locked-in (and you somehow only acknowledge this feeling only after-the-fact). But that doesn’t mean it’ll carry over.

Even if I grant that your feeling (acknowledged after-the-fact, and may have existed in real-time as it happened), that feeling is now gone. It’s fleeting.

To put it plainly, if you have Ryan Braun with 3 HR in 3 PA and you have Miguel Cabrera with 3 SO in 3 PA, then what we will expect to happen on the 4th PA is EXACTLY what their historical record would suggest: equal greatness. We do not expect Braun to suddenly be like Barry Bonds, and we do not expect Cabrera to now be John MacDonald.

And your example of yourself is perfect: you were locked-in for 8 games, but you only acknowledge this after the event occurs. And even if you felt the same way on game #9, outcomes didn’t follow you. And it didn’t follow you for the next 8 games.  And that’s because these feelings are so transient that it becomes irrelevant in terms of it being actionable.

Tom

Yes. I agree. But I think everyone would agree with that. 

Morgan

I think I have to be clearer in my belief. Locked-in is being in the zone. It is real. But unpredictable in future events.

Morgan
 

More here, including a lively back-and-forth in the comments section.

The Thunder dispatched the Rockets in the first round of the NBA postseason earlier this month with not all that much drama, but journalist Hillel Kuttler discovered something significant when Houston point guard Jeremy Lin stepped onto the court for the opening-game tipoff. Writing in the New York Times, Kuttler notes that Lin, the phenom-out-of-nowhere story when his play in February 2012 sparked a late-season Knicks resurgence, was the first Harvard graduate to participate in a playoff game in 65 years.

Meet the late Saul Mariaschin, who wore No. 4 as a member of the Celtics:

A 5-foot-11 point guard, Mariaschin (pronounced mah-ree-ASH-in) ensured that his reputation was made on the court, if not on the loudspeakers. He led Harvard to a 19-1 regular-season record and an appearance in the 1946 N.C.A.A. tournament at Madison Square Garden. The Crimson were eliminated in the first round, a round of eight teams, by Ohio State. . . .

After graduating from Harvard in 1947, Mariaschin joined the Boston Celtics and led them to the Basketball Association of America playoffs as a rookie. (In 1949, the B.A.A. and the National Basketball League merged to form the N.B.A.) Mariaschin was third on the team in points scored during the regular season, averaged 9.7 points in the postseason and appeared on his way to a solid career. But the Celtics were knocked out of the playoffs by losing two of three games to the Chicago Stags, and an 81-74 loss in the finale at Boston Garden turned out to be his last game.

Mariaschin was married that summer, shortened his surname to Marsch and moved to Los Angeles, where he went to work for his father-in-law’s fabric upholstery and design company.

One may reasonably conclude that NBA salaries of that era were often no match for the job offers that in-laws were dangling before the newest additions to the family.

Kuttler notes too that Saul was also a shortstop for the Harvard baseball team and played against a Yale team that included first baseman George H. W. Bush.

Dan Mariaschin, B’nai B’rith International’s executive vice president (and my old boss), never was able to find out if his cousin regretted leaving the game — Saul died in a skiing accident in 1990 — but does think that he was no flash in the pan: “I’m certain that had he continued his playing career, he’d have rolled up impressive stats along the way.”

More here.

Here’s the awful lowdown on the Minute Maid Park snow-cone vendor who elected to take his product into the loo:

NBC 2 in Houston aired a fan’s cell phone video of a Minute Maid Park vendor bringing his tray of snow cones into a bathroom stall, setting them gently on the floor, and straight up taking a crap.

Thankfully, the Aramark employee was promptly canned, although it is unknown whether he got to wash his hands before exiting the ballpark.

More here.

Good morning.

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

• Expanded replay may come as soon as next season, according to Joe Torre, MLB’s executive vice president.
• Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe suggests that Dustin Pedroia may have supplanted Robinson Cano as the premier second baseman in the bigs.
• Has another Yankee, Ichiro Suzuki, reached the end of the road? Derek Albin of the Pinstriped Bible believes so:

Ichiro’s contact and batted ball stats further the notion that his BABIP hasn’t been subject to bad luck. Keeping in mind that contact rate and line drive rate stabilize at 100 and 150 plate appearances respectively, there are legitimate reasons to be concerned about Ichiro going forward. Remember, he’s had 145 plate appearances, so we can rely on his contact rate and just about trust his line drive rate thus far. Compared to last season, Ichiro is putting the bat on the ball 5.4% less often, while 3.6% below his lifetime percentage*. His line drive rate, while not officially stable yet but pretty close, stands 9.2% less than last year and 5% worse than his stateside career*. These discrepancies tell a clear story of a guy not being able to put good wood on the ball, a classic indication of age overcoming a once great hitter.

• According to the Hardball Times’ Brad Johnson, the Phillies brain trust should be prepared to “retool but not reboot.”
• After examining PitchF/X and Retrosheet data, Max Marchi of Baseball Prospectus presents the “career laurel as the cumulative king of [pitch] framing for the past quarter century” to Brad Ausmus, now a special assistant with the Padres. Ausmus also get kudos for having the single greatest season behind the plate (2000).
• Cliff Corcoran of Sports Illustrated’s The Strike Zone explains why the Diamondbacks–Marlins game on Saturday night was so unusual:

Gerardo Parra hit the very first pitch of the game from the Marlins’ Tom Koehler, a 94 mph fastball that was up and over the inside half of the plate, into the Marlins’ bullpen for a leadoff home run. Another 234 pitches were thrown in the game by both teams over sixty-one plate appearances, but Parra’s home run was the only run-scoring play of the game.

According to Elias, the last time that happened — the only run of a game was scored on the first pitch — was nearly 50 years ago. It was September 2, 1963, when Reds’ rookie second baseman Pete Rose homered off the Mets’ Jay Hook to start the second game of a double-header at the Polo Grounds. Hook and the Reds’ Jim Maloney then proceeded to match zeroes for nine innings as the Reds won 1-0.

• ESPN New York’s Adam Rubin reveals why Mets pitching prospect Zack Wheeler’s “Super 2″ status is keeping him from being promoted to the big-league club until later next month.
• Jason Grilli may be 36 years old but his strikeout rate is double what it was five years ago and more than five times what it was in 2005. Jeff Sullivan of Fangraphs gives most of the credit to the closer’s slider, which since 2009, “has three and a half more inches of horizontal movement, and four and a half more inches of sink.”

• Watch Grilli’s teammate, Pedro Alvarez, deposit this pitch out of PNC Park and into the Allegheny River. According to Mark Townend of Big League Stew, Alvarez’s home run ball traveled 448 feet on the fly.

That’s it. Have a walk-off week!

Philadelphia Eagles offensive lineman Eric Mathis shared his views on the IRS in the wake of recent revealtions in an attention-grabbin way, posting a photo of himself on Istragram that depicts him urinating on an IRS sign. The caption? “Audit This.”

When a Twitter follower said to “count on” an Mathis issuing an apology, Mathis shot back, “How high are we counting?

How high are we counting? RT @dcfanaticsblog: Evan Mathis will be apologizing later today. Count on that.

— Evan Mathis (@EvanMathis69) May 15, 2013

AP:

Michigan coach Brady Hoke has taken the Notre Dame rivalry up a notch.

Hoke made a crowd chuckle on Monday at West Michigan Sports Commission luncheon by saying the Fighting Irish are “chickening out” from the storied series.

Notre Dame exercised an option in its football-scheduling contract with Michigan last fall to cancel games from 2015-2017.

Hoke lamented that the Irish will continue to play rivals Michigan State and Purdue, joking he knows why they made that decision.

Last night in Chavez Ravine, Bryce Harper smacked his face into the outfield fence at Chavez Ravine in a both excruciatingly painful and bizarre incident:

Reportedly, the Nats phenom needed eleven stitches to seal a cut in his chin but did not suffer a concussion. He is presently listed as day-to-day.

More here.

P.S. Pete Reiser was unavailable for comment.