Good morning!
Here are several go-to links to make your Monday a bit more bearable:
- Several trades took place over the weekend, the three most eye-catching involving Zack Greinke, Francisco Liriano, and Marco Scutaro. Courtesy of MLB Trade Rumors: Greinke went from the Brewers to the Angels, Liriano went from the Twins to the White Sox, and Scutaro went from the Rockies to the Giants.
- Via the Boston Globe: The mayor of Leominster, Mass., fired the police officer who yelled a racial slur at Carl Crawford during a recent rehab start in Manchester, N.H.
- One of my favorite quotes from Major League featured crafty veteran Eddie Harris (Checlie Ross) asking, “You trying to say Jesus Christ can’t hit a curveball?” The Hardball Times’ Jesse Sakstrup has the story of another Jesus who has great difficulty with right-handed pitching: Jesus Montero.
- Writing in Urban Milwaukee, Bruce Murphy talks about the five-county sales tax levied in 1996 the five counties in southeastern Wisconsin to help underwrite Miller Park, which opened in 2001. The tax was supposed to sunset in 2010, but, shock of shocks, is still around and now expected to remain in place until 2017–18.
- Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald discusses the impact of the feud that Mark Teixeira and Vicente Padilla are having over the Red Sox–Yankees rivalry.
- There has been little to cheer about in Wrigley Field this season, but yesterday afternoon’s walk-off home run by Anthony Rizzo, which gave the Cubs a 4-2, 10th-inning victory over the rival Cardinals, was a highlight to remember.
- One more rivalry note: The Dodgers shut out the Giants on the road in back-to-back games for the first time since 1957, when the Giants played in Manhattan’s Polo Grounds. As True Blue LA’s Eric Stephen points out, the Dodgers’ three-game sweep means Los Angeles is in a virtual tie with San Francisco for the division lead.
- “Remember when the Mets used to be able to attract real celebrities,” asks Metstradamus in his blog of the same name? “Now we have pregnant reality stars making appearances at Citi Field. Yup, Snooki.”
That’s it. Have a walk-off week!
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