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If you are a rookie, you are to behave as if you were paint coated on a wall. You can be seen, but you shouldn't be heard. And, above all, you shouldn't make a spectacle of yourself. Yasiel Puig comes from another baseball culture, a freer, Cuban style, and he refuses to play by the blue-collar code of this country's game. In the minor leagues, he was famous for his bat flips, even in batting practice. Already, he has developed a dugout dance with Luis Cruz or Hanley Ramirez after he hits home runs.

TOKYO – Japanese baseball officials are being criticized for secretly switching balls for this season without notifying players. With close to 60 games already played, Nippon Professional Baseball admitted this week for the first time that a new ball was being used. The new, livelier ball has resulted in more home runs.

So, last Saturday I'm back on the ball field coaching my 9-year-old boy's little league team along with three other fathers. We lose big. Why? Because it was hot. Yes, I know what you're thinking: Wasn't it hot for the other team? Stop with the logic, OK? My team wilted in the fourth inning. In fact, three of the players cried. One missed his mother. I told him the game would be over shortly and she was looking forward to seeing him. He accepted it, but struck out anyway. The right fielder cried when the ball hit his thumb after...

Jason Collins will get the festivities started for the Boston Red Sox and their fans headed to Fenway Park for "Pride Night." WEEI (h/t NBC Sports) reports that the former Boston Celtics player, who last played for the Washington Wizards, will toss out the first pitch. The honor goes to Collins on "Pride Night," which will take place on Thursday in a game against the Texas Rangers. For more information, you can visit the website of Boston Pride, an organization that "produces events and activities to achieve inclusivity, equality, respect, and awareness in Greater Boston and beyond."

...The '74 Indians were a smorgasbord of mediocre and forgettable talent playing in an open-air mausoleum. That year, in a city that fielded one of the founding professional teams (the Forest Citys, incorporated there in 1869), 85 percent of the seats at home games went unsold. All those empty seats meant a balance sheet written in red. The team's executive vice president, Ted Bonda, could put up with losing teams and an ugly stadium (he had inherited both in 1972), but he would not tolerate insolvency. Bonda called a meeting to discuss options for improving attendance, which must have felt...

Major League Baseball will seek to suspend about 20 players connected to the Miami-area clinic at the heart of an ongoing performance-enhancing drug scandal, including Alex Rodriguez and Ryan Braun, possibly within the next few weeks, "Outside the Lines" has learned. If the suspensions are upheld, the performance-enhancing drug scandal would be the largest in American sports history. Tony Bosch, founder of the now-shuttered Biogenesis of America, reached an agreement this week to cooperate with MLB's investigation, two sources told "Outside the Lines," giving MLB the ammunition officials believe they need to suspend the players. One source familiar with the...

It was Victoria Day in Canada and the Toronto Blue Jays were hosting the Rays of Tampa Bay. The word “hosting,” however, hardly applied to the treatment that one Yunel Escobar, the Rays shortstop, received, who was lustfully booed each time he came to the plate. When he homered in the 9th inning, he was booed again for employing his signature gesture as he crossed home plate—stretching his arms out to indicate the “safe” sign. Cuban-born, Escobar does not speak English. Through a translator, he expressed his astonishment: “It’s something I do every time I cross home plate.” But...

Camera focuses on man and woman during a game. He's on a cell phone and blows her off. She is not amused.

A little while back, around opening season I did a piece where Obama was being coached on how to pitch, and many thought it was real (check it out here). (This was pulled from the movie poster for the new film about Jackie Robinson, "42")

A home run off the bat of Adam Dunn happily found its way to a young Rangers fan. While the boy celebrated his newfound treasure, an evil, tattooed witch stole the ball and threw it back on the field. The woman and her meathead companion celebrated while the boy sulked. I’ve lost faith in humanity. Here’s a step-by-step look at the boy’s heartbreak.

In 2012, the parents of Ted Kremer attended a fundraiser and won a silent auction for their son to be a bat boy at a Cincinnati Reds game. Even though the prize was supposed to be for someone aged 15-19, the Reds made an exception in part because Ted — 29 years old at the time — also happens to have Down syndrome. The Kremers expected it to be a token appearance. It was anything but. Ted Kremer's enthusiastic turn as bat boy on Aug. 17 might have been the highlight of the Reds' season (aside from making the playoffs)....

Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Jonathan Papelbon says that the president is out to take your guns. The pitcher, who came to prominence during his run with the Boston Red Sox (including as the team’s closer during their victorious 2007 World Series run), spoke with CSN Philadelphia and said, “Today’s day and age has gotten so crazy. Shoot man, Obama wants to take our guns from us and everything. You got all this stuff going on; it’s just a little bit insane for me, man. I’m not sure how to take it.” Papelbon got on the topic after he was asked about...

A trio of Huskers combined for the eighth no-hitter in school history on Tuesday afternoon, as Kyle Kubat, Tyler Niederklein and Dylan Vogt held the No. 10 Arkansas Razorbacks hitless in a 3-0 Nebraska win in the first game of a doubleheader. It was the fourth combined no-hitter in school history and the first no-hitter since four Huskers no-hit Peru State on March 6, 1993. Tuesday was the first no hitter against a Division I program since April 5, 1981, when Anthony Kelley no-hit the Oklahoma Sooners.

Democrats don’t ever tell the truth about their shared history with African Americans. They will never admit the Confederacy was formed by Democrats intent on keeping their ancestors locked on plantations as slaves. They will never admit the Klu Klux Klan was formed and populated by Democrats who had been members of the Confederate Army. They have lied about which Party was home to some of the worst bigots in American history. Black conservative writer K. Carl Smith summed these lies up with, “When I grew up in Alabama, I thought George Wallace was a Republican. I thought Bull Connor...

Is anyone planning to see this? Has anyone already seen it? If so, what did you think of it? Reviews from Metacritic Review from The Orange County Register: '42' swings for the fences, but it's one, two, three strikesRotten Tomatoes ratingIMDbWikipediaOfficial site

WARREN, Texas (AP) -- Grady Hatton, the former major league third baseman who managed the Houston Astros in the 1960s, has died. He was 90.

Steve Irwin jokes will still get you in trouble. Rick Mayer of The Tampa Tribune reports the Rays have made an official statement in regard to the polarizing picture of Raymond holding up a sign referencing a "Rays To Do List." Under the header, Steve Irwin—a popular wildlife expert who was killed by a stingray in 2006—has his name crossed out with "World Series" next on the to-do list agenda...

Dozens of D.C.-area students were invited for a frank conversation about race Tuesday at the White House with Michelle Obama, Harrison Ford, and other members of the cast and crew of "42," the soon-to-be-released film about Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to play in Major League Baseball. "I know I was mad just watching the movie," the first lady told the 80 students assembled in the State Dining Room, as Robinson's widow Rachel, who is 90, sat behind her. "It would have been easy for them to get mad or to give up. But instead, they [met] hate—they met hatred...

Found this on Facebook and realized the only thing missing was the coach...See the original here.

1st game of the season is 2 1/2 innings old and umps have blown 2 calls already. Replay shows guy clearly stealing second - called out. Worse - fly to left center trapped, but batter called out. When the replay was shown, even the announcers were kind of embarrassed.

Voice of the Dodgers reminds writer of his deceased dad, and that's part of the reason he loves to talk to the 85-year-old icon. I lost my dad decades ago. But then this guy comes along who likes to sing as he walks, a jolly Irishman who laughs and cracks wise with a hint of the devil in him and I remember that guy ... "I would be frightened if I retired," he says when asked about the prospect. "I don't know what I would do." ...

Bob Turley, a Cy Young-winning, right-handed pitcher whose blazing fastball bore in on baffled hitters like a dissolving aspirin and lifted the Yankees to a come-from-behind victory over the Milwaukee Braves in the 1958 World Series, died in Atlanta on Saturday. He was 82.

Gus Triandos, a brawny slugger who won the hearts of Orioles fans starved for someone to cheer for in the 1950s, died Thursday at his home in San Jose, Calif. He was 82.

ALLENTOWN, Pa.- A Pennsylvania minor league baseball team announced it is installing urine-controlled video games in its men's rooms. The Lehigh Valley IronPigs, a Class Triple-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies, said the "Urinal Gaming System" is being installed on the urinals at Coca-Cola Park n Allentown, Pa., making the venue the first sports stadium in the United States to have urine-based video games in its bathrooms, U.S. News and World Report reported Wednesday. Captive Media, the British company behind the games, shows a snowboarding slalom game in the demo video for the systems. "To turn left, pee left ......

MESA, Ariz. -- The Cubs are the fourth most valuable franchise in the major leagues at $1 billion, according to Forbe's annual valuation of all 30 teams. Forbes also estimates the Cubs had an operating income of $32.1 million last year, making them the most profitable team in baseball. Operating income was based on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. The business magazine said the Cubs figure to be in even better shape after 2014, when they can opt out of their WGN-TV deal and sign a more lucrative contract. Forbes said the Cubs made less than $50 million...

Former big league pitcher Virgil Trucks passed away yesterday at the age of 95. Trucks sustained serious injuries in a fall last summer and would never fully recover. Nicknamed ‘Fire’ on account of both his name and his blazing fastball, Trucks had a stellar 17-year big league career in which he recorded 177 wins. The lion’s share of those wins came with the Detroit Tigers. Trucks made his big league debut in Detroit late in the 1941 season.

SAN FRANCISCO - After Team USA was eliminated from the World Baseball Classic, we heard the usual lines about the inability of Americans to meet expectations in the tournament. That’s not entirely accurate. Team Puerto Rico — comprised of U.S. citizens — is one victory away from stunning the baseball world. After unexpectedly eliminating Venezuela in the first round and the U.S. in the second, the Puerto Ricans pulled off an even bigger upset Sunday night. Behind starting pitcher Mario Santiago, who spent last season with SK Wyverns of the Korean Baseball Organization, Puerto Rico stunned twice-defending champion Japan, 3-1,...

The surprising Puerto Ricans first eliminated the star-studded United States, then took care of two-time World Baseball Classic champion Japan two days later with a 3-1 victory in Sunday night's semifinal. Puerto Rico needs just one more win to be WBC champions. "We totally showed we can be the new team, the champion nobody expected," said Angel Pagan, center fielder for the World Series champion San Francisco Giants. "It means a lot, but not everything, because we're still missing one more win." Alex Rios hit a two-run homer, Mike Aviles singled twice and drove in the game's first run, and...

CHICAGO -- She inspired a novel and a movie starring Robert Redford when in 1949 she lured a major league ballplayer she'd never met into a hotel room with cryptic note and shot him, nearly killing him. After the headlines faded, Ruth Ann Steinhagen did something else just as surprising: She disappeared into obscurity, living a quiet life unnoticed in Chicago until now, more than a half century later, when news broke that she had died three months earlier. The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office confirmed Friday that Steinhagen passed away of natural causes on Dec. 29, at the age...

A youth baseball league in central Illinois is in desperate need of cash – so they’ve decided to auction off an AR-15 assault rifle. Last year the Atwood-Hammond baseball league tried to raffle off half a hog. But they only raised $10 – and barely had enough to pay the local butcher. So this year a local gun shop provided the league with a Rock River Arms Tactical Operator Two – and the response has been massive. “My phone has been ringing off the hook,” said Charidy Bucher, co-owner of the Atwood Armory shop. “The response has been tremendous.”...

Spring training is a time during pre-season where players get to practice, play and make mistakes. This year, even the ball girls are getting in on the blunders. The Philadelphia Phillies and Tampa Bay Rays were in the top of the sixth inning this weekend when Rays' hitter Shelly Duncan hit a ground ball that bounced into left field foul territory. The ball was ruled fair, but a Hooters ball girl picked it up with her glove and handed it to a fan in the stands. The embarassing move wasn't a total loss. "She has no idea that she has...

Saturday's Pool D World Baseball Classic game between Canada and Mexico saw plenty of aggressive play before devolving into an extended and ugly brawl in the ninth inning. After a number of hard slides and a collision at the plate involving Mexico's Karim Garcia, Arnold Leon threw two pitches at Canada's Rene Tosoni, sparking a bench-clearing fight between the teams.

New York Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera, 43, announced Saturday that this will be his last season playing professional baseball. While he was with the Yankees the team won five World Series titles. Rivera hopes to end his career with one more. Saying he made the decision before arriving at spring training, Mariano Rivera announced Saturday that he will retire at the end of the season and hopes to cap his record-setting career by winning another World Series with the New York Yankees. Rivera was surrounded by family and teammates when he made the announcement during a news conference at the...

Baseball card collectors and fans of the game are left scratching their heads after Topps made the decision to scrub mentions of Pete Rose and his Major League Baseball records from their products. ...... Yet, when it comes to players chasing Rose' records, his name is omitted. For example, Chicago White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski's card mentions his standing in regard to the "all-time record of 4,256" hits, but no mention as to who holds that mysterious record.

The line for single-game tickets outside #Marlins Park, less than 30 min before they go on sale I was certain every possible joke about baseball attendance in Florida had been exhausted over the past 20 years. Then I saw the tweet by Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post that included the photo (below) from the Miami Marlins Winter Warm Up event Saturday and realized we haven’t even scratched the surface. The Marlins have used up all of the goodwill a new taxpayer-funded stadium gave them just a year ago.

Manti Te’o and Lance Armstrong both started the year with headlines they would just as soon like to forget. Now, they are part of a list just as humbling, as Forbes has published a list of the most disliked American athletes. ... Here’s the final tally: 1.Manti Te’o 15% Appeal 2.Lance Armstrong 15% Appeal 3.Tiger Woods 19% Appeal 4.Jay Cutler 21% Appeal 5.Metta World Peace 21% Appeal 6.Alex Rodriguez 22% Appeal 7.Michael Vick 23% Appeal 8.Kurt Busch 27% Appeal 9.Kobe Bryant 27% Appeal ... One of those names is former Denver Bronco Jay Cutler. The quarterback lost a lot of...

Earl Williams, a slugging if ambivalent catcher and infielder — “My favorite position is batter,” he once said — who won the National League rookie of the year award in 1971 but whose promise went unfulfilled amid a welter of minor controversies, died early Tuesday at his home in Somerset, N.J. He was 64.

BALTIMORE -- Earl Weaver, the fiery Hall of Fame manager who won 1,480 games with the Baltimore Orioles, has died, the team says. He was 82. Weaver was traveling on an Orioles fantasy cruise in the Caribbean when he collapsed in his room with wife, Maryanne, at his side on the cruise's ship at about 2 a.m. Saturday, the New York Daily News reported. Weaver never regained consciousness, the report said.

Baseball's emphasis on statistical analysis has led to the loss of jobs among scouts. The gala in Century City will feature Vin Scully, Don Mattingly, Tom Lasorda and other baseball greats.

Baseball star Andruw Jones has been arrested for allegedly beating his wife on Christmas morning. Jones, 35, was booked into the Gwinnett County jail outside Atlanta, Georgia, about 3.45am today on a charge of simple assault. Jones won the Golden Glove award ten times in a row between 1998 and 2007 for his performance in the outfield for the Atlanta Braves.

Ryan Freel, who played for five teams over an eight-year major league career, was found dead in his Florida home Saturday as a result of a self-inflicted shotgun wound, Jacksonville police said. The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said they were treating the 36-year-old Freel's death as a suicide. Freel, who grew up in Jacksonville, last played in the majors in 2009 when he played for four organizations. In June he had been named the baseball coach at St. Joseph Academy in Jacksonville, but the Florida Times-Union reported that he later backed out of the job. The former utility player's best stretch...

Ryan Freel, who last appeared in the major leagues in 2009, has died at age 36 of what a representative from the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office tells the Florida Times-Union is a self-inflicted gunshot wound. According to Sgt. Mike Paul, Freel's body was discovered in his home around 4 p.m. ET on Saturday. Freel spent parts of eight seasons in the majors, including six with the Reds. He was a career .268/.354/.369 hitter with 143 stolen bases. Freel also played five different positions during the course of his career. A Jacksonville native and product of Tallahassee Community College, he was originally...

The Cincinnati Reds held their annual "Redsfest" over the weekend and the biggest happening — other than Bronson Arroyo's Goo Goo Dolls cover or Mat Latos' Justin Bieber impression — was the introduction of the team's new alternate jersey. That's it to the right here. The Reds will wear the "Los Rojos" tops on select dates this season as they follow other teams into the world of Spanish-themed jerseys.

Popular Christian talk radio host Frank Pastore remains in a coma one week after a motorcycle crash, but showed signs of improvement on Monday while in stable but serious condition, his wife said. In talking about her husband's inspirational impact on people even while he is in intensive care, Gina Pastore told The Christian Post that during his radio show on the same night of the accident he discussed the topic of death and the human soul.

Marvin Miller, the most influential labor leader in sports history who ushered free agency into baseball, has passed away at the age of 95. The Major League Baseball Players Association this morning confirmed Miller's death.

San Francisco is seeking $1.2 million from the Los Angeles Dodgers in federal Bankruptcy Court to recoup unpaid medical costs for Bryan Stow, a Giants fan who was severely beaten by rival fans in the Dodger Stadium parking lot. The city's effort - spelled out in recent court filings - follows the Stow family's lawsuit against the Dodgers in Los Angeles County Superior Court, claiming that lax security and other problems contributed to the March 2011 attack after an Opening Day game. San Francisco has identified the Dodgers as potentially liable for Stow's bills, and is setting itself up as...

President Obama has several stated ambitions for his presidency. He wants it to be "transformative." He wants to unite Americans of all parties. He wants to build an economy from the middle class out (whatever that means), and he wants to help what you might call the domestic refugees of America's economic transformation. Given the principled disagreements dividing left and right in America, it's hard to see how he can accomplish these goals when it comes to conventional economic policy. But there is one area where Obama could be transformative and bipartisan while helping both the middle class and the...

(CNSNews.com) – Celebrities in Hollywood and in sports are making campaign contributions to this year’s presidential campaign with the vast majority of VIPs cited by OpenSecrets.org giving to President Barack Obama, but a few giving to Republican Mitt Romney. New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez was among those donating to Romney, while TV comedienne Ellen DeGeneres was among those donating to Obama. 198 celebrities identified by OpenSecrets.org have given to Obama, while 14 have given to Romney. One of Obama’s top celebrity donors is director/producer Steven Speilberg, who directed such popular films as Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan, Schindler’s List,...

DETROIT -- Marco Scutaro singled home the tiebreaking run in the 10th inning, and the San Francisco Giants beat the Detroit Tigers 4-3 on Sunday night to complete a four-game sweep and win their second World Series title in three years. Ryan Theriot, who went hitless for St. Louis in Game 7 of last year's Series, singled softly into right field off Phil Coke opening the 10th. Brandon Crawford sacrificed, nearly bunting the ball past Coke. Angel Pagan struck out and Scutaro singled into short center field as Theriot slid home ahead of Austin Jackson's throw.