Free Republic

Hall of Fame hurler Nolan Ryan left a lasting impression on the state of Texas and on Major League Baseball with an illustrious 27-year career. His 5,714 strikeouts, 324 wins and seven no-hitters cemented his legacy as one of the greats. But it was 24 years ago Friday that the Ryan Express immortalized himself -- and it didn’t have much to do with his pitching that day. On August 4, 1993, the 46-year-old Ryan drilled Chicago White Sox third baseman Robin Ventura in the elbow with a fastball. Ventura then made a decision he undoubtedly regrets to this day. He...

As the 4 p.m. non-waiver trade deadline grew closer Monday, baseball’s championship contenders pushed their final chess pieces into position. In the preceding days, the Rockies made a move for catcher Jonathan Lucroy, the Royals for Melky Cabrera, and the Yankees for Todd Frazier, Tommy Kahnle and Jaime Garcia. Entering the day, rumors swirled about Sonny Gray, Zach Britton and Yu Darvish, three top-notch pitchers generally regarded as the best available. Britton stayed. And at the very last moment, Darvish moved, about half an hour after Gray did. Here’s what went down, team by team.

NEW YORK -- They're the New York Yankees. They're worth billions. They're built on a foundation of championships stretching back more than a century. There is just no way they don’t go for it when another title is possible. This is the mandate any year, but it's even truer when they've only played in one playoff game since 2012. So the Yankees had to acquire Sonny Gray. The Yankees, under Hal Steinbrenner, are a scary organization for the rest of the baseball. Steinbrenner has handed the player personnel keys over to his GM, Brian Cashman, and the results have been...

The Yankees are officially all-in. The team acquired Sonny Gray from the A’s an hour before the trade deadline, The Post’s Joel Sherman confirmed. The Yankees sent heralded prospects Dustin Fowler, Jorge Mateo and James Kaprielian for the 27-year-old.

CHICAGO -- A WGN News exclusive -- Steve Bartman has received an official Chicago Cubs 2016 World Series Championship ring as a special gift from the Ricketts family and the Cubs organization. Arguably the team's most infamous fan, Bartman is remembered for tipping a foul ball that left fielder Moises Alou unsuccessfully dove for in the stands during Game 6 of the 2003 National League Championship Series. Now, 14 years later, Cubs owner Tom Ricketts thought it was high time to extend an olive branch. Bartman received the ring before noon Monday in Ricketts' office. Cubs President of Baseball Operations...

The police finally found former Yankees slugger Danny Tartabull — thanks to Danny Tartabull. Tartabull, 54, got himself arrested in Agoura, Calif., on Monday evening in connection with $275,000 of unpaid child support dating back to a 2011 conviction. According to TMZ Sports, Tartabull called the police to report his car had been broken into. When the cops ran Tartabull’s name through the system, they saw an active warrant and arrested him on the spot. Six years ago, Tartabull entered a plea of no contest, but did not comply with probation and was ordered to surrender and serve 180 days...

<p>PORT ST. LUCIE — Tim Tebow has been playing with the St. Lucie Mets for less than a month — a very small sample size to analyze a baseball player — but the early returns are impressive.</p> <p>After hitting .220/.311/.336 in 64 games at low-A Columbia, the 29-year-old former Heisman Trophy winner is batting .306/.390/.514 with the Mets heading into Thursday night’s game against the Jupiter Hammerheads.</p>

PORT ST. LUCIE, Florida – Crossover athlete Tim Tebow hit a walk-off home run Thursday night for the St. Lucie Mets, the Class A Advanced affiliate for the New York MLB franchise. During the second game in the day’s double header, Tebow enjoyed three at bats: hit by pitch, strike out, and home run, respectively. The designated hitter managed two runs in the game. The young Mets bested the Daytona Tortugas, a Cincinnati Reds affiliate, 5 to 4. Breitbart Sports previously reported how Tebow entered the day on an eight-game hitting streak: Tebow has hit safely in 11 of his...

A young lady at a baseball game became the time-honored dunce when she complained about the “KKK” sign in the outfield. Atlanta-native Sania Kay was at a Braves baseball game when she noticed the sign in the outfield and tweeted her distaste, writing “definitely NOT ok.” Of course, the Braves’ stadium is not a home of proud white supremacists; instead, what Sania encountered was the “K-Corner.” Almost every stadium has one of them, the so-called “living scorecard” where fans in the outfield keep track of the home pitcher’s strikeouts. Of course, Sania quickly got ridiculed online for her cluelessness. But...

The St. Louis Cardinals and Fox Sports Midwest have made it a yearly tradition to honor veterans with Military Appreciation Night at Busch Stadium and their This One’s For You telecast. This year was no different, and it provided several memorable moments for veterans who served and their families. Among those moments was a ceremonial first pitch that’s impossible not to get emotional watching. Clarence Adelhardt, a 99-year-old veteran of World War II and longtime Cardinals fans, was called upon to deliver the pitch, and did so with incredible spirit as the crowd showered him with their appreciation.

All professional athletes dream of winning a championship. But only two have won championships in two major American professional sports. Gene Conley was one of them. Conley, who died at 86 on Tuesday at his home in Foxborough, Mass., pitched for the World Series champion Milwaukee Braves in 1957. At 6 feet 8 inches — he was the tallest pitcher in the major leagues at the time — he also carved out a parallel career in professional basketball, playing during baseball’s off-season and winning three N.B.A. titles with the Boston Celtics, from 1958 to 1961.

LOS ANGELES – Dodgers Hall of Famer Tommy Lasorda has been hospitalized for several days. Details of Lasorda’s illness are being kept private, but a number of Lasorda’s former players have been among those in contact with Lasorda, who has been in the intensive care unit at a Los Angeles hospital. Lasorda, 89, has a history of heart problems and was hospitalized following a heart attack as recently as 2012. Lasorda has been hospitalized multiple times in the past year, including after a fall while attending a memorabilia show in Atlantic City last August and then again for 10 days...

There was no shortage of the color pink at MLB stadiums on Sunday. Check out photos of the different uniforms, bats and other equipment that was part of MLB's Mother's Day pink-out.

Growing up in Queens, where he played high school baseball, Sam Mele had no shortage of advice on the fine points of the game. His uncles Tony and Al Cuccinello were major league infielders, and Tony’s Brooklyn Dodgers teammate Al Lopez, who was their catcher and a future Hall of Fame manager, dropped by to give him a tip or two. Mele became an outstanding baseball and basketball player at New York University, played for 10 seasons in the major leagues, mostly in the outfield, then managed the Minnesota Twins to the 1965 American League pennant. He died on Monday...

Tim Tebow is a big-league hit in the minor leagues. The Heisman Trophy winner and former NFL quarterback has minor league fans around the Single A South Atlantic League flocking to stadiums and jamming ticket lines to see the Columbia Fireflies outfielder and designated-hitter. The Hickory Crawdads sold out four games with the Fireflies, its total of 17,500 for the series surpassing the 15,900 they drew their first eight games. "We had 4,500 people in the stands," Crawdads season ticket holder Christopher Pack said, "and 4,300 were there to see Tim Tebow." People show up in Tebow's NFL jerseys, and...

ESPN “SC6” co-host Michael Smith had a strong reaction Tuesday to a group of Boston Red Sox fans using racial slurs towards Baltimore Orioles center fielder Adam Jones Monday night with one fan throwing peanuts at him.

Giants ace left-hander Madison Bumgarner was placed on the disabled list for the first time in his big league career Friday after a dirt bike accident that sent him to a hospital with bruised ribs and a sprained joint in his pitching shoulder. San Francisco announced Bumgarner's injury Friday, a day after the accident occurred during an off day in Colorado. The Giants said Bumgarner is out of the hospital and resting at the team hotel. He is scheduled to be re-evaluated next week. "I think the main thing is you have to be grateful he's not hurt worse than...

Unable to untangle his complex financial holdings to the satisfaction of the Office of Government Ethics, Cubs board member Todd Ricketts, tapped by President Donald Trump to be the Deputy Commerce Secretary, on Wednesday withdrew his nomination, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned. Ricketts, a Wilmette resident who is a member of the billionaire Ricketts clan, was willing to divest his considerable personal portfolio of holdings, but that was apparently not enough. Some of the Ricketts investments are in family enterprises, including the Cubs.

Everything is political to the overly sensitive mind of today’s leftist. When the Atlanta Braves unfurled a gigantic flag for the playing of the national anthem, it prompted an ultra sensitive member of the partisan media and his Twitter followers to express a whole host of ridiculous claims. In a Twitter post this weekend, NBC baseball writer Craig Calcaterra complained that the presentation of Old Glory evoked overly political tones. He and his like-minded comrades used the occasion to attack the flag, the military, President Trump, conservatives and the singing of God Bless America: Will you keep politics out of...

Tim Tebow’s home run in his first professional baseball at-bat was an electric moment for many sports fans and media. Not for Shannon Sharpe though. The co-host of The Undisputed on Fox Sports 1 complained Friday that Tebow shouldn’t even be allowed to play baseball. “We’ve got to stop this,” Sharpe demanded. “Here’s a guy who is going to try every sport until he finds something he’s good at. How about he’s not good at anything.”