Free Republic

Vin Scully, the Hall of Fame voice of the Dodgers for 67 years, died, the club announced. He was 94. “We have lost an icon,” said Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten. “The Dodgers Vin Scully was one of the greatest voices in all of sports. He was a giant of a man, not only as a broadcaster, but as a humanitarian. He loved people. He loved life. He loved baseball and the Dodgers. And he loved his family. His voice will always be heard and etched in all of our minds forever. I know he was looking forward to...

Conmen have been ripping off fans outside Chicago sports venues for years. Posing as parking attendants, they lure in drivers, take their cash, and often guide them into illegal parking spots. Those fans later find parking tickets from the city on their cars. Nothing stopped the men we uncovered running an illegal parking scam - not even the different teams of officers patrolling the city streets outside Guaranteed Rate Field. The scammers are so bold they continued preying on White Sox fans - selling fraudulent parking passes last season, right in front of authorities. What happened was a bit different...

Democratic Rep. Linda Sanchez of California gave the finger to the Republican dugout at the congressional baseball game Thursday night – in a flash of tension and poor form at the annual bipartisan event for charity. Sanchez, who has been in office since 2003, made the obscene gesture while her team was trailing. She got on first base in a walk, when her team put in a pinch running, prompting her to jog off the field. Her gesture was caught on camera as the game was captured on C-Span, prompting a chuckle from commentators. It drew wide comment on Twitter,...

Blame it on lingering effects of the pandemic, resentment over the lockout or economic fears. Major League Baseball is struggling to fill the stands at pre-COVID levels as the sport heads into the last 2½ months of its first season since 2019 without capacity restrictions. MLB reached the All-Star break with an average attendance of 26,409. That represents a drop of 5.4% from the All-Star break of 2019 — which was 10 days earlier than this year. League officials remain encouraged and point to the recovery. […] … Victor Matheson, a Holy Cross economics professor who specializes in sports economics...

Promotional nights have been a part of baseball games for years, but there will never be anything like what happened at Comiskey Park on July 12, 1979. On that night, a radio promotion led to an on-field storming, a forfeit for the White Sox and a longtime debate on what the night really represented. This is Disco Demolition Night: A promotion featuring popular WLUP disc jockey Steve Dahl and his quest to destroy records featuring disco music — a genre he despised and made fun of on the air during his shows. Josh Harrison stops by after the White Sox...

LOS ANGELES -- Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he hoped his team would have seven All-Stars named to the Midsummer Classic. That didn’t turn out to be the case, at least for now, as Freddie Freeman, Julio Urías and Will Smith were left off the team. After Mookie Betts and Trea Turner were named National League starters at their respective positions, pitchers Clayton Kershaw and Tony Gonsolin were announced Sunday as All-Stars to round out the roster. Roberts broke the news to his two pitchers before Sunday’s 11-9 win over the Cubs. “I think that for me, one of the...

'Failure will have serious consequences' Left-wing activists are threatening to shut down the Congressional Baseball Game five years after a far-left gunman shot up the bipartisan event, almost killing House Republican Whip Steve Scalise. A climate activist group called Now or Never on Wednesday unveiled a three-part plan that starts with shutting down the annual game to force action from Democratic leaders, who the group says are guilty of refusing "to act boldly" on issues like climate change, abortion, and voting rights "for fear it will be too ‘polarizing.'" Now or Never's parent organization, the Action Network, is located at...

Video of a touching series of events from a major league baseball game went mega-viral after a man gave his prized foul ball to a kid sitting nearby in the stands. The incident unfolded at the game between the Los Angeles Angels and the Kansas City Royals in Anaheim, California. A player on the Royals threw a baseball into the crowd, and a man caught it. After a moment of celebration, the man tossed it to a young boy sitting near in front of him. Later in the game, the boy got a chance to pay him back. The boy's...

"It always baffles me when guys use Jesus as their excuse to discriminate."Openly gay pro-baseball player Bryan Ruby is outraged over some Tampa Bay Rays players’ personal decision not to wear rainbow-colored logos on their uniform for Pride Night, in at least one case expressly for “faith-based” reasoning.Ruby, who has played in the minor leagues but is reportedly taking June off, trashed the players in an interview with USA TODAY Sports, claiming their actions make other gay people feel like “second-class citizens” and are using Jesus to shield their homophobia.“It always baffles me when guys use Jesus as their...

At least five players on the Tampa Bay Rays roster opted not to wear a patch the team added to their uniforms intended to celebrate Pride month in Saturday's 3-2 loss to the Chicago White Sox (box score). During the team's 16th annual Pride Night celebration Rays caps and uniforms had logos colored in the style of the modern LGBTQ+ pride flag, but not everyone in the clubhouse chose to participate. Pitchers Jason Adam, Jalen Beeks, Brooks Raley, Jeffrey Springs and Ryan Thompson were among the players who did not wear the patch on their uniforms and chose to wear...

Before the Giants faced the Reds on Friday in Cincinnati, San Francisco manager Gabe Kapler told reporters he didn’t plan on coming onto the field for the national anthem after 19 children and two teachers were killed in a mass shooting at a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, just three days ago. Kapler added that will continue to be his plan until he feels “better about the direction of our country.” Earlier on Friday, Kapler went to his blog and wrote that he “felt like a coward” for standing during the national anthem prior to his team’s game against the...

In a pointed letter to teams last week, Major League Baseball said numerous clubs' stadiums "fall embarrassingly below the high standards" necessary for women who are part of the game's traveling parties to do their jobs, create an "untenable working environment" and that organizations soon must reconfigure their facilities to fix what the league deemed "unacceptable," according to a copy of the memo obtained by ESPN on Thursday. The letter, sent May 20 by MLB senior vice president of on-field operations Michael Hill to general managers, assistant general managers and some ballpark-operations staff, highlighted the issues a wide array of...

On Tuesday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “Eric Bolling The Balance,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) reacted to attempts to tie the Buffalo shooter to mainstream Republicans and conservatives by stating that people on the right didn’t try to tie the man who shot at Republican members of Congress at a practice for the Congressional Baseball Game and hit House Minority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) and other people at the practice of being representative of the mainstream of the Democratic Party. Host Eric Bolling read Rolling Stone headlines that said, “The Buffalo Shooter Isn’t a ‘Lone Wolf.’ He’s a Mainstream Republican”...

Major League Baseball announced a 324-game suspension for Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer on Friday, the equivalent of two full seasons and by far the most severe punishment handed out under the sport's domestic violence policy. Bauer promptly released a statement announcing he was appealing the suspension, thus becoming the first player to appeal punishment through MLB's domestic violence policy.

Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer has been suspended from Major League Baseball for two seasons over allegations he punched and choked a woman into unconsciousness during sex in 2021. Last July Bauer was accused of choking Lindsey Hill of San Diego, into unconsciousness, punching her repeatedly, and forcibly having anal sex without her consent during two sexual encounters.

SNIP “The MLB has a very big problem with the baseballs — they are bad,” Bassitt said after his team’s 3-0 victory over the Cardinals. “Everyone knows it. Every pitcher in the league knows it. MLB doesn’t give a damn about it. They don’t care. We have told them our problems with them, they don’t care.” Bassitt said there is too much inconsistency among the baseballs being used this season, and the problem is exacerbated in different climates. “There is no common ground with the balls,” he said. “There is nothing the same, outing to outing.”

VIDEO AT LINK Monday marks the 46th anniversary of the “greatest play in baseball” by Chicago Cubs centerfielder Rick Monday who’s quick thinking stopped a protester from burning an American flag on the field. As the Cubs faced the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on April 25, 1976, a pair of protesters ran out onto the field in the bottom of the fourth inning with an American flag doused in lighter fluid. The pair tried to light the flag on fire using matches they brought for the purpose, but Marine Corps veteran and Cubs centerfielder Rick Monday wasn’t having...

An MLB baseball signed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in New York has gone up for auction, according to a report. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the ball will help relief efforts in Ukraine amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of the country.

If you had “It’s time for women to play Major League Baseball” on Friday news cycle bingo card, it’s time to collect your winnings. New York City Mayor Eric Adams, exuberant over the end of the 99-day lockout, said that not only will it be great to see the “boys of summer” again, but he also hopes next year to see the “boys and girls of summer” playing Major League Baseball.

On the 99th day of a contentious lockout, Major League Baseball and the players’ union reached a tentative labor agreement for the 2022 season on Thursday. Once in doubt, a full 162-game regular season will be played. Spring training, which is normally six weeks and was originally scheduled to begin in mid-February, will open this weekend.