Pete has been agitating about this for a while, but now it’s official: The New York Yankees and Bank of America ended months of negotiations on a long-term, high-profile sponsorship agreement, fallout from the financial industry’s decision to accept aid from the federal government. While the sides never discussed naming rights to the team’s new […]

Manny has amazingly rejected the Dodgers’ latest offer, and now it seems that the Dodgers have had it with Boras: At 8:30 p.m. tonight, the Dodgers made the rather unusual move of issuing a statement that shows their exasperation with Manny Ramirez’s agent, Scott Boras: BORAS REJECTS DODGERS OFFER TO MANNY RAMIREZ LOS ANGELES — […]

TGIF, babies: Richard Barbieri’s this annotated week in baseball history puts Google Earth to a fantastic use. Dan Turkenkopf investigates whether pitchers can control how a ball is hit. I won’t even pretend to understand all that, but I do know that some pitchers seem to have every ball hit off of them rattle off […]

As of Friday, Tracy Ringolsby will drive 100 miles down from his Wyoming ranch and cover the Rockies for food.

Turns out that the autographed baseball everyone was talking about earlier this week was purchased by someone close to the Mick: On Monday, we told you the story of the Mickey Mantle baseball that was signed “F**k Yogi. Before putting it in their upcoming auction, the folks at Grey Flannel Auctions tried to sell it […]

Phillies’ owner Bill Giles: All right, Scott, how much do you need? Scott Eyre (doggedly): Two hundred and forty-two dollars! Giles (pleading): Aw, Scott, just enough to tide you over till the bank reopens. Eyre: I’ll take two hundred and forty-two dollars. Giles starts rapidly to count out the money. Eyre throws his passbook on […]

Lincecum gets a pay raise: The Giants and Tim Lincecum have reached agreement on a one-year, $650,000 contract, a source told The Chronicle. Lincecum then confirmed the figure. That constitutes a 62 percent raise over the $405,000 he earned last year. There is actually a split component to the deal. If Lincecum somehow wound up […]

Polls and baseball, together at last! Quick! Someone light the Nate Silver signal! Sixty percent of baseball fans are bothered by steroid use by players, and 44 percent say Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez should not be allowed in the Hall of Fame, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll . . . . […]

Buster on changes in attitudes and latitudes: Talent evaluators within the game will make judgments about fastballs, about defensive skills, about a hitter’s swing. But increasingly, it seems, makeup is regarded as a pivotal factor on whether a player is acquired or dumped — and this might be part of a broader evolution in Major […]

Yeah, I was in the show. I was in the show for 21 days once – the 21 greatest days of my life. You know, you never handle your luggage in the show? Somebody else carries your bags. It was great. You hit white balls for batting practice, the ballparks are like cathedrals, the hotels […]