Things I wrote while wondering why on Earth I agreed to review a Buzz Bissinger book . . . Chipper Jones might just call it quits. I don’t really want to see him go yet, but I’m wondering if it might not be easier for Braves fans after he and Bobby Cox retire. I think […]

Rockies 5, Reds 1: Jose Contreras had to leave the game in the third inning with angina or dropsy or consumption or whatever the hell it is that 86 year-old people get all the time. Didn’t matter though, because at this point the Rockies could probably put the 1985 Hackensack Bulls in the lineup — […]

I was complaining yesterday that the absence of Hank Steinbrenner makes the Yankees kinda boring, even if his absence is actually a very good thing for the Yankees. I feel the same way about Bud Selig’s stubborn refusal to say silly, indefensible things in recent years. He was interviewed at length today, and didn’t say […]

Angels outfielder Torii Hunter was named the recipient of the 2009 Branch Rickey Award. The award is given out each season to honor those players who do the most to set the single game record for stolen bases allowed, to crush the independent minor leagues, to deal sharply with players renegotiating their contracts and business […]

More Whicker: He blames the Internet! Hey, if you’ve got nothin’ else may as well do that. I am a bit miffed though. The Poynter article says that “Slate’s Jack Shafer called Whicker’s piece ‘the worst sports column ever written.’” I called it that first! I demand to be recognized as the first person to […]

Cardinals 5, Brewers 1: Albert Pujols hits two homers and Adam Wainwright throws seven shutout innings to claim his 18th win. Tony La Russa was asked after the game if Pujols should win the MVP. What’s Tony say? “Those are the kind of questions that are distracting and I don’t answer them.” Pujols is hitting […]

Whatever editors were asleep at the switch when Whicker wrote his column woke up and forced him to apologize this evening: It was not my intention to do so. But it’s obvious that I miscalculated the effect the column on Jaycee Dugard, and the events that she might have missed during her captivity, had on […]

Good thing the Giants already wear those off-white home uniforms, because if my experience with all-natural detergents is any guide, they would have looked pretty dingy soon anyway: Though baseball may be a long way from getting performance-enhancing substances out of its players’ bodies, the Giants announced last month that they have fully “detoxed” their […]

You’re a newspaper columnist. You’re on a deadline. You have to find something worthy of 800 words and you’re stumped. What do you do? Why, you use a horriffic 18 year-long child abduction, rape and imprisonment as a hook for a rehashed “aren’t those athletes just nutty” piece! It doesn’t sound as if Jaycee Dugard […]

Another fun Nice Guys Finish Last bit: Leo Durocher going on in 1975 about how, in his mind, Babe Ruth is still the real home run king. The more things change . . . DeSoto? What did he do? Discovered the Mississippi. Oh, like they wouldn’t have found that anyway. Prince Fielder to the Giants […]