It’s basically the A-Rod deal: Sammy Sosa, who joined with Mark McGwire in 1998 in a celebrated pursuit of baseball’s single-season home run record, is among the players who tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug in 2003, according to lawyers with knowledge of the drug-testing results from that year . . . . . . […]

This morning I linked Ozzie Guillen’s colorful take on Wrigley Field. Last week Deadspin did its Deadspiny thing with the place. Of course, neither Ozzie nor Deadspin can be said to represent mainstream sentiment (the latter hates everything; the former lives for chaos), so this morning Stu Courtney of the Sun-Times takes up the subject. […]

TUCK! toons, right here, right now, every Thursday

Last week I suggested that someone who know something about Pitchf/x to analyze Milton Bradley’s claims that he’s being squeezed. Dave Allen stepped up and knocked it out of the park. Thanks, Dave. You rock. I’m a Pitchf/x moron, but it strikes me that while its highest and best use is probably inside a baseball’s […]

I’ve always kind of admired Lou Piniella. For all of his bluster, he seems like a sensible and innovative kind of guy. Which makes this rather surprising: Modern technology is a wonderful thing for 21st Century baseball managers, who have computerized scouting reports and stats at their fingertips at all times. But sometimes older is […]

Mr. T. Front row, just to the first base side of home plate. He pops on the screen and I yell “Mr. T! Wow, how does he rate such good tickets?!” Mrs. Shyster turns to me like I’m an idiot and says, “He’s Mr. T. Of course he has great tickets.” I had no argument.

I know I throw a lot of old references out there, but I’d like to think they read better than this one about the Cubs’ impotent offense from Gordon Wittennyer of the Chicago Sun-Times: Chumbawamba and Vanilla Ice have more hit singles than these guys had the last week.

Milton Bradley believes he’s under attack: Bradley believes his strike zone is being widened, forcing him to chase pitches he normally doesn’t swing at or risk being called out on strikes. Asked if there have been repercussions from Vanover’s fellow umpires since the incident, Bradley didn’t mince words . . . . . . “Unfortunately, […]

The most protracted sale in the history of team sports is rounding third and racing, er, jogging, er, kind of shuffling for home! Chicago Cubs buyer Tom Ricketts is close to lining up three banks to arrange the $450 million financing necessary to complete his acquisition of the team, financial sources said, positioning him to […]

Well, that was an interesting week. Manny Ramirez was suspended, the Orioles and Cubs made a trade and two teams called up players integral to their future. The Yankees lost their catching tandem while the Athletics made a ton of roster shuffles. Enough with it, let’s dive in.