From Heyman: Albert Pujols, for all his heroics this year, has one hit with a RISP and two outs (1 for 14, with 15 BB and 10 IBB), and as Joel Sherman of the New York Post (and SI.com) pointed out, Mets’ youngster Nick Evan passed Pujols with two in two days vs. Pujols’ Cardinals. […]

A breakdown of the Cardinals starter’s epic ground ball extravaganza on Tuesday against the Mets.

Or at least he was during the WBC: Cubs catcher Geovany Soto tested positive for marijuana use while playing for Puerto Rico during the World Baseball Classic last March, the International Baseball Federation announced Thursday. Soto released a statement saying he was “embarrassed by my lapse in judgment.” “While I full acknowledge my inappropriate behavior, […]

T.J. Simers doesn’t get all of the Manny outrage, but he’s not even pretending to be objective about it. In today’s column he fields the emails of those angry at him for being a Manny apologist. He doesn’t duck the charge at all. For him, it’s all about the entertainment factor: “Your idolatry of Manny […]

Via Sons of Steve Garvey, here’s Eric Collins and Steve Lyons during last night’s Dodgers-White Sox game: Lyons: Do you follow some of the other whacked-out statistical categories that are nouveau to the game of baseball? Collins: I do. It’s — Lyons: What are they? Collins: Well, you got defensive — for the first time […]

Rangers’ outfielder Marlon Byrd is either really brave, really stupid, really trusting or some combination of the three: Marlon Byrd wouldn’t be pulling down $3 million as a Major League baseball player without getting a second chance from an obscure community college after he nearly had a leg amputated more than a decade ago. So […]

Singer songwriter Todd Snider was on NPR last night, and though I always kind of liked him before, I really, really, like him now. Here he is talking about a song on his new record: “America’s Favorite Pastime” is a song for the unprepared. It was inspired by the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball player Doc Ellis, […]

TUCK! toons right here every Thursday!

Another outraged column about Manny’s rehab assignment, this one from Bill Plaschke. I’m struck by this: Manny Ramirez playing for the triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes is as weird as the word “isotope.” . . . When Manny Ramirez is old and gray and sitting outside the locked doors of Cooperstown, he might reflect on this summer […]

On Monday, I suggested that the Yankees’ protest of Sunday’s New York-Florida game was a waste of time that, if successful, could cause them more trouble than it would be worth. Yesterday, the league saved the Yankees from themselves.