Posts by Postmanr at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

My favorite rule in baseball? The dropped third strike. Even if you completely swing and miss at a horrible pitch -- or maybe a good pitch -- there's still a chance for redemption. Hey ook: I struck out but I'm still on first base! (A.J. Pierzynski remembers this well.)

But, as the above clip between Shane Victorino and Conor Jackson shows, sometimes the angle of a throw from the catcher ends up causing a bit of a ruckus at first base. Victorino stayed in the game and ended up scoring that inning. Jackson wasn't feeling too pretty after the game.

But yeah: ouch.

HT: The 700 Level.

At this point, it's a safe bet that any headline with the name "Roger Clemens" in it probably isn't going to cast Roger in the best light. (That is unless you subscribe to the Rusty Hardin News-Gazette. Only $15 for an entire year!)

It's no secret that at 45 years of age, Clemens is not that ideal candidate to suit up for the Olympic squad this summer. But he is Roger Clemens, the man that defies age and can teach those young kids a thing or two, right?

Well, not so much says Bob Watson.

"From my standpoint, we don't need that type of distraction," Watson said.

[ ... ]

"I have not talked to the commissioner. I have not talked to (MLB chief operating officer) Bob DuPuy, nor have I talked to his agent, but I just think the distraction that he's carrying right now, from my standpoint, we don't need that," Watson said.

What's most interesting about this is that Watson has not only been the GM of the Astros, but the Yankees as well. And even he's not feeling Rog nowadays.

To be fair, Watson indicated that Clemens elbow was another cause for concern, but I have a feeling without the Mitchell Report and the Mindy McCready allegations, Mr. Passion and Glory himself would have at least been invited on to the team as some sort of special instructor or coach. Such is life now for Clemens, I suppose.

Look: I know what the White Sox did with these blow-up dolls is viewed as offensive by some. (And rightfully so.) I also know it was in poor taste to do it out in the open in the clubhouse. This is 2008 where evil bloggers are going to expose your clubhouse deeds; probably best not to leave blow-up dolls with bats stuck in them for reporters to write about and bloggers to run wild with on the Web. But I also know the escalation of this whole ordeal is getting a little silly. (Such is the current state of the media, I suppose. Hell, I'm adding to the fire now.)

But this is what has happened. And the Association for Women in Sports Media is none too pleased about it. So now, MLB is stepping in.

A spokesman for Major League Baseball said today the league is investigating an incident in the White Sox clubhouse in Toronto involving inflatable dolls. Pat Courtney of Major League Baseball wouldn't comment further, declining to say if he felt the display was appropriate.

"We are looking into it," he said. "We're talking to the club."

Well yeah, this whole idea didn't turn out so hot. What started out as a harmless prank to try and get the Sox offense out of its slump -- which didn't work, by the way -- has now turned into a freakin' national incident. Call up George W., I think his services are needed here.

I mean, he knows baseball pretty well, right?

If we've learned anything about Suzyn Waldman, it's that she's passionate about the New York Yankees. She exalted like crazy when Roger Clemens was in GUERGAGE'S BOX. She wept when Joe Torre took his final bow. So when it comes to the latest Clemens news, you would expect her to be in Roger's corner more so than most.

And well, she is.

"I can only judge people on what I observe and how they treat me," she said, "and since the mid-'80s, I've known him and all of his family and watched the kids being born and knew his mother and know his sisters ... I never saw this stuff. I don't know if it's true. Does it change what I think of Roger Clemens? I don't think so." [ ... ]

"The only thing that surprises me about anything that happens is the glee with which people are dealing with this venom," she said. "It surprised me last year when it happened to me."

It's easy to go after Clemens these days. But when he's close enough to you that you know his children, know him as someone else, know him as a terrific pitcher and friend, well, it's not so easy to turn the tide on your opinion, no matter how bad the accusations seem.

That being said: she's in the minority. A caring and compassionate minority sure, but a minority nonetheless.

The US is going green, buildings are going green, your mom is going green, baseball is going green: we know this. It's become cool to start loving and caring for our environment, instead of something your third grade teacher tells you about in social studies. And, it is the Philadelphia Phillies who are leading the charge MLB-wise in this whole Al Gore-minded endeavor. Seriously, they've made quite the splash.

To offset the carbon footprint created by the team's utility power usage at Citizens Bank Park, the Phillies have purchased 20 million kilowatt-hours of Green-e Energy Certified Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). According to the EPA, this is the largest single purchase of 100% renewable energy in professional sports and is equivalent to the planting of 100,000 trees.

Whoa, 100,000 trees? Kudos on the major buy, friends. No word on whether the purchase of this renewable energy is going to speed along Jimmy Rollins' recovery time, but, you know, he'll be back soon enough.

So here's a nifty idea: the Cubs, beholders of the precious night game inside their stadium -- are ceding their July 29 evening to let their Class A affiliate Peoria squad take on the Kane County Cougars. (Sidenote: The only foul ball I've ever caught at a baseball game was at a Kane County Cougars game.)

The reasoning? To let Peoria Chiefs coach and former Cub second baseman Ryne Sandberg show off the Cubs No. 1 pick Josh Vitters.

"I think it will be very cool," said Sandberg, the Hall of Famer in his second season as Chiefs manager. "It's an opportunity for everybody involved, probably the chance of a lifetime for some of these players to come here and play at Wrigley. I can't imagine what that will be like."

The game-the only one in town that day with the White Sox playing in Minnesota and the Cubs in Milwaukee-will include team mascots, T-shirts being shot into the bleachers and kids running the bases afterward, or, as Kenney said, "things we've never really done here before to bring the spirit of the minor-league system into Wrigley Field for a night."

Three cheers to the Cubs for letting these teams play inside an MLB stadium: should be fun for all parties involved and might be the highlight off some of these kids' careers. And sweet, t-shirt guns? Whooooo!

It's certainly not anything out of the ordinary for a baseball manager to get enraged. Whether it be a tough loss, an annoying question, a bad call: there's really no other job in all of sports where you see dudes flip their lid more often. (Unless you're Rasheed Wallace maybe.)

So let us revel in Lou Piniella's first mini blowup, after Kerry Wood -- hi Buzz! -- let up three runs in the ninth to blow the game for the Cubbies this afternoon. First, Piniella whacked a water cooler in the dugout in said ninth inning. Then this happened in that little tiny hole-in-the-wall press room at Wrigley Field:

After Thursday's 4-3 loss to Milwaukee, Piniella plopped down in the interview room, tersely answered the first four questions he faced, and then was asked if he had thought about putting Reed Johnson in left field as a defensive replacement for Alfonso Soriano.

That did the trick.

"You damn right I thought about it. You think I'm stupid or something?"

Though the interview was done, Piniella wasn't.

As he left the room, Piniella continued muttering about the question, this time using a little stronger language.

Welcome back, Lou. It's been too long.

Twins reliever Pat Neshek might not have the most visually appealing site, but hey, he sure is fan friendly. Neshek responds to e-mails, riffs on baseball card collecting -- all and all, he seems like a swell fellow.

So when fans asked to see a video of Neshek taking a ball off his face freshman year of college at Butler in a game against Wichita St., Neshek provided it for them. Even uploaded it onto YouTube himself.

I've got to say: that looked nasty. But Neshek seems to take it in stride like a real man. If that was me, I would have been on the ground crying my eyes out. And I wouldn't have uploaded it to YouTube.

It's still hard to fathom how Barry Bonds remains jobless. Looking purely at his stats, here's a guy that OBP'd .480 last year. He got on base half the time he walked up to the plate. Most teams would kill for that. But as Tom Verducci points out today, once the Blue Jays decided not to pursue Bonds, the curtain has likely been drawn on the man.

Now here's the bad news for Bonds: The Toronto Blue Jays, the very definition of that best-case scenario for him, want absolutely nothing to do with Bonds.

[ ... ]

The risks? The possibilities that he poisons the clubhouse, challenges the manager's authority (think he's going to listen to John Gibbons, such as if he asks him to stretch with the team?), demands special treatment, brings media and legal distractions, breaks down physically, turns 43 in July at a time when stars of the Steroid Era are falling off career cliffs, and generally harms whatever team culture an organization has established. As Jays president Paul Godfrey told a Toronto radio station, 680 News, back in March when Jays officials ruled out Bonds after, oh, five minutes of thought, "We all agreed unanimously that Barry Bonds would be a major distraction to the team."

Where does Kirk Gibson's homer in the 1988 World Series rank? Top 10 baseball moments of all time? Top five? #1? Wherever you personally rank it: the drama is hard to deny. The greatest closer in the game -- Dennis Eckersley -- going toe-to-toe with a guy that could barely walk, but yet was the catalyst for the Dodgers' offense that season. Pinch hit, bottom of the ninth, 3-2 count. It really doesn't get any more dramatic than that.

So I welcome you to relive that moment -- with the tremendous Vin Scully on the call -- all with baseball cards. Up next? Recreating that infamous homer off Jose Canseco's dome. What say you, YouTube auteur?