A former employee of Len Dykstra would have us believe the former Mets and Phillies star is a lying, racist homophobe who can't pay his bills and is abusive to those who work for him.

Other than that, Kevin Coughlin, how did you like working for Nails?

That's Mr. Nails to you!

Dykstra says Coughlin is merely disgruntled and denied the charges to the Philly Inquirer.

Coughlin, who admittedly has an axe a few axes to grind over unpaid wages and other differences of opinion, gives us his version of Dykstra in a first-person article titled "You Think Your Job Sucks? Try Working for Lenny Dykstra," published in the most recent GQ magazine.

Dykstra reportedly failed to make payroll for Players Club (Dykstra's magazine/investment tool for millionaire athletes), bounced checks and resorted to using Coughlin's own credit cards (after Dykstra tapped himself out) to help him secure rides on a private jet.

From GQ:

A photographer who did some work for the September and October issues, actually

Nobody with the Phillies seems to mind it too much, but Cole Hamels is having elbow pain and is heading back to Philly today to have team doc Michael Milici Michael Ciccotti have a look.

Ready, Philadelphia?

Set...

Panic!

Hamels threw more pitches than any other player in the majors a season ago, so pitching coach Rich Dubee said Hamels would take it easy this spring, at first. Well, all that extra elbow movement takes its toll, even on an athlete such as Hamels, who takes his conditioning seriously.

Phils' GM Ruben Amaro says it's possible Hamels misses his scheduled opening day start. But he might not miss it.

Here's what Hamels told reporters earlier this morning:

It's just been kind of that mild discomfort that I don't want to deal with during the season. So if he (the doctor) can lessen the inphlammation and the discomphort, I'll be able to throw and be productive."

Here's a full chronology in the ZoZone of what's happening.

Here's a final quote from Hamels, who seems unphazed

Konichiwa, annyong, bienvenidos and 'sup? This and many weekday mornings throughout the rest of March, let's rise and shine together with the latest news from spring training and the World Baseball Classic, where negotiations and mediation go out the window and countries play out their disagreements on the diamond.

Replacing the Missiles of October with the Baseballs of March, the United States and Cuba again find themselves on the brink of elimination. At least it's not elimination from the world, itself, like in '62.

Game of the Day: Japan 6, Cuba 0

Bow, Wow!: You know how there's always that one Internet commenter who's got to ruin it for everyone by saying, when the WBC is mentioned, "Who cares?" Daisuke Matsuzaka is not that guy. The Dice Man improved to 5-0 for his career in the Classic by helping the Nippon HamFighters shut out the Cuba Libres in San Diego. Looking fierce, but feeling smiley, Matsuzaka tossed six innings to put the Cubans one loss from returning to Havana.

Live from Port St. Lucie, the Stew brings you Mission Johan Santana. The Discovery shuttle sits on a launch pad 90 minutes from here, but the spaceship Santana was ready to go Thursday night.

Blast off!

Mets ace Johan Santana, whose debut had been delayed because of a setback with his left elbow, said his first voyage of the season went great.

"I was excited, you know?" Santana said. "Finally I got a chance to pitch and get into a game — even though it was a spring training game."

Santana threw 47 pitches, including 32 for strikes, over 2 2/3 innings on a warm evening at Tradition Field in Port St. Lucie. Santana says his elbow, which he tested with breaking balls, felt A-OK.

"For it to be my first time in a real game situation, it felt great," Santana said. "I threw some sliders; I threw some good ones. I was able to throw my fastball inside. That’s a good sign."

Santana allowed three runs and four hits, including a long homer to Dan Uggla, who was sitting on a fastball.

"Uggla, he

Welcome, Stewies, to another season of Answer Man, the baseball Q&A that doesn't necessarily have to be with only one interview subject.

At a recent stop in Clearwater, Fla. I checked in with Maui native and world bleeping champion Shane Victorino. There, I found out that the Flyin' Hawaiian is learning that ascending to the top helps you meet all kinds of new friends, such as the dad of sextuplets on cable TV's wildly successful "Jon & Kate Plus Eight."

It also leads to lots of questions — or no questions asked, as Victorino might put it.

David Brown: If Hawaii seceded from the Union and you guys had to replace, say, South Africa as a WBC team, could you fill out Hawaii's lineup card?

Shane Victorino: OK, so, catching would be [Kurt] Suzuki. First base would be Kila Ka'aihue from the Royals. Second baseman... I don't know. Shortstop... ooh. I'd be in center. Let's see, who else we got?

DB: Where's Benny Agbayani?

SV: Benny would be in left. Mike Fetters would be a pitcher. Sid

Don't look at spring statistics, Justin Verlander asks.

OK, I promise not to look OH JEEZ.

I looked.

Verlander has allowed six earned runs, nine hits and nine walks over 9 1/3 innings for the Tigers in Grapefruit League play so far. Verlander walked four in two innings against the Yankees on Wednesday.

As a fan in the stands at Joker Marchant Stadium noted during Verlander's struggles, "He's all over the place!"

All part of the plan, folks, so Verlander says. Detroit's ace right-hander personified his team's nosedive in '08 by going 11-17 with a 4.84 ERA. For the Tigers to rebound, Verlander must also rebound.

The bounce is coming, Verlander said. He can feel it.

"I definitely feel like today was a lot better than the statistics show," Verlander said. "Yeah, there were a lot of walks but in between there were a lot of good pitches. I’m the only one that knows how they felt."

The 2006 AL Rookie of the Year and '07 AL All-Star claims to be rejoining us shortly. We just have to trust

If there's somethin' strange, in Sheff's neighborhood, who's he gonna call?

If there's something weird, and it don't look good, who's he gonna call?

The t-shirt says it all. Gary Sheffield ain't afraid of no ghosts.

Shortly after finishing a two-home run spring game against the Yankees on Wednesday — which doesn't count, sadly, toward his career total in the regular season — Sheffield started to walk out of Tigertown in Lakeland, Fla. without it going on the permanent record that he was doing so while wearing a "Ghost Busters" t-shirt.

Not so fast, Mr. Probable Hall of Famer.

Sheffield was 15 years old when the original spirit trappers first worked their ectoplasmic magic in the summer of '84, and he was an everyday player in the majors by the time its sequel came out in '89. Twenty years after that, another sequel is in the works and it obviously has Sheff in a tizzy. How excited would he be to attend a "Ghost Busters III" premiere?

"Meh, not really that much," said Sheffield (and,

Sure, they're both Hall of Famers and well into their golden years, but that doesn't stop Yankees legend Yogi Berra and Tigers legend Al Kaline from helping out their respective clubs as coaches during spring training.

Here, Yogi and Thomas Magnum's favorite Tiger talk golf (but stop long enough to wonder "What's with the guy and the camera?") down the right-field line at Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland, Fla., winter home of the Tigers forever (actually 73 years). Kaline wants to know if Berra has played the course at the Old Memorial Golf Club in Tampa.

These guys and their golf. Maybe someday ...

Marchant Stadium is probably the nicest spring park I've seen so far. Not just because it has parking spots reserved for Kaline and Willie Horton. It's recently been refurbished and puts fans right on top of the action. A-Rod, were he present, could hear whatever a fan wanted him to hear. In case you were wondering, Joker Marchant was a Lakeland original who was instrumental in keeping