The Chipper Jones farewell tour makes its final stop in New York this weekend, and we're happy to report the Mets did go out of their way to honor Jones with a special pregame press conference and presentation of his going away present.

So yes, not only will Chipper have a local pub named after him for the next three days, he'll also have the painting pictured below to hang on his wall after New York Mets COO Fred Wilpon presented it to him prior to the series opener on Friday night.

(Mets on Twitter)Artist Charles Fazzino is the man behind the painting, which as you can see acknowledges Chipper's incredible history at Shea Stadium while also hitting on the love-hate relationship between him and Mets fans — note the 'Larrry' sign down the right field line. And what's anything Mets without a Mr. Met appearance. That's an automatic.

Of course the question now that we've laid our eyes on the Mets painting is where will it rank on our list of Chipper's retirement gifts. It's not exactly a surfboard, but it's definitely something unique and creative with several cool touches included, so I'm sure it'll place near the top. Just as I'm sure that Chipper is appreciative of the gesture, regardless of what of we think.

(Presswire)There's just something about the way Bryce Harper plays baseball that makes his every move on the field worth watching.

Oh, wait, I just figured out what that something is. It's the fact that regardless of situation or score, the 19-year-old phenom is always looking for an opening and an opportunity to change a game with his hustle and aggression, whether it be in the outfield or on the basepaths, and more times than not succeeds in spectacular fashion.

That desire to make an impact was on full display again on Thursday night as the Washington Nationals completed their four-game dismantling of the Chicago Cubs with a 9-2 win.

In the very first inning, Harper visited the left center-field gap at Nationals Park and hustled out his seventh triple of the year, making him the first teenager since Buddy Lewis of the Washington Senators back in 1936 to reach that number in a single season. That's a very cool achievement, but it would be quickly overshadowed just one batter later as Ryan Zimmerman hit a soft two-hopper back to the pitcher.

[Tim Brown: Baltimore's Camden Yards basks in first pennant race in two decades]

Now, unless the bases are loaded or a special play has been called from the bench, a comebacker will usually freeze the runner on third. That was also the case here with Harper. But unlike most runners you'll see in that situation, Harper didn't immediately retreat to the base. He simply bided his time, measured the situation and then broke for the plate as the throw to first was made. That paid off for Washington as Harper beat the return throw home to score its first run:

Aramis Ramirez reacts to Mark Carlson's call. (AP)Thousands upon thousands of strikeouts coming in all forms (looking, swinging, check-swinging) and on every type of pitch (fastball, curveball, knuckleball, etc.) are recorded throughout the course of a baseball season.

If you watched all of them consecutively, very few would look exactly the same. Well, aside from those recorded by machines like Justin Verlander or Aroldis Chapman, I should say. But I don't know that we have seen or will see one this season that would standout quite like Wade LeBlanc's strikeout of Aramis Ramirez in the Brewers' 8-4 win over the Miami Marlins on Tuesday night.

It happened in the third inning with LeBlanc ahead in the count 1-2. He then let fly with an 87 mph four-seam fastball that sailed up and in on Ramirez, forcing Milwaukee's third baseman to duck for safety. At that point the ball clearly made contact with something, as evidenced by the pop sound it made, though it was difficult initially to determine whether it was the bat, or possibly even Ramirez's hand or helmet. All we knew for sure upon the first look and listen was the ball hit something, and then Marlins catcher Rob Brantly caught it cleanly.

Home plate umpire Mark Carlson had to make a quick decision based on that first look and the listen, and with very little hesitation ruled the ball hit the bat, meaning Ramirez was out on the unluckiest of all possible strikeouts.

Here's a look at the decisive pitch and Carlson's ruling:

Joey Votto's final rehab game for the Louisville Bats on Monday afternoon was an eventful one, though not really for anything the 2010 National League MVP did at the plate — he finished 0 for 3 with two strikeouts. It was eventful because their opponents, the Indianapolis Indians — the Triple-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates — decided to treat the game, which was actually the final game of the International League season, as a complete exhibition, and all kinds of weirdness ensued as a result.

The most notable of the unique occurrences was supposed to be utility man Jeff Larish's attempt to match Justin Toole's accomplishment from last week by playing nine defensive positions in a nine-inning game. However, heavy rain at the ballpark and the increasing likelihood the game wouldn't be completed influenced the Indians to change their plan up a bit, and that led to something completely different stealing the show:

Yes, that's 350-pound relief pitcher Jose "Jumbo" Diaz pulling off a clean heist of third base in the eighth inning. Your eyes did not deceive you. Now, here's the unusual scenario which led to him not only getting a very rare plate appearance, but the opportunity to stun everybody with his Billy Hamilton impression.

(Presswire)The Oakland A's won their eighth in a row on Saturday night, defeating the Red Sox 7-1 behind rookie right-hander A.J. Griffin.

That's the good news.

The bad news, however, is that the team later learned infielder Brandon Inge will be forced to undergo surgery on his problematic right shoulder and will be lost for the season as a result.

If you recall, Inge originally injured the right shoulder while making a diving back-handed play in Oakland's Aug. 11 game against the Chicago White Sox. Upon hitting the ground, the shoulder was dislocated. Of course one would assume that ended Inge's night right on the spot, but he instead calmly called timeout, popped the shoulder back into place right on the field, and continued on.

Two batters later, Inge started a critical double play by making a strong throw with the injured limb. And then in the next half inning he delivered a go-ahead RBI single.

I think that pretty much proves he's tougher than me (and possibly you, too).

In case you need further proof, take another look at the injury:

(MLB.TV/Roger Mooney)In case you missed it, Tampa Bay Rays infielder Elliot Johnson had quite a painful experience in their 2-1 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday night.

It all happened on the final play of the game, and it happened very quickly. Johnson was running at second base representing the tying run when Carlos Pena ripped a single to right field. Jays outfielder Moises Sierra nearly misplayed it into extra bases as the ball took a high bounce off the Rogers Centre turf, but managed to collect it and still came up firing a strike to the plate to gun Johnson down for the final out.

[Tim Brown: Dodgers' bloated roster starting to show cracks]

That sounds painful enough for a baseball player, but that was just half of Johnson's experience. While attempting to find an opening in which he could get past catcher Jeff Mathis, who had the plate blocked expertly, Johnson went into an awkward head-first slide, or perhaps nosedive would be a more apt description, and as you can see in the photos above and the video after the jump, the results were not pretty:

(Getty)Chipper Jones has already long established he's not going away quietly in his final big league season. But just in case we'd forgotten or turned our attention elsewhere for a moment on Friday night, the 40 year old future of Hall of Famer reestablished that fact during the Braves 8-5 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies.

The reminder came in the fourth inning with the Braves threatening to break through with a two-out rally. Jones was the lead runner at second base and attempted to score on a Paul Janish bloop a single to center field. John Mayberry Jr. came up with the ball in shallow center and immediately fired a strong throw to the plate that tailed slightly towards the third base line, putting catcher Eric Kratz directly in the path of the hard-charging Jones.

Naturally, ball and player arrived at the exact the same moment, which resulted in a violent collision that Jones loaded up for and clearly got the best of physically:

Remains of the burned out truck. (Daniel Lane/Southwest Riverside News Network)Scary news out of Lake Elsinore, CA on Friday night as three people suffered burns after a truck carrying fireworks for a show scheduled to take place after a minor league baseball game between hometown Storm and Inland Empire 66ers caught fire and exploded in the parking lot two hours before first pitch.

According to the Southwest Riverside News Network, three individuals suffered burns as a result of the fire. One member of the fireworks company reportedly sustained second and third degree burns on 80-90 percent of his body. He was airlifted to a local burn center. Another crew member and a fire department employee also sustained what were categorized as minor burns in the accident. Both were transported by ambulance for treatment.

The incident report also notes that the fire spread to nearby brush and burned nearly half an acre before being contained by firefighters.

Shortly after the accident took place and the fire had been contained, the Storm acknowledged it via Twitter and announced the postgame fireworks show was canceled as a result.