LOS ANGELES – We wonder sometimes how much they care and still, for some, Bryce Harper plays too hard.

We watch them pace themselves until their contract years and still, for some, Bryce Harper is reckless.

We watch them lay down when the contract comes and still, for some, Bryce Harper must be smarter.

You wouldn't have had to go far Tuesday to come upon the opinion Harper is a threat to himself and his organization, the Washington Nationals. He'd run face-first into the right-field wall at Dodger Stadium the night before, chased a fly ball straight into the immovable object, then looked up from the warning track and asked his teammate, the center fielder, "Is it bad? Is it bad?"

It wasn't great.

Bryce Harper needed 11 stitches to close the gash in his chin after he ran into the wall. (AP)By Tuesday afternoon, Harper's beard had been shaved so a doctor could lace 11 stitches through his chin. He wasn't in Tuesday night's lineup, in part because he was feeling queasy. Specialists have thus far ruled out a concussion, though the Nationals' plan is to continue monitoring Harper for

Read More »from Bryce Harper vows to play as relentless as ever, and what's not to like about that?

LOS ANGELES – They've moved Matt Kemp's left foot back in the batter's box. It's just a few inches but still enough, they hope, to allow Kemp to clear quicker on the harder stuff inside. Over time he'd nudged that foot toward the plate, probably so he'd have a more reasonable shot at sliders on the far side of the strike zone, though it may have been unconscious. Either way, Kemp's setup had become closed, and now his stance is, while not open, at least sneaking up on neutral. The techies upstairs report the ball is coming off Kemp's bat well enough, presumably with the kind of velocity and trajectory that suggest better than one home run, eight extra-base hits and a .277 batting average through more than 150 plate appearances.

This, anyway, is what Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said.

There's more, actually. About balls being top-spun or back-spun and how they carry, about Kemp's habit, Mattingly said, of, "Putting the weight of the world on his shoulders," in which case it wouldn't

Read More »from Blaming Don Mattingly for Dodgers' poor start is simple-minded

Over the tumult of a busy restaurant Thursday night, the television a good 30 feet away, the Los Angeles Angels and Houston Astros barely discernible from our booth, my 17-year-old son pointed and said, "Wait, doesn't he have to pitch to a batter?"

I assured him we must have missed something. An injury. An illness. Some sort of predator had burst from a photo well and slaughtered Bo Porter's setup man.

Fieldin Culbreth was in charge of the crew that botched pitching change ruling. (AP)On Friday afternoon, Major League Baseball announced it had suspended crew chief Fieldin Culbreth for two games and fined umpires Adrian Johnson, Brian O'Nora and Bill Welke for missing a rule so basic and ingrained in the game that kids in Mexican restaurants in Sherman Oaks, Calif. were lodging protests.

So ended a brutal two days for baseball, for its umpires, and for those of us who believe umpires do a difficult job well and, as important, want to do it well.

First the home run ball in Cleveland that tied a game and that, somehow, was neither a home run ball nor tied a game, in spite

Read More »from Crew chief suspension appropriately ends bad couple days for MLB umpires

On the Loria Factor, the Blue Jays’ excuse against guys not throwing spitballs, saving potato bugs, free hot dogs in McCovey Cove and the evil black magic of tape recorders:

The rankings (records through Wednesday):

1. Baltimore Orioles (21-13; Previous: 5) – Brian Roberts sees specialist for hamstring injury. Makes you wonder if he’s seen so many specialists they don’t really seem that special anymore.

2. St. Louis Cardinals (21-12; Previous: 6) – Unable to establish bullpen that retires hitters, Cards turn to retired pitcher, ask for the gold watch back.

3. Texas Rangers (21-13; Previous: 2) – Darvish said he’d heard uncomplimentary things about new catcher Pierzynski, who figured Darvish must have been talking to, you know, everyone.

4. Detroit Tigers (19-12; Previous: 12) – Tigers take up cause of saving endangered tigers, privately relieved franchise didn’t name itself the potato bugs. Because they’re gross and nobody wants them around.

5. Atlanta Braves (20-13; Previous: 1) – B.J. a

Read More »from MLB Power Rankings: Orioles flying high

SAN FRANCISCO – The heavy-metal band had gathered in Northern California, across the Bay from San Francisco. The four members liked to work at the drummer's house. They had an album to write and compose and bleed over, and it was comfortable there. Also, they were close enough to Candlestick Park where they could kill a night or two watching the Giants play.

They'd call this, their fifth studio record, "Metallica," which would come to be known as The Black Album and go platinum. It was the summer of 1990 and the band, as the drummer, Lars Ulrich, saw things, was changing.

In that same summer, the son of a Panamanian fisherman pitched for the New York Yankees' affiliate in the Gulf Coast League. He'd signed with the organization a few months before for $3,000. At 20 years old, he threw 52 innings and allowed three runs, two of them unearned. Mariano Rivera exchanges pleasantries with Metallica's James Hetfield in 2005. (Getty Images)

"Up through the '80s, we were on a very progressive kick," Ulrich explained. "A lot of our songs were very long and very kind of complicated and

Read More »from Mariano Rivera's link to 'Enter Sandman' strikes special chord with Metallica

LOS ANGELES – There was never supposed to be a video. Matt Kemp's uncommon act of kindness was never supposed to go farther than an ailing boy, his dad and the baseball star.

And yet when Kemp awakened Tuesday morning, 36 hours afterward, his phone told him otherwise. The video was everywhere.

No, there was never supposed to be evidence beyond the ailing boy's memory, and perhaps a shelf in his room. Maybe he's wearing Kemp's cap. Maybe he's still holding Kemp's gray road jersey and spikes.

"I didn't know that anybody was filming it," Kemp said Tuesday afternoon. "I wasn't aware."

A boy, Joshua Jones, and his father, Steve Jones, sat Sunday night in front-row seats at AT&T Park in San Francisco. The boy was in a wheelchair. Early in the game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants, the father struck up a conversation with Dodgers third base coach Tim Wallach. He said his son was very sick, that he was a Dodgers fan, and that his favorite player was Kemp. The boy, who has

Read More »from Viral video of Matt Kemp's touching gesture to young fan catches Dodger off guard

SAN FRANCISCO – Having read that Brandon Crawford majored in psychological sciences at UCLA, I assumed such heady studies were beneficial in a game that seeks first to take the mind, knowing the body will follow.

Crawford, the 26-year-old shortstop for the San Francisco Giants, exudes the placid complexity of a young life in NorCal, of reaching manhood in SoCal, of a supreme California-ness that camouflages what a Giants coach called one of the higher baseball IQ's on a roster of men who'd won two of the past three World Series.

But what I really wanted to know is whether a background in psychological sciences was best served in the batter's box or in raising a child. His first, daughter Braylyn Ann, was born in December. 

Brandon Crawford started off the season swinging a hot bat for the Giants. (AP) Crawford grinned sympathetically.

"I've seen that out there," he said. "It wasn't psychological sciences, it was physiological science, like what our trainers do. And I only did that for a little while."

And then?

"History."

Like I said, such intellectual studies

Read More »from Giants' Brandon Crawford evolving into more than a 'defense-first' shortstop

SAN FRANCISCO – In a decision made about 30 minutes before game time Saturday night, the Los Angeles Dodgers opted not to have the guy in the neck brace bat third.

Adrian Gonzalez had injured himself running into an umpire, not to be confused with Jerry Hairston Jr., who required stitches over his eye after running into a desk in his hotel room. Or Zack Greinke, who broke his collarbone running into Carlos Quentin. Or even Hanley Ramirez, who blew his hamstring running into an out at third base.

All this adhered itself to about a half-dozen other medical crises in the Dodgers' clubhouse, through which Gonzalez eased into the pregame wrapped in a cervical collar and heating pad, though on a nearby bulletin board he was to play first base and hit third against the San Francisco Giants, and very soon.

"I could still change the lineup at this point," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said, and then he did, as apparently Gonzalez could not turn his head quite far enough to see the pitcher from

Read More »from Long list of Dodger woes includes tripping over suitcase, consecutive walkoff HR defeats to Giants