Matt Moore (far left) with Alex Cobb, Jeremy Hellickson and Cesar Ramos. (Rays)When you’re with the same group of people for seven or eight months straight and frequently traveling to new destinations, you almost have to come up with new and creative activities just to keep yourself from going insane.

No professional sports team understands that line of thinking or has embraced it more than the Tampa Bay Rays ever since Joe Maddon took over the reigns in 2006. The end result has been a number of highly entertaining ventures.

From D.J.’s, mariachi bands and penguins in the clubhouse, to their many awesome themed road trips that have seen players donning various costumes and even lettermen jackets on a trip from Texas to Boston earlier this season, the Rays aren't afraid to stand out or do something silly just to keep the clubhouse atmosphere from stagnating.

It's with that established that we now tell you about Tampa Bay's latest themed road trip. It's their 25th different theme since Maddon started the tradition in 2008, and it's among our favorites so far as the

That's correct. Prior to the White Sox 3-0 win over the Angels Friday night in Anaheim, there was a "milk the cow" competition right down on field between Chicago reliever Nate Jones and Los Angeles reliever Ryan Brasier.

That's Brasier (pronounced brey-zher), not brassiere as Tom "Wimpy" Paciorek hilariously (and perhaps intentionally) states during the clip. You know Tom.

Anyway, Brasier ended up getting his hand raised in the "milk the cow" competition, which we're sure served as a tremendous warmup for both pitchers had they been needed for an appearance later (they weren't). But the highlight of the entire clip really comes around the 1:16 mark when Hawk Harrelson begins to recall the time he rode Charlie-O the Mule, which was the Kansas City Athletics and Oakland A's mascot from 1963 to 1976, around Yankee Stadium.

Without spoiling too much of the story, we can tell you that yes, there is a picture. We can also tell you the story involves Roger Maris, a fungo bat, a bucking mule, Hawk swallowing his chaw, $25, and is definitely worth the two minute investment of your time. Trust me.

I should first explain that this was by no means an ordinary foul ball. This was actually a frozen rope off the bat of Albert Pujols, who got well out in front of a Chris Sale breaking ball during their first inning confrontation on Friday night.

To me, if you're not wearing a glove, that's one foul ball you'd want to avoid unless the safety of a loved one depended on it. However, the group of fans sitting halfway down the third base line and about halfway up the bleachers Angel Stadium of Anaheim really didn't have much time to think or react.

Instead, all they could do was hold up their full cups of beer as a substitutes for leather, and the results were not pretty. In particular, they were not pretty for the man wearing the black Angels hat with the white t-shirt. Though his beverage did stay intact, which is very good news, he ended wearing most of the plaid shirted man's beer in front of him.

And to make matters worse for everybody, it looked like plaid shirt may have been in the best position to grab the souvenir after it hit the ground, but was a little slow reacting. We're not sure who ended up with it, but for him it may have been a sacrifice worth making to end up with a Pujols baseball.

Troy Tulowitzki and Madison Bumgarner. (AP Photos)The Colorado Rockies and San Francisco Giants have an interesting history when it comes to throwing around accusations. If you recall, during a game at Coors Field in September of 2010, Tim Lincecum tossed a baseball out of play and could be seen mouthing the words “blank this juiced ball fertilizer.”

I’m paraphrasing, of course, while channeling my inner Vin Scully.

Lincecum never backed off his words following the game, and the accusation seemed to be that Colorado would occasionally throw a few non-humidor baseballs into the bag later in games to give their offense a better chance at instant offense. Though it felt more like gamesmanship than anything, Major League Baseball took San Francisco’s complaints seriously, even changing the rules for how baseballs at Coors Field were handled between the point where they leave the humidor and end up in the umpires hands.

Case closed. That particular issue has not resurfaced since, whether it be the Giants or any other team visiting Coors Field, but the hard feelings between the National League West rivals have seemingly lingered since that point without ever truly boiling over.

That brings us to Coors Field on Friday night. For a few seconds it seemed like we may have been headed towards that inevitable flare up. It happened in the third inning with Troy Tulowitzki running on first base, D.J. LeMahieu at the plate, and Madison Bumgarner pitching. As it's being reported, Tulowitzki asked first base umpire Tim McClelland to check the baseball. McClelland complied, stopping play to give it a once over before tossing it out of play.

The Houston Astros introduced Reid Ryan as their new president on Friday.

It's possible somewhere down the road we'll look back at that moment as the turning point in their organization's history. For now, though, they're still the same old Houston Astros, which means losing games in every way imaginable will continue.

For example, let's look at Friday night's 5-4 walkoff loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Astros held a 4-1 lead through five innings, but saw that evaporate by the time the ninth inning rolled around. The all too familiar sense of impending doom had to be consuming Astros fans at this point, and especially so when Pittsburgh loaded the bases with one out after pitcher Edgar Gonzalez botched a would be 1-6-3 double play.

However, as bleak as it looked for that moment, fans were able to let out a temporary sigh of relief after Gonzalez recovered to strikeout Neil Walker for a huge second out. Gonzalez then made the biggest pitch of the game, getting Russell Martin to hit a weak fly ball into short right field for what should have been the third and final out of the inning.

Only one little problem... Impending DOOM finally arrived at PNC Park.

(AP)In charged right fielder Jimmy Paredes. Out went second baseman Jake Elmore. They met at the baseball, and then they collided, allowing the ball to pop loose from Paredes' glove and hit the ground to give Pittsburgh the stunning victory.

Painful.

Especially for Paredes, who was charged with the error.

From the Associated Press:

''I'm anticipating the ball being hit to me, just like I do on every pitch,'' Paredes said. ''All I'm thinking about is catching the ball for the third out. That's all I wanted to do. I was watching the ball and then I hit into him. Sometimes things like that happen in this

The Juice returns for season No. 6! It's almost eligible for free-agency! Stop by daily for news from the action, along with great photos, stats, video highlights and more.

With their desired lineup intact for the first time in 40 games, the Atlanta Braves offense turned it up a notch in their 8-5 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers. Jason Heyward, who just returned from the disabled list on Thursday after undergoing an emergency appendectomy in Colorado last month, reached base three times to help set the table. Justin Upton then cleared it in the sixth, cracking his third career grand slam off Paco Rodriguez.

''As soon as he took that swing, I knew that ball was going to be out of the ballpark,'' said Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez. ''That was one of the prettiest swings I've seen put on a baseball.'

After traveling an estimated 461 feet, we're sure the baseball agreed with Gonzalez's assessment. It was Upton's tenth homer — out of 14 — to travel over 420 feet this season. He's averaging

(@BrianDuensing52)

Classic coming-of-age baseball flick "The Sandlot" turned 20 last month — which we documented at length on the anniversary date. The celebrations continue into the summer, however. Like this Sunday, when Target Field will screen the film after that day's game Boston Red Sox-Minnesota Twins game.

To get people hyped, a couple of "Sandlot" actors visited the Twins and Red Sox before Friday's game. But get this: Chauncey Leopardi, who played kiss-stealing Michael "Squints" Palledorous, and Patrick Renna, who played wise-cracking Ham Porter, still look like kids next to big leaguers. Even though they're now 31 and 34, respectively.

Brian Duensing of the Twins tweeted the picture above, while Renna himself Instagrammed these pics with David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia and Will Middlebrooks of the Red Sox.

As an appetizer to Friday night’s nearly full slate of 14 games, Major League Baseball has published the entire MSG broadcast of David Wells' perfect game against the Minnesota Twins from May 17, 1998 on their Youtube channel.

That’s right, it was exactly 15 years ago today that Wells joined the history books as the thirteenth pitcher to throw a perfect game in MLB history. We’ve actually added another eight perfect games to this list since then (most recently Philip Humber and Felix Hernandez during the 2012 season), so obviously we’re seeing them at a much more frequent clip over that timeframe, but it certainly doesn’t diminish Wells’ accomplishment on that afternoon one bit.

Of course Wells also claimed in his book that he was partially in the bag (aka “half-drunk“) that afternoon after spending the previous night out drinking with the cast of Saturday Night Live. If true, I suppose that adds another layer to his performance. Then again, taking one look at the lineup Minnesota fielded that day makes you wonder if he could have been completely hammered and still done just as well.

Here it is with their batting averages leading in to that game included: