Big League Stew

5 quick links to start your day ...

1.  Cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame? Why, certainly. And as a good Catholic boy from Chicago whose grandmother once told a college roommate he'd "burn in hell" if he didn't back the Irish, I'm ecstatic over the news that former ND receiver/recent Cubs callup/pride of Valparaiso Jeff Samardzija could possibly make a start for the Cubs this weekend at Wrigley Field. 'Specially since I hold tickets to Saturday's affair. [Sun-Times]

2. As far as I'm concerned, the guys at The Onion can take the rest of the year off after penning this classic (with accompanying photos): "C.C. Sabathia, Prince Fielder Keep Imagining Each Other As Giant Talking Hot Dog, Hamburger" [The Onion]

3. If I would have been able to remember my ESPN Insider password yesterday, I would have been able to read the rest of Rob Neyer's column about George Brett's pine tar incident, including a strange passage where Neyer brings up cocaine use. [Bugs & Cranks]

4. The Yankees aren't "ready to jump on that" when it comes to signing Barry Bonds. [NYDN]

5. The last pictures ever taken of Harry Caray at Wrigley Field? [Home Run Derby]

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Each weekday, let's rise and shine together with the latest and ... well, just the latest in big league baseball. Today's Roll Call started a long time ago, Jimmy Rollins, and where the heck are you? The Phillies got a series to lose to the Mets. C'mon, move it, move it, move it.

Game of the Day: Mets 3, Phillies 1

Next time, take the bus: Rollins was late, late, late for a very important date — he missed the 10 a.m. report time for Thursday's noon-ten p.m. game at Shea. He drove his own car, instead of taking the team bus, and arrived about an hour before the first pitch. That's great, even early, if you're sitting in section 104 with the Mad Men. But this guy is supposed to be in a defensive stance between third base and second. Rollins attributed his being tardy to bad luck with traffic lights. Tell me about it, J-Roll. Between the fine from Charlie Manuel and the cost of valet in mid-town Manhattan, J-Roll's peeling off some Benjamins. Todd Zolecki of the Philly Inquirer has a verbatim Q&A on his Phils' blog. Q&A, eh? That gives me an idea! Just need a moment ...Read More >>

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I think we can classify this as fairly shocking news: The AP is reporting that Mark Cuban is one of only three interested parties to make it past the initial bidding stage in the process to sell the Chicago Cubs. Even more shocking is the revelation that the group led by John Canning, which many people felt was the odds-on favorite to land the team, was not selected for the second round. (It's being reported, however, that Canning and Co. will have another opportunity to up their bid.)

Yet at the very least, it appears that Cuban will now be competing with the Ricketts family (owners of TD Ameritrade) and a sports acquisition group that includes Hank Aaron and Jack Kemp, I thought the picture above would make for an excellent Create-a-Caption.

So have at it, amateur Internet copywriters of the world, how should this caption read?

(Also, to put a different twist on our usual fun, tell me what song Cuban, who grew up a Pirates fan, is singing today.)

Follow the jump for the comments on Wednesday's C-a-C that made me laugh the most: Read More >>

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He won a World Series, was inducted into the Hall of Fame and got a case of the hemorrhoids at the worst possible time. Still, George Brett is best known for his wonderfully bad-ass reaction to "The Pine Tar Incident," (video) which happened at Yankee Stadium on this day a quarter-century ago. As one might imagine, a number of newspapers marked the anniversary with an article.

Here are the best excerpts from a few of them:   

Sam Mellinger, KC Star: It was 25 years ago today that Brett used his overly pine-tarred bat to hit a home run in the ninth inning off Gossage. You know the rest of the story. The Yankees pointed out that Brett's bat had too much pine tar on it, the umpires agreed, nullified the home run and set off one of the all-time ticked-off reactions in the history of sport.

Brett's sons occasionally ask to see the videotape. They don't care about the game or the homer. They just want to see their old man go nuts — a YouTube moment before there was such a thing.

Tim Kurkijan, ESPN: ... Brett acknowledges that his bat was illegal, and putting too much pine tar on it was an "oversight" on his part. He says, without anger or bitterness, that, "I played 20 years in the major leagues, I did some good things, and the one at-bat I'm remembered for is an at-bat in July, not an at-bat in October like Reggie Jackson. Only in New York. It would have never been that big a deal if it had happened in Cleveland. Me against Goose made it a big deal. Billy being there made it a big deal. Something like this can only happen in New York."

Rob Neyer, ESPN Insider: ... When Brett was called out for having too much pine tar on his bat, he exploded from the dugout looking for all the world like he'd just contracted a severe case of temporary insanity. When you watch the clip, it's easy to think that if Brett hadn't been held back he might have taken umpire Tim McClelland apart.

Lisa Kennelly, The Star-Ledger: (Tim) McClelland, now a veteran ump [ ... ] was in his rookie season back in 1983. He said he doesn't remember what he thought as the enraged Brett ran for him. "I knew he wasn't going to hit me or run over me," McClelland said before yesterday's game. "And if he did, I'd probably own the Kansas City Royals right now."
 
Tyler Kepner, NYT Bats Blog: (The bat) did not get to Cooperstown directly. Brett first sold the bat to collector Barry Halper for $25,000. Realizing it should go to the Hall instead, Brett got it back from Halper six months later for the same $25,000 price. In thanks, he gave Halper the bat he used to hit three homers in a 1978 playoff game."

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Each week, BLS contributor Nick Friedell goes through the quad and into the gymnasium to look at five of the hottest players in baseball and their chances of keeping it going ...

James Shields, Rays

The Naked Truth: 9-6, 3.66 ERA

Having a nice little Saturday: Shields has been impressive since the All-Star break, going 2-0 while surrendering four earned runs over 15 and 1/3 innings.

You're my boy, Blue!: Rays manager Joe Maddon knows that if his team is going to make it to October, Shields and the rest of the rotation has to continue to pitch like he did on Wednesday, going 8 and 1/3 innings, while giving up just three runs. "It's all about the pitching," Maddon said. "Shields doing what he did this afternoon permitted us to get that win." (Tampabay.com)

Think KFC will still be open?: Maybe. Shields has been the Rays most consistent pitcher this season, and there isn't much reason to think that won't continue. While some might raise issue with his age and durability, Shields pitched 215 innings in 2007, so it's not like he's pitching a big workload for the first time. Read More >>

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Rangers coach Gary Pettis strolled around the visitors clubhouse at U.S. Cellular Field and noticed a rather informal-looking game of dominoes being played. "Did you see how many points Milton dropped last night?" Pettis asked. He only got curious looks. "Thirty," Pettis said. The story spread and was repeated several times by the time manager Ron Washington came by. "The man took you all to school," Washington said. "You're just a bunch of little schoolboys. He schooled you."

Class around the whole league is in. Bradley rebounded from an infamous ACL injury this past September with a passionate vengeance that made him an All-Star for the first time. Bradley's reputation for losing his cool precedes him like nobody else in baseball — it's part of why he is playing for his sixth team since 2000. However, the fit seems right in Texas with Josh Hamilton and Washington, who appreciates Bradley's effort, production and — no kidding — interpersonal qualities. Bradley's personality has a documented dark side, but, for a change, a slice of the bright side is revealed in this week's Answer Man. 

Q: The picture you took of yourself and Josh at home plate between swings at the Home Run Derby; did it turn out?

Milton Bradley: Nah, it was just like a white blur. I was hoping to get a nice little picture but when I checked it, it was just a big, white blur.

Q: Did you sneak any sentimental artifacts out of Yankee Stadium?

MB: No. I mean, I thought about it but I'm not a thief [laughs].Read More >>

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Oh, to be a Cardinals fan for the past month or so! While the Brewers were busy pushing all in with the CC Sabathia trade and the Cubs countered with a trade for Rich Harden, the sons of St. Louis remained remarkably quiet in bolstering their roster.

And even though the Redbirds had enough wins to qualify for second place in the NL Central, their relative invisibility on the national discussion made it seem as if they were serving as nothing but a buffer between their neighbors to the north.

Sure, things after the All-Star break started off well with a sweep of the lowly Padres at Busch. But since this week began they've made a swift and sudden 180. If the Cardinals lose to the Brewers again tonight, they'll have been swept in a key series and have only two more games against Milwaukee (Aug. 26-27) to make up ground head-to-head. As it stands, the Cardinals are three games behind the Cubs (who'll they play nine more times) for first place and two behind the Brewers for the wild card.

Neither margins are insurmountable, of course, but the Cards' recent play has been enough to make our friends over at Cardinals Diaspora despondent enough to wave an overreactive white flag:

Game 1-0-3. Mark it. We’ve officially been eliminated from playoff contention ... The 2008 Cardinals exceeded all of my expectations. I firmly believed this to be a 70 win team with the potential for a .500 season if certain players had career-caliber years. Though the Birds may ultimately end up around the break even point, I don’t think you or I can say that we expected to be any where near the hunt approaching August.

While it's true that no one expected the Cardinals to be here — our own Jeff Passan wrote 'em off on April 3 — should such low expectations be enough for everyone to jump ship one week before the trading deadline? We'll obviously see if GM John Mozeliak can nail down a relief pitcher or some offensive help and if Adam Wainwright or Chris Carpenter can be effective upon returning, but here's what I want to know right now: Can the Cards make themselves more of a factor over the final two months of the season?

Cast your vote below.

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5 quick baseball links to start your day ... 

1. If you're allergic to peanuts — and my sympathies for that tragic misfortune, if you are — Seattle's Safeco Field will be the place to be on Aug. 5 and Sept. 9. The stadium staff there is planning to make two sections "peanut-controlled" zones, cleaning each before the game and banning the sale of peanuts at nearby concession stands so those afflicted by the food allergy can watch the game without worry.

The Cardinals also held aside a peanut-free section earlier this week (the Twins, last month, too), but the concept isn't limited to the bigs. A minor league team in suburban Chicago made its entire stadium peanut-free earlier this month and the Nashua Pride in New Hampshire have been peanut-free all season.

Though it might seem sacrilegious to some of us shell-cracking folk to not be able to buy peanuts at a baseball game, I don't have much of a problem abstaining for a game or two a year. Peanuts can be potentially deadly to some people and if a little sacrifice on my part means that they can attend and enjoy a game, then I'm all for it. 

Making the entire season peanut-free, though? Now that might be a little too much. 

UPDATE: Just received an email from Justin Firesheets, the media relations director for the Birmingham Barons, a team that also went peanut-free for a game in '08: "It was the first time we had undertaken such an endeavor, and we had a tremendous amount of positive response in the community. It is likely something we will repeat in the future." 

[Read More: Seattle Times]

2. Hot trade rumor of the day: White Sox send Juan Uribe to the Red Sox, freeing up salary room to deal for Brian Roberts and paving the way to send Orlando Cabrera to the Dodgers. Death, taxes and Kenny Williams making a trade the last week of July. [CBS Sportline]

3. A fan who was in attendance at the last game of Yankee Stadium I in 1973: "By the sixth inning of that last game, all you heard was hammers ... People had come not only to see the last game but to take pieces of the Stadium, and they were tearing it apart. Back then, they didn’t have that much security.” [Dugout Central]

4. Fred Wilpon admits he screwed up the Willie Randolph firing. Ya think so, Fred? [NYDN via The 'Ropolitans]

5. If the AL East teams were characters from Batman, which characters would they be? [My Sports Rumors]

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This and every weekday, let's rise and shine together with the latest and greatest from around the majors. Today's Roll Call starts along the Mighty Mississippi, where the Mightier CC Sabathia has ditched the dots and left the rest of the Senior Circuit in his wake. The Big ol' Brewers look like a Super Bowl threat right now, not simply a World Series contender, after CC dealt the Redbirds bad card after bad card.

Game of the Day: Brewers 3, Cardinals 0

Everybody polka now: Being a Brewers fan hasn't been this much fun since Harvey's Wallbangers in '82. Cheddarheads watching CC Sabathia own the Cards must have felt all night like their team was a surefire bet to win the NL Central. Sabathia was filthy — just a naughty, naughty, boy — in going nine. Three singles. Seven KKKKKKKs, including one of Pujols-Pujols — who just threw his bat at it like the blouse-wearing poodle walker he is. Just kiddin', Albert. Ya' Sally!

Dig Doug: Brewers GM Doug Melvin could have made the best trade in Wisconsin history since the Packers added Brett Favre — or maybe since "Happy Days" made a deal with "Blansky's Beauties" for Chachi. Sabathia is 4-0 with a 1.36 ERA — and three straight complete games — in the NL, which don't know what hit it.

Initial this: James Jerry Hardy. You know him as "J.J." He went deep. He slugged .606 in June and is slugging .757 in July. That's an airplane, people. An airplane! So, why can't he drop his periods, too, like CC? Ryan Braun also hit a home run and had four hits, but he ain't got no dots, so who gives a big whoop?

Roadies: The Crue is a victory from a four-game sweep and an 8-0 road trip. Get naked, Uecker!

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Feelin' Rundown (Wednesday's other action): Read More >>

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