You may not care about Haeger or the Dodgers, but you should care that the Law of Conservation of Knuckleballers has once again been vindicated: Jeff Weaver will start for the Dodgers on Wednesday in place of Chad Billingsley, and Charlie Haeger will replace Eric Stults on the active roster to help back Weaver up, […]

Bob Watson speaks: Boston’s Kevin Youkilis and Detroit pitcher Rick Porcello were suspended for five games each Wednesday and fined by Major League Baseball for their roles in a benches-clearing confrontation. The pair asked the players’ union to appeal the penalties, which will be held off pending completion of the process. In addition, Detroit pitched […]

For linking to this, but for some reason it fascinates me: Kate Hudson has only been dating New York Yankees baseball star Alex Rodriguez for a few months, but she’s already hoping to start a family with him, reports In Touch Weekly. Hudson has a 5-year-old son, Ryder, from her marriage to Chris Robinson of […]

Via Florio, the Rays are getting into the bush league football business: On Wednesday, the UFL formally announced that the franchise headquartered in Orlando will be known as the “Florida Tuskers.” The UFL also announced that major league baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays have struck an agreement in principle to purchase an interest in the football […]

Dejan says that, contrary to his reputation, Lastings is being a model citizen: On the field early yesterday afternoon, I saw him run in the Coors Field outfield to ask strength coach Frank Velasquez what he could do extra. I saw him participate with enthusiasm in all team activities on the field, mostly serious but […]

There’s a new batting helmet design (pic in article) that is supposed to provide substantially greater protection from beanballs, but no one — apart from David Wright and Edgar Gonzalez, who is still suffering the effects from one to the head — seems to like it all that much: “No, I am absolutely not wearing […]

This is not terribly surprising: John Smoltz’s brief career with the Red Sox is over. Smoltz has refused the option of an assignment to the minor leagues, leaving the Red Sox with the option of either trading him or releasing him. They could trade him because he has cleared waivers, but one of the reasons […]

The guy who fired his manager mere days before his team made the playoffs is making moves again: Brewers’ GM Doug Melvin has fired pitching coach Bill Castro. He has sent J.J. Hardy down to Nashville and has called up Alcides Escobar. He has designated Bill Hall for assignment. Unlike the Yost move last year, […]

Today ShysterBall celebrates the 15th anniversary of the beginning of the 1994-95 strike! Sure, it was terrible, but at least we didn’t get a 72-win team winning the AL West! In other news: Hey, you and Tommy LaSorda? I hate Tommy Lasorda. The Tigers’ arms are going to be stretched come this postseason, though there’s […]

Red Sox 7, Tigers 5: You’ve probably seen the Youkilis-Porcello fracas, but here’s video of it from a slightly different angle which makes Youkilis seem like even more of the bad guy here. Of course his ejection was the best thing to happen to the Sox last night, as he was replaced by pinch-runner Mike […]