A Humorous Look at Recent Baseball News

The Indians were expecting close to 35,000 fans to attend Sunday’s game against the Nationals, the team’s highest attendance since Opening Day. I think it’s great that so many Indians fans are excited about seeing highly touted prospect Carlos Santana play. Hear he plays a mean guitar.  Or maybe they are excited about the rejuvenated career of Austin Kearns. Could it be something else?

Stephen Strasburg continues to mow down the competition at Triple A. After holding the Buffalo Bisons to three hits on June 3, Strasburg held the Pittsburgh Pirates to four hits on June 8 while striking out 14 batters and held the Cleveland Indians to two hits while fanning eight on June 13. Wait a minute, I stand corrected. I’ve been informed that the Pirates and Indians are major league teams after all.

With Prince’s blessing, the Baltimore Orioles have petitioned the league to officially change their name to “The Team Formerly Known as the Baltimore Orioles.”

Looks like Roy Halladay should have requested a trade to the San Diego Padres. The Phillies have a worse record than the Blue Jays right now while the Padres have been in first place most of the season. Halladay would have been unbeatable pitching at pitcher-friendly Petco Park. If Halladay and the Phillies keep up this pace for six more years, Halladay has a chance to break Fergie Jenkins’ record for most wins by a pitcher who has never appeared in the postseason—284.

It’s a little surprising that the Yankees don’t seem to be interested in pursuing Lebron James when he becomes a free agent July 1. Don’t they go after every high-profile free agent? Besides, James has been seen numerous times wearing a Yankees cap, so he obviously wants to play for them.

I hear the league office plans to investigate why no perfect games have been pitched over the last two weeks. If Milt Gaston and Joe Clearey were still alive today, even they would be able to pitch a perfect game.

How long before we see Armando Galarraga and umpire Jim Joyce bring their forgiveness tour to the Dr. Phil show? Can we please go back to having umpires blow calls in anonymity?

MLB teams now have a third option when dealing with injured players. In addition to the 15-day and 60-day disabled list, players can now be placed on the Nick Johnson Permanently Disabled List. Certainly gives new meaning to the term “nicked up.”

Oliver Perez has to be the hard-luck pitcher of the year. Just when things were coming together for him he has the misfortune to get hit by the injury bug, which forced him to go on the DL with a case of badpitchingitis. I’m sure Mets fans want him to take it easy and not rush back too soon.

It really sucks for Blue Jays fans that the June 25-27 games against the Phillies had to be moved to Philadelphia due to the G8 Summit being held in Toronto. I understand the Florida Marlins’ season-ending home series against the Pittsburgh Pirates from Sept. 30-Oct. 3 has also been moved to Philadelphia due to a conflict those days with the Baptist Church bake sale and bingo extravaganza. Both Marlins fans who had bought tickets to the games have had their money refunded.

Chris Jensen is a baseball writer and SABR member from Indiana who is working on a book about all-time teams by players’ state of birth.