Category: MLB (Page 239 of 448)

Chris Carpenter likely headed to DL

Cardinals’ manager Tony La Russa indicated Tuesday night that starting pitcher Chris Carpenter is likely to be out for a while after he strained his left rib cage during the fourth inning of St. Louis’s 9-6 loss to the Diamondbacks.

“Couldn’t throw,” Carpenter said. “I tried to throw the last one there and it hurt pretty good.”

Carpenter was removed from the game after throwing his warmup pitches for the fourth inning. The righthander was diagnosed at the scene with a strained rib-cage muscle. Carpenter later described it as an oblique injury, pointing to the left side of his torso as he explained that it was still sore after the game. He said he will return to St. Louis and meet with team doctors Thursday.
While the Cardinals wouldn’t confirm their plans to make move Wednesday morning, it is certain that Carpenter is headed to the 15-day disabled list and the Cardinals will be looking for a starter.

“The most important thing is that Chris Carpenter got hurt,” manager Tony La Russa said after his team’s 7-6 loss in extra innings to Arizona. ” No matter what happens in the game, the most important thing is it looks like he’s going to be out for awhile. That kind of overwhelms everything else that happened in the game.”

So much for Carpenter turning in a full year. The risk of him getting hurt is always high and it happened again just three starts into his 2009 campaign. Hopefully for the Cardinals’ sake, that it’s nothing too serious and that he’ll only make one trip to the DL, but either way this has to be frustrating for a team that needs Carpenter to stay healthy in order to make a serious run this season.

Manny sees Cleveland reunion before career is finished

It hasn’t even been six full weeks since the Dodgers re-signed Manny Ramirez to a two-year contract and already Man-Ram is talking about playing for another team.

Before the Dodgers’ 11-1 win in their home opener against the Giants on Monday, Ramirez indicated that he would like to play in Cleveland one more time before his career is finished.

“I would like to play for Cleveland one more time, to go back where I started,” said Ramirez, with the Dodgers playing their home opener Monday against the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium. “I have so many good memories there, why not?

“I think to go back where you started is everyone’s dream.”

Thome and Ramirez each might be eligible for free agency this winter if Ramirez opts out of his two-year contract. And if they become free agents, Ramirez told Thome, they should both consider returning to Cleveland.

“Manny was very sincere when he brought that up to me,” Thome said. “Manny was saying how special that would be for us to both go back together. He was very passionate. Baseball’s such a weird thing. You never know what’s going to happen.”

I’m not going to make a bigger deal out of this than it is, but it’s amazing to me that Ramirez just did a four month dance with the Dodgers over a new contract and the second he has the opportunity, he talks about potentially playing for another team down the road.

All-Star pitcher Mark Fidrych dies

Former Tigers All-Star starting pitcher Mark Fidrych died on Monday in apparent accident on his farm.

Mark FidrychMark “the Bird” Fidrych, the fun-loving pitcher who baffled hitters for one All-Star season and entertained fans with his antics, was found dead Monday in an apparent accident at his farm. He was 54.

Worcester County district attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. said a family friend found Fidrych about 2:30 p.m. Monday beneath a dump truck in Northborough, Mass., about 35 miles west of Boston. He appeared to have been working on the truck, Early said.

Joseph Amorello said he had stopped by the farm to chat with Fidrych when he found the body underneath the 10-wheel truck. Amorello owns A.F. Amorello & Sons, a company that does road construction, and said he sometimes hired Fidrych to haul asphalt or gravel in the truck.

The curly haired right-hander was the American League Rookie of the Year in 1976, when he went 19-9 with a 2.34 ERA and 24 complete games. But injuries cut short his career, and he ended up spending only five seasons in the major leagues, all with the Detroit Tigers. He was 29-19 with a 3.10 ERA.

Unfortunately, I was still a twinkle in my father’s eye when Fidrych was pitching, but everything you read and hear was that he was a fun-loving, popular player and just a joy to watch.

Coupled with the death of Angels’ starter Nick Adenhart and long-time Phillies’ broadcast announcer Harry Kalas, baseball has suffered some blows this month.

Top 10 worst athletes to ask for financial advice

With tax day quickly approaching, Real Clear Sports.com complied a list of the top 10 worst athletes to ask for financial advice.

Here is the top 3:

3. Michael Vick
So, how did Vick go from one of the highest paid athletes to owing millions? To start, there’s the entourage. Vick was spending about $300,000 a month to support friends and family. But the biggest factor was who was in control of his money. Vick entrusted his money to a woman who is banned from working with any firm that trades on the NYSE because she bilked two old women out of $150K and a man who’s been accused of defrauding church members. His finances were such a mess that the bankruptcy judge appointed a trustee to help him out.

Vick owes over a million dollars in back taxes and it was recently discovered that he took funds from the pension plans of some of his employees. But if you are beginning to feel sorry for Vick, (“Then you’re not a dog lover”!) don’t. To pay off some of the debt, Vick will be selling three of his SIX homes. That’s less than one home per season. Do you really expect Vick to summer in Virginia? Do you?

2. Latrell Sprewell
In August of 2007, a federal marshal seized his $1.5 million yacht after Sprewell had failed to pay his mortgage on the boat. The yacht, with the classy name, Milwaukee’s Best, was auctioned in early 2008.

Oh well, at least Sprewell would still have his home in River Hills, Wisconsin. That is, until it was foreclosed on in May of last year. So, let’s see, he lost his yacht and his house. It can’t get much worse. Oh, and now Wisconsin has filed a lawsuit for unpaid taxes. Hopefull Sprewell isn’t expecting a big refund this year.

1. Mike Tyson
In 2003, he filed for bankruptcy. His debt reached over $27 million, about half of which was to the IRS. Maybe he shouldn’t have bought the two Bengal tigers for $140,000, for which he also had to pay a trainer $125,000 a year. Although, that’s just a small drop in the bucket. He could’ve cut back on his motor vehicles, on which he spent about $4.5 million. But perhaps the most inane purchase? How about a bathtub for his first wife, Robin Givens, that cost $2 million dollars.

Tyson could’ve gotten his finances in order had he won the $100 million lawsuit against Don King (he was suing his former boxing promoter for cheating him out of millions in promotions), but the parties reached a settlement of $14 million, of which Tyson saw none. All of the money went to paying down his debt.

When you figure that most of these athletes never seek out sound legal and financial advice, it’s easy to see how they blow through wads of money in a very short period of time. They just think that money will always come in and they don’t have to worry about anything long-term. How Vick blew through all his money is still beyond me.

Report: Troy Glaus used steroids in 2003

According to the New York Times, Cardinals’ third baseman Troy Glaus told investigators that he injected himself once every four days with performance-enhancing drugs starting in November of 2003 and continued using for three months after.

Troy GlaussEven after Major League Baseball and its players union bowed to pressure and started a testing program in 2003, the All-Star third baseman — Troy Glaus of the Anaheim Angels — and the worn-down pitcher — his teammate Scott Schoeneweis — said they continued using steroids. (Steroids had been banned in baseball since 1991, but there was no way to enforce the ban until 2003.)

Glaus said he was “willing to take the risk” because he needed to play, according to a report written by the federal agent who interviewed him. Schoeneweis said he knew when players were tested because he was his team’s union representative, according to the report, though Schoeneweis said in an interview last month that the agent misinterpreted him. A basic tenet of effective drug testing is that the element of surprise is essential.

It was in 2003 that Glaus, a four-time All-Star and the most valuable player of the 2002 World Series, went on the disabled list for the first time in his career. He injured his right shoulder while trying to field a bunt in July and a month later received a diagnosis of a partly torn rotator cuff and fraying labrum. He missed the rest of the season.

Frustrated with his rehabilitation, Glaus contacted Scruggs, whose only request was for a blood sample to see whether Glaus’s testosterone levels were low enough to warrant a prescription for steroids. Medical files seized from Scruggs’s office show the steroids were sent before Scruggs reviewed Glaus’s blood test.

Asked by the investigators whether he was concerned that Scruggs did not ask to see him, Glaus was quoted in the report as saying: “I just wanted to get better, it didn’t alarm me. I just wanted to get better and play.”

None of these steroids reports should surprise anyone anymore. It would be more of a surprise if a ball player said that they didn’t use steroids and they were proven innocent.

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