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Giants interested in Marlins’ Dan Uggla

Apparently the near-Jake Peavy deal between the Padres and White Sox woke up other general managers in baseball, because trade rumors are starting to kick up around the league.

One of the bigger rumors is that the Giants are interested in Marlins’ second baseman Dan Uggla. According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the offense-needy Giants would have to give up a young starter to swing a deal for Uggla, and both Matt Cain and Jonathan Sanchez’s names were brought up in the report.

Even though San Fran has one of the worst offenses in baseball (they currently rank dead last in the NL in runs scored, on base percentage and slugging percentage), Giants’ GM Brian Sabean should be kicked repeatedly in the stones if he trades Cain for Uggla straight up.

Cain is pitching in his fourth year already and he’s only 24. His career record of 35-44 suggests he’s light years away from becoming a productive pitcher, but his career ERA of 3.63 paints a better picture. He’s a pitcher that has been cursed with poor run support over his career, but that has changed this season and he’s now finally getting the attention he deserves while posting a 5-1 record and 2.40 ERA so far in ’09.

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Mo Williams guarantees a series win

Down 2-1 with Game 4 in Orlando tonight, Mo Williams is still confident that the Cavs are going to advance to the Finals. He’s so confident that he’s not afraid to give the Magic some bulletin board material in case they need a little extra motivation.

“Guarantee we’re going to win the series? Yeah, yeah,” he said. “We are down 2-1. But there is nobody on this team and definitely not myself that says we are not going to win this series. Yeah, it is going to be tough. We know that. We get this game tomorrow, go home, still got home-court advantage.

“We don’t see ourselves losing two out of three at home.”

There’s a difference between being guaranteeing a series win and being confident that you can pull it off. Once Williams used the word “guarantee,” he took his confidence to another level — one that might ultimately fire up the Magic and hurt Cleveland’s chances.

Without LeBron’s amazing shot in Game 2, the Cavs would be facing elimination tonight. They have been thoroughly outplayed and simply don’t match up very well with the Magic. Williams’ statement that the Cavs are the “best team in basketball” sounds hollow right now, especially from a guy who is shooting 32% from the field in the series. He really needs to play well tonight to help his team (and to back up these words).

Tyson’s daughter critically injured in home accident

Mike Tyson’s 4-year old daughter Exodus is in critical condition after she was found hanging from the cord of a treadmill at her home in Phoenix.

The 4-year-old daughter of former heavyweight boxing champ Mike Tyson was critically injured on Monday in what police said was a tragic accident at home. According to Fox News, Exodus Tyson was found by her 7-year-old brother hanging from the cord of a treadmill. At press time was reported to be in “extremely” critical condition and on life support at St. Joseph’s Hospital.

The toddler was reportedly playing near the exercise equipment in the family’s Phoenix home while her mother was elsewhere in the house cleaning on Monday morning. When her mother sent the boy to look for Exodus, he found her tangled in the cord. He alerted the mother, who immediately called 911 and began performing CPR.

“Somehow the little girl got something caught across her throat, she became unresponsive, the boy went and got the mother, and the mother came out and found the child,” Phoenix Police Sgt. Andy Hill told the Phoenix Fox affiliate.

Tyson, who has been promoting a documentary about his life for the past month, “Tyson,” was in Las Vegas at the time of the accident and reportedly flew home immediately upon receiving word of it.

Police are calling the mishap a “tragic accident.” A police spokesperson told Fox News that there was “nothing in the investigation that revealed anything suspicious.”

I’m not a parent, so I can only imagine how kids can get into things when you think you’ve placed them in a safe environment. (Or disappear when you turn your back to do something else.)

I’m sure it was an accident and this is an incredibly sad situation. Hopefully young Exodus can recover.

Manny needs a lesson in humility

Usually when a person screws up (I mean really screws up), they show remorse, embarrassment and even humility.

But apparently not Manny Ramirez.

In the days after Man-Ram was suspended 50 games after being caught with a prescription for hCG (or was it because his testosterone levels where four times that of a normal man?), Dodgers owner Frank McCourt demanded that his star slugger apologize to his teammates. So Manny did.

But when McCourt wanted Ramirez to come to Los Angeles following his apology to the team in Miami, Manny was a no show. While he’s suspended, McCourt wants Ramirez to be around the team, help some of the young hitters improve their game and overall, show remorse. But Manny will have none of that because he’s choosing to stay away until his suspension is completed. Oh, and apparently he’s also dropping hints that he plans on suing the doctor who prescribed him the hCG.

Ramirez could learn a lesson in humility. Everyone screws up and while it’s easier to crawl into a hole until the dust settles, it’s better to at least make an attempt to make amends and set things right. That means if McCourt wants Manny in the clubhouse instructing his Dodger teammates on how to become better 0-2 hitters, then Ramirez should abide by his wishes. McCourt isn’t asking Manny to clean the clubhouse toilets – he’s asking him to be a good teammate and to not ride this embarrassment out in the comforts of his own home.

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Tribe come from 10 runs down to beat Rays

With their 11-10 win over the Rays on Monday night, the Indians became the first team to win a game after trailing by 10 runs since the Rangers rallied to beat the Tigers in 2004.

Thanks to another brutal performance by Fausto Carmona in which he walked the first four men he faced in the second inning on 20 pitches and gave up five runs while getting only one out, the Tribe fell behind 5-0 after only two innings. Cleveland then surrendered five more runs to fall behind 10-0 after three and a half innings before scratching across two runs in the fourth and two more in the eighth to make it 10-4 Rays.

The massive rally in the ninth started when Grady Sizemore walked, Victor Martinez popped out to third, Jhonny Peralta singled to left and then a throwing error on a ground ball by Shin-Soo Choo allowed Sizemore to score and Peralta to get to third. Mark DeRosa then lined out for the second out of the inning, but Ryan Garko belted a three-run dinger to cut Tampa’s lead down to 10-8. After Asdrubal Cabrera, Ben Francisco and Jamey Carroll all walked, Rays’ reliever Jason Isringhausen then walked Sizemore to force a run home to make the game 10-9. The final dagger for Tampa came when Martinez singled home Francisco and Carroll to give the Indians an improbable 11-10 win.

It’s amazing how games can turn in the blink of an eye. Had Rays’ shortstop Reid Brignac not made a throwing error on Choo’s grounder, Tampa probably would have turned a double play and the game would have been over. But one thing leads to the next and before you know it, your team loses. (Of course, the 67 walks in the ninth didn’t help the Rays either.)

Despite the win, Carmona once again had major control issues. It’s amazing to think that he was viewed as one of the better young arms in baseball just two years ago and now he’s on a crash course to baseball purgatory. Also, top pitching prospect David Price failed to get out of the fourth inning in his debut, although he did strike out six. Like Carmona, Price had major issues with his control and threw 100 pitches to record just 10 outs. He walked five in total.

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