Take a Look at the Standings posted by Tony Rossi

I already knew that the Red Sox were in first, and that the Yanks were in second.  I also knew that whenever I looked at the standings, Toronto was not far behind New York.  What I didn’t know was that Tampa Bay is currently only a game behind Toronto. 

Everyone once in a while I hear a player say on TV that their division is the toughest in baseball.  I never really know who to believe because it seems to change every year.  Right now in 2009, I’m picking AL East as the toughest division in baseball.  Take a look:

AL East                  W           L              Games behind

Boston               45           26           --

New York           41           32           4.0

Toronto              41           34           5.0

Tampa Bay         40           35           6.0

posted by Colin Linneweber

The New York Times reported last week that former Chicago Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa was on a list of 103 players who tested positive for performance enhancing drugs in 2003.

Sosa, 40, a 7-time All-Star selection and 6-time Silver Slugger Award winner, helped revitalize the game of baseball in 1998 when he and fellow juicehead Mark McGwire pursued Roger Maris’ home run record.

“Slamming Sammy,” who won the 1998 NL MVP and ultimately broke Maris’ mark when he finished that season with 66 home runs, has long been rumored to have abused anabolic steroids during his playing career.

The native of the Dominican Republic is simply the latest name in a growing list of Major League Baseball superstars to be publicly exposed as a charlatan.

In July of 2002, Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly confronted Sosa about his alleged steroid abuse at his Wrigley Field locker and he asked the onetime “Windy City” icon to take a drug test to prove that his feats on the diamond were legitimate.

“You’ve said if baseball tests for steroids, you want to be first in line, right?” Reilly asked an unprepared Sosa.

“Yes,” replied the man who tallied 609 career home runs from 1989-2007.

“Well, why wait?” Reilly said.

According to Reilly, at this point he wrote down the name and phone number of a local LabCorp and he handed the information to Sosa.

Reilly then informed the 2000 Home Run Derby winner that the test could be conducted with either a blood or urine sample and the results of the examination would be returned within 10 days.
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Jose Canseco to bring full circus to court, plans to sue MLB and MLBPA posted by Matthew McCabe

Disgraced former MLB slugger Jose Canseco apparently has one more trick left up his sleeve to help keep himself in the limelight, well beyond his 15 minutes of fame. Canseco wants to get together with fellow disgraced steroid users Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro to file a lawsuit against Major League Baseball and the Players Association to seek compensation for loss of wages and defamation of character.

Canseco stated in a telephone interview that:

"Because I used steroids and I came out with a book, I was kicked out of the game, but I have not been inducted into the Hall of Fame. A lot of these players have not been inducted into the Hall of Fame: Mark McGwire and so forth. They're losing salaries, because obviously when you're inducted into the Hall of Fame, you get asked to do certain, you know, appearances and shows and so forth, which incorporates income. So there is a major income loss. Not even that, baseball blackballs you from their family, meaning you can't have a future proper reference from them, a job, no managerial jobs, no coaching jobs, nothing. They completely sever you."

Clearly Canseco is grasping at straws in his life. It is hard to know where to begin in criticizing Canseco, so in the interest of time we'll keep it brief. Canseco had a bright career when he broke into baseball, but his career was cut short by diminishing skills after roughly 10 seasons. His numbers went downhill and few people wanted him. In 2005 he wrote a tell all book, mostly in an attempt to make money, about the use of steroids in baseball in which he claimed as many as 85% of MLB players used steroids.

Yankee fans for Jesus, arise! Pray for your team! posted by Cesar Valverde

Ball players and their fans are very superstitious creatures. Ballplayers will do anything to get a hitting streak going. Pitchers will do anything to get a winning streak going. The fans will go anything to get a rally going if their team is behind during a game. They'll do everything from not washing their socks, to putting tar on their helmets. When a pitcher is throwing a perfect game, the rest of the players stay away from him, thinking that their mere presence is going to mess up his chances to make that milestone. New York Yankees SS Derek Jeter, our beloved captain is very superstitious. If he or his team is approaching some kind of milestone that he is not aware of, he will dog the media and say that they jinxed the team by bringing it to his attention. Case in point: during a post-game interview a couple of days before the Yankees beat the 2006 Boston Red Sox team record for most consecutive games played without committing an error, Kimberly Jones brought it his attention. The first thing that he tells her is, "Why did you tell me that, it's bad karma, " then he answers the questions. In a commercial on the MLB Network, they show fans showing up at the gate to their favorite teams ballparks some of them have face-paint on. Others are dressed like Shamans carrying Voodoo beads. Come on, people. Enough with the superstitions all ready! How about praying for your team? I do it! Whenever the Yankees are behind in a game and they're rallying, I lean forward in my chair and put in my hands together and bring them to my face in a praying position thinking, sometimes saying, "Come on!" I do this because I believe it will bring God into the situation and the Yankees will bring home runs. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Either way, I praise the Lord because ultimately the game is in His hands. Only He knows the outcome, but I believe prayer does more than just spark up a rally a bring in runs.

Is Big Papi Back on Track? posted by HankHillRedsox

The Boston Red Sox; Lose 2 out of 3 from the Central 1st place Texas Rangers but the Sox are still in 1st In The East!!!

  Today Dice-K and the Sox came out looking a little off for the first time in June!! Like I stated in a previous blog, if the Sox pitching is healthy they can take it all, and they had been proving that every game but today, Beckett and Lester almost threw no hitters this week, Wakefield and Penny(besides his last start) have been looking great and Dice got his 1st win since coming off the DL last week, but he didn't look that great today, a little off-- Hey you can't win them all!!!

   The Sox need Dice looking back to his old self, throwing in the low 90s, throwing over 90 pitches, only allowing a run or 2, instead today we went 5 innings giving up 10 hits and 5 earned runs and he would get the loss 6-3!! The the way that our hitting is going and having everyone contributing the Red Sox are a hard team to beat!! The exception weas yesterday's game when the Sox had only had 4 hits all game and never were able to get Dice the lead. Dice just looked uncomfortable.

 Youkilis and Ortiz each had 1 hit and Kotsay had 2 hits 1 being a homer leading to the Sox scoring  3 runs, but that's all they could come up with, leading to the 6-3 win by the Rangers!! Texas hung onto their lead and they won keeping them in first place also in the Central and winning this series against Boston at Fenway!! The Sox go into a day off in 1st place in the East tied with the Yankees and our next series will be against these Yankees here at Friendly Fenway. Tuesday Night --So Lets Win This Series, Let's go Sox.

Lester Pitches a 2-Hitter for Rex Sox Win posted by HankHillRedsox

Boston Red Sox; Jon Lester has another amazing start!!!
  Lester was awesome and pitched like Beckett the other night, LIGHTS OUT!! Last night it was Texas at Fenway and Lester came out and took out the Rangers, hittless for 7 innings.  I thought he was going to get a no-hitter once the 6th inning came and went and Lester just was painting the corners and striking people out left and right, ending with 11 strikeouts and just was pitching great.
  Lowell hit a solo shot in the 2nd to give the Sox the 1-0 lead. Then in the 5th Mr. David "Big Papi" Ortiz lead off with is 2nd homer of the year, Finally!! and Boston goes nuts Oritz went 2-3 so maybe the Big Man is comming around?!!  Pedroia would knock in Ellsbury and the Sox would go on a tare from there with every starter either having a hit or a run and left the 5th up 4-0!!  Thats all they would need even though they would tack on 4 more making it 8-0!!!
  Lester had a great cushion to work with and Sox nation was going crazy hoping for the no hitter just like a couple days ago with Beckett (so close, yet so far), but in the top of the 7th M. Young came to the plate with 1 out and he hit a single, breaking up Lester's no hitter,OH WELL, just as long as we win. Lester went on to finish and only would allow only 2 hits all game!!  In the 9th he would allow one run, but game over, and Lester gets his 5th win, pitching a great complete game, with just the 2 hits allowed, 11 strikeouts and just one earned run, amazing(and that is the 2nd game in a row he pitched great)!!!!!! So the Sox would not only take this one 8-1 but take back 1st place by themselvs with the Yankees losing!!!!
Continue reading "Lester Pitches a 2-Hitter for Rex Sox Win"

Boston Red Sox: Another Amazing Start by Lester posted by HankHillRedsox

Lester was awesome and pitched like Beckett the other night, LIGHTS OUT!! Last night it was Texas at Fenway and Lester came out and took out the Rangers, hittless for 7 innings.  I thought he was going to get a no-hitter after the 6th inning--Lester was painting the corners and striking people out left and right, ending with 11 strikeouts. he was on fire!
  Lowell hit a solo shot in the 2nd to give the Sox the 1-0 lead. Then in the 5th, Mr. David Big Papi Ortiz led off with his second homer of the year, hallelujah, and Boston went nuts. Ortiz went 2-3 so maybe the Big Man is coming around?!!  Pedroia would knock in Ellsbury and the Sox would go on a tear from there with every starter  having either a hit or a run and left the 5th up 4-0!!  That's all they would need even though they tacked on 4 more runs making it 8-0!!!
     So Lester had a great cushion and Sox nation went crazy hoping for the no hitter rerun of a couple days ago with Beckett (so close, yet so far), but in the top of the 7th, M. Young came to the plate with 1out, and he hit a single, breaking up Lester's no hitter. OH WELL, just as long as we win, but he still went on and allowed only 2 hits all game!!  In the 9th he allowed one run, but game over, and Lester gets his 5th win, pitching all 9 innings, just the 2 hits allowed, 11 strikeouts and just one earned run, amazing (and that was the 2nd game in a row he was great)!!!!!! So the Sox would not only take this one 8-1 but take back 1st place by themselves as the Yankees lost!!!!
Continue reading "Boston Red Sox: Another Amazing Start by Lester"

Wang is back in the rotation and Hughes goes to the bullpen posted by Cesar Valverde

He's won close to 20 games in each of his first three seasons. No pitcher in baseball history has gotten to 40 wins as fast as him. He's Chien-Ming Wang. This Taiwanese titan on the mound had a minor setback coming back from a foot injury this year. He didn't start too good this year posting an ERA of about 30.00. The average league ERA is about 5.00. It was determined that he had weakness in his hips. So Yankees management designated him to a rehab assignment down in Tampa. He came back last week out of the bullpen. After a few innings here and there to stretch him out much like Joe Girardi did with Joba Chamberlain last year after moving him from the bullpen. Now Wang is back in the rotation. Everybody is concerned. "Why is he back in the rotation?" they say. "Doesn't he need more time down in Tampa?" They ask. Well, Joe's made his decision. He's Yankee management latest stretchout project. Wang may not have done too good yesterday afternoon as the Yankees had to pull a win out in walk-off fashion against the Texas Rangers thanks to Melky Cabrera, but I believe that he's been a fish out of water in the bullpen. It's about time, he's back in the rotation. His resume speaks for itself. You can't deny it. Replacing him in the bullpen is Phil Hughes. He is still young. He needs to continue to mature. What better place to continue to grow as a pitcher than around pitchers like Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett. We are talking about a good 30-40 years of experience combined from these pitchers. There is no doubt thaContinue reading "Wang is back in the rotation and ..."

Vicente Padilla beat the Rangers last night, not the Yankees posted by Cesar Valverde

Every pitcher has that one team that bangs him around, hit after hit, homer after homer. He wants respect so what does he do? He decides to plunk an opposing batter. This is what Texas Rangers pitcher Vicente Padilla tried to do against the Yankees last night: try to get respect by plunking Mark Teixiera, not once, but twice. It backfired on him. All this did was spark a 7-run rally in the 4th inning for the Yankees. That home run by Hideki Matsui put the nail in the coffin on another Yankee win to keep them 1 game up on the Red Sox in the American League East. It prompted Mark Teixiera to shout, "That's what I'm talking about!" while congratulating Matsui after running the bases. A word to the wise to any pitcher thinking of plunking a player on the Yankees: they are a close knit team. You plunk any of their players purposely and it will spark their offense to bring out the heavy artillery. A couple of hits here, a double there, cap it with a home run and you're beat. Congratulations to Derek Jeter on scoring the 1500 run of his career during the 4th inning schlacking of Texas Rangers pitching. You're an inspiration, Cap! Andy Pettitte takes the hill tonight for Game 2. Are we going to see more sparks during this series?Continue reading "Vicente Padilla beat the Rangers ..."

Balls flying out of Yankee Stadium. Should we worry? posted by Cesar Valverde

There's a lot of media out there stressing how the balls are flying out of Yankee stadium. Good! As long as the majority of the homers are off Yankee bats, I'm not worried. Our pitchers can handle it as long as the offense gives them plenty of run support and the relievers don't mess up. Granted, there have been more home runs at the new stadium than in any other ball park, but that's also been the case at Citizen's Bank Ballpark in Philadelphia, the home of the Phillies. They've made adjustments: removed a few seats here and pushed the wall back there. Balls are still flying out and who are the defending World Champions? The Philadelphia Phillies. Why? Because their many of their sluggers like Matt Stairs and Ryan Howard took advantage of it. I believe the Yankees can follow suit and do the same this year. Already their home run total is among tops in the American League. They've been swapping the team home run lead with the Texas Rangers the past week and a half now. Are you ready for a homerun derby between the Yankees and the Rangers the next 3 days? I sure am. I love home runs. The longer the homers, the better. Keep them coming A-Rod. Keep them coming Tex (Mark Teixiera). Oh what the heck! Keep them coming Josh Hamilton. We love 'em!

Rangers lay off several front office staff

The Texas Rangers have cut several staff members from its front office, despite improved results on the field and at the gate.Rangers spokesman John Blake tells the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that the job cuts amounted to less than 10 percent of the staff. Before the cuts, the Rangers had about 275 organization employees exclusive of onfield personnel.The Rangers lead the AL West going into Tuesday night's home game against the Houston Astros. [read full article]

From FOXSports.com News for MLB

Rangers sign El Duque to minor-league deal

Orlando Hernandez has agreed to a minor league contract with the Texas Rangers.El Duque, part of World Series championships with three teams, is expected to join Triple-A Oklahoma City for workouts Sunday. He could start pitching soon after that.Rangers general manager Jon Daniels says Hernandez, who hasn't pitched in the major leagues since 2007, is in great shape. Daniels called it a low-risk move that could provide experienced depth in the bullpen.Hernandez is 90-65 with a 4. [read full article]

From FOXSports.com News for MLB

Rangers await injury reports on star OF, closer

At 33-23, the Texas Rangers are tied with the New York Yankees for the best record in the American League, but the severity of injuries to key players will help determine how long that remains the case. [read full article]

From FOXSports.com News for MLB