2007 MLB General News Thread

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Roy Halladay Returning Sooner Than Expected

Toronto Blue Jays ace Roy Halladay will return to the rotation next week and come off the disabled list earlier than originally expected.

Manager John Gibbons said before Saturday's game at Minnesota that Halladay will start at home on Thursday against the Chicago White Sox, one day less than three weeks since he had his appendix removed. The procedure was initially supposed to keep him off the mound for at least one month.

But Halladay, who is 4-2 with a 4.37 ERA in eight appearances this season, responded well to the appendectomy and felt good after throwing 65 pitches in a simulated game on Friday. He'll have five days of rest before making his first start since May 10.

"He's one of the best pitchers in the game. We want to run him out there," Gibbons said.

The next question for the Blue Jays is whose spot will be given up for Halladay, but Gibbons was coy on the subject.

"When we decide to make a change, we'll let you know," he said.

Rookie Jesse Litsch, who didn't finish the fifth inning in Friday's 4-3 loss to the Twins, is scheduled to make his next start on Wednesday against the New York Yankees. Tomo Ohka, Saturday's starter, could be the odd man out.

Source: ESPN

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Ryan Freel In Hosptial After Collision

Cincinnati Reds center fielder Ryan Freel was injured after colliding with right fielder Norris Hopper on Monday and placed on a stretcher before taken by ambulance to a hospital.

The frightening scene took place in the third inning of the Reds' game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Freel and Hopper were chasing a fly ball hit by Humberto Cota leading off the inning. Freel caught the ball on the warning track and his left arm was run into by Hopper. Freel was twirled around to his left and fell at the base of the wall.

After being examined by Reds trainers and physicians, Freel was turned over on his back, strapped to a stretcher, loaded into an ambulance and taken to Good Samaritan Hospital. Freel was on the field more than 10 minutes while he was being examined.

Source: Sports Illustrated

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Bonds Might Not Give Souvenirs To Hall of Fame

As Barry Bonds nears his record 756th home run, he's stockpiling quite a collection of souvenirs -- bats, balls, helmets and spikes, pieces of baseball history perfectly suited for the Hall of Fame.

Whether he'll donate any of them to Cooperstown, however, is in doubt.

"I'm not worried about the Hall," the San Francisco slugger said during a recent homer drought. "I take care of me."

No wonder those at the museum are getting concerned, especially with Bonds only 10 homers shy of breaking Hank Aaron's career mark.

"There's uncertainty," Hall vice president Jeff Idelson acknowledged.

Around 35,000 artifacts are shown and stored at the shrine, and about a dozen pertain to Bonds.

There is a bat from his rookie year and cleats from him becoming the first player in the 400-homer/400-steal club. Unsolicited, he sent the bat and ball from his 2,000th hit. A batting practice bat from the 2002 World Series was the last thing Bonds provided.

Nothing directly from Bonds to highlight his 500th home run. Ditto for homers 714 and 715, when he tied and passed Babe Ruth. Same for anything tied to him topping Mark McGwire's single-season total of 70.

"Barry is very cognizant of his place in baseball history and we'll try to work closely with him to assure him that how this milestone is represented meets his expectations and ours," Idelson said.

"You need artifacts from the player to do that," he said. "A cap, bat or jersey, anything can tie a visitor to a specific event."

Aaron, who has said he will not attend the record-breaker, is well-documented at the Hall. There are 40 assorted items from his career; Ruth is remembered with more than 30.

The Hall does have the home plate from Bonds' 714th homer and first base and the lineup card from No. 715 -- those came from ballparks, not him.

Bonds is careful with personal items related to his home run pursuit. He makes certain that hats, jerseys and other things he wears are authenticated, and he keeps them in a warehouse.

Source: Sports Illustrated

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A-Rod Hits the Strip Club with Woman Other Than His Wife

Alex Rodriguez made the cover of the New York Post on Wednesday -- and not because of the New York Yankees' latest slump.

"STRAY-ROD" blared the Page 1 headline across a picture of A-Rod and an unidentified woman. "Alex hits strip club with mystery blonde," it continued.

The Post said the pair entered an elevator at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto -- near the Park Hyatt where most of the Yankees stayed -- after dinner at a steak house Sunday night. They later went to a strip club, the newspaper said.

An inside headline called him a "YANKEE DOODLE RANDY."

"Cynthia Rodriguez -- A-Rod's wife and mother of their 2 1/2-year-old daughter Natasha -- was nowhere to be seen," the Post said.

Rodriguez had little to say on the matter before Wednesday's game against Toronto.

"Absolutely no comment about anything personal and I certainly don't think this will be a distraction to our team," he said.

Asked whether it would be a distraction to him personally, Rodriguez said, "No, I don't think so."

"I think everything probably got blown out of proportion like always," outfielder Johnny Damon said.

Manager Joe Torre agreed: "When you get into that area, I think it's over the line. It's what people seem to think is important or seem to think they have to do.

"In New York, there are so many more things that you talk about on a regular basis in addition to baseball," Torre added. "When I took this job I certainly knew it wasn't going to be about hitting and running and changing pitchers."

Torre said Rodriguez discussed the tabloid story with him.

"Alex is a big boy," Torre said. "I know how serious he takes his baseball. It really wasn't an issue for me in the fact that he wouldn't be ready to play tonight.

"My job is to keep the distractions from carrying over onto the playing field," Torre said.

Source: ESPN

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Chipper Jones Head to DL

Atlanta Braves third baseman Chipper Jones is going on the 15-day disabled list with a bruised right hand.

Manager Bobby Cox said the team will place Jones on the disabled list on Saturday. He has been experiencing pain in both hands since a baserunning collision on May 11 and had missed seven straight games before the Braves opened a weekend series against the Chicago Cubs on Friday. Jones received a cortisone shot following the game on May 23 but noticed no improvement.

"I don't think it's gotten any better at all,'' he said. "It was getting worse when I was playing. It hasn't gotten much better since.''

Jones, who is batting .300 with 12 homers and 27 RBIs, said the pain has spread from the base of his thumbs into both palms and wrists.

"The central part of the pain is in the base of the thumb,'' he said. "When I swing, my wrists hurt, my thumbs hurt. It's just impossible to use my hands at all.''

With the pain spreading, Jones thinks the injury might be more severe than he first thought.

"I think there's something else. I don't know what,'' he said. "I've got pain in both hamate bones in the outside of the palms. I've got pain radiating into my wrists.''

Jones believes he might have damaged a ligament in his wrist, making it "very uncomfortable to swing the bat,'' he said.

Jones will be inactive for the next week and refused to give a timetable for his return.

"I'm not going to make any predictions,'' he said. "I would have certainly thought that I'd be past this and pain free.''

The Braves will purchase the contract of infielder Yunel Escobar from Triple-A Richmond on Saturday.

Source: [url=http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2890221]ESPN/url]

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Giants Trade Armando Benitez To Marlins

The San Francisco Giants sent Armando Benitez back to where he enjoyed his greatest success, trading the struggling closer to the Florida Marlins for reliever Randy Messenger on Thursday night.

Benitez, who recently rankled the team by blaming San Francisco hitters for not scoring enough runs, was not in the clubhouse after the Giants' 4-2 loss to the New York Mets and his locker was completely cleaned out.

Benitez was 0-3 with nine saves in 11 chances and a 4.67 ERA. He had been getting booed at home, as he was last season.

The Giants are fourth in the NL West at 25-27. Brad Hennessey has the other two saves for San Francisco this season.

Benitez's final game for the Giants came Tuesday night, when he balked twice in the 12th inning of a 5-4 loss to the New York Mets. On his last pitch for San Francisco, he gave up a game-ending home run to Carlos Delgado.

Benitez is owed $5,066,666 from the remainder of his $7.6 million salary this year, of which Florida will pay $333,333 and San Francisco will pay $4,733,333.

"We're getting a guy that has that experience and our people think he can still do it," Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez said after a 4-3 loss at Milwaukee.

Messenger was 1-1 with a 2.66 ERA for the Marlins. He is expected to join the Giants in Philadelphia on Friday.

The 25-year-old righty is from Reno, Nev., and welcomed the chance to pitch closer to home -- and to witness Barry Bonds make home run history.

"Now I just get to follow the freak show," he said. "It'll be a good thing. Definitely a good thing. Hopefully he does it in San Francisco so all my family will be there, too, so they can celebrate with us."

The 34-year-old Benitez returns to Florida, where he set a team record with a career-high 47 saves in 2004. That was his only season with the Marlins, and the righty signed with the Giants as a free agent after that season.

"I think we knew a long time ago there may be a comfort level with Florida, but the whole thing came together in 24 hours," Sabean said.

Florida was interested in trading for Benitez last offseason, but instead got Jorge Julio in spring training from Arizona. Julio did poorly and was traded to Colorado, leaving Kevin Gregg as the Marlins closer.

"We love Armando. He did a great job for us in '04," Florida assistant general manager Michael Hill said. "We know him and we know he liked his time here, so we're very happy to have him back."

A hard thrower, Benitez is prone to getting excitable on the mound. He has 289 saves in a major league career that began in 1994, but has had particular trouble in the postseason.

Messenger is making the major league minimum of $380,000 this season. In three seasons, he is 3-8 with a 4.98 ERA in 111 relief appearances.

Source: ESPN

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Sheffield's Conspiracy Theory

The percentage of African-Americans playing Major League Baseball is at an all-time low and Gary Sheffield says he has a theory why that's the case.

In an interview with GQ magazine that's currently on newsstands, the typically outspoken Tigers designated hitter said Latin players have replaced African-Americans as baseball's most prevalent minority because they are easier to control.

"I called it years ago. What I called is that you're going to see more black faces, but there ain't no English going to be coming out. ¦ [It's about] being able to tell [Latin players] what to do -- being able to control them," he told the magazine.

"Where I'm from, you can't control us. You might get a guy to do it that way for a while because he wants to benefit, but in the end, he is going to go back to being who he is. And that's a person that you're going to talk to with respect, you're going to talk to like a man.

"These are the things my race demands. So, if you're equally good as this Latin player, guess who's going to get sent home? I know a lot of players that are home now can outplay a lot of these guys."

According to a 2005 report by the University of Central Florida Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, only 8.5 percent of major leaguers were African American -- the lowest percentage since the report was initiated in the mid-1980s. By contrast, whites comprised 59.5 percent of the majors' player pool, Latinos 28.7 percent and Asians 2.5.

Source: ESPN

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Damon May Play First Base

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

The New York Post reported Sunday that Johnny Damon was spotted working at first base on Saturday and the Yankees center fielder might eventually see some time at the position.

"[Joe Torre] told me to work there and in the [outfield] corners," Damon told the newspaper. "I am going to play [first] eventually. I am OK with it."

The Yankees are down a first baseman with Doug Mientkiewicz headed to the disabled list with a fractured bone in his right wrist.

Mientkiewicz collided with Boston's Mike Lowell on an errant throw by shortstop Derek Jeter in Saturday's game.

Mientkiewicz was taken from the field on a cart after banging his head on Lowell's hip while trying to one-hop Jeter's throw in the seventh inning.

Mientkiewicz was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital, where tests Saturday night revealed a mild concussion, cervical sprain and a fractured bone in his right wrist. He spent the night in the hospital for observation.

Mientkiewicz, a left-handed hitter, was platooning with right-handed hitting Josh Phelps at first base.

Damon will see most of his at-bats at designated hitter while Jason Giambi is on the disabled list. Damon played one game at first base last season and recorded three putouts in three chances.

Source: ESPN

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Former Closer Beck Found Dead

Rod Beck was a menacing sight on the mound, with a bushy mustache and a searing stare that intimidated batters throughout his 13-year career as one of baseball's best closers.

Yet his friends in the game knew Beck as a hardworking teammate and a jovial character whose early death saddened players all around the major leagues.

Beck, an All-Star relief pitcher who earned 286 career saves, was found dead in his home Saturday. He was 38.

"He was a great guy -- always happy, always picking guys up," said Giants outfielder Ryan Klesko, who played with Beck in San Diego. "I know he went through some tough times in the last couple of years, and it just crushes you."

Beck was discovered by police officers responding to a call to his home in suburban Phoenix, police department spokesman Andy Hill said Sunday. Foul play is not suspected, though the cause of death might not be known for several days.

Beck is survived by his wife, Stacey, and two daughters, 13-year-old Kayla and 12-year-old Kelsey.

Source:ESPN

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A-Rod Hits Home Run #500

Alex Rodriguez became the youngest player in major league history to hit 500 home runs, sending the first pitch he saw Saturday just past the foul pole in left field.

Rodriguez stood at home plate for a second, waiting to see if his first-inning drive off Royals starter Kyle Davies would stay fair. He threw his hands in the air after the ball landed in the seats and began trotting around the bases with a wide grin on his face as the Yankee Stadium crowd cheered wildly.

When he reached the plate, he hugged Derek Jeter and Bobby Abreu, who both scored on the landmark home run, and blew a kiss toward the stands. His teammates were already on the field and he embraced several of them on his way back to the bench.

The crowd buzzed and roared again when A-Rod stuck his head out of the dugout for the long-awaited curtain call, which came more than a week after he hit No. 499 and eight days after his 32nd birthday.

Rodriguez surpassed Jimmie Foxx (32 years, 338 days) as the youngest player to reach 500 homers. A-Rod is the 22nd player to reach the mark, the second this season behind Frank Thomas.

Rodriguez and Thomas are the only two players in MLB history to hit their first homers of the season and 500th career off the same team.

A-Rod's first home run came on June 12, 1995, against Tom Gordon and Kansas City. He hit No. 100 in August 1998, No. 200 in May 2001 with Texas and No. 300 in April 2003 with Texas. Number 400 came on June 8, 2005, against Milwaukee during his second season with the Yankees.

He hit 189 home runs with Seattle, 156 with Texas and has 155 with New York. He is one of only three players, along with Reggie Jackson and Darrell Evans, to hit 100 home runs for three different teams.

Rodriguez leads the majors with 36 this season, already surpassing the 35 he hit last year.

A-Rod has now hit 103 career homers in Aug., which is 14 more than he has in any other month, and 94 in the first inning, which is 24 more than any other inning.

"Fifty home runs doesn't seem to be an issue," manager Joe Torre said recently. "Fifty home runs. That's incredible. You're talking about his age, you're talking about him hitting in the 50s -- in a couple of years he'll be going for No. 600."

Source: ESPN