Manny Being Selfish (Also known as “Manny Being Manny”)

“PHOENIX — Manny Ramirez said Monday that 2010 will be his final season with the Dodgers.” Stop right there. Before I even address the rest of this article. Why is Manny telling us this in February? What benefit can it possibly have for the L.A. Dodgers? The season hasn’t even started yet and he’s decided to go generate some buzz for himself at the expense of his team. The act is getting old. Someone needs to bring him down a notch.

“I know I won’t be here next year, so I’ll just enjoy myself,

Frank Thomas Hangs ‘em Up; (All of Them)

After 20 seasons in professional baseball Frank Thomas, The Big Hurt, has decided to retire. As a free agent he went unsigned through the 2009 season and rather than hold out any longer he’s decided to hang up the spikes. His retirement is no surprise seeing how he told listeners on the “Waddle & Silvy” show that he was 95% sure he was on the verge of retiring back in June of 2009. Frank put up great numbers in his career, a lifetime .300 hitter, member of the 500 HR club, back-to-back AL MVP awards and he never struck out more than 115 times in a season.

What’s more important than all that is his stance on performance-enhancing drugs. “when Senator George Mitchell was preparing his landmark report on steroids in baseball,

Refreshingly Blunt Thoughts From Mark Grace

I was just looking through the January 25, Sports Illustrated with Brett Favre on the cover and I came across a little blurb in their Scorecard section. Former Chicago Cub and Arizona Diamondback, Mark Grace was explaining why it was he never used steroids in his playing career. “I just new that stuff was really bad for you. I am single now. I was a single guy then. I like my sex life. I want to be able to perform. It’s kind of funny. It’s kind of not. That stuff will tear you up as far as your manhood is concerned.”

What’s the Point, Tim?

Current Colorado Rockie, former Houston Astro, Tim Redding decided to accuse former teammate Mike Bacsik of grooving a pitch an a succesfull attempt to give up Barry Bond’s 756th homerun.

Son of Bonds Assaults Sun Bonds

Well, he at least was arrested on suspicion of assault. Assault with a deadly weapon at that. To clear up what I’m saying, The son of Barry Bonds allegedly assaulted his mother Sun Bonds. Reportedly he threw a door knob at her. I guess the door knob was the deadly weapon? Nikolai Bonds, 19, also was charged with vandalism because he broke some pictures and vases during his tantrum. Sounds like ‘roid rage to me!

Do I Rejoice?

Bud Selig is planning on leaving the position of Commissioner of Major League Baseball in 2012. (Sign of the end of times?) He says he wants to pursue other interests. I’m wondering what this means for Major League Baseball. My first instinct is that his departure will be good for the MLB. It is impossible to be certain though. Whatever things he’s done or failed to do has led up to baseball being where it is right now. And where is that? Well it’s still a very profitable place to be and it’s still a very popular place to be. While these two facts don’t necessarily mean he was awesome, to me they at least mean he did a fine job.

Robin Yount Corked?

A link to this auction was posted on Pat Neshek’s forum. The item is supposed to be a game-used, corked bat used by Brewers legend and Hall of Famer Robin Yount. I for one won’t pass any sort of judgement based on this one piece of evidence suggesting Yount was a “cheater”. For one, even though they have very good reason to believe the bat was used by Yount extensively, it’s still not like they took the bat right out of his hands and caught him red-handed. I don’t know much about the process of corking a bat, but theoretically couldn’t it have been done after he retired the bat? I’m not saying I think that’s the case either. I’m just saying their are too many possibilities to brand Yount a cheater.

The Rookie Cards

My baseball card collection centers around two things. Cards of anyone who have EVER played for the Cincinnati Reds and autographs. However, any good baseball card collector knows and appreciates the significance of rookie cards. They are usually the most highly sought base card of a given player and that is often reflected by their “book value”. “Book values” mean nothing to me as I rarely sell cards and because nothing sells at book, but the pull of the RC still inspires me to acquire cards of guys I wouldn’t otherwise collect. Here are some rookie cards I have, I want, and I’m never going to get.