Baseball

The MLB All-Star Game has been an event of diminishing returns in recent years. The ratings have plummeted and general interest has waned over the years, leaving the Mid-Summer Classic has nothing more than a blip on the radar.

The MLB All-Star Game once had significant meaning to the players and fans who saw the best of the best square off for the only interleague matchup outside of the World Series.

Pete Rose's collision at home plate. Reggie Jackson's moonshot. Cal Ripken's home run. All were memorable moments from a game that is losing those moments and overall attraction.

Things looked pretty bleak across Red Sox Nation just four days ago. The team had just been swept by the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards, and arrived in Boston prepared for a 10 game homestand against the Los Angeles Angels, New York Yankees, and Toronto Blue Jays. The team’s performance over the weekend was hapless and uninspired, and the abyss appeared to have no bottom.

And then the team held a players only meeting.

As if the scrutiny from the media, fans, and upper management weren't enough, Joe Torre and his staff are faced with several important roster decisions in the days and weeks ahead.

As of May 7, the Dodgers find themselves with six players on the disabled list. Of those six players, Brad Ausmus' return will be the simplest to arrange, albeit that won't occur till the end of June.

Rafael Furcal hopes to rejoin the boys in blue in mid-to-late May, and at this point it seems as if shortstop Nick Green will be sent back down to Albuquerque.

On Tuesday, one of the greatest baseball announcers of all time past away. Ernie Harwell, the voice of Tigers baseball, died at the age of 92. 

As a lifelong Tigers fan, I have associated Harwell's voice with baseball since my early childhood. Harwell called games for the Tigers for 42 years. Every time I see a home run, I remember Ernie's "and its loooonnng gone!" or his, "two for the price of one," every time the Tigers would turn a double play.

Ernie was far more than just a great play-by-play announcer.

Add Paul Maholm, Charlie Morton and Brian Burres to the list of opposing starting pitchers that Cubs hitters can't solve.

I don’t even think those guys have baseball cards.

The North Siders (13-16) dropped all three games to the Pittsburgh Pirates and now find themselves in fourth place in the National League Central.

Next up for the Cubs is a three-game set in Cincinnati, and they face the same starters they faced in the second series of the season—when they dropped two of three.

The big behemoth from Georgia lumbered to the mound to begin the top of the ninth inning with a 3-1 lead Thursday evening, in Chavez Ravine.

Jonathan Broxton closes games for the Los Angeles Dodgers, or he’s supposed to anyway.

Triple-digit fastballs, and 90 mph sliders don’t generally greet hitters with a smile.

The Yankees have won four straight, but their arch rivals, the Red Sox, have also won four in a row to climb back over .500 for the first time since beating New York on Opening Night to go 1-0.

That was the only game Boston won in the three-game series, and the Sox went on a huge slide from there, hitting rock bottom on May 2, when they fell to 11-14 after being swept by the last-place Orioles.

But Terry Francona's bunch bounced back by scoring 36 runs in a four-game sweep of the Angels.

We are moving closer and closer to the full-fledged prospect season, though that hasn’t stopped teams from already making some moves. The Cubs have recalled Starlin Castro, as we mentioned earlier, and there certainly could be more moves on the horizon.  

The San Francisco Giants' two biggest surprises of 2010 so far have been Barry Zito's resurgence, and Nate Schierholtz emergence.

While Zito is finally enjoying some good press in his fourth year in San Francisco, Schierholtz is hitting .381 from the eighth slot in the lineup.

With respect to Giants' Manager, Bruce Bochy's reluctance to "mess with success," by shaking up his lineup, the numbers say he'd be foolish not to.