MLB

There was no celebration in the clubhouse. The Rockies had just shut out the Padres 3-0 behind yet another stellar pitching performance by Jason Marquis.

An umpire’s job is a stressful one.  If he does his job properly, no one remembers him.  If he screws things up royally, it’s only then that his name makes the headlines.

Boston and Minnesota fans won’t forget young umpire Todd Tichenor’s name soon.

Praise Pete, the Phils won.  I couldn’t take anymore of my day.

First, I had to drive my husband 80 miles north so he could catch a bus to ride 80 miles back to Philly to see the game with 30 people who drink so infrequently they would forget their native tongue by the ninth inning. 

Thanks to Hideo Nomo, Ichiro Suzuki, the World Baseball Classic, Orestes Destrade et al., baseball in Japan is less of a mystery than it used to be. But here is a list of 10 things the average MLB fan probably doesn't know.

[If you want my credentials, I moved to Japan with my parents when I was seven years old, and lived there for 10 years as a child, attending around 200 baseball games in Japan. If you don't want my credentials, the facts are still the same.]

OK, so we all knew this would happen.

Manny Ramirez currently sits outside the top three National League vote-getters for the outfield position and Joe Torre made his case known today.

Torre believes that the All-Star Game should benefit the players who experience the best first-halves of the season.  He also stated that it has become a popularity contest.

The MLB's current rules for the All-Star Game allow for fans to select the starting lineups for the games. However, how does the league ensure that the players that deserve to be there, get there?

Being a nice guy is overrated.

A team's ace pitcher doesn't have to be a Dale Carnegie protege.

The exact opposite, in fact, is often what's needed.

Bob Gibson had it.

"It" was the disposition of a hungry, caged lion.

Especially on the days that he was slated to pitch.

It was best to stay out of Gibson's way on those days. Gibson was never really known as a congenial man—still isn't, frankly—but he turned positively wretched when his turn in the rotation came up.

The Baltimore Orioles have been one of the most disappointing organizations in baseball.

With eleven striaght losing seasons, the O's have been at the bottom of the cellar of the AL East for over a decade, facing beatdowns to the Yankees and Red Sox.

There hasn't been much to talk about in this decade beside these long woes.

All the hearts broke when Cal Ripken retired, who was virtually the last piece to Baltimore's success.

Peter Angelos, current Orioles owner, has been one of the more unpredictable ones in the years.

When I first heard about this series, I loved the idea—almost all sports fans are, more or less, homers for the underdog.  Rarely do we sit down for an important match/game and root for the favorite unless the favorite happens to be OUR team.

Otherwise, we're usually rooting for the little guy to pull an upset—the more memorable the better.

Every now and then, the meek delivers.

The speculation is over for Clint Hurdle. The Rockies have scheduled a 2:30 news conference to announce that Hurdle has been relieved of his duties and that Jim Tracy will take over on an interim basis.

The firing comes on the heels of a three-game sweep at the hands of the Dodgers, putting the Rockies 10 games under .500 and 14-1/2 games out of first place in the National League West.