OK, so obviously, baseball fans by now have heard that Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees has done steroids. He said that he did them during his time with the Texas Rangers, when he won an MVP award. Oh wait....

Like fellow Orioles fan/writer Lawrence Barreca said, the Felix Pie experiment is coming to an end in Baltimore, luckily for us Oriole fans.

Like Lawrence, when Pie was acquired for LHP Garrett Olson and minor leaguer Henry Williamson, I was anxious to see an exciting experience with Pie.

Because I follow the Minors, I knew a lot about Pie. I knew he was a consistent .300 minor league hitter, but never really got a legitimate chance to log any at bats with the Cubs.

As the Mariners end an unexpectedly successful month of April, with great contributions from unexpected players, taking inventory of the team’s success is a much easier process.

Jarrod Washburn, perhaps the most noted turnaround story, went 3-1 with a 3.42 ERA. Washburn has fared pretty well in April as a Mariner. In two of his three previous seasons he ended the first month of the season with a sub-4.0 ERA.

However, this is the first time he's also had a winning record. And that includes 2002, he went 18-6 with a 3.15 ERA and finished fourth in the Cy Young voting.

Some people—many people—will see that I have selected Roy Campanella as the second subject of my series and object that his story is far from “forgotten.”

I would reply that they are wrong.

The Los Angeles Dodgers defeated their neighbors from San Diego on Thursday 8-5, in a game which could be described as a knife fight—only both sides were using butter knives.

Each side tried to give away the game. The Dodgers,with yet another ineffective start from James McDonald; and the Padres, with a shaky bullpen and a magic bullet of a throw from rightfielder Brian Giles that eluded every glove in it's path to allow Casey Blake to bring in the eventual winning run.

P.O.W. is our weekly tribute to those players who have had a tremendous week. We are currently in our MLB schedule at thesportspa.blogspot.com, so these articles will showcase the best hitting and pitching performances of the previous week.

I chose to focus solely on offense this week since so many players had great weeks. These, in no particular order, were the best offensive performances of the past week in my eyes.

It is true.  Major League Baseball has scheduled road games for the Arizona Diamondbacks this season.  As much as they’ve grown comfortable living at home for the first 18 of 21 games, it was bound to happen. 

Save for one short road jaunt to San Francisco against the Giants, the Diamondbacks will finally get to take to the road for eight games in three cities.

From Andy Castrovince's latest mailbag:

Our savior is back! Although it has not been made official, the Indians have recalled David Dellucci from his rehab assignment in Columbus.

The Columbus Clippers/Durham Bulls game is telecasted over the Internet and the announcer said that the Clippers were playing short handed because of Dellucci returning to the Tribe as he is on his way to Detroit.

I imagine Rich Rundles will be sent back to Triple A, so the pitching staff has been trimmed to a mere 13.

On February 11th, three days before Valentine's Day, I expressed my lack of love for what I felt was an empty spending spree by Chicago Cubs' General Manager Jim Hendry. (http://bleacherreport.com/articles/122973-jim-hendry-the-worst-winter-in-baseball)

We're now one full month into the baseball season, and I have the underwhelming feeling I was right.