Larry Brown Sports

Dwyane Wade is probably lucky it wasn’t Ozzie Guillen‘s face he was getting into during Game 3 on Thursday.

Wade drew some backlash after he was seen fiercely confronting Heat coach Erik Spoelstra on the sideline during Miami’s nightmarish loss to the Pacers. Wade was ultimately separated by teammates, but Guillen says that wouldn’t have been necessary if he were in Spoelstra’s position. The Marlins manager said he would have gotten physical if Wade were one of his players.

“He can guarantee a fight … I will kick his [butt],’’ Guillen said, according to the Miami Herald. “Well, I won’t say I’ll kick his [butt]. They’ll kick my [butt] because they’re bigger than me, and I’m older. But I will take my chances. Some people have to understand our job. Some players, they think they know more baseball than you do.

“I don’t know Wade. I don’t know the coach. That’s disrespectful. Why he said it? When he said it? That’s none of my business. [But] he can guarantee a fight.”

Given Guillen’s notoriously short temper, I don’t think anybody doubts him when he says he would fight a player. But he shouldn’t sell himself so short. The way things were going for Wade in that game, Guillen probably could have lay a whooping.

Photo credit: Robert Mayer-US PRESSWIRE

Bobby Valentine earned his first ejection as Red Sox manager Friday night. And, boy, was it a doozy. Valentine came out to argue a close play at first base as the Sox were trying to mount a late comeback in the ninth against the Phillies. Umpire Gary Darling disposed of Valentine before long, but not until Bobby V got an incidental face full of Darling’s Bazooka gum mid-expletive. Enjoy:

Here’s another look at the Great Gum Exchange. Valentine’s reaction is amazing:

Read The Rest of the Story…

Kerry Wood announced prior to Friday’s Cubs-White Sox series opener that he would be retiring after the game, but he still wanted to make one last pitching appearance. His wish came true when he relieved Jeff Samardzija in the 8th inning to face pinch-hitter Dayan Viciedo.

Wood struck out Viciedo on three pitches, walked off the field to a standing ovation, and held his son, who was serving as a bat boy.

The strikeout was a fitting end to Wood’s career. Wood led the league with 266 strikeouts in 2003, and he’s second all-time with 10.313 strikeouts per nine innings. The former Rookie of the Year exploded onto the scene in 1998 when, a mere five starts into his career, he struck out 20 Houston Astros in one of the most impressive pitching performances in history.

Wood battled arm injuries throughout his career and even missed the entire 1999 season after having Tommy John surgery. He spent a season and a half with the Indians, a half-season with the Yankees, and the rest of his career with the Cubs, which was broken into two stints. Wood considered retirement this offseason but decided to play for the Cubs on a one-year deal. He spent time on the disabled list with a shoulder injury earlier this year, and had a publicized meltdown last week.

Kerry Wood’s lack of durability as a starter limited his anticipated impact on the game, but few pitchers have reached the peaks he did.

Photo Credit: Jerry Lai-US PRESSWIRE

Umpire Bob Davidson was suspended one game by MLB on Friday for “repeated violations of the Office of the Commissioner’s standards for situation handling.” While Davidson has been at the center of several controversies and bad calls the past few seasons (outlined nicely by Hardball Talk), it likely was his horribly unprofessional behavior on Tuesday that led to the suspension.

Davidson got into an expletive-filled argument with manager Charlie Manuel during the 8th inning of the Phillies-Astros game on Tuesday. The sad thing is Davidson started it. Video of the incident below:

Manuel was also suspended a game, but it’s far more notable to see an umpire punished for his actions. You could clearly hear Davidson yell to Manuel “You think I wanted to block his ass? What the hell you yelling at?” after Manuel complained about the Davidson blocking catcher Brian Schneider from running down a dropped third strike.

Davidson’s behavior was completely unprofessional and it’s nice that MLB punished him for it. The development should be pleasing for several players; Davidson was voted 4th in a Sports Illustrated poll of worst umpires in MLB last year.

With Toronto being in the American League and the only team from Canada in Major League Baseball, players on National League squads rarely get an opportunity to travel north of the border during the regular season. This weekend, the Mets are visiting the Blue Jays. Terry Collins and company wanted to make the most of traveling to hockey country, so the team decided to wear NHL jerseys of their choice.

“We like to have some fun in New York and for me the Stanley Cup Playoffs are the ultimate of the hockey season,” Collins explained. “We’ve got a lot of hockey fans on our club and in spring training we talked about taking theme trips. One of the guys said ‘Hey let’s take a hockey trip when we go to Canada.’ I told all the players to pick a team and we went to the NHL store and got the jerseys. You’ll see a variety of jerseys when they get off that bus.”

The team indeed brought a variety, including a Whalers jersey from Jason Bay. Bay, who is from Canada, said he grew up a Canucks fan but wanted to do something throwback. Somebody had to be that guy. The Mets have a long way to go if they want to catch up to the Rays and their crazy jackets or classy sweaters, but the hockey theme is a nice place to start.

H/T Eye on Hockey

An off-duty police officer was arrested at Citi Field on Thursday night when stadium officials discovered that he was sitting in the wrong seat. If you have never been in the position 30-year-old Eduardo Cornejo was in as he was watching the Mets lose 6-3 to the Reds, you’ve either never been to many sporting events or are a strict law-abiding citizen.

According to the NY Post, Cornejo — whom they described as “drunk” — moved to a more expensive seat and was asked to move back to his own seat several times. When he refused, he was asked a number of times to leave the stadium. Cornejo reportedly would not comply, so a uniformed police officer relieved stadium security of their duties and arrested him.

“He was in a section he wasn’t supposed to be,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said according to the NY Daily News. “They asked him to leave. He wouldn’t. (A) supervisor asked him to leave. He wouldn’t. The uniformed police sergeant asked him to leave. He wouldn’t, and he was arrested as a result.”

Cornejo was arraigned on criminal trespassing charges Thursday and released before declining to comment on the situation. While there are certain to be a number of people who are outraged that a police officer was arrested over something like this, that should have no bearing on the situation. If you want to argue that the Mets should allow fans to move to more expensive seats toward the end of the game, that’s one thing. I’ve done it many times at sporting events, but I’ve also moved back if a security guard asked me too. Whether he agreed that he should be allowed to sit there or not, Cornejo was required to comply the same way any other fan would be.

H/T Big League Stew
Photo credit: Jason O. Watson-US PRESSWIRE

During Thursday’s game between the A’s and Rangers, a controversial call by umpire Laz Diaz may have cost Oakland the game. In the bottom of the sixth inning, it appeared that A’s pitcher Brandon McCarthy dove and made a great play on an attempted squeeze bunt that Elvis Andrus popped into the air. After catching the pop-up, McCarthy fired it to third base for an inning-ending double play. The problem is the umpire didn’t see it that way.

Diaz ruled that McCarthy had trapped the ball, and a run scored. A replay showed that Diaz missed the call (see the play below). McCarthy was understandably upset with the ruling, so he went berserk. Then, he created a blog.

McCarthy’s first post (aside from the introduction to his blog) was entitled “Anger towards umpires and why I feel like an ass.” He explained his stance and why he was furious that Diaz blew such a crucial call that may have cost the A’s their bullpen and the game, but he also made it clear that the way he reacted was unacceptable.

Read The Rest of the Story…

Albert Pujols has managed to end his home run drought in Los Angeles, but the numbers are still far from cutting it. A quarter of the way through the season, the $240 million man is still hitting .214 with an on-base percentage of only .248. He has driven in only 18 runs and has three homers, but Pujols is finally showing signs of life at the plate. As someone who knows plenty about starting the year off in a horrible slump, David Ortiz says he is not worried about Albert turning it around — and we shouldn’t be either.

“Albert Pujols? Let me tell you something about Albert Pujols,” Ortiz said according to ESPNBoston.com. “Albert Pujols is a bad mother f—er. The baseball world needs Albert Pujols.

“I spent two months with one home run, and I got exhausted mentally and physically. But it was more mental because it was too much of me trying different things and trying to figure out why I wasn’t hitting homers.”

Read The Rest of the Story…

The St. Louis Cardinals decided to dress up for their short road trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles on Thursday. Even though it looks like they were headed to a costume party, the actual theme for the trip was “tacky tuxedos.” As you can tell, some of those were pretty ugly looking outfits.

Here’s a rundown of what some of the players were wearing:

Jason Motte went camo, Allen Craig had a leopard print trim on his white jacket, Marc Rzepczynski was in all red, Yadier Molina had a plaid coat and white pants, Victor Marte had the green shirt and plaid vest, Jake Westbrook wore white, Tyler Greene was in the red spandex, Lance Berkman was in pink, David Freese had the Dr. Seuss hat, and Matt Carpenter wore the Pee-Wee Herman outfit.

If you’re talking tacky tuxedos, naturally you’re going to see a few guys pull off the “Dumb & Dumber” look. Kyle Lohse (right) and Mitchell Boggs (left) accomplished that:

Read The Rest of the Story…

The Rockies-Diamondbacks game was delayed a few minutes on Thursday because of a swarm of bees that invaded Coors Field. The bees invaded a camera bay next to the Rockies dugout in the top of the 5th inning. The swarm was so massive that the cameramen left their positions, but no players had to be cleared off the field. Once the bees were contained, umpires determined play could continue.

An inning later a beekeeper arrived and sucked all the insects into a cool device where they could be transported to a hive. Hey, it’s a much easier problem to deal with at a stadium than fire ants, that’s for sure.

Read The Rest of the Story…