Tag: MLB

Kobe Bryant tragedy ‘hit home really hard’ for David Ortiz

SportsPulse: Mackenzie Salmon sat down with David Ortiz to discuss Alex Cora being fired by the Red Sox and how the Kobe Bryant tragedy caused him to reflect on his own brush with death.

SportsPulse: Mackenzie Salmon sat down with David Ortiz to discuss Alex Cora being fired by the Red Sox and how the Kobe Bryant tragedy caused him to reflect on his own brush with death.

Kris Bryant loses service time grievance against Chicago

As many in baseball expected he would, Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant has lost his service time grievance against Chicago, meaning he will not be a free agent until after the 2021 season.

As many in baseball expected he would, Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant has lost his service time grievance against Chicago, meaning he will not be a free agent until after the 2021 season.

Whit Merrifield: ‘Jose Altuve took my spot’ in 2018 All-Star Game

Kansas City Royal Whit Merrifield is now calling himself a two-time all-star, in light of the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal.

Kansas City Royal Whit Merrifield is now calling himself a two-time all-star, in light of the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal.

WATCH: Mets hire Luis Rojas as manager, replacing Carlos Beltrán

The New York Mets have their new manager less than a week after parting ways with Carlos Beltran following his inclusion in the Astros sign-stealing investigation.

The New York Mets have their new manager less than a week after parting ways with Carlos Beltran following his inclusion in the Astros sign-stealing investigation. The Mets announced Wednesday that they have hired Luis Rojas as field manager, promoting from within to fill the role.

Rojas spent last season as the team’s quality control coach and outfield instructor (in his first season on a major league staff).

The 38-year-old has spent 13 seasons in the Mets organization and interviewed for the managerial position before the organization hired Beltran to the role in November 2019.

“Luis earned this job. He has literally trained his whole life to be a manager,” Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen said. “He comes from a legacy family. … he is respected by the players. He is trusted by the players. And he’s someone that we have great confidence in. (…) we think that he has the ability to be consistent, to be calm under pressure and to understand the opportunity that this team has as we head into 2020.”

Rojas is the son of former Giants and Expos manager Felipe Alou.

WATCH: Astros players will apologize for role in sign-stealing scandal at spring training

The Houston Astros players are set to apologize for their roles in the team’s sign-stealing scandal at spring training, that revelation via owner Jim Crane.

The Houston Astros players are set to apologize for their roles in the team’s sign-stealing scandal at spring training, that revelation via owner Jim Crane.

MLB.com reports that Crane explained Tuesday that the team will address the situation once the players are geographically together. The report follows the Astros FanFest weekend, which was this past weekend.

“We’ll all get them together and they’ll come out with a strong statement as a team and, I think, apologize for what happened and move forward,” Crane told MLB.com. “A couple of guys that have been interviewed have been holding back a little bit. We need to get them a little more time to get together.”

During FanFest, Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman were the most prominent players speaking to media, but neither player addressed the scandal in a particularly apologetic manner.

Bregman called the accusations that the pair wore buzzers at the plate “just stupid,” according to Astros beat writer Brian McTaggart, and Altuve assured fans that the team would return to the World Series.

Astros pitchers and catchers report to spring training on Thursday, Feb. 13, the first full-squad workout is scheduled for Monday, Feb. 17.

“Quite frankly, we’ll apologize for what happened, ask forgiveness and move forward,” Crane said.

Mets hire Luis Rojas as manager, replacing Carlos Beltrán

The New York Mets have their new manager less than a week after parting ways with Carlos Beltran following his inclusion in the Astros sign-stealing investigation.

The New York Mets have their new manager less than a week after parting ways with Carlos Beltran following his inclusion in the Astros sign-stealing investigation.

Astros players will apologize for role in sign-stealing scandal at spring training, according to tea

The Houston Astros players are set to apologize for their roles in the team’s sign-stealing scandal at spring training, that revelation via owner Jim Crane.

The Houston Astros players are set to apologize for their roles in the team’s sign-stealing scandal at spring training, that revelation via owner Jim Crane.

The Baseball HOF should be laughed at until Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens get in

It continues to be hard to take the Baseball Hall of Fame seriously.

This is the online version of our morning newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning.

The Baseball Hall of Fame’s Class of 2020 was announced on Tuesday (Derek Jeter and Larry Walker) and once again two of the best players to ever play the game did not get their names called.

Which is pathetic.

Yup, another year of Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens not getting into the Hall makes it another year for us not to take that silly museum in Cooperstown all that seriously. Because come on, how are you not going to have Bonds and Clemens in there?

I know what you’re thinking – they cheated and allegedly took PEDs. Well boo-freaking-hoo. These two legends shined during a period of time in baseball when a lot of guys were juiced to the gills. Oh, and Bonds and Clemens also outperformed most of those juiced up players.

They also shined well before the steroid era, too, which only makes their cases even that more worthy.

Some baseball writers who get a HOF vote really need to get over themselves and do the right thing before it’s too late – both Bonds and Clemens have been eligible for the last eight years and have just two years of eligibility remaining. I don’t know how anyone could take that place seriously if these two guys don’t make it over the next two years.

Bonds is the all-time home run leader, has the most home runs in a season, is a 7-time NL MVP (including three that he won in the early 90s when he was a skinny little fella), is the all-time leader in walks, won eight Gold Gloves, and is a 12-time Silver Slugger award winner.

He’s the greatest baseball player of all time. And he’s not in the silly Hall of Fame.

How ridiculous.

Clemens is one of the greatest pitchers to ever play the game, as he racked up 354 wins in 24 seasons. He won over 20 games six different years. He led the league in strikeouts five times. He won seven Cy Youngs and did the double dip in 1986 when we won the AL Cy Young and the AL MVP awards, which is something that pitchers rarely pull off.

How he isn’t in the Hall of Fame is beyond me, too.

So congrats to Derek Jeter and Larry Walker for making it this year, but shame on those who don’t have the courage to do the right thing and actually make this Hall of Fame what it should be – a celebration of the best to ever do it.

Hopefully, things change soon.

Tuesday’s big winner: Las Vegas.

AP Photo/Laura Rauch

It was announced on Tuesday that this year’s NFL Draft will be held in Vegas and the league will – as you often do while in Vegas – go big. The red carpet event before the draft is going be in the fountains of the Bellagio with boats bringing players across. Boats! The main draft stage will be at Caesars Palace. It’s going to be nuts.

 Quick hits: NFL trying something new… Hurts’ perfect helmet… Tebow wedding photos… And more!

– The NFL is trying out a fun new alternative to onside kicks at the Pro Bowl this week. Could they try this in real games eventually?

– Jalen Hurts has the perfect helmet at the Senior Bowl.

– Tim Tebow is now married and here are some photos from the event.

– Check out our latest “Bachelor” power rankings.

The Astros tweeted out some awards they won and yeah, it went as expected

The Houston Astros didn’t need to celebrate this.

The Houston Astros, to put it nicely, just need to shut up for a while and do their best to back away from any more chances of bringing unwanted attention their way.

Because this whole sign-stealing scandal has been an absolute mess for the franchise, and rightfully so. And how they’ve been handling it has been, well, awful.

Sure, they fired their GM and manager moments after MLB punishments were handed out. But then last weekend they had Jose Altuve and others out there for a FanFest event and it went as one would it expect it too.

Then on Tuesday night the team tweeted out a few local awards some members of the franchise won, which doesn’t sound like a good thing to do:

Here’s an idea: The Houston Astros didn’t need to announce those awards to the world. How about you just let the awards happen and then move on, without sharing the “news” with anyone outside of the team.

Because that Tweet, which had to be sent by some poor member of their social media team, did not go over well: