The Final 9

Sporting News staff reports

Boston Red Sox outfielder Manny Ramirez shoved team traveling secretary Jack McCormick to the ground Saturday in an argument over tickets, the Providence Journal reports.

Ramirez had asked McCormick for 16 tickets for Saturday night's Red Sox-Astros game, which is a high number for a day-of-game request, the Journal reports. When McCormick told Ramirez he might not be able to fulfill the request, Ramirez shouted, "Just do your job!"

An argument followed, and Ramirez pushed McCormick to the ground. Later the two met behind closed doors and Ramirez apologized. McCormick accepted the apology. Manager Terry Francona said Sunday, "Sometimes things happen, and when they do, we choose to handle them internally. I'm satisfied with how we handled this." No disciplinary action is planned.

Manny Ramirez shoves traveling secretary....

New York, NY (Sports Network) - Major League Baseball announced a one-game suspension for umpire Brian Runge on Thursday for his actions in a June 24 contest between the New York Mets and Seattle Mariners.

Carlos Beltran began arguing balls and strikes with Runge in the bottom of the fourth inning, and Mets manager Jerry Manuel came out of the dugout to protest the umpire's strike zone as well.

MLB suspends umpire for bumping Mets manager....

By KRISTIE RIEKEN

HOUSTON (AP) — The Houston Astros have released Shawn Chacon, opting to cut the right-hander a day after he reportedly grabbed general manager Ed Wade by the neck and threw him to the ground.

The team requested waivers on Chacon on Thursday for the purpose of giving him his unconditional release. If he isn't claimed by another major league team by Monday, waivers will expire and his contract will be terminated without pay.

Astros release Chacon after altercation with GM....

By DAVE ANDERSON

When Jackie Robinson was on the Hall of Fame ballot in 1962, he requested that the voters among the Baseball Writers Association of America judge him only as a player. He didn’t want his social significance as the modern major leagues’ first black player to be considered. Vote for him — or don’t vote for him — on his merits as a player, as all the other Hall of Famers from Babe Ruth and Cy Young had been measured.

When he was elected, the words on his bronze plaque at Cooperstown reflected his wishes.

Those words began, “Leading N.L. Batter in 1949,” and followed with his fielding and stolen base statistics, and then “Most Valuable Player in 1949. Lifetime Batting Average .311,” before concluding with more fielding statistics.

Nice numbers. Hall of Fame numbers. But over his 10 seasons with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Jackie Robinson was more than numbers. Much more. To baseball and to America. And on Wednesday, a new plaque with new words was unveiled by his widow, Rachel Robinson, and their daughter Sharon at a ceremony in Cooperstown, N.Y.

A Fine Piece of Editing in Cooperstown....

Associated Press

Astros pitcher Shawn Chacon was suspended indefinitely by the team Wednesday for insubordination after reportedly grabbing general manager Ed Wade by the neck and throwing him to the ground.

Chacon (2-3, 5.04 ERA), upset after getting demoted to the bullpen over the weekend, told the Houston Chronicle this problem began when Wade approached him while eating and said he wanted to meet promptly in manager Cecil Cooper's office, the pitcher said.

"I said, 'You can tell me whatever you've got to tell me right here,' " said Chacon, adding that things went downhill from there.

"He started yelling and cussing," Chacon said of Wade, according to a story on the Chronicle's Web site. After responding to him calmly, Chacon said, Wade told him he needed to "look in the mirror." "So at that point I lost my cool and I grabbed him by the neck and threw him to the ground," Chacon said. "I jumped on top of him. Words were exchanged." He said players quickly separated them.

Chacon suspended for attacking Astros' GM....

Chicago, IL (Sports Network) - Nick Markakis and Luke Scott drove in two runs each for Baltimore, as the Orioles bested the Chicago Cubs, 7-5, in the opener of a three-game interleague set at Wrigley Field.

Markakis was 2-for-5 with a run scored and Scott added a triple, single and a run scored. Brian Roberts was 3-for-5 with two runs scored and a run batted in for Baltimore, which halted a two-game slide. George Sherrill got out of a bases-loaded jam with nobody out in the ninth with three straight strikeouts to earn his 26th save.

Jeremy Guthrie (4-7) tossed six effective innings, surrendering four runs on seven hits and a walk. Guthrie was mainly hurt by a three-run homer in the seventh and pitched well otherwise to earn the win. The hard-luck righthander has surrendered two earned runs or fewer in seven of his last 11 starts with only four wins to show for it.

Jim Edmonds connected for a three-run homer and Kosuke Fukudome was 2-for-5 with a home run and two runs scored. Aramis Ramirez added two hits, an RBI and a scored a run for Chicago, which ended both a three-game winning streak and the Cubs' 14-game winning streak at Wrigley Field, their longest such streak since June 4-July 10, 1936.

"These guys basically are ready to go," Cubs manager Lou Pinella said while addressing a letdown following the Cubs sweep of the White Sox. "The White Sox had nothing to do with this. Absolutely nothing. Baltimore came in here and played a good ballgame. Give them credit."

O's end Cubbies' 14-game home winning streak....

NEW YORK (AP) — Mets owner Fred Wilpon is praising Willie Randolph's performance as manager but agreed with general manager Omar Minaya's decision to replace him last week.

"I think Willie did a good job. I think that the results the last say 14 months were not up to what we thought it had to be," Wilpon said. "What Omar finally decided was that he had to make that change."

Randolph was fired on June 17 with the Mets at 34-35. New York has gone 3-2 under new manager Jerry Manuel.

"Obviously, we've been playing well in the last few games," Wilpon said.

Wilpon said Minaya made the initial decision to fire Randolph on Sunday, after a doubleheader split against Texas. After speaking with ownership, Minaya made the final call Monday.

Mets owner Fred Wilpon: `Willie did a good job'....

By Barry M. Bloom / MLB.com

Don Long has unwittingly become the face of Major League Baseball's exploding maple bat controversy.
Literally.

The hitting coach of the Pittsburgh Pirates was in the visitor's dugout on the first base side of Dodger Stadium this past April 15 when Nate McLouth led off the eighth inning of an 11-2 loss with a double. Long followed the ball into right field and didn't see a piece of McLouth's bat hurtling toward him.

"I felt something hit me," Long recently told MLB.com. "It was surprising."

The large splinter struck below the left eye, leaving a bloody gash in his cheek that needed 10 stitches to close. For a month, Long said he lost feeling near the left corner of his mouth and the ability to smile on that side. He also said that for a while he felt like he was "shaving a piece of rubber."

But the sensitivity is starting to return and doctors expect him to make a full recovery.

"Now I can actually feel what I'm doing," he said.

MLB addressing danger of maple bats....

Mercury News Wire Services

Carlos Zambrano could not avoid the disabled list, even though he dodged a major injury. The Chicago Cubs placed their star pitcher on the 15-day D.L. because of a minor right-shoulder strain Saturday and expect him to miss two starts.

"There's nothing wrong," Zambrano said. "We just have to be careful, take some time, give it a rest, come back stronger."

Zambrano left Wednesday's game at Tampa Bay because of discomfort in the shoulder. He underwent an MRI arthrogram that revealed no major structural damage. Left-hander Sean Marshall is expected to be recalled before Tuesday's game against Baltimore to start in Zambrano's place.

Shoulder ache lands Zambrano on the D.L....

By Jordan Bastian / MLB.com

PITTSBURGH -- The Blue Jays entered this season with lofty aspirations that have quickly become seemingly unattainable as the club has limped through the first three months. The unanticipated struggles have now cost manager John Gibbons his job.
On Friday, the Blue Jays relieved Gibbons of his duties as Toronto's manager and appointed Cito Gaston -- the orchestrator of the club's World Series titles in 1992-93 -- as the first two-time manager in team history. The Jays also made sweeping changes to their coaching staff.

In light of the Jays' poor offensive production this season, hitting coach Gary Denbo, who was in his first tour with Toronto, was dismissed. So were third-base coach Marty Pevey and first-base coach Ernie Whitt.

Gibbons out; Gaston returns to Jays

Sporting News staff reports

The oldest living former major leaguer, Bill Werber, celebrates his birthday Friday and fondly recalls his time playing alongside Babe Ruth with the New York Yankees.

Werber, a third baseman, told the Charlotte Observer about his first at-bat for the Yankees, in which he took two strikes then four balls, never taking a swing. "I was too scared to move," Werber told the newspaper. "Paralyzed."

Ruth came to the plate a couple batters later and sent a shot into the right-field bleachers. Webber recalls thinking, "I'll show these Yankees how fast I can run." He told the Observer, "The third-base coach was hollering for me to slow down, but I ran on in at full speed. I crossed home plate before Babe got to first base -- he took those little mincing steps, you know. When Babe came into the dugout, he sat on the bench beside me. He patted me on the head and said, 'Son, you don't have to run like that when the Babe hits one.' "

Oldest living major leaguer turns 100....

NEW YORK — Willie Randolph said a "weird chill" went through him once he realized general manager Omar Minaya was about to oust him as manager of the New York Mets in a California hotel suite.

"'Omar, are you firing me?' I asked. He looked away for a minute and then met my eyes."

Randolph wrote a first-person account of his dismissal in Friday's Daily News, under the front-page headline "How They Fired Me!"

Randolph and Minaya spoke after the Mets defeated the Los Angeles Angels on Monday night. Randolph expected the conversation to be about the possible firing of pitching coach Rick Peterson and first base coach Tom Nieto.

"Omar went on and on, looking very uncomfortable, this weird chill started to course through my body. I could feel myself going cold. He kept talking, almost stammering, and the chill got worse," Randolph wrote. "Suddenly, it occurred to me that maybe he was talking about me. Maybe I was the one about to get whacked."

Randolph said the two spoke two days before the flight to California and he was reassured. But the general manager finally acknowledged what he was going to do when they talked in the hotel.

"Yeah, I'm going to make a move," he said. "It's a hard decision, but I have to make it."

Former New York manager Willie Randolph writes about how Mets fired him....

By Michael Silverman

Curt Schilling will not pitch this season and the illustrious 20-year career of the Red Sox [team stats] veteran quite possibly is over after he revealed this morning that he will undergo shoulder surgery on Monday.

Schilling, 41, said that he is leaving open the possibility of coming back as a hired gun late next season if his shoulder responds but that there is a decent chance that he will not be able to throw another pitch in the big leagues.

“I don’t want it to end this way but if it has to end this way, I’m OK with that,” said Schilling in his comments on WEEI-AM in his weekly interview this morning, which came days after the team said the pitcher had sustained a setback in his rehab.

Schilling to undergo season-ending surgery....

By Jim Street / MLB.com

SEATTLE -- The so-called dream job that landed in John McLaren's lap almost one year ago ended on Thursday morning when he became the latest victim to the Mariners' nightmarish season.
Almost two hours before the team was scheduled to fly to Atlanta for a three-game Interleague series against the Braves, the club announced that McLaren had been dismissed as manager.

In the past two-plus weeks, the Mariners have dismissed hitting coach Jeff Pentland, general manager Bill Bavasi and now McLaren.

Mariners dismiss manager McLaren....

By WILLIAM C. RHODEN

The five-hour long flight from Los Angeles to New York provides ample time for introspection. Especially if you’re Willie Randolph, now the former Mets manager.

Dismissed from his job after the Mets beat the Los Angeles Angels on Monday in Anaheim, Randolph arrived back home in New Jersey late Tuesday, his head still swimming from being told by Mets General Manager Omar Minaya that he was no longer the manager of the Mets.

In a telephone interview Tuesday night, Randolph said he remained stunned by the dismissal, which took place in Minaya’s hotel room. “I didn’t see this coming,” he said. “When I spoke to Omar the day before I knew there might be some changes, but I got the feeling I was safe.”

Randolph Implies He Was Misled

By BEN SHPIGEL

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Just 17 months ago, Willie Randolph received a new multi-million dollar contract, a reward for invigorating a franchise and guiding the Mets to their first division title in 18 years and close to a victory in the World Series.

He has since presided over one of the greatest collapses in baseball history, from which this year’s team has yet to recover.

Nearly three months into another disappointing season, the Mets announced early Tuesday morning that they had fired Randolph, the first African-American to manage in New York, after three and a half years as manager, and replaced him with the bench coach Jerry Manuel.

STORY....

By TIM BOOTH

SEATTLE (AP) — The Seattle Mariners fired general manager Bill Bavasi on Monday, as the team lags with the worst record in baseball after starting the season with playoff hopes.

Vice president/associate general manager Lee Pelekoudas will take over in his place.

"Change is in order," Mariners CEO Howard Lincoln said in a release. "We have determined new leadership is needed in the GM position. With a new leader will come a new plan and a new approach. A search will begin immediately for a permanent GM, and Lee will be a candidate for the position."

MORE....

Cooperstown, NY (Sports Network) - Driving rain and thunderstorms at Doubleday Field forced the final Hall of Fame Game to be canceled on Monday, putting a melancholy end to a tradition more than 60 years old.

The Chicago Cubs and San Diego Padres were scheduled to take part in the annual exhibition event, but the rains were too heavy and weather too severe to play.

It was slated to be the final Hall of Fame Game, as scheduling problems became more difficult in recent years.

MORE....

Jim Baumbach

The Mets sure do seem as if they want to fire Willie Randolph. The silence from upper management in recent days all but confirms that. If they weren't going to, wouldn't you think they'd tell Randolph that, to make this all go away? Instead we're left to believe this waiting game means this: they're trying to figure out the logistics: When will they do? How will they do? Where will they do it?

General manager Omar Minaya has never fired a manager, as pointed out today by colleague Ken Davidoff. Thus, there's no track record there to go by.

Fear not, Mets, we're here to help. We've gone through the last two decades of your history and looked up the details behind the firings of your past six managers. Hopefully these reminders will spark you to make a decision - one way or the other - because this waiting game is silly and is good for no one.

STORY....

By BEN SHPIGEL

Willie Randolph hardly knew him when he added Jerry Manuel to his coaching staff in 2004, before his first season as manager. If Randolph were to be fired, though, Manuel would be asked to take over. Manuel would love to manage in the major leagues again, but this is not how he wants to get that chance.

“It’s difficult because of my relationship with Willie,” said Manuel, the team’s bench coach, who managed the Chicago White Sox from 1998 to 2003. “Everyone goes through it at some point in their career. We all handle it differently and draw on different things to keep us going. I think he’s doing O.K.”

The Mets’ game Saturday night against the Texas Rangers was rained out and rescheduled as part of a doubleheader Sunday, giving the team’s owners and General Manager Omar Minaya two opportunities to evaluate Randolph’s status. The first game Sunday is to begin at 1:10 p.m., with John Maine facing Kevin Millwood; Pedro Martínez is to oppose Kason Gabbard in the second game, starting about 30 minutes after the end of the opener.

STORY....

Local People

The Texas State baseball team may have fallen short in it’s bid to reach the 2008 NCAA College World Series in Omaha, Neb., but that doesn’t mean the Bobcats won’t be represented at famed Rosenblatt Stadium.

MORE....

Saturday, June 14th (All times eastern)

Washington Nationals (27-42) at Seattle Mariners (24-43), 10:10 p.m.

Probable Starting Pitchers: Washington - Tyler Clippard (0-1, 6.23) Seattle - Erik Bedard (4-4, 4.26)

(Sports Network) - A couple of last place teams go at it once again tonight as the Washington Nationals square off against the Seattle Mariners in the second of a three-game interleague set at Safeco Field.

On Friday night the Nationals posted their fourth straight win over Seattle as Dmitri Young, Jesus Flores and Ronnie Belliard each drove in two runs in a 7-6 road victory.

Lastings Milledge finished up 2-for-5 and scored a run for the Nats, who snapped a two-game slide and won for just the second time in their last eight outings. Elijah Dukes contributed an RBI single and scored once as well.

Shawn Hill was credited with his first win since September 10, 2007, despite being touched for five runs and tying a career high by giving 12 hits in just five innings of work.

Despite the victory, Washington is still 15 games under .500 and 14 games out of first in the National League East.

Ichiro Suzuki collected three hits, while Kenji Johjima knocked in a pair of runs for the Mariners, losers of two of their last three contests. Raul Ibanez, Jose Lopez, Jose Vidro and Adrian Beltre each plated a run as the Mariners registered 15 hits and still came up short at home.

The combination of Ryan Rowland-Smith, Sean Green and Mark Lowe held the Nationals to a mere two hits over a span of 7 1/3 innings, but by that point the damage had already been done. Starter R.A. Dickey was charged with seven runs on eight hits in a mere 1 2/3 innings of action.

Now 16 1/2 games out of contention in the AL West, Seattle is 14-20 at home in 2008 while sporting the worst record in all of baseball.

CONTINUE....

By BLAIR KERKHOFF

OMAHA, Neb. | Kids snaked through the Rosenblatt Stadium concourse Friday with baseballs and posters to grab autographs by the College World Series players, and many of them couldn’t name a player in the event.

When the games begin today, about 50,000 tickets will be scanned, and most of the fans will not have seen the participants in action until the first pitch.

To many, that’s what distinguishes the College World Series from other championships. Star power isn’t the lure, and there’s no local team to fuel interest.

But none of that needs to happen. Rosenblatt will be filled from today through June 24 or 25 when the best-of-three series between the two bracket winners concludes.

“Isn’t this something?” said Georgia second baseman Miles Starr as he autographed a ball. “We’re signing, and even though most of them probably aren’t Georgia fans.”

Or fans of Fresno State, North Carolina or any of the other teams in Omaha.

But the bond between baseball and the city is a major reason why the NCAA has signed a 25-year contract to continue its championship in Omaha. The deal begins in 2011 when the College World Series is scheduled to move into a $140 million, 24,000-seat downtown stadium.

CONTINUE....

By Buster Olney

In an instant replay plan currently being considered by Major League Baseball, video review of disputed calls would take place at a central location and would be the responsibility of the umpire crew chief at each game, according to an umpires' union memo obtained by ESPN The Magazine.

Major League Baseball is attempting to institute instant replay on home run calls before the end of this season, according to two sources familiar with those discussions. However, in order to accomplish that, MLB still needs to settle on a replay system that would satisfy everyone involved, from the umpires to commissioner Bud Selig.

An outline of how instant replay might work was detailed in the memo, sent to umpires by their union this week. On Friday, USA Today first reported that the umpires were advised that instant replay could be in use as soon as Aug. 1.

Major League Baseball officials said Friday that the details of the plan being discussed are still preliminary.

STORY....

by FOXSports.com

Fair or foul? The perpetual debate may be over soon.

Major League Baseball wants to begin experimenting with instant replay by Aug. 1, according to a report on the USA Today Web site.

Two "high-ranking officials within the World Umpires Association" told the paper that MLB approached the umpires Wednesday, asking that replay be used on "boundary calls" — those which determine whether a home run has cleared an outfield wall or has stayed fair.

Negotiations still must take place before the rule is enacted, the report said, and MLB spokesman Rich Levin said there is still a lot to work out.

STORY....

By CHARLES V. BAGLI

More than two years ago, the Bloomberg administration came up with an aggressively creative way to use tax-exempt bonds to finance two of the most expensive stadiums in the world, one for the Yankees in the Bronx and another for the Mets in Queens.

The Internal Revenue Service initially approved the use of the bonds for the ballparks, but quickly issued a proposal in 2006 to tighten the rules governing the use of tax-exempt bonds so that it would be more difficult, and perhaps impossible, for this kind of financing to be used again by profitable, private enterprises like professional sports teams.

Now state and city officials say the proposed rules are jeopardizing what is planned to be the city’s next big sports palace: the $950 million Barclays Center, an 18,000-seat basketball arena for the Nets that is the centerpiece of the huge residential and commercial complex in Brooklyn known as Atlantic Yards. The project’s developer, Forest City Ratner, says it plans to break ground on the arena this fall and has long expected to use tax-exempt financing to reduce its borrowing costs by tens of millions of dollars.

Barclays Center is expected to be the most expensive arena in the world, and the lack of tax-exempt financing would substantially increase its cost. The $4 billion Atlantic Yards project already faces delays because of litigation, a sluggish economy, the lack of commercial tenants and the reluctance of lenders to finance large real estate developments.

FULL ARTICLE....

By Carrie Muskat / MLB.com

CHICAGO -- Wrigley Field is back on the market.

The Tribune Co. has rejected a no-tax proposal to purchase Wrigley Field by the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority (ISFA) -- which owns and operates the Chicago White Sox's home ballpark, U.S. Cellular Field -- according to former Illinois Gov. James Thompson.

Thompson, the ISFA's lead negotiator and chairman, said in a statement that the Tribune Co. believes the sale "requires either the transfer of future sales and amusement tax revenue from transactions at Wrigley Field for the next 30 years, or the imposition of new taxes, or the transfer of existing ISFA funds now pledged to projects at U.S. Cellular Field."

Thompson said that the ISFA could not agree to that, adding, "In our judgment, there are no votes in the City Council or in the Illinois General Assembly for transferred or new taxes for Wrigley Field."

FULL ARTICLE....

By Kevin T. Czerwinski / MLB.com

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Aaron Hicks got most of the attention on Thursday at the Milk House simply because he chose to attend the 2008 First-Year Player Draft. While Hicks' presence made him the de facto face of Major League Baseball's Urban Youth Academy in Compton, Calif., it didn't make him the program's lone representative.
Nine players with ties to the Academy were drafted on Thursday. Hicks and Kyle Skipworth went in the first round. Zach Collier and Mike Montgomery were selected in the Compensation round. That's a marked contrast to last year, when five Academy players were taken in the entire Draft.

MORE....

By Amalie Benjamin

The fallout from Thursday night's on-field brawl was far more than the scratches and abrasions that lined Coco Crisp's face. Around 5:15 p.m. yesterday, word came down that eight Red Sox and Rays players had been suspended by Major League Baseball disciplinarian Bob Watson for a total of 38 games, the longest bans going to the primary participants, Crisp and Tampa Bay pitcher James Shields.

Crisp received the most severe punishment, a seven-game suspension, with teammates Jon Lester (five) and Sean Casey (three) joining him. For the Rays, Shields got six games, Jonny Gomes and Edwin Jackson five, Carl Crawford four, and Akinori Iwamura three.

When asked about his suspension before last night's 8-0 loss to the Mariners, Crisp said, "I don't know nothing about it yet." But he appealed it and also said he wasn't surprised about the outcome, which included fines for each of the suspended players, saying, "Everybody gets suspended that charges the mound."

FULL ARTICLE....

San Francisco, CA (Sports Network) - Baseball's home run king was back in court on Friday, as Barry Bonds again pleaded not guilty, this time to 15 refiled federal charges of lying to a grand jury.

The not guilty pleas were entered in an early morning hearing. At another session starting at 11 a.m. (pt) U.S. District Judge Susan Illston set a trial date of March 2, 2009. Bonds has been charged with 14 counts of lying to a grand jury and one count of obstruction that he denied knowingly taking illegal performance-enhancing drugs.

STORY....

Bay City News Service and Associated Press

Baseball star Barry Bonds will be arraigned before U.S. magistrate Bernard Zimmerman in San Francisco on 14 counts of making false statements and one count of obstruction of justice stemming from 2003 grand-jury testimony in a sports-steroid probe. The hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. at the Federal Buiding on Golden Gate Avenue.
Bonds pleaded not guilty to similar accusations in December, but a judge ordered prosecutors to rewrite the slugger's indictment in mid-May to fix legal matters in the document.

Thereafter, at 11 a.m. before Judge Susan Illston, a trial date is slated to be set and a status conference held.

By Charles Odum, AP Sports Writer

GRIFFIN, Ga. — Tim Beckham had his head down as commissioner Bud Selig announced the top pick of the Major League Baseball draft, and then the Griffin High School shortstop was engulfed in a circle of bear hugs from his family.
Thursday's televised announcement was only a formality. Beckham already had a Tampa Bay Rays No. 1 jersey, complete with his name, on the back of his chair. He put on the jersey and a Rays cap as a room full of friends and relatives continued to cheer.

"I found out this morning when they gave me a call," Beckham said. "It was crazy. I was about to do a back flip in my room."

Beckham became the first player from a Georgia school to be selected No. 1 since Mike Ivie was picked from Atlanta's old Walker High School in 1970.

With the status of being the No. 1 pick comes high expectations, which Beckham eagerly embraced.

MORE....

by FOXSports.com

The Georgia High School Association has fined a school $1,000 for an incident in the state playoffs last weekend in Cartersville, Ga.

In the fourth inning of Saturday's deciding game of the Class AAA championship series, Stephens County catcher Matt Hill ducked and did not attempt to catch a pitch that struck the home plate umpire, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Stephens coach Mark Gosnell said Hill and pitcher Cody Martin denied plotting to hit the umpire, who was not hurt, and said the passed ball during a 13-1 loss to Cartersville was a result of a signaling mix-up.

FULL ARTICLE....

By Mark Bowman / MLB.com

ATLANTA -- John Smoltz has said that he'll be content if he never throws another pitch. Now, just two days after he attempted to alleviate stress on his shoulder with a move to the bullpen, the Braves veteran pitcher finds this to be a more defined possibility.
The Braves have scheduled an 11:30 a.m. ET news conference at Turner Field and at that time, they are expected to discuss Smoltz's future. There has been talk that he will need to undergo season-ending surgery on his right shoulder.

The Braves said that executive vice president Frank Wren, manager Bobby Cox and Smoltz will be in attendance at the news conference.

STORY....

By Tony Massarotti

If the Red Sox [team stats] are going to repeat as world champions this season and win their third title in five years, they may have to do it without David Ortiz [stats].

After injuring his left wrist during the Red Sox’ victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday night, Ortiz learned yesterday he has tendon sheath damage that will keep him sidelined indefinitely. According to a source, Ortiz’ wrist will be immobilized for roughly the next month to determine whether the injury can heal on its own.

If it cannot, the Red Sox and Ortiz very well may face a harsh reality:

Season-ending surgery.

ARTICLE....

By Mark Bowman / MLB.com

ATLANTA -- Although he's returned to familiar territory, John Smoltz doesn't truly know what the next few days, weeks or months might bring. He expects to experience regular right shoulder discomfort and is quite certain the resulting pain will be easier to tolerate than his limited other options.
When the Braves activated Smoltz from the 15-day disabled list and allowed him to officially begin his second stint as a reliever on Monday night, the 41-year-old wasn't lamenting about the possibility that he may never again be a starting pitcher. Instead, he was feeling fortunate that retirement or surgery weren't his only options.

"This is going to be who I am for the rest of the season and I've come to grips with it," Smoltz said.

MORE....