SI.com has a guest piece on their site about how fantasy baseball makes the All-Star Game better. Here’s a link.

The Orioles-Yanks game, which was suspended Friday with the Yankees lead 8-6 in the eighth inning, has been a sore spot for the Orioles.

The Baltimore Sun is reporting that a failure to relay timely weather information might have contributed to the circumstances that enabled the Yankees to stay on the field long enough to take the lead before Thursday night’s game was suspended.

I like the approach taken by Andy MacPhail, the Orioles president of baseball operations.

From the story:

“I think there were areas on all sides of what happened [Thursday] night that could stand some improvement, but at the same time, we were behind in the game because they scored more runs than we did,” said MacPhail, who also said that the club will not file a complaint with the league because it was a judgment decision by the umpires.

Walking out on Bob Walk night?

Make sure you catch highlights of tonight’s Pirates-Nationals game.

Stop laughing — I’m serious.

There’s a reason. One of the more bizarre protests in Major League Baseball annals is allegedly set for tonight. According to an Associated Press story:

Some longtime Pirates rooters led by businessman Andy Chomos of Wexford, Pa., want those attending the game against Washington to walk out in protest of ownership’s perceived lack of direction.

Fans are being urged to wear green — to represent ownership’s lack of financial commitment to fielding a winning team — and leave their seats after the third inning.

The irony is that tonight’s game marks the third time this season that the Pirates have sold out PNC Park — and on top of that, it’s Bob Walk bobblehead doll giveaway night!

Meanwhile, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Bob Smizik:

The Pirates are doing their best to downplay the fan walkout scheduled for after the third inning of the team’s game Saturday night with the Washington Nationals.

They have asked their television announcing crew not to discuss the walkout with the media. They have removed all comments about the walkout from their message board at pirates.com. They have the support of their television rights holder, FSN Pittsburgh, which does not plan to show the protest as part of its game coverage.

Of course, here’s where my warped mine starts to envision the bizarre, and root for it.

In this case, I’m hoping the Nationals score a dozen runs or more in the first three innings. (I know, I have a better chance of having The Pick To Click bobblehead night at PNC, but it’s my dream, so play along). If that somehow happens, it’s arguable that the stadium would empty out anyway because the game would be out of hand and some fans would be disgusted.

This would create an odd paradox for the protesters. The whole point of such a protest would be to walk out of a game that early, which normally wouldn’t happen, to show that you are so fed up that you’d leave a game long before its outcome is determined out of complete disdain for the team’s inability to provide a winning product. For that reason, the protest itself would sort of be upstaged.

Yet, the mission would still be accomplished, and it would provide an example of why these fans want to protest in the first place, kind of hammering their point home.

Or, what we be perhaps even better — the stadium empties out after three innings and Tom Gorzelanny pitches a perfect game. Afterward, he tells the media that he was able to concentrate much better without the peripheral fan noise, and asks politely that nobody show up to his next start either. That would be great.

The lineup card

Injury-related news, courtesy of Rototown.com: Angels:
Reggie Willits was unable to start against the Orioles on Friday and is questionable for today’s game due to the bruised right knee he suffered running into the wall on Wednesday. Gary Matthews Jr., who injured his hamstring a week ago and hadn’t played since, returned to the starting lineup on Friday. … Astros: Adam Everett says his broken leg is feeling better, but he will miss at least another month. Brad Lidge (left oblique) threw a bullpen session at around 80 percent strength on Thursday. … A’s: Placed outfielder Travis Buck on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to June 28, with a sprained right thumb. … Cardinals: Scott Spiezio remains in a New York-area hospital due to an infected left index finger. … Diamondbacks: Jeff DaVanon (shoulder, ankle) went 2-for-4 with a triple in his first game at Single-A Visalia on Thursday. … Dodgers: Activated RHP Chin-Hui Tsao from the 15-day disabled list. … Giants: Fred Lewis (oblique) has hit well during rehab at Triple-A Fresno and is ready to be activated from the disabled list. Rich Aurilia (neck) will play in two rehab games for Triple-A Fresno this weekend. Omar Vizquel, who missed two games with a groin injury, was back in the starting lineup on Friday. … Mariners: Chris Reitsma (elbow) threw a bullpen session Friday and is scheduled to make a rehab appearance with Triple-A Tacoma on Sunday. … Marlins: Cody Ross (hamstring) has started taking batting practice and could return from the disabled list in three weeks. Ross has been out since badly straining his left hamstring on May 6. Alejandro De Aza (fractured ankle) is expected to resume jogging this week. … Mets: Dave Williams (herniated disc) allowed six hits and two earned runs in 6 1/3 innings during a rehab start with Triple-A New Orleans on Wednesday. … Padres: Terrmel Sledge (sprained thumb) is doubtful for this weekend’s series. Pirates: Chris Duffy is expected to be placed on the disabled list Saturday due to the sprained ankle he suffered Thursday. … Rangers: Ian Kinsler was on crutches after leaving Thursday’s game with a sore foot. Kinsler was scheduled to be re-examined by doctors Friday and is listed as day-to-day. … Red Sox: Coco Crisp is out of the lineup on Friday after jamming his thumb during Wednesday’s game. … Reds: Mike Stanton (strained hamstring) threw and did some fielding practice on Friday. Ryan Freel (post-concussion syndrome) will remain on a rehab assignment at Triple-A Louisville at least through the weekend. Eddie Guardado’s recent arm problem has been diagnosed as a slight forearm strain. … Royals: Scott Elarton (foot) threw six scoreless innings in his first rehab start for Triple-A Omaha on Thursday. Mike Sweeney (back) is hoping to come off the disabled list on July 3. … Tigers: Brandon Inge is sitting out Friday’s game because of back spasms. He’s day-to-day. Tigers activated RHP Zach Miner from the 15-day disabled list. Tigers placed LHP Tim Byrdak on the 15-day disabled list with left elbow tendinitis. … White Sox: Dewon Day (sore lower back) will begin a minor league rehab assignment at Triple-A Charlotte today. Jermaine Dye is expected to miss an eighth straight game today with a strained quad. … Yankees: Phil Hughes (hamstring, sprained ankle) threw a 35-pitch bullpen session on Friday. Hughes remains on pace for a late July return from the disabled list. Jason Giambi’s foot is still bothering him after the boot was removed Monday. …

Yes, as you can see from the promotional ad above at right, I’ve teamed with the good folks at Rototown.com to be a participating member of their “Townspeople” section, by simply allowing links to my blog on that site, and providing you an easy path to visit their site from here.

It took several hours of intense negotiations, haggling over minuscule details, before a deal could be reached, but I’m happy to say my blog will be accessible on this new, budding fantasy sports information site.

It damn well better be, anyway. Especially since it’s my site.

Rototown.com will offer news and notes from the four major sports, access to bloggers, and a place for people to enter their own thoughts via a BBS and their own blog-like format (those features are in the works as I type this).

It is in the mold of other popular “roto”-themed sites, although the ability to directly link to individual bloggers is something I don’t see much of elsewhere. And by no means are we trying to compete with those sites — we’re just hoping to complement them by providing fantasy sports players another worthy avenue with which to access important information. As a player, I check multiple sites every day, because one site will not have everything and I want all the information I can get without searching every Web site in the world. My goal for Rototown is to become one of the sites people check for packaged news and notes and informative and entertaining writing and forums.

It’s a lofty goal, and it won’t happen overnight, but I have a great group of people assisting me, starting with a dedicated site developer and a bunch of fantasy players aiding with submissions, and we’re going to see where it goes. Its success will be driven by the notes and information, undoubtedly, and I have a sales expert and marketing expert willing to assist its growth when that time comes. But first, the seeds have to take root, and that begins this week, hopefully.

I invite you all to check out the site, with the understanding that it is very much in the formative stage and constantly expanding. E-mail me your thoughts on improving it, and if you are sitting through a rain delay over the weekend, just call up the page and hit the refresh key a few million times. I won’t tell anyone.

Biggio shares his moment

Craig Biggio accomplished one of the great feats in baseball on Thursday by recording his 3,000th career hit. He’s the 27th player in the history of the game to do so, and more impressively, only the ninth to do so all with the same team.

The milestone hit came in the form of a seventh-inning single. His teammates mobbed him. His family mobbed him. This was his moment.

But instead of basking solo in the limelight — if you can call being surrounded by your team and family “solo” — he did something that was even more surprising. He insisted his longtime fellow Astros infielder, Jeff Bagwell, come on the field and share the moment with him. Bagwell was in civis, but it didn’t matter. The only thing that matters — especially to the 42,000-plus in attendance, was that they were together again, for one last time.

From the MLB.com story:

“The fans didn’t have an opportunity to say goodbye to Baggy, not between the lines, at least,” Biggio said. “I felt we made such commitments and sacrifice that I wanted him between the lines.”

Throughout their careers, Biggio explained, he and Bagwell never stepped back onto the field after a game was over. When they won, the team would go through its line of high-fives, but Bagwell and Biggio stayed on the right side of the first-base line and greeted their teammates there.

On this night, Biggio wanted Bagwell with him, one last time, on the very infield grass where they made so much history together.

“I wanted him on the field, between the lines, one more time with me, to really let the fans say goodbye, say hello, say thank you for so many things,” Biggio said. “To me, that was what it was all about. He deserved it. I guess I deserved it in a way. I really just wanted him to be out there one more time with me.”

Bagwell, in typically humble fashion, smiled sheepishly while recounting that moment.

“It was terrible for me,” he chuckled. “But it was great. It was a great gesture on Bidge’s part. He just wanted to be back out on the field with me. But this is all about him.

“I’ve been there for a lot of those hits. But this is his night, his moment. I can’t think of a better night. I just want everybody to appreciate the person he is off the field and the player he is on the field.”

It was strange to see Bagwell on a field, and even created a more bizarre tie to the earlier milestone of the day — Frank Thomas hitting his 500th career home run.

Thomas and Bagwell were both born the same day — May 27, 1968 — and each won their respective league’