Most of the baseball world was silent over the weekend, so today's Bullets are a little light. The sad fact, however, is that death takes a holiday for no one, even baseball.
- The hero of the 1986 ALCS, Dave Henderson, passed away of a heart attack on Sunday at the age of 57.
- Christina Kahrl has an appreciation of "Hendu" and explains why she'll miss Henderson.
- Another baseball figure who passed away all too young was St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Joe Strauss, who died at age 54 of leukemia. Ken Rosenthal writes a tribute to his former colleague in Baltimore and for the job of the independent newspaper baseball beat writer, a position Rosenthal fears is disappearing.
- The Cardinals family responded to Strauss' passing with their own tributes.
- Jim O'Toole, who pitched for the Reds in the 1960s, died on Saturday of cancer at age 78.
- Bobby Dews, who spent 37 years as a coach and a minor league manager for the Braves, has also passed away at the age of 76.
- There was a report last night that linked Ryan Howard, Ryan Zimmerman and Taylor Teagarden to purchases of HGH. The baseball angle of this is getting overshadowed by the football names that were linked in this report.
- However, the report was already disputed and under fire before it even aired last night.
- This is a report from about three weeks ago, but it looks at the possibility of some actual therapeutic uses for HGH. It would take a long time for the drug to get reclassified, however.
- Indians infielder Zach Walters was released from the hospital after a car accident last Tuesday.
- Only six teams have not signed a major league free agent this offseason so far and one of them . . .is the Yankees? Joel Sherman explains why the Yankees have been so quiet this winter.
- Mark Townsend thinks the surging Cubs have gotten into the heads of the Cardinals.
- There was a report that posted Japanese pitcher Kenta Maeda was seen at Dodger Stadium on Thursday. Means nothing. If he was seen in a Starbucks in Echo Park, then I'd be sure it was a done deal.
- Bryan Grosnick looks at the career of Jim Rice and compares him to a current major league free agent outfielder.
- Alan Nathan has a piece on the physics of hitting and why swinging for a home run is a better idea than a level, line-drive swing.
- Andrew Bucholtz writes about how rare it is for Fox Sports to admit their mistake and jettison Harold Reynolds and Tom Verducci from the broadcast booth.
- A story about how a mentally ill man's title claim against Petco Park is creating a headache for the Padres and the city of San Diego.
- Matt Duffy (the one with the Giants) has a fat cat. A really fat cat.
- In case you needed more proof that baseball is better in Korean, new Orioles outfielder Hyun-soo Kim already has his own awesome theme song.
- And finally, Dan Uggla spent Christmas doing the same thing that probably some of you did: falling off a hoverboard.
And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.