MLB Bullets Asks Who's Laughing Now?

The Iowa Hawkeyes fell just short of winning their NCAA regional, losing in the final to Missouri State. But they can be proud of winning their first NCAA tournament game since 1972. So congrats to the Hawkeyes.

• If you want to read the New York Times obituary of Lennie Merullo, here it is.
• As long as we're on the obit page (which scares me a lot more than it used to), Jerry Dior has passed at age 82. Dior was the graphic designer who in 1968 created the iconic MLB logo that is still used today.
• I've been pretty firm in my belief that the National League will not be adopting the DH anytime soon. And respected pollster Public Policy Polling reports that's exactly what most fans want. Fifty-five percent of MLB fans prefer allowing pitchers to hit and only 33 percent like the DH. The other 12 percent was undecided. (By the way, click on the link and read the full poll results. Some interesting stuff in there.)
• Ken Rosenthal has an even more radical suggestion to change baseball rules. Rosenthal wants Major League Baseball to adopt the "split seasons" format of the minors. They already did that once in 1981 and I don't recall anyone liking it other than Lou Boudreau. I also recall that Tony LaRussa figured out a way to throw games in order to make the playoffs.
• Craig Calcaterra says the schedule isn't broke and stop trying to fix it.
• Rany Jazeyerli documents how the Astros went from a punchline to first place in less than a year.
• Rob Arthur explains just how unusual the Astros turnaround has been.
• The Astros got more good news from the farm when one of their first round picks from last season, Derek Fisher, got promoted to High-A Lancaster. In his first three at-bats at High-A, he hit home runs. The second and third ones were grand slams. He came to the plate with the bases loaded once more and "only" managed to hit a three-run double. All in all, he was 4 for 6 with three home runs and 12 RBI. Not bad for a 40 year old who played 18 seasons in the NBA.
• Things are going so well for the Astros that their mascot went streaking.
• While the Astros are flourishing, their stadium is floundering. Minute Maid Park was flooded during Saturday's game because of torrential rains in Houston. But the game went on.
• Jeff Sullivan thinks the Pirates are benefitting this year from a nearly perfect offseason.
• The Giants turned their season around with a pretty great May, led by a pitching staff that threw 8 shutout last month. Jayson Stark can explain it, but he doesn't understand it.
• On the other hand, the Dodgers went 42 innings without scoring a run last week. Manager Don Mattingly is confident their bats will come around.
• Bartolo Colon picked up a win on the mound on Sunday, thanks in part to an ugly double by Colon himself. Everything Colon does is ugly. But it's better to win ugly than lose handsomely.
• Mike Simon says that while Giancarlo Stanton continues to hit titanic home runs, analysis shows that he's been struggling when not connecting for a home run.
• Free agent pitcher Rafael Soriano has fired his agent Scott Boras and has gotten new representation.
• David Schoenfield ranks the top five hitting duos in the major leagues. You'll like number one, even if it might be a bit premature.
• White Sox pitcher John Danks threw a 10-hit shutout. No one has thrown a shutout while allowing that many hits since 2004.
• Josh Hamilton finished his first series back with the Rangers with a walkoff double.
• Ben Reiter writes that the Rangers just had a bargain handed to them in Hamilton.
• Except how much will the dry cleaning bill be for the on-field reporters that they drench with Gatorade? Actually, as that link points out, the dry cleaning bill is nothing. Those stains aren't coming out.
• Reds pitcher Tony Cingrani hit Bryce Harper in the back. Then Joey Votto and Cingrani got mad because Harper didn't run to first fast enough. I guess we can add the Reds to the list of enforcers of the unwritten rules that they didn't write themselves.
• Speaking of unwritten rules, Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis got ejected from Friday night's game. Ellis claimed that he was ejected after he objected to home plate umpire Mike Winters criticizing his ability to frame pitches. Does Winters realize that pitch-framing is a catcher trying to fool an umpire? Total #umpshow if true.
• Umpires have so much respect for Joey Votto that they let him walk on three balls.
• Stephen Strasburg left Friday night's game with neck tightness and was put on the disabled list.
• Dan Rozenson thinks that something wasn't right with Strasburg before he went on the DL.
• Sean Doolittle came off the DL and promptly went right back on it.
• Khris Davis is going to the DL with a torn right meniscus.
• The Diamondbacks catcher-of-the-future is now the catcher-of-the-past. Peter O'Brien is now a full-time outfielder.
• Joe Roegele explains how the strike zone, much like my waistline, is expanding again this season.
• Dan Uggla. Bad at baseball. Good at hugs. Which is more important now?
• Are the Rays manipulating their ticket sales to create an artificial scarcity?
• The story of the last fan at Cincinnati's old Crosley Field.
• If you think being a Cubs fan is bad, how about being a fan of the University of Tokyo? They'd lost 94 games in a row and hadn't won a game since 2010. I say "had" because last Saturday they beat Hosei University 6-4 in ten innings. Of course, they lost again the next day to start a new streak.
• Balls just aren't supposed to behave like this one did off the bat of Chase Headley. Check for magnets. Or blondes in the stands wiggling their noses.
• And finally, Andrew McCutchen gave a kid his batting gloves. Their reaction was priceless.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.