MLB Bullets Remembers Old Times

Let's see if we can all be civil today. Most of you were, but a few people decided to hijack the thread last time. They weren't regular commentators, so I take some solace in that. But it's too bad because there was a lot of good stuff last time that no one got to comment on.

When Yogi Berra said "I really didn't say everything I said," he was often referring to his childhood friend Joe Garagiola making up stories about him.

• Maybe we should have done a separate story on this because he did play for the Cubs for two seasons, but longtime broadcaster Joe Garagiola died Wednesday at the age of 90. Except for J. Fred Muggs, he was the greatest host of the Today Show ever. But seriously, his career on television extended far beyond sports, which just showed how talented he was.
• Jerry Crasnick points out that for people of a certain age (and I'm one of them), Garagiola was the voice of baseball when they were growing up. I can't tell you how many games I watched with him and Tony Kubek at the microphone.
• Richard Justice also wants you to know about Garagiola's compassion for those less fortunate.
• The Dodgers are putting on a full-court press to break the impasse between Time-Warner Cable and television service providers who aren't carrying the SportsNet LA channel that carries the Dodgers games. Essentially, they're saying that how can they deprive fans of hearing Vin Scully's last season.
• Scully himself says that he's "embarrassed" by such talk.
• Craig Calcaterra says the Dodgers and MLB have shown no concern for the fans ability to watch the games in the past and this is just a cynical ploy to use Scully's retirement as a money-grab.
• Jeff Passan writes that the Dodgers' deal with Time-Warner has been an unmitigated disaster.
• And speaking of teams wanting even more money, the Diamondbacks want out of their lease with Chase Field so they can explore building a new stadium. Because, OMG, Chase Field is 18 years old! You can't expect a team to compete with an outdated stadium like that.
• MLB is saying that it's "too soon" to think about expansion and/or putting a team back in Montréal. Bring back the Expos!
• Speaking of the Expos, Bartolo Colon says he's not thinking about retiring right now. Play forever, Bart. Play forever.
• The comments from Colon came about because of a report that said that Alex Rodriguez would retire at the end of the 2017 season, but A-Rod now says that his statement was misunderstood. He might retire after 2017 and he'll almost certainly be done with the Yankees, but he's leaving the door open to playing beyond 2017.
• Will Leitch wonders how far up Rodriguez (and other active players) will end up on the career WAR lists once he retires.
• Tim Brown gives his impressions of his trip to Cuba.
• And put Minnie Minoso in the Hall of Fame already!
• In a follow up to an earlier story, the coach whom former Cardinals farmhand Tyler Dunnington said "we kill gay people" to him, has identified himself and has personally apologized to Dunnington. Dunnington, who revealed that he's gay last week, said that one of his college coaches said those things, and Colorado Mesa coach Sean McKinney said it was him. It's a good story and you can see that McKinney realizes how wrong he was and that he's working to try to make up for his previous attitudes.
• Mike Schmidt is the latest old ballplayer to tell Jose Bautista to get off his lawn. And stop flipping bats. But of course, the little jig that Schmidt danced as he ran around the bases when he hit his 500th home run was perfectly OK in Schmidt's book.
• Yoenis Cespedes just stared at a ball up against the CF wall for an inside-the-park home run yesterday. To be fair, no one goes over the park ground rules during a Spring Training game. Well, Buck Showalter probably does. But that's just because he doesn't want the hours he spent memorizing them to go to waste.
• Starlin Castro talks about his time with the Cubs and he's got nothing bad to say. He also talks about the difficulty in making the transition to second base. His new Yankees teammates also talk about trying to make the transition easier for him.
• Both Jay Bruce and Jonathan Lucroy are surprised that neither one has been traded yet.
• Tiger Daniel Norris (Daniel Tiger?) has a non-displaced fracture of the vertebrae and will start the season on the disabled list. It's still unclear how much time he'll miss.
• Joe Posnanski talks about baseball's obsession with pitch velocity and a new documentary coming out this week, called "Fastball."
• After 3 1/2 years in prison, Matt Bush threw 97 mph in a Spring Training game against the Cubs. David Schoenfield talks about Bush's story and how his Rangers teammates are pulling for him.
• Levi Weaver has another profile of Bush, who was the first pick in the draft in 2004. Also, he drove over a man's head and almost killed him.
• In a nicer return to baseball story, Mike Piellucci profiles Tony Barnette, who is trying to make the Rangers as a 32-year old rookie after a career as a dominating closer in Japan.
• John LaRue tries to figure out which team from the past 30 years is most like each 2016 team.
• Jayson Stark explains why the trade which sent Ken Giles to the Astros was so surprising for this analytics-driven team.
• Which major leaguer have made the most Opening Day starts at each position?
• The Diamondbacks have been very happy with the performance of their middle infielders so far this spring, reports Ken Rosenthal.
• A Missouri state assemblyman has introduced a bill to make the St. Louis Cardinals the Official Baseball Team of the State of Missouri. I'd like to think this was an intentional jerkwad move by one of the Best Fans In Baseball, but like Kansas governor Sam Brownback, this dork might think the Kansas City Royals play in Kansas.
• PNC Park has announced a horrifying new hot dog that is covered in macaroni and cheese, cracker jacks, caramel sauce and jalepeños. I'm sorry Pirates, but you have been chopped.
• And finally, it was 15 years ago yesterday that Randy Johnson killed a bird with a pitch. Several ornithologists talk about the incident and just how unlucky that bird was.

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