MLB Bullets Don't Need No Stinkin' DH

Joe Maddon actually called up the air traffic control towers at O'Hare and had them get Bryce Harper off the Nationals team plane and ordered him to walk back to Washington. That's actually really mean.

• The argument in favor of the National League adopting the designated hitter was demolished on Saturday as 42-year-old Bartolo Colon hit his first major league home run. How can anyone be against the greatest moment of the season so far? It's magic like this that make us love baseball, and the DH-lovers want to take moments like that away from us. Colon is the oldest player ever to hit his first career home run.
• Baseball Twitter, understandably, went nuts over Colon's home run.
• Some more reactions to Bartolo's home run.
• Colon's home run will be immortalized in a Topps baseball card.
• Bill Baer agrees with me: Colon's home run is the reason why the DH should be abolished.
• James Shields, the pitcher who gave up the Colon home run, doesn't want to talk about it. He might want to call Steve Stone for advice on dealing with such a situation. But at least Duane Kuiper was an infielder, not a pitcher.
• The Angels lost pitcher Garrett Richards to Tommy John surgery, so he'll be out for the season. Additionally, pitcher Andrew Heaney is trying to rehab a UCL injury, but he might need surgery as well.
• Grant Brisbee explains that "it is impossible to describe just how hosed the Angels are."
• If things couldn't get worse for the Angels, shortstop Andrelton Simmons has a sprained left thumb.
• Because the Angels don't have a lot of options, some have suggested that they start a rebuild by trading Mike Trout. David Schoenfield thinks the Angels have to consider it, and has some possible deals in mind.
• Brian Kenny explains why trading Trout is crazy talk.
• Chris Cwik agrees: the Angels should not trade Mike Trout.
• GM Billy Eppler, who gets the final say, says he's not trading Trout.
• A few more injury-related notes. Tim Lincecum looked good in his "showcase" outing on Friday. Maybe the Angels will sign him to take one of those rotation spots.
• Rangers right-hander A.J. Griffin hits the DL with a sore shoulder.
• Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas has a fractured thumb. Yes, he's on the DL too.
• Jung Ho Kang came off the DL and hit two home runs in his first game back. The Korean broadcasters went wild. I don't even have to say it anymore, do I? I'm just going to have to learn to speak Korean.
• We expected this, but it became official as MLB has officially moved the two-game series in Puerto Rico to Miami because of fears of the Zika virus.
• An announcement is coming soon on the length of the suspension of Jose Reyes under the new domestic violence policy. It's expected to be a big one of at least 60 games and maybe 80 games or more.
• Aroldis Chapman is set to return to the Yankees after his domestic violence suspension and he said that Latin players were being targeted because of their wealth and their unfamiliarity with the US and US customs. I mean, yes, but as a friend of mine said after the OJ Simpson verdict, I'm glad that the trial has exposed many of the problems with the criminal justice system. I just wish it had been used to get someone off who was actually innocent.
• For example, Carlos Gomez called out a Houston Chronicle columnist who used his imperfect command of English to make him sound stupid. He said he'll only give interviews in Spanish now if that's the way the press is going to treat him.
• Craig Calcaterra also criticizes that columnist and says that he's wrong to think that Carlos Gomez is the big problem in Houston this year.
• The problem certainly isn't Jose Altuve. Richard Justice thinks that Altuve has taken his game to a new level this season.
• R.J. Anderson thinks that Altuve is one of the oddest hitters in baseball. In a good way.
• Speaking of teams with problems, Bob Nightengale notes that the Braves are on-pace to be the worst MLB team of all-time. He notes that while everyone in Atlanta thought it would be a tough season, no one thought it would be this tough. He also writes that the Braves believe that better days are ahead.
• Some Nationals-related notes from yesterday's game. No one has ever reached base seven times in one game without recording an at-bat before Bryce Harper did it yesterday.
• And Ryan Zimmerman set a major league record by leaving 14 runners on base in one game.
• As pitchers throw harder and harder, Mike Vorkunov talks to experts about what the human limits of pitching velocity might be.
• And connected to that is the rise in arm injuries. Peter Gammons thinks we need to rethink the way we develop pitchers, starting at the youth level. Of course, that's easier said than done.
• Jeff Zimmermann analyzes whether pitchers have the ability to keep hitters from making hard contact.
• Christina Kahrl shows how White Sox pitcher Chris Sale has adjusted his game to get off to the best start of his career. And that's saying something.
• Back when FanGraphs did that "What type of a baseball geek are you?" piece, I established that I'm pretty much a fielding geek. So that's why I liked this piece from August Fagerstrom that shows how Adam Eaton has saved the White Sox 12 runs already.
• Matthew Ingram explains why Disney is interested in buying one-third of MLB Advanced Media, with the right to buy a controlling share in the future.
• David Ortiz went nuts after a bad call on strike three on Friday. David Schoenfield says that Ortiz was right to be upset.
• As you might imagine, a lot of Mother's Day stories came out over the weekend. Anna McDonald gets several players to explain what their mother means to them, including Cubs Jake Arrieta and Jason Heyward.
• Katie Strang explains how family struggles have made Mother's Day very special for Mike Aviles.
• Jim Caple profiles Taijuan Walker and his mother, a breast cancer survivor who is both Walker's biggest fan and biggest critic.
• Earlier I said I was a fielding geek, and that's true. But that doesn't mean I can't enjoy great base running like how Billy Hamilton scored from first base on a single to left field.
• And finally, I appreciate pitching too. But I really can't fathom how Cal-Berkeley pitcher Ryan Mason was able to throw a ball through a falling cylinder. You have to see it to believe it, and then you won't believe it.

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