MLB Bullets Hangs ‘Em Up

It’s amazing how many people on the internet are willing to defend the honors awarded a demonstrably awful human being. Are there NFL fans who continue to insist that we should treat O.J. Simpson as the "Rushing King"?

• Ichiro Suzuki hit a triple off of Rockies pitcher Chris Rusin to become the 30th player in MLB history to have 3000 hits.
• More facts on Ichiro’s achievement and a neat chart of all 3000 hits.
• Jim Caple shows how Ichiro’s standards helped him reach this milestone. Also, some more interesting anecdotes about this most fascinating ballplayer.
• Kenneth Arthur looks back at Ichiro as a rookie and how impossible it seemed that someone who started his major-league career at 27 could get to 3000 hits.
• Major leaguers reacted to Ichiro’s feat on Twitter.
• Ben Reiter reports on how Ichiro and Barry Bonds have helped to turn around the fortunes of the Miami Marlins.
• The other big news, of course, is that Alex Rodriguez will play his last game with the Yankees on Friday. Although he won’t rule out playing again, he’s going to take a job in the Yankees front office.
• Wallace Matthews begs Rodriguez not to unretire.
• Ken Rosenthal reports on how the decision to end Rodriguez’s career went down.
• When GM Brian Cashman was asked how Yankee fans should remember A-Rod, he showed off his 2009 World Championship ring and pointed out that the Yankees don’t win it without him.
• Yankees players reflect on how much they enjoyed playing with Rodriguez.
• Gary Phillips believes that Rodriguez has rescued his reputation over the past two seasons.
• Well, about that. Tom Verducci writes a column about how A-Rod goes down in baseball infamy.
• Andrew Marchand writes that whether you love or you hate him, Alex Rodriguez will be missed.
• Craig Calcaterra says that love him or hate him, Rodriguez was one of the all-time greats.
• Michael Bauman thinks Rodriguez’s problem was that he tried too hard to be liked.
• Richard Justice says that in the end, it was A-Rod’s love of baseball that shines through.
• And in more Yankees retirement news, Mark Teixeira announced that he will retire at the end of the season. And at this point, I remember that the Cubs would have drafted Teixeira had the Twins taken Mark Prior instead of Joe Mauer.
• Mike Axisa notes what we’re all noticing: It’s a new era in the Bronx. I hope Gleyber Torres is a part of it. Actually, I hope Torres is traded to Seattle for Jay Buhner, but otherwise, I hope he’s part of the new Yankees.
• Another former great is on the rocks as the Angels designated Tim Lincecum for assignment. The Angels are hoping that Lincecum will agree to stay in the organization at Triple-A Salt Lake.
• Jonathan Lucroy explains why he blocked a trade to Cleveland. After reading it, you understand what was behind the decision. Lucroy also tells of everything that went down that weekend, including sitting in the parking lot at O’Hare on Monday, waiting to find out if he needed to get on a plane.
• But R.J. Anderson thinks Lucroy’s new team, the Rangers, will struggle in the postseason because of the weaknesses in the back of their rotation.
• Buster Olney reports that other teams are upset with the Padres. Teams feel that the Friars were not forthcoming with the medical reports on players traded to the Marlins and Red Sox.
• And in a strange story, the Athletics strength and conditioning coach was suspended after it was revealed that he had installed hidden cameras in the weight room to spy on the players.
• Mike Axisa notes that the Braves are going to have a big impact on which teams make the playoffs in the National League. Just ask the Cardinals if you don’t believe him.
• The Mariners made two trades to bolster their bullpen. They got Pat Venditte from the Blue Jays and Arquimedes Caminero from the Pirates.
• In case you were wondering after he exited the Cubs game, A’s pitcher Sonny Gray went back on the DL.
• Matt Borcas takes to task those who would think the injured Yoenis Cespedes shouldn’t play golf.
• After seven years in the minors, Dodgers infielder Rob Segedin finally got to make his major league debut.
• And if you watched the game on the MLB Network (because ESPN had to show a non-existent NFL exhibition game), you know Segedin had 4 RBI in his debut. You also know that his wife snuck onto a plane to get to the game, despite being due to give birth in 7 to 10 days.
• David Ortiz dropped in on Vin Scully as two retired legends praised each other.
• The Phillies turned a 5-4-3 triple play in San Diego.
• On his 25th birthday, Mike Trout robbed Leonys Martin of a grand slam.
• I’ve been accused of favoring spectacular fielding over spectacular hitting, so to even things out a bit, here’s a 504-foot home run by Giancarlo Stanton.
• And Phillies infielder Freddy Galvis hit a ground-rule double into the trash can in the Padres bullpen. Why am I not surprised that that’s Clayton Richard on the mound?
• Miguel Sano did something that no one in the history of Tropicana Field has ever done: He hit the roof with a pop up. Not the catwalks—that happens all the time. Sano hit the actual roof.
• And finally, the National Baseball Congress World Series gets played every year, but it rarely gets much attention outside of the hometown papers of some of the teams. This year is different because the tournament is being dominated by the Kansas Stars: a team made up almost entirely of retired MLB players. So some auto mechanic or bank manager is going to get to go home and say "I just struck out against Tim Hudson!"

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