FanHouse CalRipkenJr.

Four men stole a statue of Cal Ripken's No. 8 outside of Camden Yards Tuesday night and were arrested shortly after committing the crime. That's because they left the "8" in the bed of a pickup truck. An open pickup truck. While the police were being called because of an entirely unrelated incident in which the four men were being "disorderly."

Look, I'm not here to judge anybody's intelligence, I'm just curious about the thought process behind this whole thing. I don't have a whole lot of inside information, but I'm fairly certain that the entire crime was inspired by alcohol and an episode of the Simpsons. Usually getting drunk and making Simpsons references is the sign of a good night, but here it's apparently gone tragically wrong.

Saturday Spotlight is a weekly lightning round of questions delving into the personalities of major leaguers.

James Shields wasted no time in becoming a fixture in the Rays rotation. The Rays signed him to a four-year, $11.25-million deal before he started his second full season in the majors. He delivered, winning 14 games and helping the Rays to a surprising AL Pennant in 2008.

On to the questions...

Since it's been a few weeks since we've thrown an "Ozzie being Ozzie" quote at you, here's one in visual and audio form. It's Ozzie Guillen talking about Cal Ripken Jr.'s bald head and how he'd be a good fit for commissioner after Bud Selig's reign of terror is over.

The reporters seem to enjoy it, as do I.

{HT: C. Mottram at the new and improved Mr. Irrelevant.}

Looks like the almost inevitable came through on Wednesday when the D-Backs placed third baseman Chad Tracy on the 15-day DL because of a strained rib cage. It was an injury that Tracy originally sustained May 1st against the Dodgers and tried to play through, but the pain has been so bad recently, the team was forced to shelve him.

"It looks like that is what's going to be best for it," Tracy said. "It just gets worse and worse during the game. It's just to the point where I can't backhand a ball down the line and throw across. My third at-bat it felt like someone was stabbing me in my side."

When you read something like that -- that a ribcage injury was so bad it felt like he was getting stabbed in his side, you really get a sense of what kind of pain these ballplayers try to play through. And every time I see news like this, especially for a third baseman like Tracy, it makes me think of Cal Ripken Jr. and all the "stabbing" pain he must have played through. This is bad news for the Diamondbacks who have been seriously struggling offensively. Tracy was leading the team with a .311 average and .902 OPS. Even more amazing is the fact that Tracy had hits in each of his last four games despite battling the injury -- batting .429 in the span. Now that's impressive.

Barry's World is the FanHouse's look into the season that is Barry Bonds

In Sunday's LA Times, Barry's agent, Jeff Borris, let out a belligerent declaration:

"Barry better be unanimous, 100%, first ballot," Borris said. "If the Hall of Fame is what it stands for, how can the greatest player ever to play the game not be a unanimous selection?"

I understand that Borris is Bonds' agent, meaning his job is to best represent his client's interests, but seriously Borris, don't you think that edict is a little out of order?

Consider this, no player has ever been a unanimous selection to the Hall of Fame. Not the Babe, not Hank Aaron, not Mantle, not Mays, nor DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Nolan Ryan, none of them. On the 2007 ballot, Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn received the 3rd and 7th highest percentages in history, 98.5% of the vote for Ripken, and 97.6% for Gwynn. Ripken had the iron-man streak, 2 MVPs, 19 All-Star games, a Rookie of the Year, and two Gold Gloves. Gwynn has eight batting titles, five Gold Gloves, and 15 All-Star games. They both played in what's considered the fringe of the steroid era and neither of them received a unanimous selection. Why would things be any different for Bonds? Especially consider that the Baseball Hall of Fame has a morals clause wherein character, sportsmanship, and integrity are all heavily weighed. Wouldn't that be enough to keep Bonds from garnering 100% of the vote?

There are more questions that must be asked: Is Barry the greatest player ever? Should Bonds be the first player to receive the unanimous distinction? Will voters snub him of a first-ballot Hall of Fame vote because of all the Game of Shadows allegations that surround him? Lastly, is there any player worthy of a unanimous selection to the Hall of Fame? These are all questions you must ask yourself and try to come up with the answer.

Cal Ripken Jr. not only owns the Aberdeen IronBirds but the team's stadium is named after him, too. It's gotten itself into a bit of financial trouble the last few years and Ripken might be interested in buying the stadium to help out.

The team pays $1 a year to use the stadium and keeps almost all the money generated from games. The city has had to dip into the general fund to meet annual payments on about $4.8 million in state bonds. But the biggest drain on the city's finances is the delay of an adjacent development project that was expected to help pay for the stadium.

The stadium brings the city about $260,000 a year, mostly from a tax on tickets, but operating expenses and bondholder payments leaves the city with losses up to as much as $485,000 in a single year, according to city figures.

Members of Harford County's legislative delegation have blocked proposals by city officials to impose a room tax at city hotels.

"The deal they made with the Ripken thing is one of the worst deals they ever made, and now they expect the taxpayers of Aberdeen to pay for their ineptness," said state Sen. Nancy Jacobs, a Harford County Republican.

I don't know anything about business or real estate, but paying only $1 a year seems a bit off to me. This looks like a big mess and if I were Cal, I might stay far, far away. Although he owns the dang team, so that might not be the easiest thing to do.

But hey, what do I know. I just sold my Nintendo Wii for some nachos and a Slurpee. Yum!