FanHouse RickVaughn

The Hyde Park Cafe in Tampa is not the place you want to find yourself if you're a C-list celebrity. Way back in April of last year, Jessica Sierra, who has something to do with American Idol, got arrested there for chunking a drink at another bar-goer.

Now it's Al Reyes turn! It's apparently athlete birthday day here at the 'Haus, and Al is taking the cake. Guess what he's making news for. Is it: a) being drunk and disruptive, b) falling down everywhere, c) picking fights, d) spitting blood, e) getting tased by the police, or f) all of the above ...

Witnesses told police the incident started around 2:30 a.m. at the Hyde Park Cafe, 1806 W Platt St., when Reyes fell against a ceramic pot inside the bar. Thinking someone had pushed him, police said Reyes began exchanging words with patron Eduardo Mora.

Mora then punched Reyes in the face, getting the attention of the Hyde Park Cafe's bouncers. Meanwhile, police said in a news release, Reyes 'began to spit blood on the people in the area and began to swing his arms about.'

[...]Moments later, the officer Tased Reyes, knocking him to the bar floor. Ignoring police commands to stay down, authorities said Reyes got up and was Tased a second time.

Happy birthday, dude! (Yes, "f" was the answer). Pretty solid outing for Mr. Reyes, who will probably have to answer to this with the city of Tampa and his employer, the Rays. Especially if you look at what the Rays have been doing lately.

Yesterday I wrote a post about San Francisco Giants pitcher Noah Lowry's rough start to his spring training. A start that's included numerous wild pitches, a lot of walks, an errant pick-off throw that landed in the stands, and probably a few deaths somewhere in between.

Now when these types of things happen to a pitcher, a blogger can go one of two ways. He can compare the pitcher to Rick "Wild Thing" Vaughn of Major League fame, or he can go the Rick Ankiel route. I chose the Ankiel route, and I wasn't the only one either, as it was a pretty obvious comparison.

Well, Noah didn't like it very much.

Lowry did not appear relieved when he met with reporters. Instead, he was rankled by media speculation that he might be suffering from the same unexplained wildness that shortened the pitching careers of Steve Blass and Rick Ankiel.

Lowry felt the reports questioned his mental toughness and character - values that he prides himself upon.

"The Ankiel stuff - that's asinine and a slap in the face for anybody that does know me," said Lowry, who declined to be interviewed after his start Monday. "Mentally, I feel I've been able to deal with anything."

Noah then took his ball and glove and went home.

As it turns out, Lowry has tendinitis in his wrist which kept him from getting a good grip on the ball during his outing on Monday, and led to all those fastballs flying all over the place. Of course, maybe if Lowry had taken the time to talk to the media after the game, or even inform his coaches about the wrist injury, none of this would have happened.