NEW YORK – Finally, there was life in Ryan Howard's bat, energy in his words. "Come on man, let's go," he shouted upon crossing the plate, as if adding a hardy exclamation point to his two-run homer in the sixth inning would spark whatever the defending champions had been missing since they took a brief World Series lead way back in October.
The Philadelphia Phillies brought the bravado, for sure. On the eve of the Fall Classic, Jimmy Rollins made one of his many extemporaneous observations, saying on the Jay Leno Show, of all places, "If we're nice, we'll let it go six. But I'm thinking five. Close it out at home." So here's the first lesson, to any budding big leaguers: try not to mouth off when playing the wealthiest, hungriest, most talent-stacked team on the planet.
Poppin' out of the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
All season long, we've been waiting for David Price to deliver on the hype. But Price's year has been up and down, with counting stats that resemble waiver-wire fodder outside of his strikeout total. Well, there's another Rays starter that may be on track to finish 2009 stronger than Price, and is well worth a spot in all keeper leagues.
Poppin' out of the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
On Sunday, Ichiro Suzuki became the second fastest player to ever reach the 2,000 hit milestone as he doubled in the first inning and later scored.
It took Suzuki 1,402 games to reach 2,000 hits. The fastest was Al Simmons who did it in 1,390 games. Suzuki needs five more hits to reach 200 for the season, which would break the record he shares with Willie Keeler at nine consecutive seasons with 200.
As milestone talk goes, Ichiro is playing second fiddle to what's about to happen in New York.
The greatest mystery in the history of Chicago has finally been solved. The Cubs fan who dumped a beer on Philadelphia Phillies centerfielder Shane Victorino's head at Wrigley Field on Wednesday night has turned himself in, and now the people of Chicago can now rest peacefully at night without fear of someone pouring a beer on them.
Johnny Macchione was the kid who wasted his beverage on Wednesday, but after Wrigley Field security grabbed the wrong man, he was able to sneak out of Wrigley undetected. Then on Thursday it seems his conscience -- or the fact that there was videos and pictures of him everywhere -- caused Macchione to turn himself in and face the music.
CHICAGO -- Midwestern values? Sorry, I've never detected more common sense here than anywhere else, particularly during baseball season in the heartland capital. Chicago is where a father/son tag team, one with a knife falling from his pocket, tackled an enemy first-base coach who never has emotionally recovered. Chicago is where a bond trader attacked Cubs relief pitcher Randy Myers for allowing a home run. Chicago is where a fan stole the cap of Dodgers catcher Chad Kreuter, prompting his teammates to rush into the stands. Chicago is where a riot broke out and fires erupted on Disco Demolition Night.
Chicago is where psycho fans come to pillage and plunder, possibly a byproduct of having won only one World Series over the last 191 collective seasons -- soon to be 193 -- on both sides of town. Philadelphia boos Santa Claus? Cleveland throws batteries at helmeted, padded football players? New York, Boston, Detroit? Those places are mellow compared to Chi, the city that really should taser morons after Oakland introduced the idea last week, the city where so-called regional sensibilities don't always apply at the two ballparks.
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action with a quick nod to what is ahead.
You Oughta Know ... That it's possible to get ejected by the home plate umpire when you're standing in center field. That's exactly what happened to Phillies center fielder Shane Victorino, who questioned a call by Ed Rapuano in the seventh inning of Philadelphia's 12-3 loss to Florida by gesturing and jumping up and down in center and was then run from the game.
After Rapuano threw Victorino out, the speedy outfielder known as the Flyin' Hawaiian sprinted all the way to the infield to challenge his decision. It appeared he was going to make contact with the umpire, but he denied that was the case, explaining:
PHILADELPHIA – BJ Penn is fond of saying that fighting is in the blood of most Hawaiians, and Shane Victorino tends to agree. The Philadelphia Phillies All-Star outfielder, who is also from the 50th state, happens to be a massive UFC fan, and stopped by the UFC 101 fighter workouts prior to his Wednesday night game against the Colorado Rockies.
Ironically, however, Victorino did not originally become a fan because of Penn, but was indoctrinated into the UFC by his fiancée, Melissa Smith, who once worked as an assistant for Zuffa co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta. Victorino and Smith live in Las Vegas during the offseason, and he's become friendly with UFC brass, including President Dana White.
Like millions of others, Victorino is a big fan who regularly logs on to the web to get the latest news. And he says he has plenty of company on his team. Jayson Werth, Raul Ibanez, Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins all follow the action as well.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
Adam Kennedy: 5-for-7. Mark Ellis: 4-for-6. Orlando Cabrera, Kevin Youkilis, and J.D. Drew: 3-for-5 each. Six other players with two hits. Five more with a single hit. 35 in all, and nary a home run to be found. Boston's Clay Buchholz and Oakland's Vin Mazzaro each gave up nine hits in the game, and Boston was able to piece together five runs in the third to end up with a 6-2 lead after six innings. But as they say, that's when things got interesting.
Voters "turned out" online in record-shattering numbers to help send Phillies outfielder Shane Victorino and Tigers third baseman Brandon Inge to next Tuesday's All-Star Game in St. Louis in the fans' final vote.
Voting was done exclusively on MLB.com and the number of votes cast was astonishing. For both the American and National League teams, the fans cast 68.6 million votes to send first-time All-Stars, in Inge and Victorino, to play in the 80th All-Star Game.
Inge outlasted Ian Kinsler, who finished the close race in second place ahead of Chone Figgins, Carlos Pena and Adam Lind.
Victorino finished just ahead of Pablo Sandoval, Mark Reynolds, Matt Kemp and Cristian Guzmanto to earn his place on the National League squad.
Poppin' out of the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
The greatest mystery in the history of Chicago has finally been solved. The Cubs fan who dumped a beer on Philadelphia Phillies centerfielder Shane Victorino's head at Wrigley Field on Wednesday night has turned himself in, and now the people of Chicago can now rest peacefully at night without fear of someone pouring a beer on them.
CHICAGO -- Midwestern values? Sorry, I've never detected more common sense here than anywhere else, particularly during 
Starting Five
Starting Five
PHILADELPHIA – 
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
Voters "turned out" online in record-shattering numbers to help send Phillies outfielder 
