Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead. You Oughta Know ... That the Rays seem to be putting it all together. The reigning American League champions left New York with a series victory over the Mets thanks to a big Sunday afternoon from B.J. Upton, who homered and had four hits. Tampa Bay is now 12-6 in the month of June and two games back of the Yankees in the AL wild-card race.
Upton has played a big part in the surge after slumping for the first two months of the season. The center fielder came into June hitting .204, but he's hitting .329 this month.
I'll admit it, I'm a little disappointed. If this thing pressed forward, there would've been some fun mudslinging (La Russa sued on the grounds of his reputation being damaged and, as David Pinto pointed out, his reputation ain't exactly great) coupled with the public completely misunderstanding terms like "parody" and "satire" and "freedom of speech." Nothing quite gets me fired up like people talking about things they don't understand and this court case would've had that written all over it.
Sadly, it's not an incredibly uncommon occurrence for some loser, who has nothing better to do in their life, to create faux Myspace, Facebook or Twitter accounts of public figures. Why in God's name someone would ever waste their own personal time to do this is absolutely beyond me, but it happens. Something else that happens frequently these days: lawsuits.
Thus, it was probably inevitable we'd see the two happenstances collide. Recently, the sports world helped make it happen. Tony La Russa, the revolutionary manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, is suing Twitter because some low-life started a Tony La Russa Twitter page. His grounds are on trademark infringement and "dilution, cybersquatting, and misappropriation of name and likeness."
SAN FRANCISCO -- Ever since Khalil Greene was a kid, he knew that he took things more seriously than the other kids.
And not in a good way.
On the day that Greene was placed on the disabled list because of social anxiety disorder, the Cardinals shortstop described a long-running pattern of emotional problems in an interview with FanHouse.
CBS Sports' Danny Knobler is reporting on his blog that St. Louis Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak is placing Troy Glaus' odds of returning to the Cardinals' lineup in 2009 as "50-50." Given that Glaus is currently recovering from surgery on a shoulder that's bothered him on and off for six years and the constant changing of his return timetable, this isn't really surprising news, but I don't suspect that that makes it any easier for the Cardinals to hear.
If Glaus can't make it back (and to be fair, a 50-50 chance he doesn't return means that there's a 50-50 chance he does), the Cardinals are going to need more help from someone at third base. Neither Joe Thurston (.224/.336/.364) nor Brian Barden (.259/.315/.414) have been particularly good in Glaus' absence, and Tony La Russa has already chewed up and spit out rookie David Freese, who got 22 miserable at-bats before being demoted back to Triple-A Memphis.
Usually when a team benches one of their players it's because he is doing the team harm. That's definitely the case with Khalil Greene in St. Louis. His OPS is .586 and he's done a poor job defensively as well, each of which is reason enough for the Cardinals to try out a new shortstop for the immediate future.
And that's what they're going to do. Tony La Russa told Greene that he'll move into a utility role for the immediate future, but his play is only part of the reason. The other part is the damage that Greene is doing to himself as a result of his struggles. It seems that Greene isn't able to leave his troubles in his locker at the end of the day.
Every Sunday, MLB FanHouse empties out its notebook in Baseball Brunch.
Joe Mauer has done everything he can to singlehandedly kill spring training as we know it.
Everyone else needs seven or eight weeks to get ready. But this guy gets 15 at-bats in minor-league camp, another 15 in Class A, and then shows up in the majors and hits .500 his first 10 games.
"Everyone keeps asking me what's going on," Mauer told FanHouse. "I really don't have any answer for that."
After a nearly seamless start to the season, the St. Louis Cardinals are all-of-a-sudden reeling. Tuesday night, they lost 7-1 to the hapless Pirates, but that likely wasn't the worst occurrence. A single game in a season of 162 isn't a really huge deal, after all. Losing your power-hitting protection for Albert Pujols, however, is.
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
You Oughta Know ... That closer Brian Wilson was perhaps the only one in the Giants clubhouse not happy after their 7-5, 13-inning victory over the Dodgers on Sunday. Wilson blew a save opportunity in the 12th and then got the win, but what really had him upset was a photo of Dodgers' third baseman Casey Blake, seemingly mocking Wilson's traditional post-game crossed-arm salute (right).
Blake had homered off Wilson to tie the game, and then was caught in a photo in the Dodgers dugout with his arms crossed. A friend of Wilson's sent the photo to his cell phone, and when Wilson showed it to reporters after the game, he was tight-lipped. Wilson said the symbol has to do with his faith and is also a sign to his late father.
Blake had already left the Dodgers clubhouse by the time Giants beat writers got to the Dodgers clubhouse to get his reaction.
The Giants and Dodgers don't play again until August, but Wilson isn't likely to forget.
From the Windup is Matt Snyder's extended look at some aspect of America's pastime each Thursday.
Last Sunday, Alfonso Soriano was hit in the head by a pitch off the hand of Cardinals starter Todd Wellemeyer. Later in the game, Cubs starting pitcher Rich Harden hit Albert Pujols in the middle of the back. It was a fastball, and it was on the first pitch of the at-bat. There was no one on base, and the Cubs had a big lead. Translation: Pujols was hit by Harden in retaliation for Soriano's beaning.
Monday, Ryan Braun was apparently dotted on purpose by Jeff Karstens of the Pirates, but the Brewers didn't get a chance to retaliate, because the umpiring crew offered an immediate warning to both benches.
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
Well, that was disappointingly fast. One day after 
Sadly, it's not an incredibly uncommon occurrence for some loser, who has nothing better to do in their life, to create faux Myspace, Facebook or Twitter accounts of public figures. Why in God's name someone would ever waste their own personal time to do this is absolutely beyond me, but it happens. Something else that happens frequently these days: lawsuits. 
SAN FRANCISCO -- Ever since 
Usually when a team benches one of their players it's because he is doing the team harm. That's definitely the case with 
After a nearly seamless start to the season, the St. Louis Cardinals are all-of-a-sudden reeling. Tuesday night, they lost 7-1 to the hapless Pirates, but that likely wasn't the worst occurrence. A single game in a season of 162 isn't a really huge deal, after all. Losing your power-hitting protection for 
Starting Five
