Pitch Tipping

I had never before today heard of "pitch tipping." The concept is fascinating to me, and will surely motivate me to research the history of this practice in major league baseball.

EPSN published an online article about details from Sports Illustrated writer Selena Roberts' book "A-Rod" that were released by the New York Daily News. Aside from the expected steroids headline-attracting points, one of the first was "pitch tipping." Here's how the ESPN article / Roberts alleges A-Rod cheated:

A-Rod "pitch tipped" when he played for the Rangers by letting opponents at the plate know which pitch was coming in lopsided games. A-Rod expected players he helped would reciprocate when he was having an off night and needed to get his batting average up.

Wow. I wish I had thought of that. Well, I wish I were a major league baseball player and THEN had thought of that.

More (potentially) to come.

Non-Stop Boston Sports Wicked Pissahness

The Red Sox and Yankees play for four hours and 21 minutes. Extra innings. Then they play for 4:21 again even though it's only nine innings. Then the Celtics and Chicago Bulls wrestle for three hours and 32 minutes, through two overtimes. And all the while Bill Belichick makes moves that will be studied by draftologists for centuries to come. Like the DaVinci Code.

Oh, I almost forgot. We also had to follow the Rangers and the Capitals, and the Devils and Hurricanes because we still don't know who the Bruins are playing in Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs. There's a good chances the Bruins and Celtics will have another of those Causeway Street twinbills Saturday. The Red Sox will make their first visit to the new Yankee Stadium two days after that.

The Sox go for 11 straight tonight in Cleveland. Tomorrow night it's Celtics-Bulls at the Garden. Thursday it's the Bruins at home in Game 1 (we think), the Celtics in Chicago for Game 6, the first day of Patriots minicamp (welcome, Patrick Chung), and the Sox' first game in St. Pete since Game 7 of the ALCS.

-- Dan Shaughnessy, The Boston Globe

* * * U P D A T E * * *

As of today, April 30, 2009, ESPN is now referring on air to the Washington Nationals as the "Natinals."

Seriously? Somebody Should Be Fired.

How is this possible? I'm serious. Really, how many people must have been in the chain from the design, approval, ordering, manufacturing, delivery, equipment personnel, and even the players themselves?

Cassini's Mission Results Are Awesome

Just look.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft is now a nearly a year into its extended mission, called Cassini Equinox (after its initial 4-year mission ended in June, 2008). The spacecraft continues to operate in good health, returning amazing images of Saturn, its ring system and moons, and providing new information and science on a regular basis. The mission's name, "Equinox" comes from the upcoming Saturnian equinox in August, 2009, when its equator (and rings) will point directly toward the Sun. The Equinox mission runs through September of 2010, with the possibility of further extensions beyond that. Collected here are 24 more intriguing images from our ringed neighbor.