And so we learn the folly of scheduling a bobblehead night featuring one of your star players on the day after the MLB trading deadline. The Cleveland Indians have some ’splainin’ to do on Saturday during Victor Martinez Bobblehead Night. I hear that anyone who’s anyone in Cleveland will be there, except of course Victor Martinez, who was traded to the Red Sox in exchange for Justin Masterson and Nick Hagadone a few hours ago.

So does this become an instant collector’s item, or a handy object to throw onto Progressive Field in disgust? We’ll find out tomorrow. Meanwhile, the Padres are breathing a sigh of relief that they decided to cancel Saturday’s Jake Peavy Kissing Booth. Read more…

In the 134-season history of major league baseball in this country, there have been a total of 388,502 (and counting) attempts to pitch a perfect game; that is, there have been 194,251 games (and counting) and each game has presumably started with two opposing pitchers facing eah other. Of those 388,502 opportunities, only 18 of them have resulted in a perfect game. Put it this way - when you sit down at a bar or in your living room to watch a baseball game, there is only a .0093% - one nine-thousandth of one percent -  chance that the game you watch will result in an elusive perfect game.

And yet, there I was last Thursday afternoon, sitting in my home office on Chicago’s north side watching Comcast SportsNet as Mark Buehrle inched ever closer to the near-impossible. At some point in the 7th inning, I hit the record button on the DVR remote…you know, just in case. By the end of the 8th inning, I was beginning to think it might actually happen. And then, in the 9th inning, Gabe Kapler hit a deep fly ball that seemed destined to bring everyone back to reality, when DeWayne Wise made the catch of the year that kept the perfection alive. Two short outs later, Buehrle had done the unthinkable, and I had the same thought in my head as millions of people across the country did later that evening as they saw the highlights - “dude, Buehrle owes Wise BIG-TIME.” So…what exactly is saving a perfect game worth, anyway?

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• We’re keeping abreast of ex-figure skating champ Katarina Witt’s efforts to bring the 2018 Winter Olympics to Munich.

The IOC would have to be a bunch of boobs not to hear her out.

• New blood tests reveal that Steve McNair was probably passed out drunk when he was shot & killed by Sahel Kazemi.

• Can’t Michael Jordan go throught at least one round of golf without being bothered by a giant inflatable penis?

• Secret video of Jordan Crawford dunking on LeBron James is finally released - in two versions, even! The final review: Meh.

• ESPN doesn’t feel like making news about the rape allegations aimed at Ben Roethlisberger. Why not? The accuser seems newsworthy enough.

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• Manny Ramirez does his bobbleheads proud with a pinch-hit grand slam.

• But Minnesota Twins legend Harmon Killebrew isn’t so impressed.

• Michael Vick supposedly spent his first day of freedom at a strip club with Allen Iverson. But the no-longer incarcerated QB denies such reports.

• The Cambridge cop accused of acting racist against Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates was also the one who tried to revive Reggie Lewis after the Celtics player suffered a fatal heart attack.

• White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle hurls a perfect game, thanks to a great catch by Dwayne Wise. Guess Ozzie Guillen made the right move, after all.

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Say, remember a couple days ago when White Sox fans were whipped up in a lather about Ozzie Guillen’s decision to demote Brian Anderson instead of DeWayne Wise in order to make room for Carlos Quentin? Remember how people had gone so far as to claim racism in emails to Guillen?

(Believe it or not, that’s his happy face.)

Well, it turns out that was far more of a consequential decision than anybody could have imagined. Fast forward to today, and Wise - who, according to a commenter here at SbB, “can’t read a fly ball for anything,” was inserted in center in the 9th inning of Mark Buerhle’s developing perfect game for defensive purposes.

Drama ensued.

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Back when the Mitchell Report was released, one figure named as having purchased from noted supplier Kirk Radomski was Jim Parque, a pitcher whose career with the White Sox was cut short by injury at the beginning of the decade. You probably never even had him on a fantasy baseball team.

(”All right, Kenny, let’s go over this again. I’m a seedy clubhouse assistant, and you’re a pitcher with a heart of gold. ‘Do you want me to sell you any drugs?’ Now say ‘no’ and beat me with a fungo bat.”)

But Parque did take the opportunity at the time to admit his usage rather than engage in vague non-speak about the report’s allegation, itself a brave move but one ultimately forced rather than voluntary. Parque’s letter to the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES about his HGH use today, however, was totally voluntary, not to mention gut-wrenching in its portrayal of the decisions he faced:  Read more…

When we last heard from Ozzie Guillen, he was sporting some threads from Chicago Cubs fans, that legendary bastion of maturity. And by that, of course, we mean a shirt that says “Ozzie Guillen Mows Wrigley Field.” Sure, it was based off of a different racist shirt perpetrated against Cub Carlos Zambrano, but this would be a prime example of that whole “two wrongs” thing.

(What could be wrong with this? It’s just innocuous fun for racists everyone.)

Anyway, to Ozzie’s credit, he was able to laugh it all off. We all figured that was because he was above all the racism stuff, but could we have been wrong? Could it be that Guillen’s not only racist, but he hates everybody who isn’t black?

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• Richard Jefferson got cold feet and decided to ditch his beautiful bride-to-be. Too bad the new Spur neglected to inform his wedding guests.

• What’s better than $1 beers at the ballpark? How about $1 beers at the ballpark with a buxom Playboy “Hot Housewife” model?

• A British tennis coach is caught doing a little drive-by wanking near a group of 14-year-old girls.

• Nice to see Erin Andrews, Heather Graham & Kristin Cavallieri all share the same fashion sense.

• Hard to tell what looked weaker last night - President Obama’s first pitch, or the NL All-Stars’ overall play.

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Barack Obama with an embarrassing gaffe in an interview on MLB Network last night. While chatting with Bob Costas, Obama clearly calls the White Sox’s former longtime home field “Cominskey Park”. It was no slip of the tongue.

(So-called Sox fan calls it “Cominskey” Park. Awkward.)

Obama has long claimed loyalty to the White Sox thanks to spending a good deal of his political and professional life on the south side of Chicago.

Video after the jump. Read more…

Today marks the 30th anniversary of one of the most notorious incidents in baseball history. It was July 12, 1979 when Mike Veeck convinced his dad, Chicago White Sox owner Bill, to let him invite a popular Chicago disc jockey to blow up disco records - by then becoming the scourge of the music world - between games of a doubleheader against Detroit and charge fans 98 cents for tickets. An easy way to liven up what promised to be a less-than-thrilling day and night of baseball between two non-contenders.

Of course, we all know what happened from there - the enthusiasm for hastening the death of disco turned into a full-blown riot, and the White Sox were forced to forfeit the second game of the doubleheader. Known as Disco Demolition Night, it ruined careers and has become part of baseball folklore. To get a sense of how the local media treated it as it happened, check out some vintage news footage after the jump:

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