This is not a case aof Manny being Manny. This is a case of Manny being an asshole. The AP is reporting the ex-Boston Red Sox and current Tampa Bay Devil Ray outfielder has been arrested for domestic abuse. If this were the NFL Manny would be suspended tomorrow. It will be interesting to see what MLB does.

WESTON, Fla. – Former World Series MVP Manny Ramirez was arrested Monday after a domestic dispute at his South Florida home and charged with battery, police said.

Ramirez, 39, and his wife were arguing in their bedroom when he slapped her face, causing her to hit her head on their bed’s headboard, according to a police report. She told the deputy she was afraid the situation would escalate and called police. Read the rest of this entry »

Major League Baseball’s 82nd All-Star game will be played in just a few days. The All-Star game, we’re told, is a beloved event that connects baseball fans through the generations, a tradition stretching back to the very first contest held on a July afternoon at Comiskey Park during the waning days of Prohibition-era Chicago. This old story of weepy nostalgia is just a bunch of crap these days. The All-Star game, like many other things in baseball during Bud Selig’s tenure as commissioner, is a gimmicky disaster.

Am I being unfair? Yes, I probably am. But I must say that I’m not much of a fan of the All-Star game as it exists now, for a couple of reasons:
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The Los Angeles Dodgers have had a rich history of winning, pride, fan support, and prestige over the years. They’ve always had great ownership since coming to Los Angeles back in 1958. However that great ownership of Peter O’Malley and later son Walter O’Malley ended in 1998 when the Dodgers were sold to Rupert Murdock and NewsCorp for a reported $350 million dollars. The largest sale of a franchise at that time in baseball. That was the beginning of the end, and Dodger blue was never the same again. Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve been lax in reporting the TMR Zoo Double Play contest results lately, but don’t worry, no one has hit the right combo yet. We have had a few “almost, but not quite”s though.

There was no chance we would miss out on posting last week’s score results though, since one of the teams in question put out a truly amazing week. The Seattle Mariners, led by first year phenom Michael Pineda, held opposing batters to only six runs for the entire week. Six games played, six total runs allowed. Pineda deserved credit for a good portion of the effort pitching 14 shutout innings in two winning outings. In fact, Pineda only allowed a total of 6 base runners combined in those two starts. I can’t think of a better way to prevent opposing batters from scoring. Read the rest of this entry »

The first week of our 2011 MLB Double Play and Grand Slam contests are complete and we now know the correct answers to who scored the most runs and who allowed the least to score. As previously mentioned, it was the Philadelphia Phillies who were the most popular answers to BOTH questions. Well… there were involved, but not in a good way.

It was the Milwaukee Brewers who scored the most runs during the week of 4/17 through 4/23, with 43. 18 of those runs came at the hands of the Phillies, with the Brewers scoring 9 runs in a game started by Roy Halladay. Another 20 runs were scored on the Astros over a two game span. Much of the credit for the week goes to Ryan Braun who scored 9 runs himself with 3 home runs an 10 runs batted in. Read the rest of this entry »

The baseball season is in full swing, and a new edition of PureSim Baseball is now available. Rather than rehash the core game itself, you can check out our review of PureSim Baseball 3 here.

PureSim Baseball 4 brings some sweeping new features to the series. The most striking is the new Tru-Life Transactions mode in which during season replays, the game will simulate the exact same circumstances of the season, including trades, promotions, demotions, injuries and Read the rest of this entry »

The first full week of voting in the TMR-exclusive Double Play and Grand Slam contests is complete and now all you can do is wait for this week to play out so we can see the results… or you could enter your week 4 predictions.

The most popular guesses in the first week of voting, for both offense and pitching, was the Philadelphia Phillies. It is understandable why they are so popular for least runs allowed with that insane starting rotation, but their offense has been dreadful. So far, in the first three games of this week, they’ve scored 3, 3 and 0 runs. To add insult to injury they’ve already given up 17 runs in those three days. The team with the lowest number of runs scored on them will most likely be lower than 17. Better luck next week, guys. Read the rest of this entry »

One full week of the 2011 Major League Baseball season is in the books and that means one thing… it’s time for the Zoo to re-launch it’s other season-long site-featured sports competition… The TMR Zoo Double Play.

Similar to “Beat the House”, the Double Play gives TMR readers the opportunity to prove they really know their sports… or are just extremely lucky when it comes to making picks. Whichever is the case, once you enter, you have a great shot at winning some great prizes.
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Boston MA – April 13th – In a move shocking the baseball world, Red Sox General Manager Theo Epstein announced that the Boston Red Sox have signed Jonah Falcon to a 5 year, 13.5 million dollar deal. Though The New York native has never played professional baseball, Epstein and Red Sox manager Terry Francona say they have no worries about Falcon’s abilities.

Terry Francona said he has been interested in signing Falcon since first seeing him in the 1999 HBO documentary Private Dicks: Men Exposed. “I am sure Jonah can knock the ball out of the park with that huge dick of his”, gushed a red faced Francona. Read the rest of this entry »

Former Major League Baseball pitcher Mark Mulder, a two-time All-Star, has joined ESPN as a Baseball Tonight analyst. Mulder will debut Friday, April 8, on the midnight (9 p.m. PT) edition of Baseball Tonight and will appear throughout the season. He joins fellow veteran lefty Jamie Moyer as two new additions to the Baseball Tonight roster this season.

“I’m excited to join Baseball Tonight’s All-Star pitching rotation,” said Mulder. “I’m looking forward to working with my new team and lending some of the insight and perspective I gathered during my career.” Read the rest of this entry »

The 2011 Major League Baseball Season is still fresh and exciting and the amazing girls of Rick’s Cabaret are celebrating by wearing their favorite team’s gear. Oh, don’t worry, they won’t be wearing it for very long when you visit. Check out some of the girls, in various stages of dress, in the gallery below.

Yes, the girls at the favorite gentlemen’s club of the staff of the Howard Stern Show are HUGE baseball fans. When players from the two local baseball clubs, as well as visiting teams’ players, frequent the club on a regular basis, it’s hard not to be a fan. Rumor has it that some of the Yankees found their way over to Rick’s recently. Ok… it’s not a rumor, some Yankees players headed straight to Rick’s Cabaret after playing their season opener according to Rick’s girl Skyler: “We had a visit from a couple of Yankees right after their home opener.” “But we are not allowed to name names. We respect everyone’s privacy,” she explained. Read the rest of this entry »

Former Major League Baseball pitcher Jamie Moyer, a 24-year Major League veteran, has joined ESPN as a Baseball Tonight analyst. Moyer will debut tomorrow, Thursday, March 31, contributing to ESPN’s Opening Day coverage (including the midnight ET episode of Baseball Tonight). He will provide analysis on Baseball Tonight throughout the season. Read the rest of this entry »

Several ESPN MLB commentators share their perspective on a variety of topics entering the 2011 season. ESPN will debut new commentator teams this year including Dan Shulman, Orel Hershiser and Bobby Valentine on Sunday Night Baseball (with reporters Wendi Nix and Buster Olney), Sean McDonough, Rick Sutcliffe and Aaron Boone on Monday Night Baseball (with reporter Tim Kurkjian), and Dave O’Brien and Nomar Garciaparra on Wednesday Night Baseball (with reporter Pedro Gomez). Additionally, Baseball Tonight, with host Karl Ravech and analysts John Kruk and Barry Larkin will originate from the site of Sunday Night Baseball this season. Read the rest of this entry »

Just in time for baseball season’s Opening Day, the Pennsylvania Lottery introduces two new, $5 instant games, Phillies™ and Pirates™, which are on sale today.

“The Lottery is proud to partner with Pennsylvania’s professional baseball franchises once again,” said Drew Svitko, Lottery interim executive director, noting that the PA Lottery previously introduced an instant game featuring these two teams in 2008. “We know these instant games will be a hit with Lottery players and baseball fans, and they have the potential to generate nearly $10 million in profits for programs benefiting older Pennsylvanians.” Read the rest of this entry »

This year, my review of MLB 2K11 was posted on Strategy Informer, rather than GameStooge.com.

2K Sports has had issues with their baseball game for a long time, especially in the past few years after Ben Brinkman’s attempted total overhaul of the series was a disastrous failure. During this time, Major League Baseball 2K had played second fiddle to Sony’s first party baseball series MLB ‘XX: The Show. Read the rest of this entry »

As some of you may know, the Major League Baseball 2K11 demo dropped on Xbox Live Marketplace, allowing gamers to play a short four inning game between the Giants and the Rangers. While a demo is a hard way to base a full game’s entire gameplay on, some of the problems with 2K10 seem to have been fixed.

For one, the computer batter is no longer impatient, swinging at the first hittable pitch he sees. He’ll take a strike or two, even down the pipe, to get the pitcher’s count up. Batters can also be fooled in the strike zone, too, and will take strike three – something that was difficult to do in previous editions.

The analog pitching is still the same, which is a good thing. However, from the gameplay, it feels like getting the hitter out is a little harder now, unlike the previous editions when one pitch would always be chased (yes, we’re looking at you, Mr. Slider.) Fielding seems a little stiffer, but it turns out that fielding ratings have a real effect now; if you’re not a good OF, you’ll be slower and you have to get closer to the ball to catch it. The computer, incidentally, actually committed an error in the infield, something you seldom saw in 2K10. The pitcher’s glove isn’t a vacuum, either. Hitting feels the same, though – tapping the analog for contact, pulling it back for power. It’s hard to say if it’s improved, but it isn’t a detriment, at least.

While this writer still has some reservations towards MLB 2K11, the demo has me feeling better about the full product, which comes out next week. With the promised fixes and tweaks to the My Player career mode, MLB 2K11 could finally be the 2K Sports baseball game that finally fulfills its promises.

Jonah Falcon is a blogger for TMRzoo and GameStooge.com and covers all gaming consoles and platforms including Sony Playstation 3, Microsoft XBOX 360, Nintendo Wii, Sony PSP and computer games designed for Mac OS, Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems. Jonah provides his readers with reviews, previews and up to date gaming industry news and rumors.