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The rate of pitcher injuries in baseball has been a topic of conversation across the sport in recent years, but debate reached a boiling point when aces Shane Bieber and Spencer Strider and budding star Eury Perez all suffered season-ending elbow injuries just weeks into the 2024 MLB season. The wave of injuries led to dueling statements from the MLBPA and MLB about the potential root cause of the injuries. We asked our MLB experts to talk to a handful of pitchers about what they believe is behind the rise -- and what steps they would take to solve the...

Athletics left-hander Jesús Luzardo will be off the mound for a while — and maybe off video games, too. Luzardo is out indefinitely after breaking the pinkie finger on his pitching hand when he thumped a table while playing a video game before his start Saturday. SNIP “Before the game he was playing a video game and accidentally bumped his hand on the desk as he was playing the game,” Melvin said. “He came in, was a little bit sore, training staff checked him out, we threw him in the cage before he went out there, watched him warm up....

ATLANTA -- Hall of Fame pitcher Phil Niekro has died at the age of 81.Niekro passed away in his sleep on Saturday night. The suburban Atlanta resident had a longtime battle with cancer.

Yahoo! Sports reported last week that Major League Baseball (MLB) was considering expanding the balk rule to include the infamous fake to third-throw to first move. MLB and the playing rules committee have agreed to make this play a balk, but the Player’s Union vetoed it for further review, but this rule can come into play as early as next season.

A gay softball organization that runs an annual tournament called the Gay Softball World Series can keep its rule limiting the number of heterosexual players on each team, a federal judge has ruled. The decision came in a lawsuit filed by three men who say they were disqualified from the annual tournament because they weren't gay enough. They said in the suit filed last year that their team's second-place finish in the 2008 tournament in Washington state was nullified because they are bisexual, not gay, and thus their team exceeded the limit of two non-gay players. U.S. District Judge John...

When Jugtown Pottery kicked off the North Carolina art pottery movement in the early 1920s, its owners focused on two lines of ware: traditional lead-glazed "dirt dish" earthenware and new, colorful pieces based on oriental designs. Potters in the surrounding area observed no such strictures; whether by genius or by serendipity, they used colorful art-pottery glazes on anything that went into the kiln, pitchers included. The pitchers sold and, some nine decades later, they still sell.

WASHINGTON, July 9, 2006 – Five members of the Major League Baseball's Houston Astros bullpen will collectively contribute to 'Strikeouts for Troops' this season. Strikeouts for Troops a national project created by Oakland Athletics pitcher Barry Zito, benefiting servicemembers injured in battle and rehabilitating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, in Washington, D.C; the National Medical Center, in Bethesda, Md.; and other military hospitals. Brad Lidge, Trever Miller, Chad Qualls, Russ Springer and Dan Wheeler join the current efforts of 16 Major League pitchers and four minor league pitchers, including Triple A Round Rock pitcher Jason Hirsh, in providing...

WASHINGTON, June 28, 2005 – Oakland Athletics pitcher Barry Zito has decided to support America's troops by helping to make wounded servicemembers a bit more comfortable while they recover. In April, Zito launched "Strikeouts for Troops," a national organization that provides funds for many home comforts soldiers may be missing during their stay in hospitals. These comforts include entertainment, meals, clothing -- many soldiers arrive with only the clothes on their back -- and travel and lodging expenses for their families. "I was talking to my family and really wanted to do something for our troops, who throughout our history...

This is the year. The year they're no longer underdogs, no longer America's little team that could. This time, the Twins are the team that should. New York, Boston, Anaheim? This time, the American League road to the World Series runs through the powerful gantlet of Johan Santana, Brad Radke and Joe Nathan.