Bob Uecker Hall-bound...Again

I'm generally not one to surf around the interwebs looking for wrestling stories, but when I saw the words "Bob Uecker" and "Hall of Fame"...I had to stop and look.

Sure, Uecker is already enshrined in Cooperstown as a broadcaster (he received the Ford C. Frick Award in 2003), but who'd have ever thought that he would be forever linked to such legends as "Nature Boy" or "The Hitman".

"It's going to be a hoot," Uecker told the Journal Sentinal, "I'm already shopping for tights."

Reportedly, that WWE has wanted to induct the two-time WrestleMania announcer for a while now, but his duties with the Milwaukee Brewers have caused scheduling conflicts. Chairman of NBC Universal Sports (and the guy who helped launched Saturday Night's Main Event) Dick Ebersol is set to induct Uecker.

This isn't exactly the first time the WWE Hall of Fame has had baseball on its mind. In 2004, they welcomed all-time hit king Pete Rose into their hallowed halls and in 2007, baseball Hall of Famer Wade Boggs inducted his longtime friend "Mr. Perfect" Curt Henning.

Let's see...wrestling, baseball, Hall of Fame. There's a steroids joke to be made here somewhere...but I'm going to tap out before I go down that road.

Former Big Leaguer Finds a New Home

I know it doesn't fit The Hall's niche, but if I fail to talk about the team playing in my backyard...I feel as though I might as well check my fandom at the door.

That being said, the Rockford Riverhawks have signed their second former Major Leaguer to a deal.

Back in January, the 2004 Frontier League Champion Riverhawks (they're now in the Northern League), inked slugger Randall Simon and today...it was pitcher Mike Wood.

Wood is a five-year big league veteran (having played with Oakland, Kansas City and Texas) and if you listen to RiverHawks co-owner and director of baseball operations Dave Ciarrachi...he's got the stuff to make it back to the show.

“There is every possibility that if he throws well for us, he could sign a major-league contract and move right back up,” Ciarrachi said. “To get a guy who has pitched as many years as he has in the big leagues is a real plus for us."

Wood said this was the first time in his career he didn’t have at least a spring-training invitation from a Major League team.

“It’s new to me (in) ten years playing ball, but I’m excited to be with a team again,” he said. “I’m going to give it all I’ve got for this team.”

Wood was the A’s tenth-round pick out of the University of North Florida in 2001 and after pitching in just seven games for them in 2003...was dealt to the Royals. The Rangers picked Wood up off waivers following the 2006 season and used him primarily out of the bullpen. In 115 major-league appearances, Wood is 16-22 with a 5.49 earned-run average and two saves.

In 2008, he spent the season in Japan’s Central League with the Yokohama BayStars, where he was 3-12 with a 4.69 ERA in 26 starts. Last year, Wood was back in Triple-A and in ten combined appearances with Florida’s New Orleans affiliate and the Rangers’ Oklahoma City farm club, both in the Pacific Coast League, Wood was 0-2 with a 9.49 ERA and one save.

Wood has earned at least 10 wins in four of his nine professional seasons. In 104 minor-league appearances, Wood is 49-22 with a 3.41 ERA and a save. In 1,039 2/3 total innings among the majors, minors and Japan, he has walked just 306 batters and struck out 656.

An interesting sidenote...the first two outs that Wood recorded were both strikeouts. He got both Nomar Garciaparra and Manny Ramirez to go down swinging in consecutive at bats.

Not a shabby debut.

Nomar Signs with Red Sox, Quits

After spending a season vacationing in Oakland as their "veteran back up" (a la Mike Piazza and Frank Thomas)...Nomar Garciaparra has decided to take it all back to where it started and sign with the Red Sox.

So he can retire.

"My tank's empty," the grinning future ESPN employee said at a press conference this morning after signing a one-day minor-league contract with the team.

For his career, the six time All-Star batting .313, with 1747 hits. However, those totals don't even compare to the mark he left on the Boston landscape.

Beloved in BeanTown until he, well, fell out of favor and was traded prior to the Red Sox championship run in 2004, Garciaparra hit .323 and collected 178 home runs and 690 RBI while with Boston.

The 1997 American League Rookie of the Year finished second a year later in the MVP voting of when he hit .323 with 35 home runs and 122 RBI. In 1999 and 2000, the shortstop led the American League in hitting while batting .357 and .372 respectively and, in the process, became the first right-handed hitter to win back-to-back batting titles since Joe DiMaggio did it in 1939-1940.

And lastly, from the Wikipedia file...Garciappara is also one of 13 players in Major League history to hit two grand slams during a single game, and the only player to achieve the feat at home.

If only I had known that back in 2005 when I met him, I wouldn't have had to bust out the "Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Joint" reference.

Oh well.

Joe Nathan Looks to be Done

Alright...so this Joe Nathan thing has been the talk of Twitter and SportsCenter all morning.

Let's lay out the facts.

The Minnesots Twins reliever has, according to reports, a "significant tear of the Ulnar Collateral Ligament in his right elbow". Now, I'm no doctor, much less Dr. James Andrews, but I would suspect that ANY tear ("significant" or not) or any ligament in your throwing arm could be devastating.

Now, according to the (Minneapolis-St. Paul) Star Tribune, "surgery certainly looms as a possibility".

Nathan will take two weeks to let the swelling in the area subside. He'll work with the trainers to strengthen the muscles around the elbow. And then he will try to pitch. If that doesn't go well, Nathan will have surgery that will end his season.

Here's my question...how many guys older than Nathan (who will turn 36 in November) NOT named Tommy John have had reconstructive ligament surgery on their throwing elbow and made it back?

Seems to me Twins fans should be more worried about Nathan's CAREER being in jeopardy rather than just their season.

And let's say Nathan is done for good. Where would this place him in the pantheon of closers?

Since 2004, no closer has had more saves than Nathan's 246. Mariano Rivera is next with 243 (and has close to 300 more to add to his resume), but given Nathan's short lifespan as Minnesota's stopper is it fair to include his six years of dominance in the same Hall of Fame discussions as other closers of his era?

All told, Nathan carries a 22-12 record and a 1.87 ERA in his six years as a closer. His six straight seasons with more than 35 saves (including three with more than 40) are every bit as good as any other closer in the history of the game.

Add to that a spectacular 11.1 Ks per nine innings, four All-Star appearances and two top five Cy Young finishes and you've got to wonder what sort of support he'll garner.

But let's not put the cart before the horse. Let's get through these next two weeks and see how this thing plays out.

Help Bring Back the Youk Manchu!

During this past weekend's "Saturday Night Live", comedian/host Zach Galifianakis did the mustache community proud by shaving his trademark bushy hobo beard down to a very handsome cookie duster.

Similarly, during last spring's World Baseball Classic, Kevin Youkilis abandoned his goatee and toyed around with a fu manchu that would make the likes of Luis Tiant and Hulk Hogan blush.

Unfortunately, the werewolf gene present in both "The Hangover" star and the Red Sox first baseman keeps them from donning just the lip sweater.

This is where you come in.

The Kevin Youkilis Hits for Kids charity has an interesting proposal over at their website.

Facial Hair Frenzy
Your donation is also your vote! Each dollar equals one vote. Donate $1 and vote once for your favorite facial hair style. Donate $5 and have 5 votes. Enter the dollar amount you wish to donate in the box below. Be sure to input your favorite facial hair look... "Goatee", "Mustache", "Clean Shaven", "Fu Manchu"... in the "company" box on the form that follows!

Could this mean that WE, the card carrying members of The American Mustache Institute, Mustache May celebrants and overall mustache enthusiasts actually have a say in what sort of upper lip accoutrement "The Greek God of Walks" might don this season?

Let's hope so!

Garret Anderson Inks Deal with Dodgers

After a year away from the City of Angels, Garret Anderson is back in Los Angeles...this time with the Dodgers.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the veteran outfielder inked a minor league contract ($550,000 if he makes the squad, with up to $200,000 possible in incentive bonuses) last night and is expected to compete for job coming off the Dodgers bench.

"If we can find a place for a solid veteran left-handed hitter, it will help," Dodgers General Manager Ned Colletti told the Times. "Between Doug (Mientkiewicz), Brian (Giles) and Garret, we hope to find one."

Last season with the Atlanta Braves, Anderson hit .268 with 13 home runs. In October, he became the 89th player to reach the 2500 hit plateau.

While with the Angels, Anderson set the gold standard by being the only player to have appeared in games while they were under the "California", "Anaheim" and now "Los Angeles" monikers. More importantly, he holds the team records for games played, hits, doubles, runs scored, RBI and a host of others.

The 37 year-old, four-time All-Star is expected to report to the Dodgers Glendale facility camp Friday.

Matt's Mailbag: March 3, 2010

Peter asks: I have followed the Padres since I was eight and am a true fan. How did it feel to make your Major League debut?

Matt answers: I've been asked this question numerous times over the last year or so and I usually give the same response.

Most guys will tell you when asked this question that it was a dream come true and something that they had been working towards their whole life. While this is absolutely true, I want to go a bit more in depth about everything that happened leading up to my debut and my feelings about that day.

Playing in the Major Leagues is something I hoped would happen since I was a little kid. When I was younger I loved two sports, hockey and baseball.

For most of my life I wanted to be a center in the NHL, or a shortstop in the MLB. I always had a dream as a young kid of playing in the big leagues, but I'm not sure I ever really thought that dream would one day come true. Millions of young kids play baseball all around the world, and they all dream about one day playing in a big league stadium, however the smallest percentage of them ever end up doing so.

My big league call-up was actually nothing like the way I had envisioned it happening.

In 2007 I was stationed in Double-A San Antonio, playing the absolute best baseball of my life. It was the first time in my baseball career that I could actually picture myself playing in the Major Leagues.

I remember our GM coming into town to watch a few players who could potentially get a call-up for the stretch run and thinking to myself that my debut could be right around the corner. I ended up going into a slump the last few weeks of our season and didn't end up getting that call. Although I was upset that I didn't do well enough to get a chance that year, I felt that it just wasn't my time. I had just turned 22 during that season and it was my first year playing 2nd base.

The truth is I still needed a lot of improvement if I wanted to be a Major League 2nd baseman.

I entered the 2008 season at Triple-A Portland, Oregon. Going into that season I was planning on having the biggest and best year of my life. I felt that if I played the type of baseball I knew I was capable of playing, I would receive a promotion a few months into the season.

During that off-season I had worked out harder than ever before and entered spring training weighing 220 pounds. I honestly felt I was going to be a 220 pound, power hitting, base stealing second baseman. The previous year I hit 21 home runs and wanted to hit 30 this time around.

Anyone that has followed my career knows that things didn't exactly go according to plan. I started the year hitting around .200 and it only got worse as the year went on. August 1st rolled around and my average was around .180 with thoughts of a call-up all but thrown down the drain. It was the first time in my life in which I played a full season of either high school, college, or pro ball and hit under .300. Only this time around I was hitting under .200.

I'm not really sure what happened or why I didn't play well that year.

My swing wasn't working the way I wanted it to and I started to make a little change here, and a little change there. After a few months I had literally forgot how to swing. I wasn't just having trouble hitting in games, I was actually having trouble hitting in batting practice too. You could even put a ball on a tee and I would find a way to make the task of hitting a stationary ball look difficult. I usually look at things with the belief that,"everything happens for a reason", and maybe it just wasn't my time to play in the big leagues.

That August I went back to the drawing board, dissecting my swing, tearing it apart, and trying to put it back together. I was mentally beaten down and physically drained, and I couldn't take the striking out, the pop-ups, or the ground balls to 3rd anymore.

For the first few months of the season I thought that one day I would wake up and realize everything was just a dream. It took me about four months before I came to the realization that this in fact wasn't a nightmare, but stone cold reality. I started to spend many hours each night watching video of my swing with my roommate Shawn Wooten, at that time a 36 year-old veteran catcher who had won a World Series ring with the Anaheim Angels.

Shawn has a great eye for hitting and was a huge help to me that season. I would literally grab a broom stick, or anything in the room that resembled a baseball bat, and re-construct my swing from the ground up with his help. If he didn't end up getting traded to us during that year from the Mets, and wasn't my roommate during the end of that season, I don't know if I would have ever figured my swing out.

With his help I ended up hitting almost .300 with 5 home runs that last month of the season. The first four months of the season I hit around .180 with 2 home runs. Two days before the season ended I was playing a game in Tacoma, Washington when I was called into our manager's office and told to sit down.

I knew that usually when this happens you have either gotten called up or released, and I didn't think at 23 years old I was getting the "ax". Our manager told me that I would be flying out the next morning to make my Major League debut in Los Angeles against the Dodgers. I honestly didn't believe him when he told me.

I thought it was actually a joke to see if I was stupid enough to think a guy that just hit .213 in Triple-A would get a call-up. It wasn't a joke, and I was going up the next day.

Like I said earlier, I want to be honest with you about what went through my head when I got the news.

In a lot of ways I didn't think I deserved the shot. There were guys on my team that had great years, much better years than me with the bat, that wouldn't be getting the privilege of putting on a big league uniform that September. I usually don't mention other people's names on here, but for this one time I will.

We had a guy on the team, a friend of mine, Peter Ciofrone. The guy had one of the best years I had seen since becoming a professional. He was sent to Portland around May and ended up hitting around .320 with like 16 home runs.

The first thing that actually ran through my head when I got the news was that Pete didn't get called up, and I really wished he was also getting an opportunity, because he deserved it.

The second thing that came to my mind was gratitude.

I was extremely grateful that the Padres had stuck by me and still gave me a chance to get my shot at what I had always wanted. They could have easily sent me down to Double-A when I started the season slow around .200, or when July rolled around and my average dipped below the Mendoza Line, but they stuck by me and kept writing my name in the lineup everyday.

The third thing that came to my mind was the hard work I had put in and the sacrifices my family and I had made the past ten to fifteen years to get to where I was.

Although my call up didn't turn out the way I thought it would, I had still achieved one of the goals I had set for myself years before. I had put in thousands of hours of practice, spent hundreds of days away from my home, family, and friends, and dedicated day after day all year round to lifting weights, running, eating right, and taking care of my body, all for the ultimate goal of playing in the Major Leagues.

My parents and family had driven me around to practices all over the state, spent thousands of dollars on traveling teams, and flew to all parts of the country to give me the best opportunities to continue to improve as a player. I was just really appreciative of all the sacrifices they had made as well. All that work had paid off, but much more work will have to be done to be the player I really want to be.

I flew out of Seattle the next morning headed to L.A. for my first game. When I walked onto the field at Dodger Stadium and the lights came on, the national anthem ended, and the first pitch was thrown, it was game time and it really never registered that I was about my make my Major League Debut.

I honestly thought it was going to feel a lot different than it did. I'm not going to lie, I was more nervous about the start of this game than I had been at the beginning of any other game in my life, but it still kind of felt like another baseball game to me.

I didn't get up in the top of the 1st, so my first action would be at second base in the field. The first batter of the game for the Dodgers was Russell Martin and he hit a hard ground ball at me. As soon as I made that play and threw to first for the out I felt a rush of calmness come over me. From that point on I felt that I could just play baseball.

The next inning I came up to bat against future Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux.

On a 1-1 count I got a fastball out over the plate and hit a line drive to center field, one of the cooler moments of my life and something I will never forget. After the game I showered up, went out for a bite to eat with my family, and headed back to my hotel.

Like I usually do when I get home after a game I laid in bed and flipped on Sportscenter. After a few minutes the Padres vs. Dodgers highlights came on. It showed a few shots of Manny Ramirez driving in a run, Greg Maddux striking a guy out, and a Jonathan Broxton pitch grounded to short for the last out of the game hit by me.

That was the moment it actually hit me that I had played in a Major League game.

Matt Antonelli is a second baseman in the San Diego Padres farm system. Do you have a question for Matt? Drop him an email at mattantonelli9@gmail.com or here in the comments section!

Twitter Tuesday...March 2, 2010

After a brief hiatus, Twitter Tuesday is back in full force. I'd like to compare this return to that of Jay Leno and The Tonight Show, but never once did I screw Conan O'Brien out of his gig.

Although I probably should...my guess is that it pays better.

It would have been really easy to have Olympic hockey dominate the Chatter, but spring training is in full force...spring training it is!

CraigBreslow (Craig Breslow): I am very excited for the season to start and am looking forward to playing with Ben Sheets

str8edgeracer (CJ Wilson): we had our first int. squad today- got to pitch an inning. cutter was cutting too much, sinker was sinking too much! need to tone it down

GrillCheese49 (Jason Grilli): Ahhh the sounds os spring - mitts popping, cleats on pavement, & laughter. Good session today off mound facing hitters.

HOFJoeMorgan (Joe Morgan): Chapman has looked good in Spring Training. If he looks this good during the season then he will be successful

Maholm28 (Paul Maholm): Good day at the park now off to the golf course for a relaxing round

hyphen18 (Ryan Rowland-Smith): Am I seriously eating at outback steakhouse right now?Might have to put on a fake american accent so I don't look like a major tool!

Remember when Miley Cyrus stopped tweeting and the world didn't know what to do with itself? Worry no more, kids...Ozzie Guillen has joined on to fill the void.

And this is what you had to say about it.

MJH_79: I wonder how long it will take Ozzie Guillen to tweet something that gets his ass in trouble?

MRVEGAS1234: If Ozzie Guillen is tweeting...it's time for me to check out this new phenonomon. Let the fun begin!!!!

neilcarrier: Ozzie Guillen has almost 30,000 followers in a week. Like everyone, I'm also waiting for his profanity laced rant towards Alex Rios.

petervader: Oh my god Ozzie is hilarious. I love the sport already but it's another 100 percent more interesting with Guillen around

watsonitis: Ozzie Guillen is not following a single person on Twitter. I have a feeling it is because he cannot read.

Roarinatyou: Ozzie Guillen's tweets is worth having twitter for

NorthstarBball: I mean, I have nothing against Ozzie Guillen and I actually find him quite comical...but my goodness he's bad with Twitter

tstafford: Dear Ozzie Guillen: Twitter is not for everybody.

Ozzie Guillen is fun to follow and all, but let's not forget the original big league skipper to hit Twitter.

TommyLasorda: Jose Vizciano and Mariano Duncan. Dos jugadores excellente y dos amigos bueno.

I'm not sure what all that means, but somewhere...Jose Offerman just kicked a catcher in the chest for not being included.



Last week, The Hall announced its partnership with Padres infielder Matt Antonelli. This week...I'm recommending you follow him over on Twitter.

Seriously, if you're looking for someone to clue you in on the nuts and bolts of spring training...Matt's your guy!

Have someone you think everyone should follow? Perhaps you yourself have read some interesting tweets in the past week…drop me a line or leave a comment below. See you next Tuesday!