Bud Selig is Headed Back to School

Oh, sure...could you have come up with a better title?

Anyway, it's been announced that Bud Selig plans to pull a Thornton Melon and return to his alma mater to write his memoirs once he officially retires his post as commissioner of Major League Baseball one year from now.

"One of the favorite parts of my life was the four years I spent in Madison, and I always thought I would be coming back as a history professor," the 77-year-old said earlier this week. "I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to it, to write my book and do what I want to do in Madison."

Selig, a 1956 graduate of the University of Wisconsin, has been generous throughout the years (he's even given more than a million dollars for a professor to teach the history of sports) is being paid back with a new office in the Humanities Building.

Among the items already in his office...a bowl of Dubble Bubble gum, a container of pretzels, a photograph on the wall of the old County Stadium and photographs of Selig giving the commencement address at UW-Madison in 2009.

There is no sign on the office door.

And now...TRIPLE LINDY!

Friday 5: Jeff Pearlman

A quarter of a century ago, the Boston Red Sox were up 2-0 on the New York Mets and just days away from falling victim to one of baseball's biggest blunders.

And while most people just remember Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner misplaying a routine grounder in Game Six...author Jeff Pearlman reminded us in his book The Bad Guys Won! that there was so much more that made the Mets winners.

HOVG: The Bad Guys Won! came out in 2005...how long did you plan to write about the 1986 Mets and what prompted the desire to tell their story?

PEARLMAN:  It wasn't exactly a lengthy process. I was a writer at Sports Illustrated, and I'd never written a book. A literary agent named Susan Reed said, "How about the '86 Mets?" and I immediately loved the idea. That was my team growing up...an iconic bunch from an iconic era. I wish I could say, "I knew from the moment I held a pen that one day I'd write their story"...but I didn't. That said, sure glad I did.

HOVG: I followed the team religiously throughout the 1986 season and, obviously, the stories you uncovered were ones that most of us had never heard.  What is your favorite story?

PEARLMAN: Hmm...probably the flight back from Houston after the NLCS, which opens the book. It was just pure craziness, which you never see in today's game. This raw, carnal, unleashed joy. I always remember Ron Darling telling me about the woman throwing up on their leather outfits. Still an image that can't escape my mind.

HOVG: Were there any stories you couldn't include in the book (legal or otherwise)...that you wish you could have?

PEARLMAN: Hate to be lame...but, no. None come to mind.

HOVG:  A lot of people are familar with the backlash you're receiving with your current tome Sweetness.  What backlash, if any, did you receive from the Mets or their fans?

PEARLMAN:  Very little. Just the opposite. Of all my books, that's the one that has attained a certain cult status. It's among Mets fans, and maybe cult is too strong. But I always have people come up or write me and say, "Man, that book!" Which gives me such great feelings. It's very meaningful, because the book was a genuine labor of love.  Oh, wait, almost forgot. There was one tiny backlash. I appeared on the "Best Damn Sports Show" in LA. My co-guests were supposed to be Ron (Darling) and Len Dykstra. Dykstra never showed up...supposedly he was pissed.

HOVG:  Lastly, of all the members of the team...who would you LEAST like to meet face-to-face in a dark alley?

PEARLMAN:  Easy...Tim Corcoran. He only played a handful of games, and we never spoke. In an alley I'd be embarrassed, because I wouldn't recognize him.

Jeff Pearlman has had a pretty storied career as a writer having written for SI.com, ESPN.com,  Yahoo.com and Sports Illustrated.  In addition to The Bad Guys Won!, he's penned books about the 1990s Dallas Cowboys, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.

His most recent offering, Sweetness: The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton, is on the New York Times bestseller list.

You can follow Pearlman on Twitter at @jeffpearlman.  You can also check out his shenagins on the internets at JeffPearlman.com.

This Week in Baseball Cards: October 20

It doesn't matter if your team is in the postseason or not...it really is one of the best times of the year. And here with another installment of "This Week in Baseball Cards" is Bo Rosny!

Another great Sully video last week, this time focusing on some infamous moments in Cubs history.  Did Babe Ruth call his shot? Sully says no. This card is noncommittal, showing the Sultan of Swat’s follow-through.

And while the video isn’t clear about the called shot, the Bambino’s trip around the bases, taunting the Cubs dugout the whole way, has got to be one of the earliest instances of trash-talking caught on film.

Sully also takes Cubs fans to task for blaming Steve Bartman for the Cubs losing the 2003 NLCS. His video shows that others, primarily Alex Gonzalez, should get the blame.

I hadn’t remembered just how badly Gonzalez booted an easy double-play ball. And yet nobody remembers him because of Bartman. Gonzalez may no longer have technically been a Marlin in 2003, but he was clearly the most valuable Marlin of that series.

Speaking of Marlins, here’s a link to another great Sully video about the flamboyantly awesome sculpture being made for the team’s new ballpark that opens up next season, which makes it the most interesting new ballpark in ages.

The new brick stadiums that are cropping up everywhere are becoming as repetitious as the turf-covered donuts of the 1970s.

Can you tell Citi Field from Citizens Bank from Busch from any of these others? With their new stadium, their new manager (Ozzie Guillen!) and their bold new logo, I’ll be rooting for the Marlins to win the NL East in 2012.

They'll certainly be exciting!

And remember, gang, you can check out Bo's daily insights over at his site...Baseball Cards Come to Life.

Dwight Gooden is (or isn't) "Dating" Bai Ling

Ask me who Dwight Gooden is supposedly cheating on his wife with and I would have never guessed it correctly.

Matter of fact, you could have tied me up in bloody meat and threatened to dunk me into a sharktank and I still wouldn't have ever gotten it right.

Thankfully, "Doc" hit up the Twitters today and put an end to whatever rumors were circulating.

Alot of rumors r going around about me & Bai Ling. She is my friend just like the other cast members from the show. I am happily married

And to further emphasize his point...the former Cy Young Award winner followed up that tweet with one to VH1, Deadspin, TMZ, Perez Hilton and the New York Daily News asking them to retweet him.

Now, I'm no Robert Littall (what's up Black Sports Online!), but I'm pretty sure that when you hit the interwebs to claim you are NOT cheating on your wife with a certifiably insane actress...you did.

Any way you slice it...the picture below doesn't look good.

Job Well Done Yankees Fan!

I'll let you fill in the rest of the punchlines...but it appears as though a New York Yankees fan found Moammar Gadhafi.

According to the BBC's live blog (and via Deadspin):

A fighter in Sirte has told the BBC his account of the reported capture. Mohammed, a young fighter in his 20s, wearing a blue T-shirt and a New York Yankees baseball cap, said he had found the colonel hiding in a hole in the ground in the city of Sirte. He told the BBC that the former Libyan leader said to him simply: "Don't shoot".

Alright, so if the cat who caught Derek Jeter's 3000th hit received an assortment of tickets, bats and jerseys as thanks for returning the ball to the future Hall of Famer...what can we give Mohammed for his job well done?

Who Wants a World Series Ring?

Let's say you're a World Series Champion...the thought of selling your championship ring is crazy, right?

Then it might be time to lock up Scott Williamson considering the former Boston Red Sox reliever has put his 2004 World Series ring on the auction block.

The 1999 National League Rookie of the Year isn't going the route of Lenny Dykstra, who raffled off his 1986 World Series ring a couple of years ago amid his personal bankruptcy...he's doing it for the kids.

Specifically, Williamson intends to use part of the proceeds to construct and administer a youth indoor/outdoor baseball academy.

"I can die with that World Series ring," the former big league reliever told the Boston Herald earlier in the week. "But if I die and I have this (facility) and these kids, and I've helped make them better people then my name and what I've done will mean more to me than that."

The ring will be auctioned online by Everything But the House though Oct. 25.  Bidding began at just a buck...and is already close to $30,000.

“There’s never been an auction for a player’s ring from (the 2004 Boston Red Sox), and I don’t expect there will be another one,” said EBTH co-owner Brian Graves. “For collectors, this will be their one shot at owning something like this.”

So if you've got a couple extra bucks burning a hole in your pocket (and wear a Mens 10.75 ring)...you might just be in luck.

The Fall Classic Needs Ron Washington EVERY Year!

Alright, follow me on this one.

I'm not saying the Texas Rangers need to be in the World Series every year...but is there a way to ensure that Ron Washington is taking part in the annual Fall Classic?

Last year, we were introduced to seven-year-old Liam Roybal...or, "Little Ron Washington".

This year...it's the Ron Washington pumpkin.

Well done, Shelby Guthrie.  Well.  Done.

Now, I bring up the Ron Washington stuff only to pimp this...your chance to win an awesome DVD collection.

Here's the deal.

Let me know who you're picking to win the World Series (and in what game) and you're receiving what A&E Home Entertainment calls "unprecedented access to the history laden film and video archives of Major League Baseball Productions".

This is a great deal, gang...answer as many times as you can. And as I see it, there are eight different possible combinations!

Answer in the comments section and tell your friends.

Click HERE to learn more about the prize! 

It's Time to Man Up!

Tonight is the premiere of “Man Up!” on ABC and I know what you’re thinking…what in the world does that show have to do with baseball or, specifically this website.

Allow me to explain.

A few summers ago, Mather Zickel, one of the stars of “Man Up!” (and a fan of this site) played Lou Piniella in the ESPN original series "The Bronx is Burning". And last year at this time, I had the privilege to talk with Zickel about the making of the series.

Here’s that interview again.

HOVG: How familiar were you with Lou Piniella before you were cast to play the former Yankee outfielder in ESPN's "The Bronx is Burning"?

ZICKEL: I remember Piniella from when I was a kid. I grew up in the New York area and basically the first baseball team I ever really knew was the Yankee team depicted in "The Bronx is Burning". They seemed like heroes. And obviously they were a very talented and tough team. I was very young at the time and I remember being confused about why sometimes Piniella was in left field and other times it was Roy White.

HOVG: I’ve gotta know…was that your real hair or a wig?

ZICKEL: That was my natural hair. Plus a little extra to give it that shaggy proto-mullet look.

HOVG: How did the casting process go? Were they looking for actors that could play baseball...or were they just looking for actors who resembled the players they portrayed?

ZICKEL: Casting was definitely looking for physical resemblance in the actors. We all read scenes from the script; many scenes which actually never made it into the final draft. They did want us to have some baseball competence as well. We all had to bat, run, catch and throw for our auditions. I spent an afternoon at the batting cage, getting ready. After we were cast, they sent us to baseball camp for about two weeks before shooting. We got to work with professional players, most of whom appear in the series. Unfortunately, when we finally shot the baseball stuff, they barely used us. They didn't really use the pro guys either. They wound up using a great deal of archival television footage. It was cool to look at that old footage, but it was disappointing to not be able to play for real.

HOVG: Who had the best skills on the field?

ZICKEL: Some of the actors were pretty good athletes. I think the best actor/player was probably Evan Bryce Hart, who portrayed Bucky Dent. Evan had played in college and it showed. It was too bad that they never showed him bat in the series because Evan really got Bucky's stance down; he would get in a low crouch and choke way up on the bat. It was very distinctive. I think Alex Cranmer did Graig Nettles proud, as well. He could stop a mean grounder at third.

HOVG: And who was the worst?

ZICKEL: I don't want to go into the worst. It's better to maintain the illusion of greatness.

HOVG: What is your background with sports? Were/are you an athlete?

ZICKEL: I played some sports in high school, mainly football. These days, I mostly box for exercise. I never really had a true athlete's agility and timing, so I always tried to compensate with blunt physicality. I really enjoyed the baseball camp for the show because they taught me how to actually bat properly. I hadn't picked up a baseball bat since I was 13 years old and almost always struck out as a kid. Nobody had ever taught me the right way to do it. By the end of baseball camp, I could at least put a respectable blooper into shallow center field. Smacking a ball with the sweet part of the bat is a very fun and satisfying feeling.

HOVG: Switching gears to movies...do you have a favorite baseball movie?

ZICKEL: I will always have a sweet spot for "Bull Durham" and the original "The Bad News Bears".

You can catch Mather Zickel and "Man Up!" Tuesday nights at 8:30pm EST/7:30pm CST on ABC.  Zickel can also be found on the Adult Swin shows "Children's Hospital" and "Delocated".