Hunter Pence Plays a Mean Ping Pong

After an inspirational postseason, Hunter Pence adopted a pretty unique training regimen to prepare himself for the upcoming baseball season.

More ping pong.

“Sounds crazy, right?” Pence told reporters. “It works your fast-twitch muscles. You react. I just got a bunch of different friends and we didn’t play games. It was just rallies, as hard and as long as we could.”

Apparently the San Francisco Giants outfielder has been a table tennis enthusiast for a while, but it wasn't until his brother Howie pointed out that the more Pence played in the off season...the better he did during the regular season.

And after batting a career low .253 while splitting time between San Francisco and the Philadelphia Phillies...Pence was down to try anything.

“It might be a coincidence,” he added, “but it was worth a try.”

Absolutely.
 

 

Astros Pitcher Hates Dolphins

Ten months ago, Philip Humber threw baseball's 21st perfect game.  Now...the righty is in camp with the Houston Astros talking about, for some reason, his hatred of dolphins.

Wait...what?

Apparently, as the story goes, the then-six-year-old Humber and his family were on vacation and his father gave him some cash to buy a souvenir.  Humber, coincidentally an Astros fan, bought "the most expensive item he could afford"...an Astros ring.

Then, the family went to Sea World in San Antonio.

“I had the ring on, and we go into this dolphin exhibit where you can actually get the dolphins to come up to you and touch them," Humber describes. “The ring falls off. It’s loud in this place, and I’m yelling to my dad, ‘I can’t reach it!’ And here comes this dolphin and swallows that ring. Oh, it was devastating, man. I hated dolphins for a long time after that.”

Grab some pine, ducklips!

***Thanks to Astros County for the tip.***

 

Joe Mauer and Wife Expecting Twins

When word came that Minnesota Twins superstar Joe Mauer and his Maddie were expecting twins...I'm pretty sure fans from Rochester to Fergus Falls completely lost their mind.

Yup, the guy who, when it's all said and done, might supplant Kirby Puckett or Harmon Killebrew as "Mr. Twin" is about to have twins of his own.  And it does make sense though, right?  Mauer was born in St. Paul, grew up a Twins fan and was drafted first overall by his hometown team in 2001.
 
"Obviously, we're both really excited and couldn't be happier," Mauer said on Wednesday.  "Everything so far is good." 

Oh, before you ask, no, the 2009 American League MVP will not be the first Twins player to father Twins.  According to the boys over at Larry Brown Sports, Denny Hocking, who played with the Twins from 1993-2003, and his wife had twins while he was playing for the team.

No word as to whether or not  Mauer and the Mrs. are expecting boys or girls (or one of each), but, well, I'm sure they'll be born with "great lookin' hair".
 

All-Star Catcher Leaves Team Canada

Alright, I'm not even sure where to begin with this one, so I'll just throw it out there.

Three-time All-Star Russell Martin left Team Canada earlier this week because, well, they wouldn't let him, a catcher by trade, suit up and play shortstop in the upcoming World Baseball Classic.

Now, I'm not sure why I didn't see this story until today, but let me get this straight...Russell Martin, newly acquired catcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates is leaving Team Canada because they won't let him play shortstop?

Ridiculous.

''It's a pretty simple reason,'' Martin said on Sunday.  ''The Pittsburgh Pirate organization wasn't comfortable (with) me going to play shortstop over there. I don't think the Team Canada organization was too comfortable with me going to play shortstop.''

For the record, Martin was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 17th round of the 2002 draft as, wait for it, a second baseman.  That said, he never played an inning at the position in the Minors.  In the Majors, he's played second for two innings in 2011.

Which brings us back to shortstop.

Martin, a Gold Glove Award winning catcher in 2007 has played 98% of his games in bigs behind the plate and outside of those two innings at second two seasons ago, the only other position he's played...third base.

So, why shortstop?  Your guess is as good as mine.

Vintage Auction Item Has Sketchy Past

Wednesday night, bidding will end on an 1870 photograph of former big leaguer (and 2012 "HOVG Heroes" subject) Al Reach.

Not a big deal really (bidding sits at a mere $1000), but if you consider that this particular photograph might have been part of a heist...look out!

This from friend of The Hall Peter Nash:

Like everything else in the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s collection, the 1870 CDV photograph of Al Reach and the Philadelphia Athletics was donated by someone.

Long ago, a librarian scribbled assorted numerals on its reverse preceded by a designation Hall curators know well as “BL” representing items in the Baseball Library, the National Baseball Library, that is.  The Hall of Fame does not purchase artifacts and relies solely on the generous donations of the enshrined players immortalized with bronze plaques, their widows, their kids, their grand-kids and even everyday Joe’s who somehow came into possession of something truly Cooperstown-worthy.

Back in 1983, authors John Thorn and Mark Rucker set up a photo shoot in Cooperstown to capture many of these treasures on film for a retrospective of nineteenth-century baseball photography in a Society For American Baseball Research (SABR) publication called The National Pastime. The publication was highly regarded in the baseball collecting community since it featured images of many rare and never before seen images depicting the early game.

Nearly a decade after that photo shoot took place at the Hall of Fame something strange appeared in a black and white auction catalog produced by auctioneer Rob Lifson, then of Hoboken, New Jersey. It appeared to be the exact same CDV of Al Reach’s Philadelphia team that Thorn and Rucker had captured on film in 1983.

The auction catalog photograph was extremely small but visible was a tell-tale surface scratch on the vintage albumen photograph identical to the one found on the contact sheet from the Hall of Fame shoot. In his lot description Lifson wrote, “Extremely small abrasion on reverse and a single insignificant scratch in brown background are the only imperfections that keep this card from being Mint.”

You can check out Nash's entire critique (and see the evidence) of the Reach photograph over at his site Hauls of Shame.

Cubs Ban (Some) Celebs from Booth

Last season, the Chicago Cubs decided to add a new scoreboard (gasp!) and this year, well...they're continuing with the changes.

The team announced Wednesday that the singing of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" will no longer be the hodge podge of random celebrities it has turned into. 

"I think the last couple of years we had gotten away to a couple of people who weren't tied to Chicago," said Jim Oboikowitch, the Cubs in-game programming director.

The new plan calls for local Chicago celebrities and former Cubs players to sing the song onetime broadcaster Harry Caray made famous.  Essentially, they're going to try and create more of a "who's who" rather than a "who's that" mentality when it comes to lending the microphone to visitors.

"They're always exciting for people to see," Oboikowitch added, "to have them back and relive some of the glory."

That said, former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka might not be the answer.

Dodgers to Broadcast in Korean

The Los Angeles Dodgers are about to become trilingual.

When their new contract with Time Warner Cable takes effect prior to next season, the Dodgers will become the first team in the Majors to broadcast in three, count 'em, three different languages...English, Spanish and Korean.

And it makes sense, too...Los Angeles is a pretty Korean-friendly city.

Team co-owner Todd Boehly said the Dodgers have shared “lots of details” with MLB without delivering a copy of the actual contract. The 25-year deal with Time Warner is believed to be worth between $7 billion and $8 billion to the Dodgers.

But, according to the Los Angeles Times, the Dodgers have yet to submit the contract for approval.

We can only hope that this gives Korean pop sensation Psy his second fifteen minutes of fame.

Manny Ramirez...Heading to Taiwan?

Looks like it's time for Manny to be Manny again.  Again.

And, yes, I apologize for using one of baseball's most overused, but it's true...according to ESPN Deportes, the disgraced slugger is has a deal in place to join the EDA Rhinos of the China Professional League.

"It will be a new experience, experience another culture while I keep doing what I love and all I've done in my life, playing baseball," Ramirez said.

Apparently the agreement won't be completed until March 7 because, well, dude is still holding out hope that he gets a deal from a Major League team.

Man, I can't wait to see if there's going to be a wacky Taiwanese animation about this, because the other one they did was awesome.