Wright's surprise razing ritual may turn out to be shear genius  —  SAN FRANCISCO - Carlos Beltran hung a shingle on his barber shop inside the visitor's clubhouse, prepping for customers.  He had shears, razors and plenty of towels to blot the blood.  —  Before long there was a parade of Mets lining up to get their domes shaved.

Nats Fall To Their 7th Loss In a Row  —  Washington Roster In a State of Flux: Brewers 6, Nationals 4  —  Hours before the Washington Nationals dropped their seventh straight game, an all-too-familiar 6-4 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, they lost one player, Chad Cordero …

Lincicome: Bonds poll is questionable  —  Abaseball manager once responded to a poll asking him to list his team broken down by race.  —  None, he answered.  More of his team was broken down by alcohol.  —  The point is, you see what you want to in these polls, endless as they are, concluding what they do.

Followup on the Vernon Wells Heckler Ball - A Home Run Derby Exclusive  —  This past Sunday, we wrote about some hecklers who got a ball from Blue Jays CenterFielder Vernon Wells.  Wells politely gave back some of the heckling he was getting during the game ...

Sluggers Cited in Steroid Inquiry  —  Investigators of steroid use in baseball are seeking medical records from at least two of the game's premier sluggers over the past dozen years, Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro, along with records from dozens of other players suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs …

Infield Defense — Back to Basics … In recent years, methods for evaluating defense have been springing up like mushrooms after a spring rain.  We've got UZR and PMR and the plus/minus system, all based on play-by-play data.  Then there are the zone rating-based systems, one from Chris Dial …

Pirates' pitchers need to be more like Maglie, Drysdale  —  At Don Drysdale's funeral, an emotional Bob Uecker began telling the assembled mourners about "the first time Don touched me."  Then, he interrupted himself.  —  "Well, here, I can just show ya," the former catcher said.  "See this mark right here?"

Rickey Henderson considering comeback  —  SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Roger Clemens' big announcement this week has Rickey Henderson hoping some club might give him one more chance to make a major league comeback.  —  Otherwise, he will call it a career — for good this time.

Pieces found along the trail  —  Picked-up pieces while bracing for Barry Bonds's Fenway visit next month, which looks more and more like a showdown with Hank Aaron's home run record . . .  Something "Evita"-esque about Roger Clemens in George's private suite Sunday.

Pirates Notebook: Tracy sees offense, but it's from his son  —  CHICAGO — Jim Tracy saw a rare sight Monday night — offense.  —  OK, so it was in Lansing, Mich., and not Wrigley Field, but it was pretty sweet all the same.  —  The Pirates' manager and his wife, Debra …

Guess the pitcher  —  Do you want to play a game?  —  In classic Rob Neyer style, let's do a little Player A vs Player B  —  Both performances are from relief pitchers prior to their 29th birthday.  Both players had pretty uninspiring starts to their careers, bouncing between the majors and minors.

Turnbow answers fans questions  —  Pitcher takes time before Tuesday's game to chat … Derrick Turnbow: Hello everyone, sorry for the delay, let's get started.  —  jenksws05: Derrick, White Sox fan here, but I have been living with a Brewers fan for the past four months.

Smoltz-Maddux rivalry: Round 4  —  Former teammates haven't faced each other since 1992  —  Could it really be 17 years?  —  John Smoltz, then in his second full major league season, led the National League in walks in 1990.  Greg Maddux gave up more runs (116) than in any season in his life.