Top News:
Jon Heyman / Sports Illustrated:
Mets skipper Manuel agrees to return — Jerry Manuel has agreed to return as New York Mets manager, SI.com has confirmed. Manuel will get a two year contract, plus a club option for a third season. — When Manuel took over as interim manager for the fired Willie Randolph in mid-June …
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Andrew Marchand / ESPN.com:
Valentine all ears if Mets unable to sign Manuel — If the New York Mets are unable to sign Jerry Manuel to be their manager, Bobby Valentine sounds interested in returning to Queens. — Valentine is currently managing Chiba Lotte in Japan's professional league.
ESPN.com:
Reports: Manuel gets two-year contract from Mets — The New York Mets have agreed to a deal to retain Jerry Manuel as manager, FoxSports.com and SI.com are reporting. — Manuel, who took over for Willie Randolph when Randolph was fired in June, got a two-year contract with a club option for a third season, the Web sites reported.
Bill Shaikin / Los Angeles Times:
Angels won't walk away with a victory — Despite facing Matsuzaka, who walks a lot of hitters, they don't plan to work the count in Game 2. — This could be the rare matchup that drives the purists and and the stat-heads nuts. Live from Anaheim: The team most likely to swing at a bad pitch …
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Adam Kilgore / Boston Globe:Santana by the numbers — ANAHEIM, Calif. - The Red Sox …
Discussion:
Over the Monster
Marc Topkin / St. Petersburg Times:
Injured eye forces Pena from game — ST. PETERSBURG — The irritation in 1B Carlos Pena's left eye Wednesday night was nothing like the pain he went through taking himself out of Thursday's game after two innings. — Pena was relaxing at home early Wednesday night when he felt something in his left eye and rubbed it.
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Nick Cafardo / Boston Globe:
White Sox take early lead — (6:50 p.m., bottom of the 2nd, 2-0 White Sox) — The White Sox are up on Tampa Bay 2-0 in the second inning. Scott Kazmir had a tough first inning, loading the bases right off the bat when he hit leadoff hitter Orlando Cabrera, walked Nick Swisher and allowed a single to Jermaine Dye.
Discussion:
The Heater
Scott Soshnick / Bloomberg:
Brewers Owner Attanasio Wants More Revenue Sharing From Yankees — Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) — Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio, seeking a “fair fight,” said high-revenue clubs like the New York Yankees should share more with the other teams. — “It's always amusing to me to hear the Yankees …
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Bruce Miles / Daily Herald:
Piniella fed up with Fukudome's play — Cubs manager Lou Piniella has all but written off right fielder Kosuke Fukudome for the rest of the playoffs and maybe longer. — “From now on, I don't want to hear about Fukudome anymore as far as whether he's going to play or not,” …
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Chicagosports / Hardball:
Curse removal backfires on Cubs — It was supposed to be a quiet ceremony with no publicity. — But when a TBS cameraman saw Rev. Father James L. Greanias spreading holy water in the Cubs dugout several hours before Game 1 of the Division Series on Wednesday, the priest …
Carl Macgowan / Newsday:
Workers begin dismantling Shea Stadium — It's really happening, Mets fans. — Shea Stadium is coming down, one thousand-watt lamp and one sink at a time. Centerfield's iconic 410-foot sign now lies in a fenced-in area outside the ballpark, along with other pieces of the outfield wall.
Maury Brown / The Biz of Baseball:
Inside The Numbers: 2008 MLB Attendance — The 2008 Major League Baseball regular season is the second highest attendance mark in history, drawing 78,624,324, falling just 1.14 percent below last year's record of 79,502,524 in paid attendance, a sign that baseball's popularity remains exceptionally strong.
Discussion:
Baseball Musings
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Bill Baer / crashburnalley.com:A Legendary At-Bat — No one with a solid grasp of logic picked …
Discussion:
Hugging Harold Reynolds
Tom Haudricourt / Brewers Blog:
Brantley completes Sabathia deal — A source familiar with the deal just told me that the CC Sabathia trade has been completed with the Brewers sending minor league outfield prospect Michael Brantley to the Indians. — When the Brewers acquired Sabathia in early July …
Discussion:
Al's Ramblings
Bob Klapisch / NorthJersey.com:
Yanks, Mets poised for CC bidding war — Brian Cashman and Omar Minaya have always considered themselves friends, despite competing in the same super-charged market. In fact, when Cashman was rumored to be considering a job with the Mariners, Minaya said to a friend, “tell Brian he can work here anytime.”
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Tim Dierkes / MLB Rumors:
Rosenthal's Latest: Vlad, Cano, Peavy, Hardy — By Tim Dierkes [October 3 at 8:23am CST] — Today we have a fresh column from Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. — Vladimir Guerrero's $15MM option for '09 is a lock, but perhaps the Angels will reconsider extending him beyond that.
Discussion:
Kranepool Society
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By Mike Danahey / Chicago Sun Times:
Is Fukudome a dirty word? — What's in a name? Ask Chicago Cubs fan Jill Howe, 15. — The Elgin High School sophomore had to remove her Kosuke Fukudome jersey and wear a gym T-shirt to class Wednesday because of a misunderstanding about how to pronounce the All-Star right-fielder's last name.
Kevin Goldstein / Baseball Prospectus:
Future Shock — Missing Bats — A great deal of the e-mails and chat questions that I receive concern pitching statistics, with most writers wanting to know what numbers they should look at when evaluating prospects, and which are more relevant than others.
Discussion:
Lone Star Ball
