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Touch 'Em All: Pierzynski a pain, yes . . . but Utley?

Ask them, and they'll tell you. A Sports Illustrated poll of 215 major-leaguers on the "meanest player" in the game had no surprise at the top: Chicago White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski, who has long cultivated an irritating rep, with 29 percent of the votes. (Hey, his own manager, Ozzie Guillen, says: "If you play against him, you hate him. If you play with him, you hate him a little less.")

White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski was voted the meanest player in baseball by fellow players. (Charles Rex Arbogast/AP)
White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski was voted the meanest player in baseball by fellow players. (Charles Rex Arbogast/AP)Read more

Ask them, and they'll tell you. A Sports Illustrated poll of 215 major-leaguers on the "meanest player" in the game had no surprise at the top: Chicago White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski, who has long cultivated an irritating rep, with 29 percent of the votes. (Hey, his own manager, Ozzie Guillen, says: "If you play against him, you hate him. If you play with him, you hate him a little less.")

What is a bit of a surprise, at least for Phillies fans, is the second-place finisher: Chase Utley, with 13 percent. (See what happens when you say a bad word, kids?)

Rounding out the top five are perennial Touch 'Em All topics Milton Bradley, Carlos Zambrano, and Vicente Padilla (bless you, boys).

What, no Tony Plush? Well, if he were real, he'd be numero uno, but his alter-ego, Nyjer Morgan, came in ninth, after Alex Rodriguez (his Yankee teammates stuffing the ballot box?) and Plush's archenemies Chris Carpenter and Albert Pujols (stay tuned for angry tweets from the Imaginary One about that). Kevin Youkilis of the Red Sox is 10th (oh, those Yankees!).

Did he mean it? Probably

In addition to the Cy Young, Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw seems to be campaigning for his place on the list of baseball bad men. The lefthander was tossed for plunking Arizona's Gerardo Parra leading off the sixth in the Dodgers' 3-2 win over the Diamondbacks Wednesday. It seems that Kershaw may have been still miffed over Parra's dramatic posing the night before after a home run off L.A. reliever Hong-Chih Kuo, though it may have been Parra's double in the third in the at-bat before the chin music started that did it.

Kershaw denied it was intentional and had some stern words for home plate umpire Bill Welke for ejecting him, along with manager Don Mattingly. "He's too strict," Kershaw said. (Hey, Clayton, just be glad it wasn't Joe West - you could have been body-slammed.)

"It was left over from last night," crew chief Tim Tschida said. Told that the Dodgers believed Kershaw was merely pitching inside, Tschida responded: "It's always that view."

Parra's view? "He's pitching, I'm hitting, and that's baseball, man. . . . The umpire made the decision, and that's it."

All's well that ends well for Kershaw, who allowed one hit over five-plus innings and got the win to go to 19-5 on the season.

Hamilton beats Tribe and carpets

When Rangers slugger Josh Hamilton hit a grand slam to cap off an eight-run fourth in Texas' 9-1 win over the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday, he also put a hurt on a Dallas carpet company, which was offering free flooring and countertops to customers in September if the former MVP had a salami.

Not long after the blast cleared the decks, the company's website crashed. The CEO says the promotion will cost his company about $500,000, but it's covered by insurance.