Touch 'Em All: Jays' Bautista done for season
The Toronto Blue Jays shut down rightfielder Jose Bautista on Wednesday for the rest of the season because of a nagging left hip injury.
The Toronto Blue Jays shut down rightfielder Jose Bautista on Wednesday for the rest of the season because of a nagging left hip injury.
Bautista has been on the disabled list since Aug. 21, and Toronto manager John Gibbons said the slugging outfielder will not play the rest of the season to give him more time to heal.
Though Bautista had been improving, a hip specialist recommended he rest two more weeks.
Bautista played in 118 games this season, hitting .259 with 28 home runs and 73 RBIs.
His 2012 season was cut short by wrist surgery.
Negotiator Grebey dies
Ray Grebey, 85, who led Major League Baseball labor negotiations during the tumultuous 50-day strike that split the 1981 season, died of stomach cancer Aug. 28 in Stamford, Conn. A memorial mass was held Wednesday at St. Timothy's Church in Greenwich, Conn.
Hired by baseball owners in 1978 after 20 years at the General Electric Co., the pipe-smoking Grebey succeeded John Gaherin as the sport's chief labor negotiator. After arbitrator Peter Seitz struck down the reserve clause, Gaherin had worked out the deal in 1976 that created free agency.
Grebey was part of a turbulent era, when baseball was shut down by eight work stoppages in a 23-year span
He went up against longtime union head Marvin Miller in the 1980-81 labor talks, which led to a bruising work stoppage over the issue of compensation for free agents. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn was absent from the bargaining table, leaving Grebey to bear the criticism.
Help from the farm?
Before Wednesday night's game against the Baltimore Orioles, the Cleveland Indians befriended a different kind of bird.
Pitcher Justin Masterson carried a live chicken onto the field for the team's pregame drills. The bird, supplied by one of the Indians' clubhouse workers from an area farm, spent most of batting practice standing with Cleveland's pitchers in front of the warning track in center field.
The chicken, unfazed by its surroundings, stood calmly on the field while balls hit during batting practice fell nearby. The chicken was a gift to pitcher Cody Allen, and has been given the name "Cody."
- Associated Press