This is a trucker hat. With a Montreal Expos Larry Walker baseball card printed on the front. From the eBay listing description:

We acquired this rare cap and many others from a direct family relative of LARRY WALKER in Maple Ridge, B.C. – his home town! 🙂

Personally, I’m not the biggest fan of the trucker hat style but I do think this is a brilliant idea as far as cap logos go. I just don’t think I’d drop 22 bucks on it (plus shipping and handling!).

Hat tip to Matt Clapp of Sharapova’s Thigh and his readers, 89% of whom would rock this style as of this writing.

Ozzie Guillen was ejected from last night’s game and promptly tweeted the above tweet. Unsurprisingly, MLB has come back strong today and hit him with a two-game suspension. Of course, it’s hard to imagine a worse offense than tweeting during a game, so it’s understandable that MLB cracked down so hard. Just for comparison’s sake, let’s take a look at some other two-game suspensions from recent MLB history.

Nationals manager Jim Riggleman, for participation in the Nyjer Morgan/Chris Volstad brawl last season.

Dusty Baker and Tony La Russa, for participation in the massive Cardinals/Reds brawl last season.

Fernando Rodney, for throwing a ball into the stands after recording a save in 2009.

Jonny Gomes, for his “violent actions” which incited a Rays/Yankees fight in spring training of 2008.

Joba Chamberlain, for throwing two pitches over the head of Kevin Youkilis in a game in 2007.

Dioner Navarro, for bumping the home plate umpire in a game last season.

Dave Trembley, for a “running argument” with the home plate umpire in 2009.

Milton Bradley, for arguing balls and strikes in 2009.

Kyle Farnsworth, for tackling Paul Wilson of the Reds in 2003.

And, my personal favorite, Francisco Rodriguez, for punching his father-in-law in the Mets’ clubhouse.

Take that for what you will. To me, it seems like the MLB is taking tweeting quite seriously.

In case you missed it, Miguel Olivo hit what will surely be in the running for Funniest Homer of 2011 in yesterday’s Mariners/Tigers game. You can check the video here.

Of course, when it comes to home runs, there’s no better resource than the fantastic HitTracker Online, which charts and stores every home run dating back to 2005. Their entry* for this home run is interesting, to say the least:

(Click to embiggen)

*Slightly edited by yours truly**
**Not to scale***
***Or well done

(Click to embiggen)

I was watching the top-80 plays of the week (or whatever arbitrary number they choose) last night on MLB Network, and this catch by Jason Kubel was #11.

MLB Network tells me it’s a great play, and they and ESPN and all the other “they”s have been telling me that similar catches have been telling me that similar catches are “great plays” ever since my first cable TV subscription. But really, is it great? How many other right fielders make that catch? Is it only a great play because Jason Kubel is so bad at outfielding that it take the utmost of his defensive effort in order to make a play that could be stressful but not entirely difficult for the average fielder?

Of course, maybe that is precisely what makes it a great play: it took anything and everything in Kubel’s defensive arsenal to make that play, and for that reason, we should be impressed. Perhaps I’m thinking too much like a UZR calculator, thinking that it’s not impressive if the average fielder makes that play 69.2735329% of the time.

Maybe. I’m not sure. Although what I am sure is that this precise dilemma is why we as a community have such a tremendously difficult time evaluating defensive players, even those that we watch every day with our own eyes.

But I digress. What do you guys think? Is it a great play?

From today’s Cubs/Dodgers game in Chicago (where it’s 45 degrees out according to the ever-suspicious Weather Channel), we have Chad Billingsley running the bases in a jacket.

(Click to embiggen)

I feel like a bird-watcher who has stumbled upon a bald eagle in its natural home. Shh, don’t disturb it! And if you touch its nest, it’ll throw away the children.

(Hat tip: Mike Petriello of Mike Scioscia’s Tragic Illness and much much more.)

Today, thorough investigation of the Baseball-Reference website revealed a very shocking fact: namely, Jonny Gomes’s middle name.

Hold on, we need to zoom in here.

Just a little more…

Nope, you’re losing me.

Hey, there it is!

That’s right. Jonny Gomes’s middle name is “Johnson.” It’s hard to sum that up better than my friend Dan, who after hearing this news, declared “What a douche” of Gomes. And really, out of this guy, maybe we shouldn’t be too surprised:

I know. I know. It’s confusing. Just stay with me. What you see on your computer screen is known as a “Lubie.” Which, apparently, means this:

o MLB Lubies are a break-through line of plush combining clean, charming designs with the irresistible, playable shape of a ball.
o Lubies are insanely cute, adorable softball size, super soft material, for ages 0+ and pure simple fun.

And of course the litany of information doesn’t end there. MLB inquires; did you ALSO know?

* Lubies are pronounced “LUH-BEES”
* Lubies are rated for ages 0+
* Lubies are safety tested and lead free
* Lubies are made from all new material and filled with polyester fiber; surface clean only
* Lubies are roughly the size of a softball, measuring 5″ in diameter
* Lubies come with a little “Did You Know” fact
* Lubies can double as safe, soft and squeezable plush balls – fun for tossing

And of course, the least surprising thing to ever happen ever:

Country Of Origin : China

To be fair to MLB and Lubies and whoever else is responsible for whatever… that… is, the White Sox Lubie shown above is the most disturbingly depressed looking of the entire collection. Most of them look downright happy or even friendly. Which, now that I think of it, might actually be scarier. But nothing is scarier than the fact that this is an Actual Thing, the horror of which words can hardly describe.

Outside of the very rare time when black is actually a significant part of a team’s color scheme (the Chicago White Sox, and to a lesser extent, the Pittsburgh Pirates, who still have no excuse for not bringing back a yellow jersey), the use of the black alternate jersey just screams laziness on the part of the uniform designers. In what way does a black jersey bring out the character of the team? Answer: in no way does a black jersey bring out the character of a team.

My first target is the black uniforms worn by the Florida Marlins, seen here courtesy of Sportslogos.net:

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As I detailed in this post on the advent of new yellow (“gold”) uniforms for the Oakland Athletics, I love the idea of yellow as a primary color for jerseys. Along with Oakland, the only other candidate for a yellow jersey would be the Pittsburgh Pirates. After all, they did it in the 1970s.

These are pretty good, I guess. But I think we can do better.

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(Hat tip to my boy Nick for the Youk pic)