Sports Columns

Twice drafted in the 40th round, undersized pitcher Brandon Kintzler of Palo Verde High School jumps from the independent leagues to claim a spot on the American League All-Star roster.

51s president Don Logan said he didn’t hear two tall evergreen trees get uprooted from the berm in right field and topple down an earthen bank near the outdoor batting cage during a recent wind storm.

Baseball Hall of Famer Greg Maddux engages audience during “Conversations With Norm” at The Smith Center.

With the Cubs, runaway leaders in the NL Central, on the verge of clinching their division prematurely, having Kris Bryant play all nine positions in one game might be something to keep fans engaged down the stretch.

New pitch clocks installed in minor league ballparks might — or might not — speed up the game from a snail’s pace to a real fast snail’s pace. It’s being tried experimentally in the bushes, because that’s how baseball does things — it uses its minor leagues as a laboratory whenever it considers changing the game.

When the San Diego Padres’ Alex Torres became the first big league pitcher to wear one of those new isoBLOX protective pitchers caps in a ballgame recently, bloggers wrote that he looked like one of the Super Mario Brothers.

When I got out of bed Monday, the Athletics and Tigers were getting ready to play a baseball game, in October, in broad daylight — or at least under a cloudy sky — in Detroit.