After 13 years and 1,154 games in the minors, Drew Maggi made his MLB debut for the Pirates last night.

Former Pirates/Cardinals/Phillies/Giants shortstop and Duke basketball star Dick Groat has died at 92.

- One of 13 men to play MLB and in the NBA.
- 1960 NL MVP
- Two-time WS champ
- National college basketball player of the year
- 1st Blue Devil to have his number retired
- 2nd all-time highest average at Duke (behind Art Heyman)
- Member of the College Basketball HOF and National College Baseball HOF
- Five-time NL All-Star
- Was just named to the Pirates HOF
- Served 40 years as Pitt basketball radio color commentator

RIP, sir.

RIP. Respect.

Rest easily, Dick.

saw dick groat play a few times in old forbes field.

RIP

deGrom on the IL with elbow inflammation.

Sadly, this was easy to predict.

Someone was gonna be dumb enough to pay him all that money and Texas were the ones.

I hope for his sake, his career isn’t in jeopardy.

The Yankees have $157 million on the IL.

Carlos Rodon had a setback with his back again.

Matt Harvey has announced his retirement. Even the WBC couldn't revive his career. (I'm surprised he didn't sign with the Long Island Ducks.)

Baseball should be popular globally, but I'm not a fan of using regular season games as a promotional gimmick.

My Uncle and cousin got to go to the first London game. They had a great time. My Uncle, a Red Sox fan, met Aaron Judge and Rob Manfred.

There are a lot of supposedly good/great teams playing like absolute trash.

Still early of course, but it’s been pretty painful to watch a number of big money teams thus far.

I’ve been displeased with the Phillies.

And yeah, there’s tons of injuries everywhere, but there’s also been pitiful pitching, hitting, fielding and especially managing,

Let’s see where these teams are by June/July.

Also, 12 teams are drawing 20,000 or less and it’s not just because of weather.

Now Orlando wants a relocated team and they are after Tampa.

Two teams have already failed in Florida. A third?

Uh, no.

My wife and I finally made our way to the Roberto Clemente Museum here in Pittsburgh yesterday. One of those things that's been on our list but we (I) never quite made the time for. If you're ever here and get the chance, go. It's really a cool experience.

We had a 90-minute guided tour. Tons of memorabilia, as you'd expect. A lot of it not behind glass, which was a bit of a surprise. You still can't touch it (at least you're not supposed to, although I'd suspect a lot of people do), but it's there. Lot's of great stories behind the stuff. As much as I know about Clemente, there was stuff I either didn't know or had forgotten, especially around the fatal plane crash - suffice it to say, the owner of the plane couldn't have been much shadier, and it would have been difficult to do more things wrong than they did. A lot of MLB teams go through the museum when they're in town, and the museum owner is a photographer who does work in sports and with celebrities, and he's got quite a collection of bats, jerseys, and other memorabilia, some of which is bartered for so he can sell it or trade it to support the museum. Ninety minutes was nowhere near enough to take it all it and see and recognize what everything is (especially the non-Clemente stuff), but I saw a couple Pete Alonzo items, Julius Erving's shoes (huge!) and a signed ABA basketball, Mario Lemiuex's skates and an All-Star jersey, and a signed jersey from Joe Musgrove commemorating the no-hitter he threw for the Padres (I don't know if it's game-worn or not). Turns out Musgrove and a few other Pirates used to go there to hang out after games because the guy also makes wine in the basement (also used to support the museum).

And I went a little crazy in the gift shop...

Jacob deGrom To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/06/ ... rgery.html

Jake is finished. Mets really dodged a bullet by not re-signing him (or by him not wanting to re-sign with the Mets).

Depending on when he comes back, Texas may end up paying him $70 million to face 115 batters.

Ouch!

The Rangers do not have insurance on deGrom’s contract for this year because his recent injury history made it too much of a risk. A significant injury this season is only going to further complicate that possibility. The Rangers have four more years on the deGrom deal with $155 million guaranteed remaining.

Original Met Roger Craig has passed away at the age of 93. He was the starting pitcher for the Mets in their very first game. And to show how much things have changed, in his two years with the Mets -- 1962 and 1963, during which they were the losingest team in baseball -- Craig had 27 complete games.

Rest well, sir.

Rest easily, Roger.

Conditions not to good at Citifield today, hear the Yankees canceled their game!

"Cancelled due to smoke." Is that a first?

Yeah, the Yankees and Phillies were postponed.