Major League League Commissioner Bud Selig put his foot in the mouth after Team USA was eliminated in the World Baseball Classic. Selig said:

"We have to try to push up the intensity for the U.S. team and have to find ways to get our best players and make sure they're out there,'' Selig said during ESPN's telecast. "Everybody who has ever played [in the WBC] loves it ... We have to pick up the selection process. We need, as the other countries do, to get the very best players we have.''

Team USA had plenty of top name talent such as New York Yankees superstar Derek Jeter and reigning National League MVP Jimmy Rollins so for Selig to say they didn't have the horses is just a fallacy.

As for the "intensity" remark, it rubbed the competitors on the USA side the wrong way. The Chicago Sun Times asked relief pitcher Matt Thornton of the White Sox about Selig's comments and he fired back:

"For someone to say that, and I heard other people say that, no one was in the dugout but us," Thornton said Tuesday, two days after the U.S. was eliminated in the semifinals of the WBC in a 9-4 defeat to eventual champion Japan.

Curt Schilling has announced his retirement from Major League Baseball. Instead of cameras and a press conference, the 42 year old right hander who won World Series rings with the Boston Red Sox blogged about his exit from the game. He wrote:

Calling it Quits

“Turn out the lights, the party’s over”

I used to wait with bated breath for Don Meredith to start singing that on “Monday Night Football.” Normally, it was sweet music if the Steelers were playing.

If I could get him to sing it again, I would. This party has officially ended. After being blessed to experience 23 years of playing professional baseball in front of the world’s best fans in so many different places, it is with zero regrets that I am making my retirement official.

To say I’ve been blessed would be like calling Refrigerator Perry “a bit overweight.” The things I was allowed to experience, the people I was able to call friends, teammates, mentors, coaches and opponents, the travel, all of it, are far more than anything I ever thought possible in my lifetime.

With as much time as Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella has spent in the American League, and add the fact that he played six games with the Cleveland Indians in 1968, you would think that he would know who Chief Wahoo is. Asked about President Barack Obama supporting the cross town White Sox, Lou Piniella had this entertaining exchange with writers covering his club.

A-Roid Chokes Back Tears and Says it Was All a Mistake

With Spring Training getting kick started just days ago, ESPN aired a spring training special this evening to give the lowdown on all the happenings in the offseason. Among the notable things Cleveland Indians related was an interview with incoming Tribe third baseman Mark DeRosa and his transition to the team. According to DeRosa, all is well and he is happy with his new team and also commented on the teams work ethic coming into the 2009 campaign.

At the end of the session, each commentor was asked to make big predictions for the upcoming year. Tim Kurkjian said that Indians center fielder Grady Sizemore is poised for a big year and said that he believes that he would hit 45 home runs and 45 stolen bases. While I think those lofty goals as being way too high, and still scratch my head why someone with such power hits leadoff for Eric Wedge, if it happens a lot of "Grady's Ladies" will be happy come October.

Kurkjian wasn't the only ESPN talking head to talk up one of our own. Former New York Yankees and Texas Rangers skipper Buck Showalter pegged new Tribe closer Kerry Wood as the league leader in saves. You know that Mark Shapiro is praying that Wood fulfills that promise as many people around the league think that the Indians spent too much money bringing in the free agent from the Chicago Cubs.

Former Cleveland Indians second baseman Roberto Alomar has issued a statement today after his former girlfriend filed suit on stating that he has AIDS and endangered her health by having unprotected sex with him. Alomar's statement read:

"This is a very private, personal matter and I greatly appreciate all the support I have received in the past few days from my family, friends and colleagues in baseball," Alomar stated . "I am in very good health and I ask that you respect my privacy during this time."

"As for the lawsuit, it is filled with lies and I am deeply saddened that someone I cared for would make such terrible accusations and try to hurt me in this way."

According to the rules of the Baseball Hall of Fame, Roberto Alomar won't be eligible for election to Cooperstown until the 2009 voting later this year. The powers that be in Major League Baseball should make an exception for Roberto Alomar and allow him to get in this year if reports on his health released today in a lawsuit are confirmed to be a fact. Alomar is arguably the best second baseman in the history of the game and the league should grant him his time in the spotlight while he is still healthy enough to experience it, while also bringing a serious health issue to the forefront of the nation.

New York Yankees slugging third baseman broke his silence today and admitted he had taken steroids. Rodriguez told ESPN in a recorded interview:

"When I arrived in Texas in 2001, I felt an enormous amount of pressure. I felt like I had all the weight of the world on top of me and I needed to perform, and perform at a high level every day," the New York Yankees star said in an interview with ESPN that was broadcast Monday shortly after it was recorded.

"Back then it was a different culture. It was very loose. I was young. I was stupid," he said. "I was naive, and I wanted to prove to everyone that, you know, I was worth, you know — and being one of the greatest players of all time."

For years, their had been rumors linking A-Rod to using performance enhancement drugs, notably Jose Canseco pointing the finger at him in a published book, but for years Rodriguez denies the claim.

Here is the video of the highest paid player in baseball admitting his shady steroid past:

A-Fraud Turns into A-Roid

Four sources have independently revealed to Sports Illustrated that Alex Rodriguez tested positive for two anabolic steroids in 2003 when he won the American League home run title and the ALA Most Valuable Player while a shortstop for the Texas Rangers. According to the sources, Rodriguez's name appears on a list 104 players that tested positive for performance enhancing drugs in MLB's 2003 survey testing.

The testing was done as a part of an agreement with the MLB Players Association to determine if it was necessary to impose mandatory random drug testing across the major leagues in 2004.

The MLB's drug policy has expressly prohibited the use of steroids without a valid prescription since 1991, but there were no penalties for a positive test until 2003. The results of the testing that year of 1,198 players were supposed to be anonymous under the agreement between the commissioner's office and the players association. Rodriguez's information was discovered, however, after federal agents armed with search warrants took the 2003 test results from Comprehensive Drug Testing Inc. of Long Beach, CA, which was one of the two labs used by MLB for the survey testing that year.

Cleveland Congressman Dennis Kucinich has teamed up with an unlikely partner asking Citi Group to back out of their $400 Million dollar naming of the New York Mets new stadium. One of the most liberal members of the House of Representatives teamed up with Texas Congressman Ted Poe who is one of the most conservative members in the house. The pair wrote a letter to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner in regards to what is suppose to be named City Field that read:

"We request that you intervene and demand that Citigroup dissolve the agreement they have with the New York Mets," reads the letter. "Absent this outcome, we feel strongly that you should compel Citigroup to return immediately all federal monies received to date, as well as cancel all loan guarantees."

Considering that taxpayers just forked over bailout money to the company, I think they bring up a great point. I propose Bailout Ballpark until a corporation Considering that taxpayers just forked over bailout money to the company, I think they bring up a great point. I propose Bailout Ballpark until a corparation can up with their own funds to put their name on stadium that was built with taxpayers money can up with their own funds to put their name on stadium that was built with taxpayers money.