Breaking News: Buster Posey Most Likely Done For 2011 Season

Last night in a 12-inning thriller at AT&T Park in San Francisco, the Marlins trumped the Giants, 7-6. But there was no shaving cream pie laid out for the Fish after the game.

In the top of the 12th, Scott Cousins of the Marlins was rounding third base heading into home as the go-ahead run. The throw beat him, but his collision with Giants catcher Buster Posey jostled the ball loose--and also a bone in Posey's left leg.

Almost down to his knees, once the collision came in, Posey was held from flipping backwards because his foot was caught of the ground as all of his weight fell back, snapping a bone around his shin/ankle area. He suffered a broken bone, and will most likely miss the remainder of the season.

The Twins are sans starting catcher Joe Mauer, and their record this season sits at a dismal 16-32. What will happen to the Giants without their former Rookie of the Year, World Series winning catcher for the remainder of 2011?

The other part to this story is Posey's agent, Jeff Berry has the ball rolling on opening up communication with MLB On-Field Operations leader Joe Torre on home-plate collisions.

From a fan standpoint, if you get rid of home plate collisions, that takes away so much from the game. Baseball is the least physical game of the major sports, and stripping it entirely of any contact would be disastrous. I can understand the argument, because according to the Sports Science clip they showed on the 5:00 Sportscenter, a runner charing home plate can impact with roughly 3,000 pounds of force.

Either way, for the Giants to stay afloat, it is going to take a lot. Losing an offensive leader, nevermind a catcher, is going to be tough. The Giants are up 2.5 games in their division, and if they want to hold onto that lead, they will have to play smarter baseball, and look for those players who are ready to step up and lead the charge.

Only Between the Two Florida Baseball Clubs Would This Be A Story

Last night, the Florida Marlins organization had the brilliant idea of handing out some 15,000 miniature vuvuzelas to fans entering Sun Life Stadium. It was done to coincide with the World Cup in South Africa, in which the national instrument is the vuvuzela, and they have been out in full force at every game.

For the entire game, the umpiring crew, and several players, wore ear plugs to try to block out the drone-like sounds. Joe Maddon wasn't too impressed with the noise.

"They're annoying," Maddon said. "I mean, there's cool things and there's very non-cool things. That's a non-cool thing. It just doesn't make any sense."

Settle down, Joe! No need for anyone to get hurt over this.

Dewayne Staats, a Tampa Bay Rays announcer, was upset that two Rays fans were not allowed to bring their cowbells into the park that night. "That's just not right. These vuvuzelas, they're for soccer. Cowbells have a deep and rich baseball history." I'm not so sure I agree with that, but I do know that Mr. Staats, seems to have a fever, and there's only one prescription for that...

And look, to that lady in the picture: it's a ballgame, not the playground. Get your dejected expression and small child out of there, you're better than that.

Hard To Say I'm Sorry

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Maybe he was injured, maybe he just wasn't trying. In either case, telling the media that your manager doesn't know what you're going through because he hasn't played in the majors is downright stupid.

Hanley Ramirez, shortstop for the Florida Marlins is in some serious hot water after looking mediocre at best on the field during a game Monday against the Arizona Diamondbacks. After missing a blooper over his head, Ramirez booted the ball past left fielder Chris Coghlan and proceeded to "jog" after it. To say that Ramirez put any effort into going after it would be giving him far too much credit. After the inning, manager Fredi Gonzalez pulled Ramirez from the game. It seemed like a mix of Ramirez being punished for his lackadaisical play and because of the foul ball he took off his shin an inning earlier, but in the locker room after, Ramirez was very apparently upset by the benching.

He ripped into his manager to the media saying that because Gonzalez had never played in the Majors, that he did not know what he was doing taking him out of the game. The words rubbed not only Gonzalez the wrong way, but other Marlins' players.

“Everybody is entitled to have a bad day, no matter who you are. Everybody has a bad day. But I don’t think a bad day comes from not hustling. That can’t be stood for. When you’re having a bad day, you can still hustle.”

Wes Helms, third baseman for the Fish had that to say of Ramirez after the incident.

Eventually, Ramirez came to his senses. Maybe he did that on his own, or maybe it was because his manager said he would not play until he gave a full apology to everyone involved.

"I regret that all this has gotten so ugly," Ramirez said to an ESPNDeportes.com reporter. "It wasn't my intention to create a distraction. I feel bad that things got to this point; the team and the fans don't deserve it."


Hanley Ramirez is one of the best young players in the game today, there's not doubt about that. But how stupid do you have to be to not only be lazy on the playing field, but then to trash talk your manager? If you're a professional athlete making millions of dollars, and you're going to bitch and moan about riding the pine for a few innings, then give me a freakin' uniform, and you're not gonna hear a peep out of me.