A Byrd in hand is handy
Atanta Braves pitcher Paul Byrd used his head — and glove — to turn a seemingly routine play into a quirky out Friday night in Baltimore. When Baltimore Orioles catcher Javy Lopez hit a sharp grounder back to Byrd in the sixth inning, the ball wedged in the webbing of his mitt.
The pitcher struggled to get it out while running toward first base as Lopez ran hard down the line.
Realizing he couldn’t extract the ball in time to make the throw, Byrd quickly tossed the mitt and ball underhanded to surprised first baseman Mike Hessman for the out.
The play was reminiscent to one made by Minnesota reliever Terry Mulholland, when he was a rookie with the San Francisco Giants at Shea Stadium in 1986. Mulholland fielded a grounder by Keith Hernandez and ran toward first before tossing his glove to first baseman Bob Brenly, now the Arizona Diamondbacks manager.
“I studied the highlights. I knew what to do when the ball got stuck in your glove,” Byrd said with a grin. “The scary thing is when you go to throw your glove to first, you’re like, ‘If this ball falls out of here when I throw it I’m going to look like an idiot.’ “
Award of disrepute
Bob Young of the Arizona Republic received an ESPY nominations list for ESPN’s awards show, which got him thinking about giving awards of his own. He selected Jerry Buss of the Lakers as bad owner of the year.
“Let’s see, the guy who lost Jerry West, who was arguably the best general manager in basketball, has fired perhaps the best coach in history, Phil Jackson,” Young wrote, adding that Buss “also might run off Shaquille O’Neal.”
“That’s sort of the Triple Crown of owner screw-ups,” he wrote.
Underbears
First-year coach Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears took a deep breath after his team’s final off-season workout and said he would be excited to see his team in pads during training camp in a month.
“We know what the guys can do in underwear,” he said. “Now we want to see what they can do in pads.”
Here and gone
Woody Paige of the Denver Post could count on his fingers and toes the number of minutes NCAA player of the year Jameer Nelson was a member of the Denver Nuggets before a draft-day trade sent him to Orlando.
“Jameer was with the Nuggets for Jamere 20 minutes,” Paige wrote. “Jameer was on Denver’s roster for less time than it takes for pizza or Mass to be delivered. Priest “Fort” Lauderdale, the worst player in club history, lasted longer here.”
Found secret to success
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, when asked by the Detroit Free Press if other NBA teams would try to copy the Pistons’ blueprint for success:
“The Pistons are a very good basketball team. When you play New Jersey and get into a situation where Jason Kidd is hurt, then you play Indiana and you have a situation where Jermaine O’Neal gets hurt, then you play the Lakers and Karl Malone gets hurt … that’s the scenario I want to copy.”
Walking the walk
The San Francisco Giants are tired of all the walks Barry Bonds is drawing this season.
So much so that the club is selling orange rubber chickens named “Walk’er.”
The chickens — described as “your average fowl” — will sell for $10, with proceeds going to the Giants Community Fund. Through Thursday, Bonds had drawn a major league-leading 103 walks, 55 intentional.