Bagwell a bit amused by attention

People were still buzzing Sunday night about Chicago White Sox closer Bobby Jenks blowing away Houston Astros slugger Jeff Bagwell with a 100-mph fastball in the eighth inning of Game 1 on Saturday night.

In the wake of the Game 1 defeat, manager Phil Garner’s decision to start Bagwell, who had been limited to just pinch-hitting duty since returning from the disabled list in September, was questioned.

Bagwell seemed amused that his strikeout received so much attention.

“That’s interesting to me that I get second-guessed for striking out on a hundred-mile-an-hour fastball,” Bagwell said. “I’d like to see people hit that one.”

Bagwell responded to critics who say he is only in the lineup for sentimental reasons.

“Second-guess all you want,” he said. “I feel like I can help the team, I really do.”

MLB doesn’t find milk ad funny

The latest “Got Milk?” commercial hit a little too close to home for Major League Baseball.

Poking fun at the sport’s steroid scandal, the television ad talks about a player getting pulled from a game “after testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance.”

In the next scene, a coach pulls a carton of milk from the slugger’s locker.

“There is nothing humorous about steroid abuse,” said Tim Brosnan, executive vice president for business for baseball.

Jeff Goodby, co-founder of advertising agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, said it was never meant to be taken so seriously.

“It’s just milk,” Goodby said.

Pioneering ex-Indians owner dies

Ted Bonda, the former Cleveland Indians owner who hired Frank Robinson as baseball’s first black manager, died Saturday of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. He was 88.

Bonda hired Robinson, now the Washington Nationals manager, in 1974, calling it “the right thing to do.” Robinson said Sunday he was indebted to Bonda for providing the opportunity to manage.

Longtime executive dies

Harry Dalton, who spent more than four decades as an executive with the Orioles, Angels and Brewers and completed one of baseball’s most lopsided trades, died Sunday. He was 77.

Dalton died from complications of Parkinson’s disease.

Dalton’s clubs reached the World Series five times – Baltimore won the title in 1966 and 1970, and much of its success was the result of the deal he made for Frank Robinson.