Q: Was it unusual that Rose injured his knee without being struck by another player or running into an object?

The most common way of tearing your ACL is non contact. It was the perfect storm for Derrick Rose to rupture his ACL. He’s missed much of the season because of his prior four injuries, and he’s only been back playing for three weeks, and it was in the last minute and a half of the game. He can’t possibly be at full strength because he missed so much time, so his muscles are more weak.

He went to make that sudden stop, and normally, if he was a little bit stronger, his muscles would have fired and kept his knee still. But his muscles were fatigued and they just gave out, and once they gave out, his knee started going into that position. Basically, he was coming in and stopped with such force that normally his muscles would have kicked in and stabilized his leg, but because his muscles were weak, his knee just kept going, and then ruptured the ACL. So it was really the fact that he wasn’t at 100 percent strength, and the fact that he was fatigued at the end of a game.

When you hear about skiers rupturing the ACL, it’s almost always in the afternoon, because someone like myself who is a recreational skier is not used to 8 hours of sports participation because we work all day. In the afternoon, my muscles are tired and fatigued, and that’s when my knee gets in that bad position.

(Edit: The entire article is a good all-around primer on ACL injuries and their treatment. I chose the blurb here to stoke the armchair surgeons roaming BaB.)

"Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf is leading a venture that plans to build 260,000 square feet of restaurants, bars, a team store and event space in the sprawling parking lot east of the arena, according to documents obtained by Crain's. Chicago Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz would be part of the venture, which could include team offices, parking, a terrace and a green roof."
[...]
"The documents, prepared by the Metropolitan Planning Council and first presented to state legislative leaders in 2010, indicate the arena would add four restaurants, four bars, a team store and event space."
[...]
"Taxpayer subsidies for another private development owned by millionaires likely would be controversial, as the city and state work to slash their own budgets. The United Center was privately funded and its owners are not believed to be seeking any city or state aid beyond an extension of the tax cap."

This deal, however, figures to be especially historic, as baseball positions itself for the 21st century. Among other things, it will pave the way for realignment of the sport into two 15-team leagues, adding a second wild-card team in each league, spreading interleague play throughout all six months of the regular season and making significant changes to the draft, free agency and the so-called "Competitive Balance Tax."

First and foremost, SMU found that home-plate umpires call disproportionately more strikes for pitchers in their same ethnic group. Because most home-plate umpires are white, this has been a big form of racial privilege for white pitchers, who researchers show are, on average, getting disproportionately more of the benefit of the doubt on close calls.

Second, SMU researchers found that "minority pitchers reacted to umpire bias by playing it safe with the pitches they threw in a way that actually harmed their performance and statistics." Basically, these hurlers adjusted to the white umpires’ artificially narrower strike zone by throwing pitches down the heart of the plate, where they were easier for batters to hit.

Finally, and perhaps most important, the data suggest that racial bias is probably operating at a subconscious level, where the umpire doesn’t even recognize it.

Some of the rough times were more public than Walker would have wanted. His run-in with Guillen in 2008 was well-documented as was his shouting match with general manager Kenny Williams this season in what was believed to be about Williams' public criticism of Beckham's approach at the plate.

Walker got through it all, mainly because he wanted to do the best job he could for Reinsdorf. Walker not only got a chance to play for Reinsdorf's White Sox team, but coach it as well. And there was Walker's life-threatening seizure in 1988 during batting practice. Reinsdorf quietly paid for much of Walker's medical bills at the time.

So as Walker talked Wednesday, the emotions of his last day on the daily grind with his second family got the best of him. He said he didn't know what he might do next, but hasn't ruled out returning to baseball at some point and even returning to the White Sox in some capacity.

Walker and Reinsdorf will sit down in a week and talk about the future.

i probably da man, but whatever.

The movie did not suck, not at all, that's the wrong word and that's a story for tomorrow. The story for today is how we even got here. It is about a man who is not really in the movie. No actor plays him. He's mentioned in the movie here and there, but only for a a few seconds. Still, without him, there is no Moneyball. There is no Sabermetrics, at least not under that name. Certainly people would still be looking for objective knowledge in baseball -- people were looking long before Bill James and they will look long after.

But without the life's work of Bill James, they sure as heck would not have made a movie out of it.

After much deliberation and careful consideration of many nominees, CBS Chicago has narrowed the field of Finalists down for this year’s MVB. Voting for finalists is open now through September 9th. Let your voice be heard – vote now!

Yes, there exist contemporary accounts of the final out, which came when Tigers catcher Boss Schmidt succumbed to Cubs pitcher Orval Overall, a name so good that you might think it was invented: He certainly sounds like a fiction, and a bad one at that, but let's take it on faith that the Cubs did win the 1908 World Series behind a citrus farmer named Orval Overall, of Farmerville, Calif.

We'll have to. The game is not in the living memory of a single human being. The average life expectancy for men in 1908 was 49.5 years, so that the few eyewitnesses to that victory -- among players and spectators alike -- were becoming scarce even by World War II. It is now customary for athletes to say after winning a championship, "No one can take this away from us," but perhaps we should make an exception for the 1908 Cubs, not because they didn't prevail over the Tigers in five games, but because it's possible that the 1908 Cubs were not of this world.

We owe it to history to at least consider that those Cubs were -- and I beg your patience here -- aliens from outer space.

Ramirez has not talked about leaving Major League Baseball amid a flurry of rumors regarding his suspension, but four days after his retirement, he texted the following to ESPN Deportes: "Tell the fans to not despair because winter ball is coming soon."

Peavy returned to Chicago on Wednesday morning and, according to the White Sox, the injured starting pitcher had successful surgery in the afternoon at Rush University Medical Center to repair a detached latissimus dorsi muscle in his right posterior shoulder.

"Surgery could not have gone any better," Dr. Tony Romeo said in a statement. "We were very pleased with the results and are hopeful that Jake will be ready by the start of spring training 2011."

MLB At Bat 2010 coming to Blackberry, Android OS, and iPhone OS. Everybody gets all the radio feeds, gameday, and highlights. iPhone OS products get MLB.tv integration.

The Chicago White Sox will play two exhibition games vs. the Chicago Cubs on Friday, March 12 and Saturday, March 13, 2010, at Cashman Field in Las Vegas.

Ticketmaster links:
Friday, March 12
Saturday, March 13

"Holiday Gift Drive
November 2 to December 22
[...]
For the third year, Paul Konerko and Jim Thome, together with their wives Jennifer and Andrea, and the Chicago White Sox organization are joining with Children's Home + Aid to reach out to the public to ask for holiday gift donations to help fill these holiday wish lists.
[...]
Chicago Metropolitan Drop-Off Locations

Gifts and donations can be dropped off between November 2 and December 22 during regular business hours at the following Chicago Metropolitan locations:

1. Children's Home + Aid, 100 N. Western Ave., 2nd Floor, Chicago
2. U.S. Cellular Field, Gate 4, 333 W. 35th St., Chicago
3. Kaplan Tutoring, 1459 W. Webster Ave, Chicago, IL (Dec. 1 - Dec. 15)
4. Children's Home + Aid's Rice Child + Family Center, 1101 Washington St., Evanston
5. Kaplan Tutoring, 1249 S. Naper Blvd., Naperville, IL (Dec. 1 - Dec. 15)"

I found out after flying in town for a family holiday party this past weekend and dropping off gifts on the way that just inside the doors of the drop-off location of Gate 4 is also where a certain glass case holding certain pieces of hardware is also located. Just sayin'.

Miguel Cabrera had a blood-alcohol level more than three times the legal limit when he was involved in a physical altercation with his wife early Saturday morning, according to the Birmingham Police.

Cabrera had been partying with buddies from the Chicago White Sox after Friday night's game at Birmingham's Townsend Hotel, Birmingham Police Chief Richard Patterson said.

...

He went 0-for-3, finishing the White Sox series 0-for-11.

And if Garland doesn't seem to reciprocate the energy pouring out of the stands, well, that's just Garland.

When he has been at his best, Garland is known as a stone-faced assassin. When he hasn't been so good, that stoic nature gets tagged as indifference.

"I've had that my whole career, especially in Chicago," he said. "There are a lot of people passionate about their sports in that city. If you're not wearing it on your sleeve they think you don't care.

"That's the one thing I have always hated. I really, really dislike when people say that. Just because you don't go out there and show the same emotion as another person, it doesn't mean you're not giving the same effort."

A long, long time ago...
I can still remember
How spring training used to make me smile.
And I knew the boys had a chance
To make it to the Autumn Dance
And, maybe, stick around for a while.

But late August made me shiver
With every loss they delivered.
Bad news on the front page;
No more hope at this stage.

I laughed so hard I almost cried
When I read the dumb shit about pride,
Turned off the games and went outside
The day the season died.

So bye-bye, Count, Thome, and Dye.
See you later alligator,
We'll call up young and cheap guys.
Sign scrap heap fodder Kenny pulls out his backside
Saying, "this'll be the team that gets pie."
"this'll be the team that gets pie."

Did you think we'd rise above,
And did you have faith in Fields' glove,
Because Cora tells you so?
Do you believe who they put out,
Goggles, The Bridge, all those shut outs,
And poor Q! limping off the field real slow?

Well, there was the Colon experiment,
We all know how awesome that went.
Him and the Count just shat the bed,
How many innings will DJ get?

We called up a Georgia broncin buck
Tore the stitches off after initial suck,
But even He couldn't save this clusterfuck
The day the season died.

I started singin
"Bye-bye, Count, Thome, and Dye."
See you later alligator,
We'll call up young and cheap guys.
Sign scrap heap fodder Kenny pulls out his backside
Saying, "this'll be the team that gets pie."
"this'll be the team that gets pie."

Now last year we got the Central crown
Stood to repeat since the rest are down,
But it just wasn't meant to be.
When you trot out Gobble, Broadway, and Nessie,
Plus Linebrink shits bricks for all to see,
At least there was perfection from Buehrle...

Oh, and then The Ace got knocked around,
After another seventeen sat down.
Danks' shakiness returned,
Was shutdown or got burned.
And while Floyd's been solid down the stretch,
There were points where he'd make you wretch,
Wise ensured legacy with The Catch.
But still, the season died.

We were singing,
"Bye-bye, Count, Thome, and Dye."
See you later alligator,
We'll call up young and cheap guys.
Sign scrap heap fodder Kenny pulls out his backside
Saying, "this'll be the team that gets pie."
"this'll be the team that gets pie."

Defense melted in a summer swelter,
Bullpen giving up bombs; better seek shelter,
Just two back then falling fast.
Last games on dome's fake-ass grass
The old guys tried for one last gasp,
People shout to stop living in the past.

Now the trade deadline was taken shrewd,
We locked up Peavy and that Rios dude.
We want to go to The Dance,
Oh, but we screw up every chance!
'cause the facepalm lineups take the field;
Runners the pitching would always yield.
Errors galore, their fate was sealed.
The day the season died.

We were singing,
"Bye-bye, Count, Thome, and Dye."
See you later alligator,
We'll call up young and cheap guys.
Sign scrap heap fodder Kenny pulls out his backside
Saying, "this'll be the team that gets pie."
"this'll be the team that gets pie."

Oh, for the day they were in first place,
Instead of Pods out there with bad breaks
With no time left to start again.
So come on: Pods be nimble, Pods be quick!
Pods picked off like a dumb prick
Cause the devil's gonna collect, my friend.

Oh, and Ozzie kept Alex in a cage
My hands were clenched in fists of rage.
No snowball's chance in hell
Could break the doghouse spell.
And as Sox fans argue into the night
About when Peavy's start is right,
The offense loses all its fight
The day the season died.

They were singing,
"Bye-bye, Count, Thome, and Dye."
See you later alligator,
We'll call up young and cheap guys.
Sign scrap heap fodder Kenny pulls out his backside
Saying, "this'll be the team that gets pie."
"this'll be the team that gets pie."

Next year we'll get a healthy Q!,
A Savior with less defense miscues,
Some contracts will be turned away.
A shakeup in the lineup core
Can't play the same guys as years before,
No sense paying them for declining play.

And on the nets: commenters screamed,
The kittehs cried, dumb statements reamed.
The right rail was a joke and
"No subject lines" verboten.
And the one guy that I like most:
Sat at home, bored, career is toast.
Sign Frank so he ends as a Pale Hose
Now that the season's died.

And we'll be singing,
"Bye-bye, Count, Thome, and Dye."
See you later alligator,
We'll call up young and cheap guys.
Sign scrap heap fodder Kenny pulls out his backside
Saying, "this'll be the team that gets pie."
"this'll be the team that gets pie."

We'll be singing,
"Bye-bye, Count, Thome, and Dye."
See you later alligator,
We'll call up young and cheap guys.
Sign scrap heap fodder Kenny pulls out his backside
Saying, "this'll be the team that gets pie."
"this'll be the team that gets pie."

The wife of Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Scott Schoeneweis was found dead in their home Wednesday afternoon.

Gabrielle Dawn Schoeneweis, 39, was found by the couple's 14-year-old daughter, and was unresponsive when deputies made it to the home shortly after Noon.

MLB.com At Bat 2009 has just been released for the iPhone and iPod Touch at the App Store. The new version costs just $9.99 and is good through the 2009 postseason.

Paul Byrd has been traded out of Cleveland to the Red Sox. Take that as you will.