Poor Graham Taylor. After a couple weeks, the guy probably thought he was in the clear.

The Suns’ rather hefty starting pitcher was on first base when teammate Kevin Mattison scorched a triple to center field. Mustering all his strength, Taylor manages to score all the way from first base. Of course, he does so with the absolute worst head-first dive in the history of professional baseball.

Here it is:

Taylor left the game with an injured leg. But his ego was probably pretty banged up, too. Sadly, not all pitchers can be this smooth.

Hat Tip – [Hot Clicks]

He continued his assault on Class-A pitchers last night when he sent a pitch soaring over the outfield fence.  As soon as the ball came off his bat, Harper knew it was gone, as he casually walked his first few steps before slowly jogging around the bases.  That display seemed to irk the Greensboro Grasshoppers pitcher, who had a few choice words for Harper, but rather than respond with some words of his own, Bryce simply blew him a kiss.

Some may see this as a lack of sportsmanship from a cocky young kid.  I say if the pitcher didn’t want to be on the receiving end of that kiss, he should have thought twice about running his mouth after serving up a homer to Harper.

Hat tip – [http://www.totalprosports.com/blog/?p=8859 Total Pro Sports – Softball may not be known as one of the more dangerous sports, but there may be nothing scarier than when a ball it lined back at the pitcher’s head.  That was the scene at a local softball game.

This come backer was too fast for the female pitcher and before she could get out of the way, the ball struck her in the head.  What makes this play bizarre is how the players continued to play.  One woman dives in to make a great  catch when the ball pops in the air after hitting her pitcher, all the while the injured female remained on the ground.

We can only hope the pitcher was alright.  With the close proximity between the pitcher and batter in softball and baseball, they are always vulnerable to such incidents.  And the woman who made the diving catch?  Good concentration…I guess…

“The presence of extra appendages, known as polydactyly, is reported in about 2 per 1000 children. Usually, polydactylism presents as an extra piece of non-functional tissue, typically occurring as an extra finger with no bone. Most of these cases are easily treated at birth by tying a string tightly around the base. This causes the extra appendage to eventually fall off over time.”

The news of the baby boys rare extra fingers reached the media like wild fire.  The boy has already been compared to relief pitcher Antonio Alfonseca.  Alfonseca won the 2000 National League reliever of the year award and in 1997 he helped the Florida Marlins win the World Series closing their games for them.

“When Antonio Alfonseca was born in the Dominican Republic, in 1972, with 6 fingers on each hand, no effort was made to remove the extra appendage. While some professional scouts joked about Alfonseca’s “six-finger sinker,” and teammates nicknamed him El Pulpo (The Octopus), his success pitching in the majors speaks for itself.” [HealthGuru]

“Antonio’s 6th finger is quite small in comparison to his other digits (it looks much like a stump), it doesn’t actually touch the baseball when he’s pitching – and therefore his sinker is really just a conventional – albeit very effective – pitch.”

The only problem is that doctors are unsure if the fingers will actually develop and become fully functional.  If the tissue does develop into functional fingers and not just an extra piece of non-functional tissue it would be scary to think of the potential this child may have.

But we raise the question if steroids are a banned substance is having an extra functional finger a legal advantage for a pitcher in Major League Baseball?  I guess were just gonna have to wait about 16 years to find out.