The Boston Herald is reporting that Manny will get his haircut “some time this week” at a place called Fantastic Sam’s, in a promotional stunt that will benefit some Dodgers charities. But that won’t stop the Dodgers from selling “Manny bandannas,” replicas of the blue skullcap he wears under his baseball cap - with fake dreadlocks attached. “Maybe after he gets his hair cut,” Torre said, “He can wear one of those.”

It’s time to stop running. LoHud Yankees Blog points out that Bobby Abreu has been caught stealing eight times in 22 attempts.

Freakonomics tells us about a new study that finds that athletes often perform unexpectedly worse in front of supportive audiences than they do in front of neutral ones and that the higher audience expectations get, the worse their performers do. So stay dispassionate, Marlins fans. The team will be better off.

Larry Bowa has been vocal in his opposition to the new rule requiring base coaches to wear helmets. During a recent chat on Dodgers.com, he said helmets aren’t necessary and “if you position your body in the right way and take the blow in the back, you can recover from that.”

Joe Posnanski, who will return to Kansas City from China this weekend, struggles with whether or not he should head straight from the airport to the Bruce Springsteen concert:

Anyway, I saw an interview (Springsteen) did with the New York Post where he explained why will not retire and stop touring. He said it was because he had a big ego and that his son called him an ”attention whore.“ But here was my favorite quote:

“When it comes down to it, I like the way it makes me feel. And the way that I can make you feel when I do it … It thrills me, it excites me, it gives me meaning, it gives me purpose.”

See, that’s how Springsteen goes on living. He stays on tour. He performs. He likes the way he makes us feel.

I can’t miss Springsteen in Kansas City, can I?

I’ve seen the boss in concert twice. During this most recent tour, I’ve waited and waited for him to announce that he was coming to Phoenix, but the closest he got was L.A. He’s seemingly played every other city in America, including Hershey, Penn., Hartford, Conn., and Charlottesville, Va. What’s the deal, Bruce? No love for the Grand Canyon State?

Finally, there’s chaos in San Diego! Chaos! Shoot to kill!

(Via Big League Stew)

This week, Barry Bonds’ agent came out and quashed a rumor that Bonds might consider signing with an Independent League team. But the biggest news regarding Bonds was his agent’s revelation that Barry would sign with a Major League team for the league minimum – prorated, no less.

Immediately the blogosphere responded. Joe Posnanski says he thinks the Royals should sign Bonds.  And Rob Neyer says he thinks Posnanski is crazy. While Sabernomics thinks the Braves should sign Bonds

Who should sign Bonds? I like the idea of the Braves adding Barry. Also, the Athletics were considered the favorites to sign Bonds in the offseason and, now that they’re in the thick of the AL West race and have a healthy Rich Harden, Bonds could help push them into the postseason.

Of course, nobody is going to sign Bonds. Major League teams have made it very clear that they’re not interested.

Isn’t it amazing that teams are willing to give third, fourth and fifth chances to Garry Sheffield, Shawn Chacon, Brett Myers, Milton Bradley, Sidney Ponson, etc., but nobody will pay Bonds the league minimum to bring his insane OPS to their city?

Usually, I’d wait until Friday for your procrastinatory reading of the week. But seeing as how many of you will be calling in sick tomorrow (coughcough! hackwheeze! sniffle!), let’s get to those links today.

Babes Love Baseball has the new SI cover and it’s….bizarro!

Walkoff Walk has an amazingly destructive Albert Pujols leaving nothing but carnage in his wake. Gaslamp Ball has the pictures.

Home Run Derby has video of CC Sabathia farting. Hey, we try to put in a little something for everyone in these posts.

Bus Leagues Baseball wants you to help come up with a nickname for Jay Bruce. “The Bruise,” anyone?

Call of the Green Monster has breaking news: already-diminutive Sox infielder Dustin Pedroia seems to be shrinking.

River Ave Blues makes a strong case for using instant replay to get home run calls right, on the heels of yet another blown call. Earlier this week it was Delgado. During the 2007 ALCS, it was Manny, with the 390 foot “single.” Who else has to get robbed just so we can preserve the “human element”?

The Hardball Times takes the media to task for dismissing the Bonds/collusion whispers as conspiracy theories. For the record, I’ve also dismissed those whispers. But this post is the first thing I’ve read that has made me think again.

DRaysBay makes the case that Tampa Bay has the best 1-2 punch in the AL East. In case you’re keeping score at home, there’s only a week left of May and the Rays are just two games out of first place.

Joe Posnanski has another curiously long post touching on, in no particular order, Mike Piazza, Yaz, and whether Pedro Martinez’s 9 perfect innings should count as a perfect game. He notes that after he wrote this column, in which he included Pedro on a list of great no-hitter hurlers, he received a number of emails from people (including yours truly) saying, “Hey, wait a minute! that’s not technically a perfect game!” Joe posits that while that is technically true, he considers it a no-hitter, “record books be damned,” since Pedro pitched 9 perfect innings (he gave up a double in the 10th). I kind of like the idea that we can damn the record books and restore a perfect game to Pedro, a great pitcher who never seems to get any real run support. However, I think this is dangerous—for instance, can we say that Varitek has called five no-nos because he actually called for the right pitch in Curt Schilling’s eight-and-two-thirds bid last year? I mean, Tek was sure Shannon Stewart was swinging. He called for the slider. Schilling was equally sure Stewart was taking. He wanted to throw heat. Schilling threw a fastball, Stewart swung, and there went history. (Incidentally, Pedro also shook off Tek in the 9th inning of his no-hit bid in 2000. Tek called for a curveball. Pedro, like Schilling, insisted on throwing the fastball. He gave up a single.) To me, that game in 2007 and Pedro’s games in 1995 and 2000 are just examples of those bittersweet moments in sports where greatness just slips away. As Schilling put it last year, “I get a big ‘what if’ for the rest of my life.” And so does Pedro. But maybe I’m full of crap. What do you guys think?

And finally, if you’ve got the extra coin, you can get a Marlins World Series ring on ebay for the buy-it-now price of $6,250.00.

Oh, and I’m going to shamelessly plug my own Boston Metro column too. It’s weird, I wrote this post on Lester’s no-hitter first, and then decided I wanted to write a Metro column on it too. It’s damn hard to write about the same thing twice and find something new to say!

What else should I be reading? Email me!

Joe Posnanski’s blog is always great reading. Yesterday, he had a doozy on where the Royals stand in the chase for Santana. I won’t spoil it, but here’s the rub:

I decided to write my own, “Hey, now the Royals are in the Santana chase,” story. I got to Royals general manager Dayton Moore and asked, “Hey, why can’t you guys go get Johan Santana?”

He responded, basically, by suggesting that was not exactly one of the world’s great questions.

But you will notice … that’s not a denial. Am I right or am I right?

So here’s my story:KANSAS CITY — Kansas City Royals general manager Dayton Moore on Wednesday did not deny that his team is very close to completing a trade for Minnesota Twins ace Johan Santana.

And we go from there.

It’s definitely worth a read, especially if it’s 6 pm Eastern on a Friday and you’re still stuck at the office.

This has been a big week for Joe Posnanski on the blogs.

Who’s Joe Posnanski, you ask? He’s a sports columnist for the Kansas City Star, a paper with a history of developing big time writing talents.

I’d never heard of Posnanski before this week. I probably should have heard of him, since he was recently voted the best sports columnist in America. But I hadn’t.

Now it seems like his name is everywhere (online).
First, I read where Yahoo’s Jeff Passan called him “among the best writers in the business” in an interview published on The Big Lead.

Then, I saw the U.S.S. Mariner and Vegas Watch both linked to his blog, which argues that Curt Schilling’s new contract could be the end of the Cy Young Award.

(If you get a chance, check out that blog entry. It’s long and it’s smart and you’ll be a better person for having read it.)