Good Tuesday readin’

1. If you’re not reading the New York Times’ baseball blog, BATS, for updates from the MLB Congressional hearings, than you are chump. The highlight so far, in my opinion:

(Christopher) Shays (R-Conn.) continued, and later during his five minutes referred to Rafael Palmeiro as “Palmerry.” Mitchell kept his composure during a confounding question, regarding whether Palmeiro had tested positive “before his three-hundredth hit?”

A knowledgeable baseball fan despite recent events, Mitchell responded: “I’m sorry, before what?”

2. The Philly Phanatic is voted number one sports mascot. No argument here. Though, I will take issue with the ninth ranked mascot, Rally, who apparently is affiliated with the Atlanta Braves. Has anybody ever heard of Rally? I lived in Atlanta for three years and this is the first time I’ve ever heard of a Braves mascot.

3. Bill Conlin takes a moment to do the only thing that he really does well — talk about stuff that happened 50 years ago. In this case, he’s talking about the life of recently deceased Johnny Podres, who was a pitching coach for the Phillies under Jim Fregosi, and before that led the Brooklyn Dodgers to the 1955 World Series championship. It’s a good read. You can also read about Pods here and here.