In the middle of the 2009 baseball season, the Pittsburgh Pirates traded star second baseman Freddy Sanchez to the San Francisco Giants. During the offseason, the Pirates wanted to find a replacement second baseman. Following a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays, they found their man.
Akinori Iwamura, who was Tampa Bay’s everyday second baseman in 2008 when the team made a run to the World Series, was traded to the Pirates for Jesse Chavez, a relief pitcher. Iwamura will likely become Pittsburgh’s everyday second baseman.
In 2009, Iwamura’s season was cut sure due to a knee injury. The 30-year-old native of …read more

Boston Red Sox centerfielder Coco Crisp got a—pardon the expression—wee bit touchy-feely with Tampa Bay Rays second baseman Akinori Iwamura last night.
The clip (2m, 11s) shows how Crisp let his hands to the talking in the eighth inning, much to the detriment of Iwamura’s teabag.
The high-and-mighty ESPN sportscaster says on the clip that Crisp can expect some payback during tonight’s game.
Crisp’s arugment? He was just helping Iwamura adjust.
Just kidding. He claims it was in retaliation for SS Jason Bartlett’s earlier baseball no-no: dropping his knee as Crisp stole second on a previous play.

The New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Devil Rays let the games begin today in true feisty fashion: Hockey’s little cousin, the baseball brawl.
Unless our Blog Foddah Radar is slightly out of tune and needs recalibration, this marks the first bench clearing brawl of the pre-season.
The teams made it all of two innings before tempers flared. (Sort of. A homeplate crash that injured a Bronx Bombers would-be catcher set the tone between these teams several days ago.)
In the first inning, Yankees pitcher Heath Phillips got yanked—pun intended—for beaning Rays prospect Evan Longoria, who is an actual male and not a …read more