The 2009 campaign was a season to forget for Crisp. He hit just .228 and required rotator cuff surgery that ended his season after just 49 games. His best season to date was probably in 2006 when he hit .300 with 16 homers, 69 RBIs, 86 runs and 15 stolen bases for the Indians.

With the A’s, Crisp is very likely to be the team’s starting center fielder. Billy Beane, the team’s general manager, has long targeted Crisp as a player he wants on his team due to Crisp’s ability to track down balls in the outfield, run the bases and get on base.

To complete Oakland’s outfield, expect Ryan Sweeney to play in either left field or right field. Rajai Davis will likely be in the other corner outfield position.

Coco Crisp to join the Oakland A's (Image: Zuma Press)

Post from: EveryJoe

Coco Crisp to Crackle in Oakland

This one gets high marks for originality. Ex-Yankee (who apparently still has the ‘tude) Gary Sheffield was hit by a Fausto Carmona pitch . . . but wait till you see how the tension builds before the fists fly: 

Post from: EveryJoe

VIDEO: Gary Sheffield Goes After Fausto Carmona, Tigers and Indians Brawl, and We All Go . . . Wow!

The Kansas City Royals knocked the Chicago White Sox out of first today with a 14-3 spanking. The knocking also became literal as the Royals’ Miguel Olivo charged the mound after being hit in the wrist by ChiSox pither D. J. Carrasco. 

You know the rest of the story. Tempers flared, fists raised up, benches cleared, and ejections ensued.

And, in the spirit of the upcoming Olympics, we’ve decided to award medals to three of the more notorious pro sports brawls of late.

Gold Medal: Coco Crisp and the Tampa Bay Rays

Silver Medal: Los Angeles Sparks and Detroit Shock

Bronze Medal: Kansas City Royals and Chicago White Sox (51s):

Post from: EveryJoe

VIDEO: Royals and White Sox Brawl . . . Good Enough for a Bronze?

Check out this eye-opener (54s) between the aptly-named-for-this-bout between the Detroit Shock and the Los Angeles Sparks.

Two-part Question of the Day: 1) WTF? 2) By that we mean, WTF when there’s 4.6 seconds left in the game?!

Oh, and since we can’t resist the bad pun, Sparks flew . . . and they won the game, too.

Post from: EveryJoe

VIDEO: WNBA Brawl Between Sparks and Shock

Boston Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon agrees, at least when it comes to the Tampa Bay Rays.

For those of you MLB fans who’ve been living in a cave on a island off the coast of Chile (and you know who you are), this all goes back to the Coco Crisp touchy-feely slide, the Sox-Rays brawl, and who knows, maybe even his post-brawl remarks.

Image: Used with permission of www.newscom.com

ESPN reports Papelbon’s take:

“In my opinion, it is a bunch of bull what they did,” Papelbon said on “Mohegan Sun Sports Tonight” on Comcast Sportsnet, referring to last week’s brawl between the two teams. “All I got to say is what comes around goes around, man. Payback’s a b—-, I’ll tell you what.”

Stay tuned for the rest of the season between these two teams, ’cause it won’t be pretty.

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Hey, speaking of baseball . . . check out our guest post on The Sports Diva Magazine, where we’ll be doing occasional posts with Cherie Lampley (also of b5’s Dejuiced!) and several other sports bloggerettes. The subject of our first guest post? Why, a little commentary about the New York Yankees still needing $400M in public financing for the new stadium.

Worry not, as we’ll be sure to engage in shameless self-promotion any time we do a TSD gig or another round of audio clips on the Speeding Bullet Network in The Ticket section (over there we are, ahem, the Gossip Goddess).

Post from: EveryJoe

Papelbon on the Rays: Sox are Still Ready to Rumble

And now we have the play-by-play of the fight according to Coco Crisp himself (1m, 43s). How many references to “little girls” can you count?

Post from: EveryJoe

Coco Crisp’s Post-Brawl Interview: Rays as “Little Girls”?

Crisp got tossed, as did Rays pitcher James Shields and outfielder Jonny Gomes.

Check out the fight as well as the 5th inning WTF?-scuffle between Manny Ramirez and Kevin Youlikis in the dugout.

Post from: EveryJoe

VIDEO: Coco Crisp and the Sox-Rays Brawl

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.

Post from: EveryJoe

VIDEO: Coco Crisp Slides Into Second, Grabs a Handful of Jewels