Update: More from the weird world of baseball: NY Mets ace Pedro Martinez is a cockfighter. With video! Vs. Hall-of-Famer Juan Marichal, no less! In the Dominican Republic, cockfighting isn’t as maligned as it is here, though…

RotoNation has a great nugget from their archive today, wherein one major-league pitcher plunks (hits a batter with a pitch) another player because he’s on a streak and benefitting someone else in the pitcher’s fantasy league. Read it here: Jeff Kent Beaned to Help Tom Candiotti’s Fantasy Baseball Team.

And from the “Aw-shucks-aint-that-cute-in-a-legal-sorta-way” department comes this gem from Baseball Musings: I’m In Trouble. You see, the lowly Tampa Bay Devil Rays (yep, Tampa Bay has a team!) changed their name at the end of the year last season to the Tampa Bay Rays, adopting sunbeams as part of their logo treatment and getting rid of the fish-like creature. People in the Rays organization who use the term “Devil Rays” are obliged to submit $1 to a “swear-jar” sorta thing – and it would appear they are attempting (in a cute way) to enforce the same thing on the public-at-large. But rather than sending Cease and Desist orders they are sending C&D’s of another sort – Cease and Donate!

Yes, it’s true, I’m one of those people who play fantasy baseball. Don’t know what the hell that is? Let the Wikipedia’s Fantasy Baseball entry enlighten you. I’ve been playing with the same group of guys (from my Dairy Queen days) for nearly 10 years and the second year I think I won it – and it’s been all down hill since then. Since 2002, my record has been: 13-8, 10-12, 11-15, 10-13, 7-17, 4-20. This year, having read Moneyball and Fantasyland (two excellent baseball books), I’ve embarked on learning as much as I can and keeping better care of my team – which is named the Dangville Mercykillers (I lost the rights to the “Blue Jays” when I lost a bet).