Ichiro Suzuki wants to play baseball until he’s 50. If he gets to do that in MLB, he’s going to end up setting a bunch of age-related records just for showing up on a given day. He got one of those on Sunday, when he started in center field for the Marlins. At 43 years and 246 days old, that made him the oldest player to ever start in center field, breaking a record held by Rickey Henderson.

It wasn’t just the jumbotron. Charleston’s mascot, Charlie T. River Dog, piled it on by wearing John 3:16 eyeblack, the same bible verse Tebow wore during the 2008 National Championship Game against Oklahoma.

The RiverDog’s president and general manager, Dave Echols released a statement via the Post and Courier regarding the antics.

While we believe that our promotions were poking fun at Mr. Tebow’s celebrity status rather than his religion or baseball career, our intent was not to offend anyone, and for the fact that we did offend, we are sorry. Echols said.

Of the many promotional pieces that we executed, there were a handful on Friday’s game that some construed as in poor taste, and we made it a focus to remove those elements and celebrate Mr. Tebow the remainder of his time in Charleston, Echols added.

Tebow went 1-for-4 on the night, and one of his highlights was this unfortunate moment when his bat slipped out of his hands from his swing and went into the stands.

As you’ll see with a couple of these games, I’m cheating and using games I’ve written about extensively. Mayne’s unlikely relief performance has long been a fascination of mine. It’s still one of my favorite baseball stories of all-time.

Let’s get this out of the way: If you give up a big homer, and the player who hit that homer spends a moment admiring said homer, you are not allowed to be mad at them. They earned it! Many of the Mets do not agree with this point of view, a fact we learned after Yasiel Puig blasted a three-run shot against them on Wednesday.

Wilmer Flores spoke about it after the game:

I just told him to run the bases, that was it, Flores said. I don’t think he knows what having respect for the game is. We’re playing horrible right now, we don’t need his (behavior).

Behavior was definitely a four-letter word that began with s and ended with hit before ESPN censored it. Puig’s response to all that, according to Flores? F–k you. It also wasn’t the only conversation a Mets player tried to have with Puig about it, as ESPN wrote that Yoenis Cespedes and Jose Reyes tried to explain to Puig that he should run a little faster. (Puig’s response to that? I don’t look at it that way, but it is what it is.)

There’s no question that Nolan Ryan is one of the greatest pitchers to ever take the mound. But is he the best ever? Beyond the Box Score makes the argument in favor of the legendary flamethrower.

The D-Backs had a small moment of national relevance when Sen. John McCain used them as an excuse for his incoherent moment on Capitol Hill this past Thursday. But the senator actually has good reason to be staying up late to keep up with them. Arizona has 38 wins in mid-June when it took them until July 5 of last year to reach that number. Unless they go into a major swoon during the dog days of summer, they’re more than likely going to finish far ahead of the 69 wins they posted last season.

Ask 100 old-timey baseball people what the most important position on the field is, and 99 of them will say catcher. Ask them what the second-most important position is, and 99 of them will say shortstop. Don’t worry about the one. That’s just Carl. Nobody likes Carl.

The Yankees traded for Aroldis Chapman, knowing his own domestic violence suspension would reduce the cost, and then they traded him for more than they gave up to get him at the July deadline. The Cubs acquired Chapman from the Yankees because the suspension was over and they could leverage him into winning a World Series, ghoul status be damned.

Heimlich might be where MLB draws the line. Draft expert Christopher Crawford told SB Nation that he stopped asking if Heimlich was on teams’ draft boards after team seven said he’s off the board. John Manuel, per that earlier Baseball America story, has also heard from several teams that Heimlich is no longer under consideration anywhere in the draft.

This doesn’t mean that Heimlich absolutely will not be drafted. All it takes is one team thinking like the Mets did about Reyes, and suddenly, Heimlich is a professional baseball player.

Audrey Stark has already detailed why there is still fear that Heimlich could be drafted despite the fact that he’s a registered sex offender who molested a 6-year-old family member. Over the next three days, all 30 MLB teams have the opportunity to let Heimlich pass by, rather than excusing his behavior and status because he’s now inexpensive and talented.

We know at least seven teams no longer have Heimlich on their board let’s hope the rest of the league has followed suit by the time all 40 rounds have concluded.

Jace Peterson has four years of major league experience, but he’s never made a catch as ridiculous as this.

If this play happened in the World Series, you would see it for the rest of your life. As is, it happened in a Gwinnett Braves game, and … well, maybe you should set a yearly reminder so you can see it for the rest of your life. What a play.

32 prospects on my aggregate list received a valuation of $35M or more. If Kelly is to now be considered that good, he and Wong could be paired to bring in a Donaldson. I’m not a scout by any means, but I he probably doesn’t jump quite that high. If he’s not quite that elite, the Cards would need to add something else along with Wong and Kelly.

Austin Gomber, John Gant, Junior Fernandez, Edmundo Sosa, Connor Jones, Dylan Carlson, and Jake Woodford all didn’t make any of the top prospect lists, but did receive a B- grade from John Sickels, which was the grade he ended off on in his top 200 list. That’s an implied valuation of $6.5M. One of those might have to be added on to get a deal done with Wong and Kelly. Zac Gallen was only ranked a C+ before the season by Sickels, but might have vaulted himself into that group as he’s dominated High-A to the tune of a 2.13 FIP over 56 innings in 2017.

Otherwise, maybe the Cardinals could make it happen by instead adding on Luke Weaver and Jack Flaherty. After dazzling with a 2.31 FIP over 63 innings at Double-A, Jack Flaherty has probably raised his valuation to something better than the $12.3M listed here. Maybe they could get away with Wong, Weaver and Dakota Hudson instead.

The Houston Astros are 6-1 straight up and on the runline in their last seven games. The Astros will try to stay hot in a three-game series against the Oakland Athletics, starting with the series opener Tuesday night.

Houston is a -152 home favorite at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. Mike Fiers will take the mound for the home team facing Sean Manaea and the Athletics as +142 underdog.

The Astros are running away with the AL West, entering the Tuesday night game with the best record in the majors at 52-25 and a 13-game lead over Texas and Los Angeles.

Houston has won six of its last seven games with all six of those wins coming by at least three runs. Interestingly, the Astros have been much better on the road than at home this season at 29-9, compared to 23-16 at home. They will try to improve on that home record this week.

The Yankees are 0-4 in Masahiro Tanaka’s last four starts per the OddsShark MLB Database. Tanaka entered this season with a career ERA of 3.12 and WHIP of 1.04, but has struggled this year with a 6.34 ERA and a 1.52 WHIP in 11 starts.

Since kicking off the month of May with a pedestrian 8-10 record, the Red Sox have heated up over their last 14 games with a record of 10-4. Boston has hit the ball very well over that stretch averaging 6.2 runs per game. Pomeranz has bounced back nicely from a three-game slump with quality starts and wins in each of his last two games. The Red Sox are 3-7 in their last 10 games at Yankee Stadium.

The 2017 MLB Draft is a three-day affair, but many of the big decisions in the sport will be made on Monday with the first two rounds. The first 75 picks will take place on the opening night of the draft, which will be televised by MLB Network.

The coverage begins with a preview show at 6 p.m. ET, followed by the draft itself at 7 p.m., with representatives from all 30 MLB teams in Secaucus, NJ. Greg Amsinger, Peter Gammons, Harold Reynolds, Dan O’Dowd, and Jonathan Mayo will anchor MLB Network’s coverage.

Play in the Gainesville super thus resumed at noon on Monday, with the Demon Deacons holding a tenuous 5-4 lead. The Gators tied things up at 5-5 on a sac fly in the top of the sixth, then Wake countered in the bottom of the seventh with a solo shot of their own. The Gators came right back with a JJ Schwartz bomb to left to tie it up at 6 runs apiece, and from there they remained deadlocked for yet another 11-inning affair.

Where Florida’s Ryan Larson walkoff singled in the super regional’s opening tilt, Wake Forest’s Ben Breazeale answered for the Demon Deacons in Game 2.

That is a fair ball. Kwan’s was called foul on the field and no one reviewed it. Guthrie’s was called fair on the field and they reviewed it, and it was confirmed as such.

Here then we witness the intersection of technological improvement of sports’ precision and the dumb human error that can always already preclude technology’s involvement in sports. Plays like this and Oregon State will probably agree here should be mandatorily reviewed in college baseball, as are certain plays in college football.

TCU ripped off two more runs in the top of the fourth, and the Frogs sit on top, 4-2, in the bottom of the frame.

Cincinnati Reds infielder Scooter Gennett became the 17th player in baseball history to hit four home runs in one game, clubbing a quartet of home runs against the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday night. One of the home runs was a grand slam, and he’s 5-for-5 with 10 RBI.

The Reds won this particular baseball game.

Gennett came into the game with three home runs on the season, and he left with seven. He had 38 career home runs, which was 2.2 percent of his 1,754 plate appearances. While he’s 27 with a lot of career left, it’s safe to suggest that this is the unlikeliest four-homer game in recent memory.

It’s this unfairness, this uncertainty that’s going to make sure that the MLB Draft will never, ever, ever enjoy a fraction of the popularity of the NFL or NBA Drafts. There’s too much time between the dream and the realization of those dreams. There are too many lions and tigers and bears between them and the realization of those dreams.

When I see NFL analysts complaining that immediate post-draft grades are useless, I want to shake them. Buddy, you have no idea.

Speaking of pitching rotations, LSU is probably the one team from this side of the bracket that could push Oregon State to the brink. Starters Alex Lange from the right and Jared Poche from the left form a commanding tandem, and their experience they both threw in Omaha two years again will certainly be welcome as the Tigers work their way through the week. Closers Zack Hess and Hunter Newman are capable mop-up men, with Newman owning just a 1.07 ERA.

Where LSU can really give Oregon State a run for its money is at the plate. As Aaron Fitt points out, the Tigers have scored nine or more runs 10 times over the course of their current 16-game winning streak. LSU exploded in the Baton Rouge super regional’s clincher, scoring 14 runs over a solid Mississippi State squad. Lightning rod Greg Deichmann has had an incredible year, knocking 19 home runs for a .606 slugging percentage.

So, uh, the Minnesota Twins hit a lot of baseballs Tuesday night. Like, they had more hits than a vague google search result, more hits than a Rocky movie, and more hits than The Beatles, as the saying goes. The Twins whacked a franchise-record 28 hits to score 20 runs. Yes, against the Mariners, whose pitchers combine for a 4.61 ERA, good for 11th in the American League. Twenty runs scored in a game is, of course, an outlier, but just how much shock is warranted at the Twins’ offensive anomaly?

The Twins offense, as a whole, sits at the middle of the spreadsheet as uninspiring, but not totally unimpressive. The 294 runs Minnesota has scored this season gravitates toward that median, at 16th in MLB. The top four batters in the starting lineup accounted for only eight of the 28 hits total, while the bottom half exploded. Led by Eddie Rosario, who hit three homers for five RBI, and Jason Castro, who had four hits and five RBI, the bottom half of the lineup exploded for the remaining 22 hits.

If you want to parse this as forgivingly as possible, you could translate it to something like, I’m just not sure a bunch of white millionaires would be open-minded enough to listen to someone who didn’t speak English as a first language. I would like to read it that way. It would be cynical, and history would have proved it wrong several times over. But there would be a kernel of truth worth exploring in there that’s a part of a larger discussion regarding America’s systemic flaws and general intolerance.

Even though he was always at the right age for his level in the minors, it’s not like he was ever an especially good hitter. Considering that he’s not Kevin Kiermaier in the field, yes, I would at least furrow my brow in his direction if I were running the Cubs.

What you see most definitely might be what you get, and I’m forever skeptical of players who put up better numbers in a short major-league sample than they ever did in Double-A or Triple-A.