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There’s a vast and vicious human trafficking network that supplies Major League Baseball with some of its top players. It starts with the players, superbly talented young men who seek to escape the poverty of Cuba. And it ends with MLB teams that pay massive contracts to get them. In the middle is an underworld of smugglers that goes as far as teaming up with Los Zetas — one of…

Throughout the course of a baseball season, MLB teams give away a ton of promotional swag at select games: From replica championship rings, to T-shirts and jerseys, to tote bags, magnets and garden gnomes. If you can name it, a baseball team has probably given it away. But perhaps one of the most ubiquitous, and sought after, tchotchkes is the bobblehead. Bobbleheads are a popular giveaway item…

The story of the 2016 Chicago Cubs is going to be shared by generations of fans, but one of the players with inside knowledge of how the team won the World Series is writing a book about his experiences in the game. That player is catcher David Ross, who retired from baseball following the Cubs’ championship. Throughout his final season, Ross received accolades and gifts from around the game, and…

Photo: Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press MLB ratified a new collective bargaining agreement today that, among other changes, banned rooking hazing, including the longstanding tradition of veteran ballplayers making rookies dress like women. Many other forms of hazing were banned—making people drink too much alcohol, coercing people to break the law, and bullying— but, as you can imagine, people really grabbed onto the whole no women’s outfits thing. Advertisement MLB vice-president…

They say it’s impolite to talk about money, but when we do, we often talk about it in normative terms — right and wrong, black and white. In sports, that means talking about “bad” contracts — players who are overpaid relative to their production. As a fan, this line of thinking is understandable in a league with a salary cap: If the Dallas Mavericks are paying Erick Dampier like he invented Facebook, and Erick…

Photo: Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press MLB ratified a new collective bargaining agreement today that, among other changes, banned rooking hazing, including the longstanding tradition of veteran ballplayers making rookies dress like women. Many other forms of hazing were banned—making people drink too much alcohol, coercing people to break the law, and bullying— but, as you can imagine, people really grabbed onto the whole no women’s outfits thing. Advertisement MLB vice-president…

Photo: Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press MLB ratified a new collective bargaining agreement today that, among other changes, banned rooking hazing, including the longstanding tradition of veteran ballplayers making rookies dress like women. Many other forms of hazing were banned—making people drink too much alcohol, coercing people to break the law, and bullying— but, as you can imagine, people really grabbed onto the whole no women’s outfits thing. Advertisement MLB vice-president…

Photo: Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press MLB ratified a new collective bargaining agreement today that, among other changes, banned rooking hazing, including the longstanding tradition of veteran ballplayers making rookies dress like women. Many other forms of hazing were banned—making people drink too much alcohol, coercing people to break the law, and bullying— but, as you can imagine, people really grabbed onto the whole no women’s outfits thing. Advertisement MLB vice-president…

NEW YORK — Baseball owners and players have ratified the sport’s new five-year collective bargaining agreement, extending their labor peace to 26 years through 2021. The sides announced their approvals Wednesday, a day after holding votes in separate telephone meetings. “This agreement allows us to build on the positive momentum from last season and promote a generation of young players,” baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said in…

MORGAN HILL — Police are looking for a 47-year-old man wanted in a baseball-bat beating that left a neighbor with major injuries. Mark Weber is at large and is considered armed and dangerous. Police advise anyone who sees Weber not to approach him and to call 911 immediately. The dispute between the neighbors was centered around the victim’s dog, according to Special Operations Sgt. Carson Thomas, a department spokesman. Morgan Hill police are looking…

MORGAN HILL — Police are looking for a 47-year-old man wanted in a baseball-bat beating that left a neighbor with major injuries. Mark Weber is at large and is considered armed and dangerous. Police advise anyone who sees Weber not to approach him and to call 911 immediately. The dispute between the neighbors was centered around the victim’s dog, according to Special Operations Sgt. Carson Thomas, a department spokesman. Morgan Hill police are looking…

12:50 PM ET Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email print comment They are supposed to be the baseball equivalent of a seal, that little bit of wax poured onto a finished letter and pressed with a stamp to denote that which is finished. Firemen. Stoppers. Closers. Whatever you want to call them, they are all the rage in the free-agent marketplace. Here’s some perspective from ESPN’s Jayson Stark: “Dollars for Kenley Jansen,…

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Jose Abreu defected from Cuba in 2013.(Photo: Rick Osentoski, USA TODAY Sports) The trickle of Cuban baseball players filtering into the majors has grown into a torrent, with their numbers increasing to an all-time high of 30 last season. Yet despite their rising levels of success and skyrocketing salaries, Cuban players across generations share the heartache of leaving behind their country, family and way of life, experiencing a longing for…

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As we’ve talked about before, former major league baseball players go on to do all sorts of things. Broadcasting, managing, coaching, politics, and so on. But this is a true rarity: Anthony Varvaro, a 32-year-old former relief pitcher who played parts of six years for the Atlanta Braves, Boston Red Sox, and Seattle Mariners, is about to start a brand new career as a Port Authority police officer. He didn’t…

9:30 AM ET Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email print comment Back in October, the Baltimore Orioles made headlines for not using baseball’s best closer in a do-or-die situation that begged for him to be used. A couple of months later, it could be happening again. To be clear, the purpose is now entirely different. In October, Zach Britton could’ve helped the O’s win the wild-card game. Here in December, Britton could…

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Supreme Court seems to agree with Kevin Costner that there’s no better place to play baseball than on fields cut out of the corn. The court on Friday cleared the way for a 24-field baseball complex at the “Field of Dreams” movie site in Dyersville, upholding a lower court’s decision that the City Council properly rezoned the property from agricultural…

9:30 AM ET Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email print comment Back in October, the Baltimore Orioles made headlines for not using baseball’s best closer in a do-or-die situation that begged for him to be used. A couple of months later, it could be happening again. To be clear, the purpose is now entirely different. In October, Zach Britton could’ve helped the O’s win the wild-card game. Here in December, Britton could…

Whatever the Boston Red Sox need or want, the Boston Red Sox seem to get these days. As a result, that’s prompted one prominent baseball writer with Hall of Fame credentials and Boston connections to anoint the Red Sox as baseball’s new “Evil Empire.” During an appearance on the Rich Eisen Show last week, Peter Gammons, currently of MLB Network, suggested the Red Sox now represent everything they used to…