Any Brit who thinks baseball is any easy, non-contact sport should try catching a Zack Greinke fastball in their mouth. Torii Hunter gave it a go today and ended up with a bloody lip and a trip to hospital. According to reports, Hunter initially started to confront Greinke about his lack of control before collapsing in pain. I haven’t seen it yet, but it doesn’t sound much fun. Hopefully Hunter won’t be out of the Twins’ lineup for long (and no he isn’t in my fantasy team!).

Meanwhile, more blood is being spilled over Curt Schilling’s infamous bloody socks from the 2004 post-season. During an Orioles broadcast earlier in the week, Gary Thorne casually stated that Red Sox catcher Doug Mirabelli had “admitted” to him that the red stain was simply paint. The Red Sox have come out fighting, as reported by ESPN. Over to you Gary!

Still, one good thing has come from the whole affair. I was watching the Orioles play the A’s earlier in the week and while I recognised the voice of one of the broadcasters, I couldn’t quite place it and I kept missing any references to who the commentators were. I never got around to looking it up, but then there was this story and it hit me: Gary Thorne. I’ve always liked Thorne as a commentator as he often calls the World Series games shown over here on MLB International (Dave O’Brien has taken over more in recent years) and I remember him from a few years back when I would watch the NHL a fair bit.

So Schilling may have had his bravery called into question, and Doug Mirabelli has been put firmly under the microscope, but at least I now know who was calling that Orioles game!