Vote Wally in Sioux Falls

We've received a photo from a player on the Sioux City Explorers. The photo apparently shows that someone wrote "Vote Wally" on a ball and threw it in with the rest of the team's baseballs. Three cheers for subliminal messages and campaign product placement:



Related: "Vote Wally in Sioux Falls" on Playing for Peanuts

Double Standard Alert: Michael Phelps

This edition of the Double Standard Alert has nothing to do with MLB. It is instead about the media. You see, in all of the Olympic hype, nobody wants to mention Michael Phelps' DUI arrest.

We aren't saying that Phelps should be prevented from swimming in the Olympics - he made a mistake and he served 18 months probation. The man paid his dues and he is a fantastic swimmer. Good for him. He deserves the medals and the accolades that go along with them.

What we are saying is that Michael Phelps got a second chance and Wally Backman is still blackballed from Major League Baseball. Whenever Backman's name comes up in a news story, the reporter always brings up Backman's DUI arrest from 1999. It serves as an explanation to why he was fired by the Diamondbacks and a warning to any teams that dare consider Backman as their next manager.

Meanwhile, the media (especially NBC) is doing countless profiles on Phelps and they rarely mention the DUI. When the DUI is mentioned, it is framed as some sort of obstacle that needed to be overcome - like a pulled hamstring or a case of the flu.

In short, the media wants you to believe that Backman is unfit to represent a Major League ballclub. Meanwhile, Michael Phelps is representing the United States of America and the following corporations:

AT&T
Visa
Omega watches
Power Bar and
Speedo
Visa

What is interesting is that most of these companies were sponsoring Phelps before his 2004 arrest. During and after the legal problems, they stood by Phelps. That is commendable.

Double Standard Alert: Paul Lo Duca

The Florida Marlins announced today that they have signed catcher Paul Lo Duca to a minor league contract. LoDuca was mentioned in the Mitchell Report - for using performance enhancing drugs. In fact, if you look at the top of this post, you will see a photocopy of a check Paul used to pay for his juice. And the photo below is pretty solid too:






























But it doesn't end there... LoDuca's wife filed for divorce after learning her 34-year husband was having an affair with a 19-year old he met at a club on Long Island in 2006.

If adultery and steroids aren't your cup of tea, Paul LoDuca also has a legendary gambling habit. LoDuca has never been called on it by MLB - that would be bad for business, of course. LoDuca insists that he only gambles with offshore casinos and/or he doesn't gamble on baseball games. Given his problems with steroids and adultery, I can see why MLB takes him at his word.

Again, we're not calling on the Marlins or MLB to banish Paul LoDuca to the scrap heap of professional baseball - but that is exactly what has been done to Wally Backman. Despite several minor league titles and a solid track record of developing pro ballplayers, Backman has not received an interview with an MLB-affiliated club since he was railroaded in 2004.

We're just shining a light on that fact.