Catcher wearing mouthpiece to relax jaw, prevent habit's return

Russell Martin isn't champing at the bit. He's champing at his new mouthpiece.

With the circus surrounding Manny Ramirez's scheduled -- but scratched -- first game, Martin flew back from his World Baseball Classic engagement for Team Canada under the radar and jumped right back into the lineup for Thursday's exhibition against Team Korea.

Martin went 0-for-2 and scored a run in the game, his first with the specially fitted mouthpiece he hopes will serve a dual purpose -- to help him quit using smokeless tobacco and to relax his jaw.....(more)

This reeks of desperation Russell. You are really searching for answers. I can't even imagine being in the major leagues and quitting baseball. You may as well quit baseball all together.

Let us take a moment and pay tribute to a real ballplayer:



In other news, I had off work today and watched ESPN First Take. Skip Bayless is a major d-bag. He went on a five minute rant about how much soccer sucks and nearly put me in cardiac arrest with his dumbass comments.