Major League

Keith Miller had decided not to report to the Carpenter Complex with the rest of the Phillies' minor leaguers a couple of weeks ago. He was all set to become the best-hitting commodities dealer on the Chicago Board of Trade, earning three times the money he could make this season in baseball. Even though he made the International League All-Star team last year, he was 27 and, after six years of bouncing around the minors, he was fed up. Then he changed his mind. "I guess it's because I love to play baseball," he said.

THIS WAS never going to be about the ground ball on which Domonic Brown failed to run hard on Saturday against the Oakland Athletics. He is too good a young player, with too good a reputation as a person, to let a single, thoughtless moment define him in any significant way. It was never going to be about that one play. It was always going to be about the next play, and the next day, and the day after that. The reaction was always going to be more important than the action. And so far?

Two days earlier, umpire Dan Iassogna was blowing a call at first base and tossing Chase Utley and Charlie Manuel out of the Phillies' win over Florida. Yesterday morning, Iassogna carried a picket sign and chanted in unison with 24 other umpires outside rickety Municipal Stadium in Hagerstown, Md., shortly before a Class A game between the Hagerstown Suns and Lake County Captains. "Being here is something I want to do, something I have to do," he said. Major league umpires Iassogna, Dale Scott, Ron Kulpa and Jeff Nelson joined striking minor league umps on the picket line in a joint demonstration, "the first of its kind in 100 years of baseball," according to Andy Roberts, president of the Association of Minor League Umpires.

One and done. Such was the major league career, to use that phrase in its loosest possible definition, of Leroy Reams. Twenty-five years ago tomorrow, in the Phillies' penultimate season at Connie Mack Stadium, Reams, an outfielder, pinch-hit for reliever Barry Lersch in the eighth inning of a 6-1 loss to the Houston Astros. He struck out, trudged back to the dugout and watched the rest of the game. Two days earlier, he had been summoned from Eugene, of the Triple A Pacific Coast League.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Just call him the 38-year-old television rookie. Popular former Phillies backup catcher Chris Coste has been hired by Comcast SportsNet to provide pregame and postgame analysis for nine or 10 games a month this season. He will fill in for No. 1 analyst Ricky Bottalico as needed, although they will work together for coverage of Opening Day. Former big-league catcher Ben Davis, from Malvern Prep, also will handle pregame and postgame analysis for some games on CSN this season.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Jim Palmer stood on the warning track just to the left of the third-base line, the sun and breeze of another perfect afternoon filtering around his athletic frame. It wasn't long before Charlie Manuel spotted him and ambled over, a red fungo bat in his hand. The Phillies manager faced Palmer in only five-at bats during his playing days, but he struck out in three of them and went hitless in the other two, so every time he sees the Hall of Fame righthander, he blames him for his short and unsuccessful major league career.

OFFSEASON? Not for Joe Jordan. Spring training is approaching and he's had to do some cramming. Jordan is the Phillies' new director of player development. He got the job in October after his predecessor, Chuck LaMar, abruptly resigned in September. Since then, offseason life has mostly been traveling and fact-finding. "With a lot of the [players], I'm relying on what I've been told," the affable Jordan said recently. "But I was also familiar with many of them, because they were players that we also scouted.

Looks like the era of good feelings in Los Angeles had a short shelf life. Less than a month after new ownership seemed to sweep away the gloom generated by the seedy Frank McCourt era and last season's hideous mugging of a fan on opening day, criminals struck again. A fender bender in a stadium parking lot led to the beating of a driver and the arrest of four people, police said Monday. The latest attack occurred Sunday when a man in his 20s had a collision with another driver and three men pinned him down, police said.

Horace L. "Butch" Walker, 77, a veteran bowler who was inducted into the Greater Philadelphia Bowling Association Hall of Fame, died Saturday of a heart attack at his home in Jamison, Bucks County. Mr. Walker was a 43-year veteran of major league and tournament bowling in the area, winning numerous titles and maintaining a lifetime average of 216. He is credited with two sanctioned games in which he bowled 300. Born June 24, 1914, in Greentree, Pa., Mr. Walker was orphaned at an early age, said his stepson, Peter W. Brunner.

Playing at: Reading (AA) Position: Catcher Height: 5-11. Weight: 181. Age: 27. Born: Aug. 17, 1983, in Freeport, Ill. Bats: Right. Throws: Right. How obtained: Selected in the 11th round in 2005. This season: Is hitting a career-best .282 (through Sunday) and is likely to set personal bests for home runs and RBI. He has eight homers and 42 RBI . . . Has hit two of Reading's four grand slams . . . Had a career-high six RBI against Akron on June 1. Career notes: Has been a non-roster invitee to Phillies' spring training each of the last four seasons . . . Was named the best defensive catcher in the Eastern League in 2010 . . . Hit .200 in 16 games at Triple A Lehigh Valley in 2009, the highest level he's reached.

Looks like the era of good feelings in Los Angeles had a short shelf life. Less than a month after new ownership seemed to sweep away the gloom generated by the seedy Frank McCourt era and last season's hideous mugging of a fan on opening day, criminals struck again. A fender bender in a stadium parking lot led to the beating of a driver and the arrest of four people, police said Monday. The latest attack occurred Sunday when a man in his 20s had a collision with another driver and three men pinned him down, police said.

NO WIN FOR the ages. Or, for that matter, the aged. At 49, Jamie Moyer failed in his second attempt to become the oldest pitcher to win a major league game when Madison Bumgarner took a no-hit bid into the sixth and scattered four hits over 7 1/3 innings in visiting San Francisco's 4-2 win over the Colorado Rockies on Thursday. Moyer's shot at history was thwarted not only by Bumgarner, another crafty lefthander who in many ways is a younger version of Moyer, but also by teammate Dexter Fowler, whose sixth-inning error on a routine fly ball to center led to two unearned runs.

HOUSTON - On Saturday night, 49-year-old Jamie Moyer became the oldest player to appear in a game since 1980 when he started for the Rockies. "Going out to the bullpen, I had a lot of things running through my head," Moyer said. "But once I started running and playing catch, it was all baseball. It was a very good feeling to be where I'd been before and a place I love being. " But the National League's youngest team gave baseball's oldest player fits, as J.D. Martinez homered and drove in three runs for a 7-3 Astros win. Moyer was in trouble from the start.

IF HE wasn't playing the starring role, Joe Savery might think this was one of those hokey baseball stories that happen only in the movies. Here he was a former first-round draft pick who failed as a projected power pitcher but then suddenly had a rebirth as a lefthanded reliever. After beginning 2011 in Class A Clearwater as a first baseman, Savery, who was selected 19th overall out of Rice University in 2007, rediscovered his pitching arm after being promoted to Double A. By September, he was being called up by the Phillies when the rosters expanded.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - The second week of March is no time to make definitive judgments about a baseball team. It also isn't a time to trade away pitching depth. So, as rumors continue to circulate about the Phillies' interest in trading Joe Blanton, we can say one of three things: * They are not true. * They are true, and the Phillies are open to a move that, from this vantage point, constitutes a wholly unnecessary risk. * They are true, but only as part of a bigger plan, one that may or may not rhyme with Soy, No Salt.

ANDREW McCUTCHEN sounded a bit overwhelmed. "It all really hasn't sunk in for me yet," the All-Star centerfielder said yesterday after agreeing to a $51.5 million, 6-year contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates. "It like when you're getting remarried and you are renewing your vows. That's how I feel. " Though he hit just .259 last year, McCutchen had career highs in home runs (23) and RBI (89) while stealing 23 bases. He would have been eligible for free agency following the 2015 season.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Turns out, everybody is rooting for Tuffy Gosewisch. Colin Curtis, a non-roster invitee in Yankees camp? Team Tuffy. Roy Halladay, a two-time Cy Young winner? Team Tuffy. And if you believe that a catcher's value cannot be measured by batting lines and stolen base percentages, then you will end up on Team Tuffy, too. "Honestly, I would take him any day of the week," Halladay said. "I really would. " You might know the name. Born James Benjamin Gosewisch, his parents decided on a more appropriate moniker during a toddler-hood in which he rained destruction upon everything he touched.

NEW YORK - Gary Carter was nicknamed "Kid" for good reason. His smile, bubbly personality and eagerness to excel on a ballfield made him a joy to watch at the plate and behind it. Even his Hall of Fame bronze plaque at Cooperstown shows him with a toothy grin - the Kid forever. The star catcher, whose single for the New York Mets in the 1986 World Series touched off one of the most improbable rallies in baseball, died yesterday. He was 57. Carter was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor last May, 2 weeks after finishing his second season as coach at Palm Beach Atlantic University.

RARE IS the occasion when a team signs a marquee free-agent closer to a 4-year, $50 million deal and enters the following season without having definitively upgraded that position. While Jonathan Papelbon's track record is difficult to match - a 2.33 ERA, 10.7 strikeouts per nine innings, a 4.43 strikeout-per-walk ratio and 219 saves in seven big-league seasons - he is replacing a closer in Ryan Madson who outperformed him in 2011 in ERA (2.37 to 2.94) and save percentage (32 of 34 to 31 of 34)

OFFSEASON? Not for Joe Jordan. Spring training is approaching and he's had to do some cramming. Jordan is the Phillies' new director of player development. He got the job in October after his predecessor, Chuck LaMar, abruptly resigned in September. Since then, offseason life has mostly been traveling and fact-finding. "With a lot of the [players], I'm relying on what I've been told," the affable Jordan said recently. "But I was also familiar with many of them, because they were players that we also scouted.