It's a sad night in New England as the Boston Globe reports that Fenway Park public address announcer Carl Beane died in a single-car accident on Wednesday afternoon. The 59-year-old had manned the mic at Fenway since 2003 and was well-known around Boston as a local radio announcer.

According to Peter Abraham of the Globe, Beane was driving his car in Sturbridge, Mass., when it "crossed the double solid lines, left the road and hit a tree and a wall." The accident did not involve anyone else and is still being investigated by police.

Here's video of Mr. Beane's work at a recent Red Sox game. May he rest in peace.

By referring to the rule book, defining a balk in Major League Baseball can be as difficult as figuring out the tax code. Strictly going by visuals, a balk also tends to be something that you know when you see it. Usually.

Daniel Bard of the Boston Red Sox doubled his balking displeasure Tuesday night in Kansas City, where he was called for a balk twice during the same Chris Getz at-bat in the second inning. Throw in a wild pitch later in the inning, in which the Royals scored three times, and it was a pretty damaging few moments for Boston, which fell 6-4.

Bard seemed generally bewildered about the whole thing, even after the game when explaining his side to reporters. As quoted in the Boston Herald:

"The balks is a fluke thing. I can't remember the last time I balked, ever," Bard said. "I don't think I've done it in the big leagues."

As reporter Michael Silverman points out, Bard's memory is a little hazy as he also balked in 2011 and 2009. But two in the same game? And same inning? Same at-bat? That's new territory for Bard. That would be new territory for most pitchers.

(AP)The description of the MLB.com video reads: "David Robertson pitches a scoreless ninth to record his first save since Mariano Rivera suffered a season-ending injury."

Well, it's true, isn't it? No doubt, though it leaves out the part about how the Tampa Bay Rays loaded the bases and made fans at Yankee Stadium squirm while they were wondering if Rivera could hobble out there on crutches anyway and try for the save.

"Tonight I was thinking, 'Geez, better not blow your first one,''' Robertson said. ''Better not blow your first opportunity or Mo might come in here and smack me around.''

Turns out there was no need for smacking. Robertson had this. He struck out Carlos Peña to secure a 5-4 victory in the Bronx.

Robertson came in unscored-upon over 12 innings, but those "are different innings" as Yankees broadcaster Michael Kay said. And even though they shouldn't be, there always seems to be something different about pitching against a team when it's down to it's final three at-bats.

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And there was something different about Robertson coming at all for the ninth — even before he threw a pitch.

With 162 games of airtime to fill, there's a lot of opportunity for baseball's broadcast crews to make mischief during some of the down time, especially in blowouts. Some do it. Some don't. But for my money, there are few better than Arizona's Mark Grace and Daron Sutton.

That was evident earlier this week when the pair's audio feed cut out, but they scored more points with a fun situation on Tuesday. Watch as Fox Sports Arizona cameras identify a couple on its first date at a game between the Diamondbacks and Cardinals at Chase Field before the duo enlists reporter Mark McClune to investigate the Romeo and Juliet further.

An interactive text poll to decide whether or not you get a second date?

And here I thought that landing on Kiss Cam was potentially the most awkward thing that could happen when you decide your first date will take place at a ballpark.

Seriously, though: While I know that Grace isn't for everyone, the team down there deserves

(news.at)

OK, so there's nothing factually wrong about news.at's account of Josh Hamilton's four-homer night on Tuesday. Hamilton's past history of drug abuse is apparently known the world over, as this headline from a website based in Vienna, Austria, exhibits.

At the same time, it seems a bit wrong to lead a headline with an unfortunate fact from someone's past. After all, we could have started the headline to this post with "From the country where Adolf Hitler was born." But we didn't, did we?

Stay classy blunt, Vienna!

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If you were to just watch this clip without any context, you'd walk away confused. Picking Brian McCann off at second when you've got a 3-0 count at the plate should be reason to throw your glove or hat in the air in celebration — not fire both into the crowd.

Of course, perhaps it would have also made perfect sense to some because it involved Kerry Wood making a relief appearance for the Chicago Cubs. What we weren't privy to — but maybe could have assumed — was the 34-year-old surrendering two go-ahead runs to the Braves earlier in the inning,  tagging the aging Cubs reliever with the "L" in a 3-1 loss to Atlanta on Tuesday night at Wrigley Field.

So without further delay, we present Big League Stew's Give 'Em the Bird — and half of your equipment bag! — moment of the week:

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It's worth noting that Wood, who has given up 7 runs in 4 1/3 innings this season, didn't stop steaming there. Wood walked away from his postgame interview when asked about the incident, but not before getting a bit testy with the reporter who asked the question.

CSN Chicago has video.

(AP)On the outside, Brett Lawrie of the Toronto Blue Jays seems to exude a playful and carefree attitude.

Take Wednesday, for example. Lawrie went on Twitter and asked the following question:

Where's good place to Tan downtown T.O ? #seriously #neeja #tint

— Brett Lawrie (@blawrie13) May 8, 2012

So that's the outside of Lawrie: Easygoing but in need of a tint. (I like how he capitalized "Tan." It's that important to him.)

Inside, though, there's someone lurking who is working very hard at his craft. And not in the way many thought he would.

Lawrie came to the Blue Jays organization with a powerful pedigree at the plate and a reputation on defense that was tolerable, as long as they stashed him somewhere like first base, where he would do the least harm. And as long as he continued to hit. In nearly 300 career major-league plate appearances, Lawrie has hit well — especially considering he turned 22 years old in January — but it's his defense at third base that has been overwhelming.

Over at the hot corner, Lawrie saves runs like nobody else.

Citing data via Fangraphs invented by John Dewan's Baseball Info Solutions (which published the Fielding Bible) reporter John Lott of the National Post in Canada writes that Lawrie leads all major leaguers — regardless of position — in defensive runs saved:

After throwing a no-hitter against the Minnesota Twins last week, Los Angeles Angels pitcher Jered Weaver immediately started looking forward to delivering a Top Ten list on the "Late Show with David Letterman." Spending a few minutes with David Letterman has recently become somewhat of a tradition for no-no pitchers, so Weaver started getting ready to appear on one of his favorite shows.

An initial appearance, however, didn't work out in the immediate days that followed the no-hitter. But Weaver showed so much disappointment that Letterman's people finally made it work. Weaver read Tuesday's Top Ten on location from Target Field — home of the "Minneapolis" Twins as Letterman called them. And just as he had a better next start than Chicago's Philip Humber, his list was probably also funnier than the one Humber was saddled with.

Click below to find the full list if you're at work and can't watch the video: