Last month, we gave away a $300 worth of Sports Memorabilia…This month, FanSided and Call to the Pen have teamed up with Deals2Buy.com to give away a LG Electronics 42-Inch LED TV!!!

This LG Electronics 42-Inch LED TV is provided by Deals2Buy, a leading website for deals, discounts and close-out inventory offers. Focused on delivering best-of-web pricing, Deals2Buy is known among tech-savvy consumers as the one stop shop for deals on items like laptops, cameras, televisions and other technology products – as well as apparel, accessories, travel, and even credit card offers. Sign up for the Deals2Buy Hot Deal Alerts newsletter and follow them on Twitter and Facebook to stay in the know about the hottest deals every day!

To enter, simply like us on Facebook and sign up for our daily email newsletter, FanSided Daily. It is completely free and customizable to your unique rooting interest. Then earn additional entries by sharing the contest with friends!

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open to legal residents of the 50 United States and D.C., 18 years and older, who are the owners of the property depicted in the photo. Begins: 9:00 a.m. C.T. on 5/15/13. Ends: 11:59 p.m. C.T. on 6/15/13. Subject to Official Rules at www.fansided.com. Void where prohibited. Sponsor: FanSided. This contest is in no way sponsored, endorsed, administered by, or associated with, Facebook.

(Image Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports)

Hey baseball fans!

Matt Nadel here. I’m a 14 year old 8th grader from Springfield, NJ who loves video games, chocolate ice cream with rice krispies, and especially baseball. My favorite team from the 21st century is the Yankees. But I also love the whole history of the game, including the great old timers, teams, ballparks and events of the past. I started my original blog on Google Blogger back in April because, as I learned more about baseball, I found that most of my friends knew very little about baseball history and I thought that a blog would be a fun way to teach kids (and even some adults) about the history of our national pastime.  After posting nearly 85 times, I was introduced to John Thorn, the official historian for MLB, and John liked my blog and arranged for me to have my own Pro Blog on MLB, so now I’m the youngest Pro blogger on MLB.com.

In my Call to the Pen blog, I will try to shed some light on baseball history from a kid’s perspective. Some of my blogs will be just me writing about different stuff and others might be interviews that I do with all sorts of people in baseball history (like players, owners, reporters, managers, scorekeepers and anyone else who may be interesting to baseball fans — I really would love to try to interview every living Hall of Famer and learn their life lessons for kids (I’ve interviewed a few already)).

One day, after I go to high school and college, I hope to be a full time baseball journalist and historian.

I hope you like what I have to say. If you do, please tell all of your friends.

Also, you can follow me on Twitter @BaseballwMatt.

And tune in again real soon for more of “all the buzz on what wuzz.”

Matt

Last month, FanSided launched our brand new iOS Sports App.

This month, FanSided and Call to the Pen have teamed up with SportsMemorabilia.com to give away a $300 spending spree on Call to the Pen Memorabilia of your choice!

To enter, simply like us on Facebook and sign up for our daily email newsletter, FanSided Daily. It is completely free and customizable to your unique rooting interest.Then earn additional entries by sharing the contest with friends!

SportsMemorabilia.com is the Web’s leading retailer for officially licensed products and autographed sports memorabilia from NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, NCAA, Soccer, Boxing, UFC, Nascar, Golf,Tennis, and more. The online shop carries over 400K unique products from autographed jerseys, footballs, baseballs, photos, basketballs, and more. NBA fan? The playoffs are here! Get 25% off NBA memorabilia from autographed Dwyane Wade jerseys, signed Larry Bird basketballs, signed Kevin Durant photos, and tons more right now on SportsMemorabilia.com. Sale ends soon.

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open to legal residents of the 50 United States and D.C., 18 years and older, who are the owners of the property depicted in the photo. Begins: 9:00 a.m. C.T. on 4/19/13. Ends: 11:59 p.m. C.T. on 4/30/13. Subject to Official Rules at www.fansided.com. Void where prohibited. Sponsor: FanSided. This contest is in no way sponsored, endorsed, administered by, or associated with, Facebook.

As you will remember, back in January, a report surfaced linking several prominent MLB players to the Miami clinic to purchase several different kinds of banned performance enhancing drugs. Names that included Nelson Cruz, Ryan Braun and Alex Rodriguez. There are conflicting report as to whether or not Rodriguez has actually purchased the documents or if he just attempted to. There is also conflicting reports on if there is any physical evidence as well. The report stated that essentially what happened is a former Biogenesis employee contacted the players mentioned in the report along with various media outlets and MLB trying to solicit bids to “sell” the documents. Supposedly, Rodriguez “won” the auction of the documents.

Just last night, a report surfaced that Major League Baseball was attempting to secure the same documents from former Biogenesis employees. Rodriguez, of course, has denied all of this. I’m sure we will hear a lot more about this in the coming days and weeks. At this point, nothing Alex Rodriguez does or will do would shock me. He has become a walking pariah around baseball and the sports world.

FINAL SHOT At $50,000!

It’s week two of our partnership with daily fantasy leader DraftKings.com, and they’re offering yet another chance at a $50,000 prize for fantasy baseball players

To quickly recap, DraftKings.com offers only daily contests. The goal is to draft the best team that you can from all available players on the given day, but be careful—you must come under the DraftKings salary cap.

DraftKings is offering a special promotion to Call to the Pen readers, where for just $1 you can win a ticket ($200 value) into their $150,000 contest, where the first place prize winner will take home a cool $50,000. For those scoring at home that’s turning $1 into $50,000.

The disadvantages of season-long fantasy don’t apply here. No need to check your team for 162 consecutive games or lament every injury to a star player. Was your draft an abject failure a few weeks ago? Don’t worry, you can draft a new team every day in DraftKings. And again, this is a special promotion that won’t be offered again.

Check out the contest now!

Aardsma was drafted in the first round of the 2003 by the San Francisco Giants. He made his major league debut in 20o4 after skipping Double A and Triple A, however, his first major league stint was brief and was optioned to AAA Fresno. He would be called up six more times throughout the year, but was shaky at best during his rookie year. The following year, he was traded along with SP, Jerome Williams to the Cubs for veteran RP, LaTroy Hawkins.

The following few years, Aardsma would go on to pitch for the White Sox and Red Sox before discovering his niche as a setup man and closer for the Mariners. Having pitched excellently in 2009 and 2010, he suffered a devastating injury which required Tommy John surgery and forced him to miss the entire 2011 season. After the 2011 season, the Mariners non tendered him, making him a free agent. He would sign a one year deal worth 500k with the Yankees that included a club option for 2013, which was also worth 500k. Due to his Tommy John surgery having taken place in July 2011 and the subsequent recovery time, Aardsma was not activated by the Yankees until September 2012 and only appeared in one game for the Bronx Bombers.

Whoever signs Aardsma will definitely be hoping that he can regain the magic he found in 2009 and 2010 as a bullpen arm for the Mariners. He’ll likely have to settle for a minor league deal.

Baseball season is here for the Call to the Pen and that means one thing: fantasy baseball is upon us!

We here at Call to the Pen know you’ve spent hour upon agonizing hour painstakingly researching your draft for season-long fantasy baseball. So why not use your thorough knowledge of early season baseball to line your bank account to the tune of $50,000?

We’re proud to promote a product we know you’ll love. DraftKings.com, the leader in daily fantasy, is offering you an exclusive contest with added value, because they want you first-time customers to have a great experience.

This is how it works. You enter into the contest here and draft a team. The goal is to draft the best team that you can, but be careful because you must come under the DraftKings salary cap. It costs just $1 to play, giving you a real chance to turn $1 into $50,000. DraftKings doesn’t know what to expect with volume so there’s a chance every single person who enters will get cash! At the very least 40% of those who enter will win and the top 20 will get paid.

How often do you get to parlay fantasy baseball knowledge into $50,000? Check it out today.

After the extension was announced, Goldschmidt had the following to say:

“This is the only place I wanted to be so I’m thrilled to know that I will be here long term. I can’t wait for the season to start, and I hope that we can bring another World Championship to the fans of Arizona.”

The 25 year old power hitter raked during parts of three seasons in the minor leagues from 2009 – 2011. He continued that during his first full season at the MLB level hitting a nice 286/.359/.490 with 20 homers and 83 RBI. He made his major league debut on 8/11/11 to assist the Diamondbacks with their playoff push and at the time of his call up, was leading the minor leagues in home runs with 30. During the 2011 NLDS vs the Milwaukee Brewers, Goldschmidt became just the third rookie in MLB history to hit a post season grand slam when he did so in Game 2.

Goldschmidt found his place in Diamondbacks history books last year as his 43 doubles and .497 slugging percentage were club records. He figures to improve on all of his rookie numbers just his second full season and will likely make the Diamondbacks look very wise by locking him up now rather than waiting a few years when his price tag and market value will definitely soar above this deal.

Get Call to the Pen updates on your iOS device or by email every day!

Last month, FanSided launched our brand new iOS Sports App. The FanSided app provides the same fresh and opinionated content that you have grown to love from around the FanSided Sports Network — the fastest growing independent sports network on the Internet.

With the new app, you are able to receive push notifications on your iOS device along with customizing your stream with your favorite sports teams, get instant breaking news updates, follow hot topics and much more.

You can click here to send the NEW app to your iOS device. It is a must have for the die-hard sports fans who are starving for always fresh, never dull content.

Also be sure to sign up for our FREE daily newsletter “FanSided Daily” below:

A former Yankee, signed as an amateur free agent by the club in 2000, Wang rose through the Yankees system. His jersey number (41) was retired by the Single A Staten Island Yankees in 2006. He made his big league debut for the Yankees in 2005 and went 8-5 with a 4.02 ERA. The next two years he would win 19 games each season (leading the league in wins in 2006).

Wang enjoyed a successful Yankees career until 2008 when he was running the bases during in interleague game in Houston vs the Astros.  He injured his right foot and was diagnosed with a torn Lisfranc ligament and partial tear of the peroneus longos in his right foot. The injury, while not surgical, would sideline him the rest of the year. His 2009 season was not much better. He injured his hips and throwing shoulder (which required surgery) and was placed on injured reserve. The Yankees went on to win the World Series without him and released Wang that offseason.

Wang would spend the next three season with the Washington Nationals but never regained the promise that he had when he was with the Yankees. However, he pitched extremely well during this year’s World Baseball Classic, which led New York to give him another shot. Hopefully Wang has put his injury history behind him and can rediscover the talent he once had.