Tiny Doll is dead. The sister of Grace Doll, Daisy Doll and Harry Doll, Tiny (born Elly Ann Schneider) was a munchkin in the Wizard of Oz (1939).

Tiny was the last of the Doll brethren, and there are now only eight surviving Munchkins from Oz. I can’t be bothered doing the research, if anyone can tell me who they are I’d be most grateful.

Miss Doll died on September 6. There is an extensive obituary in today’s Daily Telegraph. Her IMDb record appears to be incomplete.

“He caught his shin on an iceberg and never stopped crying about it.”

RowboatVets.com
The shocking proof that George Washington lied about his war record!

How the face of the sky changes,
when the darkness roared with tanks in Beslan,
and with a premonition of the end
in that school, in that basketball hoop
trembled explosives, hung by Stalin.

Extract from Yevgeny Yevtushenko’s School in Beslan, which appeared in today’s Guardian.

Whew. Corey Patterson smashed two home runs on Tuesday night as the Cubs beat the Pirates 3-2. In twelve innings. Corey’s second homer finished the game.

The Cubs are now 78-64 with two wins so far in their home series against Pittsburgh, but they are still half a game behind the Giants. San Francisco beat Milwaukee 3-2. Bonds is still on 699.

It’s scary to think that G.Dubya Bush could have been Commissioner of Baseball when Fay Vincent retired. Bud Selig got the job, and we can only guess how (and if) that would have changed the course of history. Bush, part-owner of the Texas Rangers from 1989 to 1998, is being backed by many of the major league’s current owners in his re-election campaign, as Associated Press research has discovered. Not too many owners contributing to the JFK cause, not at all that surprising really. A-Rod is among the players putting their money on Bush.

More news on the AAA World Championships which wrapped up in Taiwan on the weekend. A good wrap from USA Baseball on the tournament, and their team’s 10-5 loss to South Korea in the third place playoff. I have only been able to find brief reports of Cuba’s 4-0 win over Japan in the final, this from the official website in Chinese and English.

The Australian Baseball website has details of its dismal performance in Taiwan.

Cuba also won a tournament at under-16 level on Sunday, beating USA 3-0 in the final of the Panamerican AA Championships at Lagos de Moreno, Mexico. Team USA hammered all of their opponents except for Cuba, scoring 12 or more per game against Argentina, Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala and Aruba. The earlier meeting between USA and Cuba was won by the Cubans 3-2 in the 11th.

Mexico was the third team from the Panamericans to qualify for next year’s AA World Championships

Oakland beat GWB’s former plaything, the Texas Rangers, in a ten-inning thriller on Monday night. But it was Frank Francisco’s chair-throwing antics that captured all the headlines.

It was the top of the ninth at Network Associates Stadium when Alfonso Soriano clubbed his second home run of the night to make it 5-5. Then It Happened. Watching the Fox Sports Net coverage on delay on Tuesday afternoon my time, it just seemed like all hell broke less between the Rangers bullpen and the A’s spectators. Then, amid the melee, a chair flew into the crowd, apparently thrown from the field. A female fan was seen to have a large wound on her nose as the result of the incident.

With players being hustled away by umpires and officials, and with the crowd being warned to settle down or forfeit the game, there was a delay of 19 minutes before play resumed. Into extra innings, Texas scored and then Oakland equalised in the bottom of the tenth before an Eric Chavez single brought Nick Swisher home for the winner. ESPN.com, as usual, has all the match facts.

Nick Swisher, what a great name, he could be an opening batsman for England with a name like that. It’s only ten days since the Oakland organisation called him up from the Sacramento Rivercats.

It transpires that Rangers pitcher Frank Francisco, the AL Rookie of the Month of August, was the chappie who wielded the ballboy’s chair. Latest word is that Francisco was taken to the big house, charged with aggravated battery, and released on $15000 bail. His immediate playing future is unclear.

Reportage of the incident:
Skirmish delays A’s win: Oakland Tribune
Chavez’s single ends a wild night: San Francisco Chronicle
Bizarre altercation as A’s beat Rangers in Oakland: Capital News 9 (Albany, NY), includes video clip of incident
Editorial: Baseball should come down hard on stadium violence: Madison Daily Leader (Wisconsin)
Reliever charged with felony battery: ESPN.com
Husband of injured fan: It was ‘normal heckling’: Dallas Morning News, includes police mugshot of Francisco.

The San Francisco Chronicle website’s sports page leads today with the headline “Monday, Bloody Monday”, while ESPN.com’s Ray Ratto described the incident as a Jerry Springer moment. ESPN also has a handy guide to baseball player/fan altercations through history. (Ty Cobb and the Babe both appear on the list.)