Friday Happy Hour at the Elysian Fields Bar & Grill

Welcome to the Elysian Fields bar & Grill, where we welcome The Hammer back to the mike.

* Ron Washington on Jarrod Saltalamacchia injuring his arm with an awkward throw this week: "He was throwing the ball well. It was just freaky. Another chapter in the Rangers freakiness."

* Washington on Gerald Laird's desire to play every day: "That's okay with me. He expects to catch every day? That's fine. It's just not going to happen."

* Laird in his last 150 games - the equivalent of playing a full season? He's hitting .257 with 74 runs scored, 31 doubles, 12 home runs and 66 RBI. Also has thrown out 45 of 127 trying to steal off him. That's 35.4 percent.

* Never heard of Fathead but Josh Hamilton is going to be one. He gets his own life-sized image so fans can put him on the wall. No word if the tattoos will be included.

* Apparently you can get a John McCain or Barack Obama fathead too. Only $79.95.

* Eddie Guardado, in the St. Paul Pioneer-Press, on a joke he once played on David Ortiz: "Corey Koskie and I gave him a lot of trouble. Once we lined his jeans with peanut butter in Spring Training. It was a perfect job, all up and down the inside lining, but you couldn't see it. He comes in, in a hurry to leave, someone's talking to him to distract him. He puts his jeans on, does up the belt, suddenly stops talking. 'Wait a minute -- what the ...?' There was peanut butter all up and down his legs. We did a really nice job with that one."

* Brad Ausmus on Wrigley Field: "I'll miss Wrigley. There's nothing more fun than an 80-degree day in the middle of summer at Wrigley Field. When I'm done playing, I plan on making a trip and watching a couple of games from the bleachers. That is something I definitely will do."

* Sept 5. 1914: Babe Ruth hit his first professional home run on that date. He was pitching for the Baltimore Orioles against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the International League. He pitched too, throwing a 9-0 shutout.

* Joe Bauman hit his 72nd home run on Sept. 5, 1954. He was playing for the Roswell Rockets in the Class C Longhorn League. That was the professional baseball record until Barry Bonds hit 73.

* Tom Grieve, former general manager and player for the Texas Rangers, will receive the Bobby Bragan Youth Foundation's Lifetime Achievement Award on Tuesday, November 18, 2008 at the foundation's annual dinner, to be held at the Fort Worth Convention Center.

* Doesn't look like Michael Young will get his 200 hits but he is leading American League shortstops in fielding.

* Just for the heck of it: Luis Alicea.

* Ivan Rodriguez is hitting just .222 with two home runs and three RBI in 24 games and 72 at-bats for the Yankees. Sidney Ponson is 3-4 with a 6.22 ERA in 12 starts.

* Orioles reliever Fernando Cabrera also got into trouble for flipping the ball to his manager Dave Trembley when he was taking out of a game recently.

* Since the All-Star break, Frank Francisco has pitched 19 innings, allowed just ten hits, walked two and struck out 28. Opponents are hitting .147 off him. He still has three losses though but that was before becoming the closer.

* David Murphy has played in 151 games for the Rangers over two seasons. He's hitting .288 with 80 runs scored, 40 doubles, four triples 17 home runs and 88 RBI.