Weekend Wake Up: Burnett Inept, Injured, Crash Fuels Feud, Cuban Wants Rangers?

Burned Notice. Yankees fans have been upset with A.J. Burnett all year. He’s been streaky, putting together back-to-back scoreless starts just once, and hasn’t been good at all since the beginning of June, allowing fewer than four earned runs twice in eight starts. Yesterday’s outing was insult to injury and injury to insult: Burnett gave up a homer to Reid Brignac in the second inning of the Yankees’ 10-5 loss to the Rays, then pitched a fit in the clubhouse, slamming his hands against a set of double doors and cutting them on plastic lineup-card holders. He returned to begin the third inning, failed to get an out before being lifted, and only revealed he didn’t cut himself during a fall after calming down. It was a bad way to end a somber week for the Yankees, and Yankees blogs are none too happy about it.

Edwards Causes Wreck, Earns Wrath. Saturday night, Carl Edwards exacerbated an existing feud by beating Brad Keselowski to the line in the Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 with some rough driving that sent the latter driver into the wall. Edwards’ win won’t come without wrath, though. Keselowski lamented, “He turned left into me and wrecked me on purpose. I’m sorry that’s the way it had to end.” Keselowski’s father, Bob, was a little less polite:

⇥⇥Carl flipped out like he did at Atlanta and tried to kill the kid. I’m sick and tired of this. I’ll get my own damn uniform back on and take care of this. He ain’t going to kill my boy.Edwards later apologized, saying it was “nothing personal,” and he couldn’t let Keselowski “steal another race,” but the smiling, backflipping star is morphing into NASCAR’s preeminent villain. And NASCAR loves a villain.Mark Cuban, Texas Rangers Owner? Rebuffed once as a potential Cubs owner, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is now looking to get into baseball by looking closer to home. He’s reportedly interested in the Texas Rangers, and would join one of two investment groups vying for the troubled club, currently in bankruptcy. “The economics have changed,” Cuban wrote in an email to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, “which has gotten me interested.” If you thought Cuban was a dynamic owner in a league with a salary cap, just wait until Cuban breaks into baseball.

↵