Mikolas: I’m more than a lizard eater
Miles Mikolas, a 29-year-old right-handed pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, reached the majors with the San Diego Padres in May 2012. Over the next 2½ years, he was optioned to Class AAA nine times, traded twice and released once, by the Texas Rangers.
On his honeymoon in Cancún, Mexico, after the 2014 season, Mikolas and his wife, Lauren, decided to move to Tokyo.
After earning around $7 million over his three seasons in Japan, Mikolas signed with the Cardinals last winter for two years at $15.5 million. He has been a steal, going 9-3 with a 2.63 ERA and a National League-low 1.4 walks per nine innings.
Prior to his stint in Japan, Mikolas gained internet fame in 2011 when — acting on a dare from his teammates in the Arizona Fall League — Mikolas ate a live lizard in the bullpen. A video of his reptilian snack has been viewed more than 100,000 times, but Mikolas would rather not dwell on it.
“Thanks, YouTube, for keeping me relevant when I wasn’t around, I guess,” said Mikolas, whose nickname is “Lizard King.” “When I signed, I went to the winter meetings and I did some interviews about it. I can talk about it; I can ham it up a little bit. But I’m not here to eat lizards or talk about eating lizards. I’m a baseball guy.”
Obscure feat
In the Minnesota Twins’ 2-0 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday, first baseman Joe Mauer did not record a putout or assist.
The last major league first baseman to play a full game without a putout or assist was Edwin Encarnacion for Toronto in 2012. It was the first such game in Twins history, and just the seventh such occurrence in the past two decades.
The 24 outs recorded by Twins pitchers Tuesday were 16 strikeouts, 6 fly outs and 2 line outs.
Stacked
Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle, on Golden State signing All-Star center DeMarcus Cousins: “It’s like you ask Santa for a bike, and he brings you a Harley.”
Add Cousins
Adrian Crawford, via Twitter, on the uproar over Cousins signing with the Warriors: “Joke’s on Boogie, though. A $5 million salary in San Francisco means he’s gonna need to share an apartment with 11 roommates.”
Money man
Steve Simmons of the Toronto
Sun, on Cavs star LeBron James opting out of a $46 million-a-year contract to become a free agent: “For someone making $75,000 a year, you’d only have to work 613 years to equal what LeBron declined.”