IT’S A MADD MADD WORLD...

Commissioner Rob Manfred, who’s got enough franchise headaches with the long-festering stadium issues in both Oakland and Tampa Bay, had an unexpected bomb dropped on his head Thursday with the announcement of a lawsuit filed by Louis Angelos, the son of incapacitated Orioles owner Peter Angelos, against his brother John Angelos and his mother Georgia essentially claiming he’s been forced out of the decision-making process with the club. According to Louis Angelos, his brother intends to maintain absolute control over the Orioles and has fired many longtime Oriole employees. The suit also says that Angelos’ 80-year-old wife Georgia’s top priority was to sell the team but that John nixed a sale in 2020. It’s going to be up to Manfred now — as his predecessor Bud Selig did with former Dodger owner Frank McCourt in 2012 — to step in and force a sale of the Orioles, once a model baseball franchise which has been run into the ground by John Angelos and his incompetent management team in recent years. Even though John Angelos lives in Nashville, Manfred will stipulate the team must be sold to local ownership; that baseball will not approve a move . ...

Last Saturday in Pittsburgh a remarkable thing happened when Pirates reliever Duane Underwood Jr. pitched 1 ⅓ innings of spotless relief against the Diamondbacks. Why was that so remarkable? Because it was the first time in 42 consecutive relief appearances Underwood had not allowed a baserunner — a Pirates record. … Hail Steve Stone, White Sox broadcaster and former Cy Young Award winner, who celebrated his 40th year of announcing baseball games Tuesday by throwing out the first pitch (not without first affixing some sticky stuff to his fingers) of the Sox-Dodgers game. One of the great listens in baseball is Stone and his White Sox broadcast partner