How to ruin your career

As any Oriole fan who has of late watched their favorite baseball players head back to the dugout disconsolately can tell you, hitting a baseball that's been thrown at you is a difficult chore.

But you have to figure, it gets a lot easier if you know what kind of pitch they're gonna throw at you. You can time your swing a lot better if you know a slow curve is coming.

All this has led to the early end of the career of  Derek Bender, who just finished college and then spent a month with the Minnesota Twins before being given the royal heave-ho.

ESPN is reporting that the Twins cut Bender because, last week, he was allegedly tipping pitches to opposing batters in a game with the Class A Fort Myers Mighty Mussels.

The Fort Myers Mighty Mussels, don't you know!?

ESPN says that in the second game of a doubleheader on September 6, the Mussels were playing the Lakeland Flying Tigers. Bender, so they say, told "told multiple hitters" "the specific pitches being thrown."

And here's why: Bender told teammates he wanted the season to be over!

Mr Bender was chosen in the sixth round in the major league draft following a stellar career at Coastal Carolina.

Payton Eeles, a second baseman in the Twins' minor league system, knew Bender from their college days, and he was quick to post this support on X that might not be quite as laudatory as he thinks:

Baseball old-timers tell the story of Enos "Country" Slaughter (and for sure, if your given name is Enos Slaughter, you will be nicknamed "Country") who failed to run out a grounder as a rookie. His manager expectorated a quart of tobacco juice and said, "Son, if you're tired, we'll get you a little help out there," and from then on, all during his 19-year big league career, Slaughter never walked on a field again. He ran from spot to spot at all times. 

"Bendy" will tell his children about his month in the minors someday and dress up the fact that he threw the games because he was in a hurry to get in line to see that new Beetlejuice movie.