Over the winter, we wrote about the Blue Jays coming to terms with a pair of pitchers who were trying to become knuckleballers. Cheap NMD Shoes For Sale . They were Josh Banks and Tomo Ohka. Banks had been a Blue Jays draft pick who had a brief stint with the club in 2007 before moving on to San Diego and then Houston, compiling a career record of 4-8. The other was Ohka, a journeyman from Japan who spent time with six organizations, including the Blue Jays in 2007, where he went 2-5. Ohka, who turns 38 next week, was already sent to the minor league camp last week. Now there is a third. Hes 30-year-old Frank Viola III. If the name is familiar, it should be. Hes the son of former big league star lefty, Frank Viola Jr. Frank Jr. had a very good career, predominantly with the Twins and the Mets. He was the MVP of the 1987 World Series - the Twins first win ever - and won the Cy Young Award in the American League the following season - his final full season with the Twins with a 24-7 season. Frank "Sweet Music" Viola, as he was affectionately known, is a member of the Twins Hall of Fame. Viola actually finished off his major league career in a short stop over with the Blue Jays in 1996. He went 1-3 for the Jays and ended his career on May 28 of that year. His son chased that major league dream as well and pitched in the White Sox organization thtough 2007 before injuries appeared to cut his career short. He dabbled in the media doing Florida State League games and even had his own fishing show, but Viola III never gave up his dream of pitching in the majors. The next step was trying to master the knuckleball. He worked with the likes of R,A Dickey, Tim Wakefield and Hall of Famer Phil Niekro and finally impressed the Blue Jays enough that they signed him last week. This doesnt necessarily mean the 30-year-old will make it to the big club. The Jays game plan is to have a knuckleballer or two in the minors to work with their catching prospects. That way, if they get called up to the Jays theyll be ready to work with Dickey without any major adjustment. Still, it would be great to see one of these knuckleballers eventually make it to the majors. Frank Viola Jr. incidentally is entering his second season as the pitching coach with the Mets Triple A farm club, the Las Vegas 51s. After writing about the passing of Dr. Frank Jobe, the man who pioneered Tommy John surgery last week, I discovered another interesting twist to the Tommy John story. Back in 1968, in a game at old Tiger Stadium, John was pitching against Detroit. In the first inning he hit Dick McAuliffe with a pitch. He later scored on an RBI single by Al Kaline. When McAuliffe came up again in the third, threw one pitch high and tight and then a 3-2 pitch behind McAuliffes head that sent him sprawling in the dirt. When he got up he dusted himself off and started to head to first glancing out towards John. McAuliffe claims that John taunted him by saying "What the F are you looking at?" That was the final straw for McAuliffe and he charged the mound. John got into a defensive position and the knee of the charging McAuliffe dug into Johns left shoulder. He suffered a separated shoulder and torn shoulder ligaments and missed the rest of the season. McAuliffe was suspended for five games and was fined $250.00. The interesting thing about John is that he resisted the advice to have surgery and let the shoulder heal with rest and rehab. The plan worked, though it took a while for John to get back to peak efficiency. 1974 was different. When Tommy John blew out his elbow, he said his arm simply felt dead. This time he agreed to surgery, which not only changed his career but revolutionized baseball in terms of treating this type of elbow injury. The Detroit Tigers have made history over the last three years, winning five of the six major awards handed out. They have won three straight MVP awards - the last two by Miguel Cabrerra and three straight Cy Young awards. The Tigers have made the postseason in each of the last three years. The only other time the organization did that was in the hay day of Ty Cobb in 1907, 1908 and 1909 when they dropped three straight World Series - two to the Cubs and one to the Pirates. This season under rookie manager Brad Ausmus, they will be trying to make the playoffs for the fourth straight time and for the first time in franchise history. Over the weekend, Tigers GM Dave Dumbrowski denied rumours he was listening to offers for starting pitcher Rick Porcello. In fact, he denied trying to trade any of his starters. But considering the Tigers have question marks at 3rd base and left field, you have to wonder a bit. Its still a bit too early to get too excited or too worried about this but Baltimore is 8-2 so far this spring and is scoring nearly eight runs-again, even without a rehabbing Manny Machado (knee) at full strength. NMD Shoes From China . -- The Minnesota Twins have granted relief pitcher Matt Guerrier his unconditional release, making the 35-year-old right-hander a free agent. NMD Shoes Clearance .J. -- Omar Cummings helped the Houston Dynamo advance to the MLS Eastern Conference finals. http://www.cheapnmd.net/ . Team officials travelled to Los Angeles on Thursday night to meet with the free agent, a person with knowledge of the plans said.FRANKFURT, Germany -- Bayern Munich set a Bundesliga record and opened up a four-point lead by beating Augsburg 3-0 on Saturday as Borussia Dortmund lost 2-1 in Wolfsburg. Goals from Jerome Boateng, Franck Ribery and Thomas Mueller extended Bayerns unbeaten run to a record 37 matches. "This record is incredible," Bayern coach Pep Guardiola said. Elsewhere, Son Heung-min scored a hat trick against his former team for Bayer Leverkusen to beat Hamburger SV 5-3 and level on points with Dortmund. Schalke got two goals from Kevin-Prince Boateng in a come-from-behind 3-1 victory over Werder Bremen. Adrian Ramos scored twice to secure Hertha Berlins 3-2 victory in Hoffenheim, after the visitors squandered a two-goal lead. Bayerns victory broke Hamburgs 36-match unbeaten run from January 1982 to January 1983. Bayern last lost on Oct. 28, 2012, 2-1 against Leverkusen in Munich. With 32 points from 12 matches, Guardiola has the best start of all-time of a coach in the Bundesliga. Bayern is four points clear of Dortmund and Leverkusen, while Wolfsburg is fourth, seven points behind the duo. Dortmund hosts Bayern in the next round, after the international break. Bayern eased past Augsburg after taking an early lead through a goal by Boateng -- the half-brother of Kevin-Prince -- in the fifth minute. Dantes glancing header off a corner landed in front of Boateng at the far post and he turned and drilled a left-foot shot into the opposite corner. Ribery fired a free kick into the upper corner in first-half injury time and Mueller converted a penalty in stoppage time to complete the victory. Dortmund went ahead in Wolfsburg but then fell to its second defeat this week, after losing at home to Arsenal 1-0 in the Champions League. It also lost central defender Neven Subotic to a knee injury shortly before halftime and Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp said the Serbia international may have damaged a ligament. Subotic was taken to a hospital for tests. Marco Reus curled a free kick over the wall in injury time of the first half. But Ricardo Rodriguez replied with another free kick goal, swingiing the ball into the area where it took a bounce to fool goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller, who just got his first call-up for Germany at age 33. Cheap NMD. Ivica Olic sealed Wolfsburgs fourth straight victory with another long-range shot inside the far post, while Reus hit the post with another free kick. Dortmund striker Robert Lewandowski had two penalty calls denied in injury time and Klopp had a heated exchange with officials after the match. Wolfsburg won despite playing without the injured playmaker Diego. "We made it easy for them (Wolfsburg)," Klopp said. The most entertaining game was in Leverkusen, where the home side saw Hamburg come back to level at 2-2 before pulling away again, with Son also setting up one goal and producing a key loss of possession that led to Hamburgs third goal. The South Korea forward scored twice inside the first 16 minutes, both times with his left foot and both times after shaking off Hamburg defender Heiko Westermann. Hamburg fought back with goals from Maximilian Beister and Pierre-Michel Lasogga, before Son completed his hat trick, this time with his right foot, on a deflected pass from Stefan Kiessling. Son then set up Kiessling for Leverkusens fourth goal, before Lasogga got his brace and raised his season total to eight goals. Gonzalo Castro secured Leverkusens victory in the 89th by lobbing the ball over Hamburgs goalkeeper Rene Adler. In Gelsenkirchen, Schalke fell behind on a goal from Felix Kroos, the brother of Bayerns Toni, before Boateng turned the match around with two headers. Substitute Jefferson Farfan put the issue beyond doubt in injury time, knocking in pass from Julian Draxler. Hoffenheim overcame a two-goal deficit, only to see Ramos knock in his second goal with a header in the 84th. Anis Ben-Hatira scored early after being put through by Ramos and the Colombia forward doubled the lead by converting a penalty. Hoffenheim pulled level after Sejad Salihovic first scored from the spot and then fired a free kick into the roof of the net. Ramos was unstoppable, however, rising to score with a header. ' ' '