One summer day in 1944, a three-year-old Pete Rose was playing baseball in the backyard of his Cincinnati home with his father, Harry "Big Pete" Rose. With one mighty, toddler-sized smack of the bat, the mini-Rose—the future "future Hall of Famer"—sent a hard-rubber ball across the back deck and into the kitchen window, cracking the upper pane of the plate glass.

The elder Rose, who "did not raise his oldest son to just be a major league baseball player … [he] raised his son to hit .300," as Joe Posnanski says, was understandably proud of the prowess his pre-schooler showed. As Rose's mother would later recount, " 'He said, 'I don't want it fixed. I'm not going to fix that. I'm going to show people where Pete hit that ball.'..."

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With the full-blown start of the 2013 season less than a week away, news about the greatest sport in the world is pouring in all around us. Pundits are prognosticating, captains are complaining, injuries are increasing—the topics are certainly plentiful and diverse. Some of them are even on the "weird" side of things (and no, I'm not talking about the Brewers giving Kyle Lohse three years and $33 million).

Here's a quick look at some of those odd or off-the-beaten-path stories from recent days.

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The Indianapolis Indians, the International League affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates, have been a part of professional baseball since 1902, making them the second oldest minor league club behind only the Rochester Red Wings. With such a long history, it's no surprise that many great players have passed through the club. Grover Cleveland Alexander, Nap Lajoie, Luke Appling, Harmon Killebrew, Herb Score and many other All-Stars and Hall of Famers have all been associated with the club over the years (even if, like Alexander, it was only ever on paper). Outside the ballpark, the club has had a few notable moments as well.

In the summer of 1927, area businessman James Perry bought the Indians from W.C. Smith Sr. by purchasing 96% of the club's controlling company. Perry had other business interests in the city. For example, Perry was a part of the suddenly booming aviation industry as president of the Curtiss Flying Service of Indiana. He had helped build the Transcontinental Air Transport company's coast-to-coast air rail line.

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\ˈglō-bə-ˌsīd\ - noun

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If you weren't watching any of the World Baseball Classic over the last 24 hours, you missed some intense and exciting games. Italy beating Mexico on a ninth-inning comeback and Japan beating Chinese Taipei in extra-innings after tying it up on their last strike are great examples of how this tournament can be so fun (especially if you love sacrifice bunts!), but the other two games were just as eventful. The battle between Venezuela and the Dominican Republic was especially rowdy, with the crowd in Puerto Rico's Hiram Bithorn Stadium cheering loudly all night, even through a 50-minute rain delay in the first inning.

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The Baltimore Orioles, led by their owner Peter Angelos, made a bid at international diplomacy in 1999. After a large push by Angelos, Major League Baseball and the Cuban government (along with a little help from the State Department, I'm sure) agreed to play a home-and-home series between the Cuban national team and Angelos' Orioles at the start of the season.

The first game was played in Havana in March before a roaring crowd of 50,000-plus. Angelos was joined in the front row behind home plate at Estadio Latinoamericano with MLB Commissioner Bud Selig and Cuban leader Fidel Castro. After the home team tied it up in the bottom of the 8th, the crowd was treated to a 3-2 Baltimore victory when an 11th-inning single from Harold Baines scored Will Clark from second. It was a thrilling but, ultimately, predictable game.

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Spring training is all about trying things out and seeing who or what works best, so it's not uncommon to see a manager shuffling his lineup in early games (especially after the addition of a new leadoff hitter). Even so, it looks like Davey Johnson and the Nationals might be doing more than experimenting.

With the addition of the left-handed-batting Denard Span to the top of the lineup, reports out of Nationals camp say that Johnson is thinking of moving no-longer-a-teen phenom Bryce Harper down from the second spot in the batting order (where he excelled in 2012) to the third, sliding in right-handed hitting Jayson Werth between the two lefties. Speaking to reporters about the choice, Johnson said this:

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When the Astrodome opened in 1965, it was quickly dubbed the "Eighth Wonder of the World." The fully-enclosed stadium was the first of it's kind: a domed, air-conditioned marvel that could handle baseball, football, and any other large event in all kinds of weather. With its bubble exterior and proximity to the fledgling space program, there was no better evidence of America's quick march towards The Jetsons than the new Houston stadium.

Among it's many futuristic innovations was the $2 million scoreboard, "the world's largest, most versatile animated scoreboard." Any gushing preview of the new ballpark was incomplete without a description of the device. A 1972 Houston Sports Association publication touting the wonders of the Astrodome and its surrounding area calls the scoreboard "an electronic marvel, costing $2 million, and longer than a football field, [giving] patrons of the Astrodome more information, faster, than any visual display ever before seen on any athletic field."

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The 2004 CBS drama "Century City" was a lot like every other courtroom drama on television: A charming and unbelievably altruistic character in the lead, an obnoxious prig in one office, a beautiful young lawyer in another, and a diverse cast of ambitious and energetic lawyers and paralegals rounding out the rest of the firm. In "Century City," however, this came with a twist: The show took place in Los Angeles circa 2030. In this setting, the show could tackle genetic profiling, cloning and other pushing-the-envelope topics all in front of holographic judges. In "Love and Games," the series' third episode, the topic was the bionic enhancement of professional baseball players.

A college shortstop (played by Brad, the oldest son from "Home Improvement") who was promised he would be chosen with the number-one overall pick in the draft plummets to the final pick of the draft. He is chosen by the expansion San Fernando Valley Coyotes, who make the choice after some serious cajoling from Brad's lawyer. The reason for the drop? Brad has a bionic eye, the result of an accident at age 18. The league has a rule against players with mechanical enhancements and tries to keep Brad out, leading to a lawsuit by Brad and his lawyers. Meanwhile, Brad faces prejudice on the outside. After getting spiked in the arm by a teammate at practice, the teammate spits out, "Why don't you just get a new arm?" A Jackie Robinson reference also finds its way into the episode.

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Today is Michael Jordan's 50th birthday. In honor of such a major milestone in the life of one of the 20th century's most fascinating athletes, here is a reprint of a Tater Trot Tracker post originally published in 2010.

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The best I can describe it, today is a day in which you express your feelings for the things that you love. As such, here is hands-down the best baseball photograph ever taken (well, my favorite at least). It's the kind of photo that can't help but re-spark that love of the game that everyone here at Baseball Prospectus has.

The photo was originally published in LIFE magazine and gives us a unique and amazing view of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series from high above Forbes Field. Enjoy, and feel free to share your favorite baseball-themed whatever, be it movie (Bad News Bears), book (Sandlot Peanuts), or anything else.

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