Summertime is back, and so is the weekly roundup of Banished to the Pen highlights.

Baseball

The Marlins’ “hiring” of GM Dan Jennings as manager caused a stir, and Nick Koss weighed in on the move.

In light of another player ejection causing controversy, Andrew Patrick proposes an alternative where umpires only worry about calling the game, and two new roles are established: “head judge” and “mediator.”

Stats

Julien Assouline took a closer look at the likelihood of a link between pitchers’ velocities and Tommy John surgery.

Fandom

May 20 marked the end of David Letterman’s late night tenure. While Letterman wasn’t the most up-to-date baseball fan (he once referred to Barry Bonds as Bobby in a monologue before catching himself), he was quite the fan growing up (he once rattled off the Big Red Machine lineup to guest Pete Rose). Plenty of web sites gave tribute, compiling their favorite sports-related moments of Late Night and The Late Show, or coming up with their own awful tribute Top Tens. We decided to make a Top Ten of baseball entries throughout the years, with absolutely no context whatsoever.

May 21 was the fifth anniversary of the landmark Baseball Prospectus podcast, Up & In, with Kevin Goldstein and Jason Parks. To mark the occasion, our own Tyler Baber posted a retrospective of the show, compiling the thoughts and memories of a multitude of writers, podcasters, and fans. Thanks to the show’s gargantuan fanbase, our page view records were smashed in the process.

Podcast

To go along with the Up & In retrospective, our podcast featured Mike Ferrin, who hosted another Baseball Prospectus podcast with Parks, Fringe Average, and now can be heard on Sirius XM’s MLB Network Radio.

Flashback

Brian Daubach, former 1B/OF and now a manager in the Nationals’ system, talked to Mick Reinhard about his path to the majors and the ups and downs along the way.

Sometimes giveaways aren’t taken home by fans after the game, but instead, are thrown on to the field. Alex Crisafulli was witness to a particularly memorable example — 1987’s “Seat Cushion Night.”

Have a safe Memorial Day, everyone.