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Over the winter, we wrote about the Blue Jays coming to terms with a pair of pitchers who were trying to become knuckleballers. 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. Hydro Flask Deals . Moments after his Brooklyn Nets teammates ran out onto the court to congratulate him following their 100-98 overtime win over the Phoenix Suns on Friday night, Johnson could only shake his head at scoring only 13 points on 6-of-19 shooting. Cheap Hydro Flask Sale . Cavaliers shooting guard Craig Ehlo makes a solid play on the ball, but still Jordan hits the amazing shot. http://www.cheaphydroflasksale.com/. Sources tell TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger that the team is quietly gauging interest on the Senators captain, though Spezza has a limited no-trade clause and carries a large contract. Hydro Flask Warehouse Sale .The ruling takes effect on Jan. 1 and stems from the debate surrounding Paralympic champion Markus Rehm, an amputee who won the national long jump title competing with a carbon-fiber prosthesis. Discount Hydro Flask . He just didnt expect them to be this good. Darrun Hilliard scored 19 points to lead No. 6 Villanova to a dominating 77-59 victory over Georgetown on Saturday, preserving the Wildcats hopes of a No.AUSTIN, Texas -- A Texas appeals court has temporarily blocked an arbitration panel from reviewing $12 million in bonuses paid to Lance Armstrong by a company that wants its money back, stopping efforts to force him to give new sworn testimony about his doping past. SCA Promotions has sought to reopen a 2006 settlement paid to Armstrong since his 2013 admission to using performance-enhancing drugs during his cycling career to win the Tour de France. The arbitration panel that first approved the settlement agreed to reconsider the case, and a Dallas judge last week rejected Armstrongs attempts to stop it. The panel set a March 17 hearing and SCAs attorneys wanted to question Armstrong under oath on Thursday. Armstrongs attorneys appealed to the Dallas-based Fifth Court of Appeals. Judge Kerry Fitzgerald ordered all proceedings stopped on Tuesday pending further review by the court later this month. SCA and Armstrong have been battling since 2005, when the company tried to withhold the bonus money and tried to prove he used performance-enhancing drugs. Despite producing some of the most serious doping allegations at the time, SCA ultimately agreed to pay Armstrong. Armstrongs attorneys insist state law wont allow SCA to reopen the original settlement, which included language that said "no party may challenge, appeal or attempt to set aside" the payment and that it was "fully and forever binding." "We are pleased the court will consider the issue of whether a final settlement, to which all parties agreed would end all ddisputes, can be reopened when one side has buyers remorse," Armstrong attorney Tim Herman said.dddddddddddd SCA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company has said Armstrong deceived the arbitration panel when he lied under oath that he had never used performance-enhancing drugs. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which produced a 1,000-page report detailing doping programs on Armstrongs teams, has banned Armstrong from Olympic sport for life and he has been stripped of his victories. Armstrong has faced several lawsuits since admitting last year that he used steroids and other performance-enhancers to win the Tour de France every year from 1999-2005. He has settled cases with the London-based Sunday Times and Nebraska-based Acceptance Insurance. Armstrong settled with Acceptance hours before he was scheduled to be questioned under oath. He also is facing a federal whistleblower lawsuit, in the government wants to recover more than $30 million the U.S. Postal Service paid to Armstrongs teams. Potential penalties in that case could be as high as $100 million. The SCA case is notable because the companys initial efforts dug further than anyone else into Armstrongs doping, including testimony from Betsy Andreu, the wife of Armstrongs former teammate Frankie Andreu. Betsy Andreu testified that Armstrong admitted to doctors treating him for cancer in 1996 that he had used performance-enhancing drugs. She later became a key witness against Armstrong in the USADA report and one of his fiercest public critics. ' ' '