Durrett, who covered the Rangers for the past five years for ESPN Dallas amid his other versatile duties, was remembered and eulogized by family, friends and hundreds of others as a great father, husband and person, and as a journalist whose considerable talents allowed him to cover multiple sports, including baseball, hockey, golf, auto racing and college sports.

Brad Mills isn’t the first player swapped for a dollar, and teams have traded skippers, but baseball is littered with players being bartered for inanimate objects — including food and equipment.

When Lonnie Chisenhall’s name does appear among the league’s top hitters — expect to see it listed at or near the top of the chart — it will be an official acknowledgement of what has been a special season. Once a top prospect, and more recently an afterthought, Chisenhall has seemingly revived his career and provided Cleveland with one of the game’s best first-half stories.

Yankee Stadium was the host of the Bombers Boomer Broadway Softball Classic on Monday. The fourth annual event features a doubleheader of games with Broadway stars playing each other in the first game and a team put together by Boomer Esiason to face some Yankees alumni and members of the Wounded Warrior Amputee Softball Team in the second game.

As we enter the frantic final stages of voting to determine starters at Target Field via the All-Star Game MLB.com Ballot Sponsored by Experian, we can at least tell you which players will be starring there two days earlier in the annual Taco Bell All-Star Legends & Celebrity Softball Game.

Surrounded by superstars Albert Pujols, Mike Trout and Josh Hamilton, Erick Aybar doesn’t draw much attention. That suits him fine. Brilliant with the glove and a versatile weapon offensively, the 30-year-old athlete from the land of shortstops — the Dominican Republic — is by most accounts enjoying his finest of nine seasons.

Oakland maintains its hold on the No. 1 spot in the MLB.com Power Rankings this week, but the Brewers are in second place instead of the A’s Bay Area neighbors. The Giants fell to No. 3 after losing seven of 10, and a new pair of neighbors — the Angels and the Dodgers — round out the top five.

Shortstop Deven Marrero’s efforts on offense and Zach Davies’ string of zeros have netted them this week’s honors.

Phillies top Draft pick Aaron Nola has been assigned to Class A Advanced Clearwater, and the right-hander is scheduled to make his professional debut on Monday night.

According to the numbers, Minnesota’s signing of Phil Hughes was one of the best values of the offseason.

“When I was a kid … I had a good arm, and my mother told me to go and pitch,” Feliz said. “And I said, ‘OK. That’s fine.'” And that was that. But what the 2005 version of Feliz didn’t know at the time was that it wouldn’t always be that simple. A few years later, even baseball would betray him.

The Tigers revived themselves over the weekend with a three-game sweep of the division-rival Indians. They’ve won four straight overall to reclaim their familiar position atop the American League Central, where the second-place Royals now sit 2 1/2 games back. But a 9-20 stretch from May 19 through June 18 taught the Tigers a valuable lesson about the times in which they reside.

After falling in the basepath between third and home while trying to score on a triple and a wild throw, Corey Dickerson was tagged for a key out in the Rockies’ 6-5 loss to the Brewers.

On Sunday, the A’s called upon a pitcher to pinch-hit for the first time since 1994. Closer Sean Doolittle grounded out to end the game in Oakland’s 7-6 loss to the Red Sox, but he achieved his goal of not striking out.

With less than two weeks left in the online voting, several starting spots in the American League All-Star Game lineup are up for grabs, including shortstop, where Derek Jeter holds a 420,219-vote lead over Alexei Ramirez.

Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon won a replay challenge in Sunday’s 2-1 win over the Royals when a safe call at first on Pedro Ciriaco’s bunt attempt was overturned in the seventh inning.

The Dodgers offense was subdued against former teammate Eric Stults, scoring a run in each of the first two innings, but Hyun-Jin Ryu allowed San Diego just one run on four hits over six innings, for the 2-1 victory on Sunday at Petco Park.