Baseball Hall of Famer Hank Aaron can add an honorary degree from Princeton University to his trophy case. He was awarded an honorary doctorate of humanities for making America a better place with his "imperishable example of grace under pressure." The university cited how he kept his cool while pursuing Babe Ruth's home run record nearly 40 years ago.

Logan Morrison says at first he thought Twitter was lame, although he uses a more colorful adjective because he’s a 23-year-old ballplayer who’s a fan of Dave Chappelle, and he talks like one. Morrison gradually became hooked on Twitter and now has more than 26,000 followers. But the left fielder known as LoMo may lead the league in Web wisecracks. Few athletes are wittier on Twitter. “It’s amazing how many people take you seriously,” he says. “I don’t take it seriously at all.” That’s what worries team president David Samson. The Marlins monitor tweets by all of their employees, and Samson says he has warned Morrison that his R-rated material could carry negative repercussions.

The Royals have removed Joakim Soria as their closer, likely replacing him with Aaron Crow. Soria, a two-time All-Star, blew his fifth save of the season in a 10-8 loss to the Angels on Monday. "I think we've gotten to a point where we'll back Jack off," manager Ned Yost said. "We'll give him a break. He's pitched back-to-back days. Jack is definitely off, but he's not off by a whole lot. I think he's close to getting it back, but just not quite." Soria had just three blown saves in 46 opportunities last season. "I think it's the right way to do it," Yost said. "I try to build up, try to work hard and I try to work back on my confidence and try to be the one that I was before."

Bartolo Colon tossed a four-hit shutout for the Yankees against the Athletics on Monday afternoon. It was the right-hander's first shutout in nearly five years. "I feel really strong physically and mentally right now," Colon said through an interpreter. "I feel really good right now. It doesn't matter that I'm 38 years old. I feel really good right now." Colon allowed no walks and struck out six to snap a five-start winless stretch with his first shutout since blanking Seattle 4-0 on July 5, 2006, with the Angels.

Mets shortstop Jose Reyes has been placed on the bereavement list by the team after learning of the death of his paternal grandmother, Maria Trinidad Reyes, Monday afternoon. Reyes left the team immediately to fly home to Santiago, Dominican Republic. According to Major League Baseball rules, a player on the bereavement must miss a minimum of three days and a maximum of seven days.

Former major league catcher Mike Matheny says the hit that knocked out San Francisco's Buster Posey for the rest of the season could have easily been avoided. Matheny's career was ended by concussions. "You know what, it wasn't a dirty play, he didn't come high spikes, he didn't come high elbow," Matheny said. "But it wasn't a necessary play. He was hunting. Buster gave him an option and he didn't take it." Matheny, 40, finished his career with San Francisco in 2007 and is a minor league instructor with St. Louis. Florida's Scott Cousins went out of his way to take out Posey in a play at the plate last week.

White Sox starting pitcher John Danks took exception to Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista on Sunday, calling the home run leader a "clown." Danks made the comments in response to an incident in the fourth inning on Sunday when Bautista popped up a 3-2 pitch from Danks for the second out of the inning. Bautista tossed his bat and appeared frustrated with himself as he jogged toward first base before the ball was caught. The two players had words with each other as Bautista headed back to the dugout. "I just told him to run the bases. He was out there acting like a clown," Danks said. "He's had a great year and a half -- no doubt. He's one of the best players in the league. But he's out there acting like he's Babe Ruth or something." "Just the way he was acting. He ran halfway down the line and stopped and spiked his bat. I get it. He's upset at himself," Danks continued. "He's a good hitter, he's had a great couple years. But he isn't that good to be acting like he needs to hit every ball out of the ballpark." After the game, Bautista said he was simply frustrated with himself and not trying to show up Danks. "That should not be his concern," Bautista said. "I was upset at myself with missing a pitch. If he took it the wrong way, I'm sorry. I'm not here to make him feel good."

Cardinals reliever Ryan Franklin wants to regain his closing job with the team. Franklin understands he'll have to pitch through some mop-up innings in order to get his old job back. "Right now it's just a matter of taking steps to where I was as the closer," said Franklin, who shaved his ERA from 9.20 to 7.79 with his second-longest outing of the season. "The last couple times have been steps. I think the whole thing is getting out there now and getting more pitching under my belt in game situations."

Not seeing enough progress from the pair, the Orioles have demoted Brad Bergesen and Chris Tillman to Triple-A Norfolk. "There comes a point where we got to get better there," manager Buck Showalter said. "Some things aren't good enough. We had a pretty good sampling of things, and if we are not pitching and taking the experience and making strides, then we need to go back down to Norfolk and work on it. Sometimes it's just not good enough." Bergesen was 1-6 with a 5.36 ERA in 10 games (nine starts). Tillman was surprised by the move. "Yeah, it's a shock, but they got to do what they got to do," Tillman said. "I've been wearing down the bullpen, and they need the bullpen guys with Matusz coming back. It kind of makes sense. I haven't felt right, I haven't felt like me. I'm going [out] there and thinking about everything, what I need to do to throw this pitch, what I need to do to throw that pitch. I just need to go out there and have fun and do my thing."

The Rangers don't have many options at closer, despite Neftali Feliz's struggles on the mound this season. Feliz, the 2010 American League Rookie of the Year, spent time on the disabled list and has struggled with the inability to throw off-speed pitches. "Command," manager Ron Washington said when asked what is wrong with Feliz. "All I want Neffy to do is be Neffy," he added. "He's healthy, [there's] nothing wrong with him. "Sometimes pitchers go through slumps, just like hitters go through slumps. And he's in a slump and we got to keep giving him the ball, until that one day he goes out there and everything falls into place and then we can move forward. The questions I'm getting, I'm definitely tired of answering."