Avril Lavigne plays baseball!

source

Avril Lavigne was all smiles when she threw out the first pitch before last night's Tampa Bay Rays game, but she lobbed a few four-letter words at the crowd when a technical glitch messed with her post-game concert. 

According to local reports, Avril's mic didn't work at the start of her show ... and she responded to the cavalcade of boos by yelling obscenities at crowd.

Rays rep Rick Vaughn tells TMZ, "The Rays demand profanity-free performances from all of our concert performers and we are extremely disappointed by the language used in last night's show. It is not consistent with the family-friendly atmosphere that Tropicana Field is known for."

Calls to Lavigne's rep were not returned.

UPDATE -- Several of our readers were in attendance last night and point out via our message board ... that while Avril did drop a few F-bombs, they weren't directed at anyone in particular. Her real fans, it seems, enjoyed the show just fine.

Link roundup

1. Soviet Rocket Giraffe is a blast to play (think snowboarding, not flying).

2. Some fun baseball links: MLB owners ranked from best to worst (go Dodgers); Top 50 prospects of the draft era; "Who is Drew Butera, and is he hitting .122?"

3. i09 raves about The River:

The River is much more exciting, immersive, and cinematic than you'd expect from a "found footage" style show. It has a mythology that feels like it could become something for your coworkers to obsess over around the watercooler, but the mysteries aren't of the "endless hand-waving" variety. The makers of the pilot paid attention to the fundamentals: character development and great storytelling, and it's paid off.

The worst baseball cap in history

The 1969 Seattle Pilots - - ESPN's pick for the worst baseball cap in history. There's ten more here.

Link roundup

1. Mets pitcher R.A. Dickey gives his baseball bats geeky names, including Orcrist from The Hobbit and "hrunting" based on Beowulf.

2. I didn't read the article for fear of spoiling the headline:

'Mad hatters' gang of middle-aged women blamed for Detroit crime spree

Police in Detroit are hunting a gang of middle-aged women, nicknamed the "Mad Hatters", who they blame for a string of robberies, purse snatching and fraud.

Via.

3. My local theater doesn't show pre-movie commercials anymore, but the theaters that do are having trouble filling the slots:

Part of the reason for the shortfall, according to the firm's CEO, is lack of advertising from Japanese auto and electronics makers who are suffering following March's earthquake and tsunami, as well as the National Guard, which no longer needs to advertise as much because high unemployment numbers push so many candidates its way.