A New York View of the 1913 Merkle Play

For those who read the accounts of Fred Merkle’s handling the ball hit to him in the third inning of the final game of the 1913 World Series—from the Philadelphia sport writers’ view—I have some follow up that presents the play from the New York writers’ view. One major difference is the Philadelphia writers all […]

“Twilight Zone” At The World Series

I was going to write about Tony LaRussa’s “Twilight Zone” experience in Game 5 (“I keep calling for Motte. Where’s Motte? When I tell Derek Lilliquist he’s fired, will he think I said ‘your fly is open’?”) and decided to wait until the World Series ended, but after last night’s bizarre Game 6 I’d like […]

Blue Monday: a Bitter Expos Anniversary

“Blue Monday, how I hate Blue Monday” Fats Domino may have sung the words, but it took Expos fans to live the nightmare – and many of us still carry the pain. It was thirty years ago today when we – and by ‘we’ I mean every living, breathing, Expos fan in Canada – watched […]

What Sunk the Braves

Good teams don’t fold for no apparent reason. Though buried by the publicity piled onto the Boston Red Sox, who also slipped out of the playoff picture in September, the Atlanta Braves should have seen their slide coming. Plagued all season by an inability to score runs, the Braves plodded through the 2011 season by […]

Wildest Card Wednesday Looked Like Tournament Play!

Immediately, after Wildest Card Wednesday’s games had concluded, the folks at MLB Network and ESPN were saying that this was the greatest night of baseball in the game’s history. Now that we have a few hours’ perspective, it is clear that they were absolutely right. There has never been a night in which the numbers […]

Final Cardinal Cuts

I’ve had a wonderful run of luck with my prognostications lately.  Seems like anytime I say X, Y actually happens and fairly quickly afterwards. Yesterday was another of those days, as Fernando Salas was sent to Memphis and Bryan Augenstein made the team.  I will admit that when the Cards plucked Augenstein from the waiver wire, I just […]

Speaker Spoke Plenty Loud

Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle. All four men bring to mind ideals you want in an outfielder. How about Tris Speaker? Speaker joined Cobb and Ruth on the membership roll when the Hall of Fame opened in 1939, yet not much is said or written about him. Speaker didn’t have Ruth’s power […]

The Last Game in Town

Sept. 30, 1971. Seventy years and 10,851 games into the story of American League baseball in the nation’s capital, the Senators, 38 games out of first place on the last day of the season, faced the Yankees in the final game in franchise history. The teams had split the first two games of the series […]

Astros Begin Reloading in 2010 Season

After a miserable start to the 2010 season, the Houston Astros made a mid-course correction in July.  Astro icons Roy Oswalt and Lance Berkman were traded for 6 younger players and the Club made a modest recovery in the second half of the season with rookies manning four positions in most games.  Catcher Jason Castro […]

Now It’s Over

“It’s over,” my mother says in the early innings of so many Cubs games. Frustrated, she changes the channel. Those words were uttered by baseball fans across the country in the past few months as their teams were eliminated from the playoff race. (Unfortunately for mom, much sooner than most). In the coming weeks the […]

Crossing the Pacific

The 1988 Summer Olympics were held in Seoul, Korea. Baseball was merely a “demonstration” sport but that didn’t mean that the competition wasn’t fierce. Eight teams participated in the tournament which saw a final game played between the United States and Japan. The US team – led by future Major Leaguers Robin Ventura, Jim Abbott, […]

Follow the River

Strasburg Was Here Installment Four Follow the River September 6, 2010: Harrisburg 6, Binghamton 5     “No, I shall never drink  my fill, for it is sweeter even than the water of the well that was muddied by the drops.” Lady Sarashina, As I Crossed a Bridge of  Dreams        There may be no victory […]

Remember the Northwest League Seattle Rainiers, 1972-1976?

A couple months ago I saw a comment on a post I’d done about the infamous Portland Mavericks. I came to learn that the commenter, Bruce Baskin, remembered the Mavs because he’d grown up cheering on the Seattle Rainiers, the Mavs’ counterpart in the Northwest League, playing from 1972 through 1976. Bruce acknowledged that “people didn’t […]

Lancaster Loses League Home Run Leader Jason Perry

Lancaster took it on the chin four times in five meetings with the Atlantic League’s hottest team, Bridgeport, this week, but that is only the start of the potential problems facing the Barnstormers, who cling to a two-game lead in the Freedom Division race. They have to figure out a way to replace league home […]

‘Well, Yeah,’ Why Wouldn’t Pensacola Boss Enjoy Record-Setting 15-Game Win Streak?

All too often when the Florida Panhandle is in the news it seems to revolve around an oil spill or a hurricane bearing down on the area.  A more pleasant “hurricane” has swept through the area this month in the form of a stunningly-hot Pensacola Pelicans baseball team. The final game of a lackluster first […]

I Told You So… or How Javier Vazquez Almost Broke My Leg

He’s not trying to get outs and win baseball games. He’s trying to avoid being on the back page of the Daily News, his hat pulled down over his eyes, his head tilted downward, walking off the mound as manager Joe Girardi waits to hand the ball to reliever Sergio Mitre.

“Home” will always be at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull

Being that I grew up in the upper boonieland of Michigan, I didn’t make it to many games at the old Tiger Stadium, but I did have the privilege of making it to a few games in my early teen years.  I’m not going to bore you with the many scripted cliches that have surrounded peoples first […]