baseball

“What if the Mets are actually good now?”

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Longtime readers of this blog know that I bleed Mets blue and orange. That’s why I resonate so much with Devin Gordon’s piece today at The New York Times: “Who Am I if the Mets Are Good?” I love this […]

What happened to the American pastime?

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In 2021, Major League Baseball dumped 42 minor league affiliates. Over at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Will Bardenwerper notes that New York Mets outfielder Juan Soto, with his $765,000,000 contract, “will make in ten at-bats roughly the $700,000 MLB will save […]

On Frank Robinson, Earl Weaver, and the Baltimore Orioles

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When I get the chance, I hope to read John W. Miller’s book The Last Manager: How Earl Weaver Tricked, Tormented and Reinvented Baseball. The Washington Post is running a short excerpt. Here is a taste: Weaver changed how baseball […]

The Grimace factor

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My New York Mets are still alive in the MLB playoffs. This is from June 2024: By day I am a historian. By night I am a baseball prognosticator! 🙂

Vin Scully meets Willie Mays

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On the day of Scully’s final Dodgers broadcast: RIP Say Hey Kid! And as long as we are talking about Scully, I still love his rendition of the Lord’s Prayer:

When a British announcer calls a Mets win

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I love this. I don’t think I have ever heard a person with a British accent call a baseball game. This was much better than both the FOX (Saturday) and ESPN (Sunday) coverage of the London Series between the Mets […]

162-0?

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Nine years ago, WFAN (New York City) sports radio host Mike Francesa took this call: I am trying to think of something smart to say about how this video reflects public discourse today. But I think I’ll just let it […]

A no hitter in Brooklyn caught by a humble major league catcher

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Last night, three minor league pictures–Dakota Hawkins, Joey Lancellott, and Joseph Cornielly–pitched a combined no-hitter as the Brooklyn Cyclones (the Mets’ High A affiliate) defeated the Aberdeen Ironbirds (Baltimore Orioles High A affiliate) 3-0. The current New York Mets starting […]

The wild story of 10-cent beer night at Cleveland Stadium

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Some fine sports writing here from Fredric J. Frommer at The Washington Post. He tells the story of the riot that occurred in Cleveland Stadium during a Cleveland Indians (now Guardians)-Texas Rangers game on June 4, 1974. This melee should […]

Ty Cobb hit .367, but Josh Gibson hit .372

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Here is the Associated Press: Josh Gibson became Major League Baseball’s career leader with a .372 batting average, surpassing Ty Cobb’s .367, when Negro Leagues records for more than 2,300 players were incorporated Tuesday after a three-year research project. Gibson’s […]

Why I love baseball!

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Alternative title of this post: “Why I am having a hard time concentrating on my work this morning.” The New York Mets lost the first two games of a weekend series against the Atlanta Braves. On Saturday night, in game […]

The triple play in The Odd Couple

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A 13-year-old Howie Rose, the longtime New York Mets radio broadcaster, was at Shea Stadium in 1967 for the filming of a scene from The Odd Couple. Here’s the scene: On last night’s broadcast, Rose said they filmed the scene […]

Steve Garvey for U.S. Senate?

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I respected Steve Garvey as a baseball player, but I rarely, if ever, cheered for him. I was no fan of those 1970s and early 1980s Dodger teams that included the likes of Davey Lopes, Ron “The Penguin” Cey, Bill […]

The curse of Ted Cruz

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In case you missed it, last night the Texas Rangers won game seven of the American League Championship Series over the Houston Astros and are headed to the World Series against either the Philadelphia Phillies or the Arizona Diamondback (they […]