Saturday, October 27, 2012

The T206 Collection: The Players & Their Stories


"The T206 Collection: The Players & Their Stories is a tribute to the men featured in the greatest baseball card collection that has ever existed. This book is for baseball fans, hobbyists, and history buffs. The brief biographical narratives along with the personal and professional statistics of each player offer you a peek into the developing world of baseball during the early part of the 20th century. The stories of the amazing array of T206 players from all walks of life with dramatically different skill levels will give you a real sense of how our national pastime was shaped by the events and players of that era. The last chapter discusses the value and grading system of this storied collection and brings the reader full circle. You will learn how a card like Kitty Bransfield’s with the Sweet Caporal back is graded and valued. In addition, elsewhere in the book, you will learn about the 'Bransfield Curse' and what it meant to Pittsburgh Pirates fans."
The T206 Collection: The Players & Their Stories
PSA Card: The Men Of T206
amazon: The T206 Collection: The Players & Their Stories

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Mickey Cochrane


Wikipedia - "Gordon Stanley 'Mickey' Cochrane (April 6, 1903 – June 28, 1962) was a professional baseball player and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher for the Philadelphia Athletics and Detroit Tigers. Cochrane was considered one of the best catchers in baseball history and is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Cochrane was born in Bridgewater, Massachusetts to Northern Irish immigrant John Cochrane, whose father had immigrated to Ulster from Scotland and Scottish immigrant Sadie Campbell. He was also known as 'Black Mike' because of his fiery, competitive nature."
Wikipedia
SABR: Mickey Cochrane
Mickey Cochrane
YouTube: Biographies: Mickey Cochrane

M. T. Corrigan - "Sandlot Dad"

Not to say too much, nor paint those shadows
deeper than they were, his serves just clearing
the drop of the woods, and that line of maples
along Route Two, a deeper green. Greater matters
attach themselves to the sense of things
we learned, like the shockless strokes of triples
scalded down the lines, singeing the Nadeaus'
birch trees: overspin, top hand. What meaning
could one assign to batting practice; who grapples
light enough to comprehend that meadow's
darknesses? He pitched from deepeer shade, peering
in to catch the sign to get me out. No scruples
for the dustbacks that flung me down to dirt:
"Get up, son. Hang in. Baseball doesn't hurt."


Spitball

Monday, October 22, 2012

Inside the Park Home Runs


Arizona Diamondbacks - Ryan Roberts
Wikipedia - "In baseball parlance, an inside-the-park home run, 'leg home run', or 'quadruple', is a play where a batter hits a home run without hitting the ball out of play. To score an inside-the-park home run, the player must touch all four bases (in the order of first, second and third, ending at home plate) before a fielder on the opposing team tags him out. If the defensive team commits an error during the play, it is not scored as a home run, but rather advancing on an error. In the early days of baseball, with outfields more spacious and less uniform from ballpark to ballpark, inside-the-park home runs were common. However, in the modern era, with outfields less spacious, the feat has become increasingly rare, happening only a handful of times each season."
Wikipedia
Baseball Almanac
SABR: Inside the Park Home Runs

Saturday, October 20, 2012

What Happened to the Yankees?


"Turning the end of the Yankees' season into a referendum on Alex Rodriguez is reductive. This is a team that suffered multiple major injuries to key players, yet still won 95 games and an AL East title before an ALCS loss to the team with the best pitcher and best hitter on earth.1 Rodriguez was hardly alone in his struggles as the Tigers swept the Yankees out of the playoffs, joining Robinson Cano, Curtis Granderson, and Nick Swisher to form a Voltron of playoff incompetence. 2013 and beyond are a different story. When asking, 'What the hell do the Yankees do from here?' the answer starts with, 'What the hell do the Yankees do with A-Rod?'"
Grantland

Friday, October 19, 2012

The Pine Tar Incident


Etsy
Wikipedia - "The Pine Tar Incident (also known as the Pine Tar Game) was a controversial incident during an American League game played between the Kansas City Royals and New York Yankees on July 24, 1983 at Yankee Stadium in New York City. With his team trailing 4–3 in the top half of the ninth inning, George Brett of the Royals hit a 2-run home run to give his team the lead. However, Yankees manager Billy Martin, who had noticed a large amount of pine tar on Brett's bat, requested that the umpires inspect his bat. The umpires ruled that the amount of pine tar on the bat exceeded the amount allowed by rule, nullified Brett's home run, and called him out. As Brett was the third out in the ninth inning with the home team in the lead, the game ended with a Yankees win."
Wikipedia
MLB: BB Moments: The Pine Tar Game (Video)
ESPN - 67: Pine tar nullifies home run, so Brett goes ballistic
NYT: The Pine Tar Home Run By Murray Chass, July 24, 1983
HOMAGE T-Shirt

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

1973 World Series


Catfish Hunter
Wikipedia - "The 1973 World Series matched the defending champion Oakland A's against the New York Mets with the A's winning in seven games to repeat as World Champions. The New York Mets won the National League East division by 1 1⁄2 games over the St. Louis Cardinals then defeated the Cincinnati Reds, three games to two, in the National League Championship Series. The Oakland A's won the American League West division by six games over the Kansas City Royals then defeated the Baltimore Orioles, three games to two, in the American League Championship Series."
Wikipedia
Baseball Almanac
SI: Mutiny and a Bounty
Oakland A's History: Finley Fires Andrews
Tom Seaver and the '73 World Series
Let's Go to the Videotape: The 1973 World Series (Video)
YouTube: Game 3, Shea Stadium, Tom Seaver vs. Catfish Hunter, Game 3, Shea Stadium, 9th inning, Tug McGraw, Ray Sadecki, Yogi Berra Goes Nuts At Bad Call

Monday, October 15, 2012

Commons and Minor Stars


"I have spent a lot of time the last few days watching baseball and thinking about this baseball card collecting concept -- at least it was a concept when I was younger -- of commons and minor stars. When I was in high school, this would be in the early 1980s, I decided for a time to get serious about collecting baseball cards. This is the sort of thing high school kids do, I think, when they are not getting dates. I had collected baseball cards as a kid, but that was different, more about the social experience, flipping cards, trading cards, putting cards in the spokes of my bicycle and all that. My Mom, following the Mom Handbook of my generation, threw out my card collection one day when I wasn't looking, and I have come to believe those shoeboxes of baseball cards were filled with Mickey Mantle rookie cards, Sandy Koufax rookie cards, Willie Mays rookie cards even though all of these people played years before I was born, much less before I started collecting cards."
Joe Posnanski

Larry Eickstaedt - "Babe Ruth"

Ted Williams was my idol.
Ruthie and I were always the Boston Red Sox
for our farmyard baseball games
but I paid grudging respect
to Joe DiMaggio and the Yankees –
my brother's team.

Stories our dad told about the greats
like Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson,
provided an historical feel for the game.

More important than school lessons –
lifetime batting averages, most runs,
most hits, most stolen bases –
were committed to memory.

And
At the top of the list, records
held by the most famous of Yankees,
the Babe –
most home runs in a season,
most in a lifetime –
were sacred.

In the afternoon of August 16, 1948,
a wave of silence,
like a sharp line drive,
swept the family when Mom
came out to the yard and announced
to Dad, my brother, sister, and me,
Babe Ruth died today!

That's all she said.
As though in a trance,
stunned by the news,
she slowly went back inside.

Time was suspended
like one of his towering home runs
and tears were near as I struggled
with unsettling feelings
like striking out with the bases loaded
in the bottom of the ninth.


Spitball: The Literary Baseball Magazine

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Why It's Especially Tough to Root for the Yankees This Postseason


"There were two truly tremendous baseball games in the American League playoffs last night. Two bottom-of-the-ninth comebacks, two walk-off wins. I could almost say that for a Yankees fan, it was fun. Playoff baseball often isn't: For champions of the mind in April, anything short of a World Series title is a failure. A Yankee season is measured not by its sum of achievements but by its distance from the ultimate goal. October in New York brings tension, a lurking sense of something slipping away. For a baseball fan, though, this October has been unquestionably fun. The Baltimore Orioles and Oakland Athletics, two teams widely predicted to finish at the bottom—28th and 29th respectively in the ESPN pre-season power rankings—are playing playoff baseball."
The Atlantic

Big Leagues Monthly


"The October issue of Big Leagues Monthly is live now! Lots of great features, an interview with Mike Ferrin of MLB Radio, prospect notebook, AFL preview, and my cover piece on Max Scherzer's breakout season!"
Big Leagues Monthly
Big Leagues Monthly Blogspot

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

The 1964 Phillies: The Story of Baseball's Most Memorable Collapse


"In 1964, thousands of Philadelphia baseball fans were caught up in the Phillies’ unexpected run at the National League pennant. Nearly a decade of continuous defeat had earned them little more than the reputation for an unprecedented record of consecutive losses. But in that ’64 season the Phillies shocked the baseball world, taking over the National League in mid–July and holding on to first place for 73 consecutive days. And then, as the team’s first pennant in a generation seemed within reach, the Phillies collapsed in the greatest meltdown in baseball history."
amazon: The 1964 Phillies: The Story of Baseball's Most Memorable Collapse
SABR: Beyond Bunning and Short Rest: An Analysis of Managerial Decisions That Led to the Phillies’ Epic Collapse of 1964
The Legend of Chico Ruiz: Forty Years Later, A City Still Bleeds
Project MUSE: September Swoon: Richie Allen, the '64 Phillies, and Racial Integration (review)
amazon: September Swoon: Richie Allen, the '64 Phillies, and Racial Integration
Google: The 1964 Phillies: The Story of Baseball's Most Memorable Collapse
Chico F***ing Ruiz and the Bonehead Play of the Year
W - 1964 Philadelphia Phillies season

"There Used to Be a Ballpark"


Wikipedia - "'There Used to Be a Ballpark' is a song written by Joe Raposo and recorded by Frank Sinatra for Sinatra's 1973 album, Ol’ Blue Eyes Is Back. The song expresses sadness at the loss of a baseball team and its ballpark, which once gave its fans and players joy, along with other childhood delights such as 'rock candy and a great big Fourth of July'. A key phrase in the song is 'Now the children try to find it / And they can't believe their eyes / For the old team just isn't playing / And the new team hardly tries.' The song has often been cited by books and websites that discuss old-time baseball."
Wikipedia
YouTube: "There Used to Be a Ballpark"
SportsLifer

2012 August: Brooklyn Dodgers: Ghosts of Flatbush

Saturday, October 6, 2012

John Thorn


"John Thorn, the Official Historian of Major League Baseball, thinks and writes about other subjects, too. Sometimes he writes about football, sometimes about New York history, and sometimes about arts and letters, especially of the nineteenth century. He resides in Catskill, New York."
Wikipedia
Our Game Blog
Thorn Pricks - May 01, 2009
amazon: John Thorn
SABR42 Day Two: John Thorn’s keynote speech
Hardball Times - Interview: John Thorn

2012 September: Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game

The Felice Brothers - "Cooperstown"

The water's wide
It's deep and wide
It's down a long and windy road
And everyone knows that a boy can't swim it

In narrow's church
The white walled church
They're singing that gospel song
“bye and bye, I will see my king”
The clouds will break
And the pews shake
And the choir softly cries
And it's Georgia in the spring of 1905

Ty Cobb
You're dead and gone
You had a game like a war machine
And through the great
Hall of Fame you wander
In Tigers field
A girl in heels

She had a face like a magazine
And through the long metal stands she wandered

The ball soared
The crowd roared
The scoreboard sweetly hummed
And tomorrow you'll surely know whose won

I'm on first
And you're on third
And all the wolves are all between
And everyone's sure that the game is over

The catcher's hard
He's mean mean and hard
And he nips at the batter's heels
And everyone's sure that the game is over

The ball soars
And the crowd roars
And the scoreboard sweetly hums
And tomorrow you'll surely know whose won

The water's wide
It's deep and wide
It's a down a long and windy road
And everyone knows that a boy can't swim it

The clouds break
And the pews shake
And the preacher's feet do pound
As the rain beats the streets of Cooperstown


Lyrics Mania: "Cooperstown"

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Negro League Baseball: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution


"Jackie Robinson's breaking of baseball's color line has long been seen as a singular, unrepeatable moment in American cultural history -- especially because baseball really was the national pastime in 1947. But two new books demonstrate that for race in baseball, as for race in America, Robinson's moment was neither a simple culmination nor a clean slate. Neil Lanctot's Negro League Baseball: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution is notable for treating its storied subject primarily as a business enterprise. There are few anecdotes about outsized characters such as Satchel Paige, the barnstorming life or even on-field action. But Lanctot's approach lets him tell the story without making integration -- and the apotheosis of Robinson -- the be-all and end-all. He makes you understand thoroughly why Negro League ball -- like black banks, hotels and hospitals -- stood up stoutly in the face of segregation, but couldn't long survive its fall."
Pittsburgh City Paper
Cover the Bases Interview with Neil Lanctot (Video)
NYT: Before You Could Say Jackie Robinson
W - Baseball color line
amazon: Negro League Baseball: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution
W - Neil Lanctot

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

The 30, Week 26: Ace in the Hole


"In our final installment of the season, we're interested in how little has changed in six months. Check out the very first installment of this column, before it even adopted its current name: Six of the top 10 teams then are likely to make the playoffs 156 games later, two others are still in the mix, and the Cinderella Orioles were already 3-0. There've been a few changes, with the Braves and Giants shaking off 0-3 starts to crack the postseason, and the A's nearly there now after a rough start of their own. It's Week 26 of The 30. See you in the playoffs."
Grantland

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Whitey Ford


Wikipedia - "Edward Charles 'Whitey' Ford (born October 21, 1928) is an American former Major League Baseball pitcher who spent his entire 16-year career with the New York Yankees. He was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974. Ford was a native of the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, located in New York City. By the Triborough Bridge, it was a few miles from Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. Ford graduated from Aviation High School in nearby Sunnyside, Queens. Ford was signed by the New York Yankees as an amateur free agent in 1947, and played his entire career with them. He was nicknamed 'Whitey' while in the minor leagues for his light blond hair."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference
SI: July 24, 1961, Whitey Throws For 30
Whitey Ford
Baseball Card Hall of Fame</>

Friday, September 28, 2012

Sam Crawford


Wikipedia - "Samuel Earl Crawford (April 18, 1880 – June 15, 1968), nicknamed 'Wahoo Sam', was a Major League Baseball player who played outfield for the Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1957. Crawford batted and threw left-handed, stood 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) tall and weighed 190 pounds. He was one of the greatest sluggers of the dead-ball era and still holds the Major League's records for triples in a career (309) and inside-the-park home runs in a season (12). He has the second best all-time record for most inside-the-park home runs in a career (51)."
Wikipedia, Baseball-reference
SABR: Sam Crawford
Any player/Any era: Sam Crawford
Wahoo Sam was one of greatest stars in early days of Navin Field
Late Innings
YouTube: Baseball Hall of Fame - Biographies: Sam Crawford

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Tony La Russa: Great Manager, Terrible Memoirist


"As longtime season-ticket holders for the St. Louis Cardinals, my father and I spent unseemly portions of the past 15 years bickering from our seats along the first-base line about Tony La Russa's unorthodox managerial style. As a La Russa skeptic, I continually second-guessed the manager's incessant lineup tinkering. My father, ever the optimist, assured me that his in-game moves were all grounded in meticulous preparation and statistical analysis."
The Atlantic

Louis Phillips - "The Curve"

Life throws you a curve,
Breaking so sharply,
That just before it crosses the plate,
You flinch, bend back.
You still have two strikes to go.
Next a change up or a slider.
Perhaps followed by high heat.
A 100 mph fastball.
Even if you know what pitch is coming,
You still can’t hit it out of the park.
Soon you are not allowed
Any more pitches. 3 strikes.
Return to the bench.
No sense hanging around.
You’re out. That’s it.


Spitball Magazine

The 30, Week 25: Brewers Hoping for an Octoberfest


"Work got you down? Wife and kids hate your guts? Life kicking you in the head? Jon Miller, Gangnam Style. You're welcome. This week, we're only covering the teams that have a realistic shot at making the playoffs. Don't worry, we'll have plenty of coverage of the non-contending teams in the coming weeks. It's Week 25 of The 30."
Grantland

Friday, September 21, 2012

The Numbers Game - Alan Schwarz


"Most fans, players and even team executives assume that baseball's infatuation with statistics is simply a byproduct of the information age, a phenomenon that blossomed only after the arrival of Bill James and computers in the 1980s. They couldn't be more wrong. Alan Schwarz, the senior writer of Baseball America and a weekly contributor to ESPN.com, will forever change that misperception with his new book, The Numbers Game, just published by St. Martin's Press."
ESPN: Darwins of the Diamond by Alan Schwarz
amazon: The Numbers Game
W - Alan Schwarz

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Paul & Lloyd Waner


Wikipedia - "Paul Glee Waner (April 16, 1903 – August 29, 1965), nicknamed 'Big Poison', was a German-American Major League Baseball right fielder. He, along with his brother Lloyd, starred in the Pittsburgh Pirates' outfield in the 1920s and 1930s."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference
SABR: Paul Waner
Great Pirates In History: Paul Waner

Wikipedia - "Lloyd James Waner (March 16, 1906 – July 22, 1982), nicknamed 'Little Poison', was a Major League Baseball center fielder. His small stature at 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) and 132 lb (68 kg) made him one of the smallest players of his era. Along with his brother, Paul Waner, he anchored the Pittsburgh Pirates outfield throughout the 1920s and 1930s."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference
Lloyd “Little Poison” Waner
amazon: Big and Little Poison: Paul and Lloyd Waner, Baseball Brothers
YouTube: Paul and Lloyd Waner, Baseball Hall of Famers

The 30, Week 24: Return of the Freak


"With the regular season now in the home stretch, it's time to focus on those teams still in contention. Here, then, are our all-contender rankings. It's Week 24 of The 30. 1. Texas Rangers, 87-59 (746 RS, 623 RA) (last week: 2). The mockery started almost immediately after the trade was consummated. Ryan Dempster's career year was about to burst into flames, what with a move to the American League and to the AL's toughest ballpark for pitchers to navigate. In his first start with the Rangers, Dempster got creamed for eight runs on nine hits (including two homers), the Angels knocking him out after 4⅔ innings."
Grantland

Monday, September 17, 2012

A National Mistake


Illustration by Niv Bavarsky
"Let's start by making one thing clear: Everyone wants what's best for Stephen Strasburg. He is the greatest collegiate pitcher of all time, and in his short major league career, Strasburg has averaged more strikeouts per nine innings than Randy Johnson. No matter where you stand on The Strasburg Rules, everyone wants to see him pitch for 20 seasons, strike out 5,000 batters, and make a pretty speech in upstate New York in the summer of 2039. It's worth stating the obvious, because to hear some of the rhetoric, you'd think that there are only two positions on the subject — those who believe the Nationals are correct to shut down Strasburg and those who think it's fine to sacrifice Strasburg's arm on the altar of October baseball."
Grantland - Sep 12
The Atlantic: The Faulty Logic Behind the Decision to Shut Down Stephen Strasburg By Adam Felder - Aug 23
The Atlantic: Why the Nationals Are Right to Shut Down Stephen Strasburg - Aug 22
Bloomberg: Stephen Strasburg’s Season Didn’t Have to End This Way - Sep 8
PBS: Washington Nationals' Star Pitcher Stephen Strasburg Benched For Rest of Season - Sep 10 (Video)
YouTube: Stephen Strasburg Highlights - Jan 2012, 103 MPH fastball....Baseball's Next Big Thing - May 2009

Larry Eickstaedt - "Babe Ruth"

Ted Williams was my idol.
Ruthie and I were always the Boston Red Sox
for our farmyard baseball games
but I paid grudging respect
to Joe DiMaggio and the Yankees –
my brother's team.

Stories our dad told about the greats
like Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson,
provided an historical feel for the game.

More important than school lessons –
lifetime batting averages, most runs,
most hits, most stolen bases –
were committed to memory.

And
At the top of the list, records
held by the most famous of Yankees,
the Babe –
most home runs in a season,
most in a lifetime –
were sacred.

In the afternoon of August 16, 1948,
a wave of silence,
like a sharp line drive,
swept the family when Mom
came out to the yard and announced
to Dad, my brother, sister, and me,
Babe Ruth died today!

That's all she said.
As though in a trance,
stunned by the news,
she slowly went back inside.

Time was suspended
like one of his towering home runs
and tears were near as I struggled
with unsettling feelings
like striking out with the bases loaded
in the bottom of the ninth.


Spitball Magazine

Saturday, September 15, 2012

1963 World Series


Wikipedia - "The 1963 World Series matched the two-time defending champion New York Yankees against the Los Angeles Dodgers, with the Dodgers sweeping the Series in four games to capture their second title in five years, and their third in franchise history. This was the first time that the New York Yankees were swept in a World Series in four games (the 1922 World Series had one tie). Of the Los Angeles Dodgers four World Series championships since the opening of Dodger Stadium, this was the only one won at Dodger Stadium. Also, of the six championships from the Dodgers franchise, it remains the only one won at home. Starting pitchers Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Johnny Podres and ace reliever Ron Perranoski combined to give up only four runs in four games."
Wikipedia
Baseball Almanac
SI: Koo-Foo the Killer
YouTube: 1963 part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4

The Long, Strange Trip of Dock Ellis


"'Get to the f---ing stadium. I got to pitch.' Decades later, Dock Ellis remembered it like this: sitting in a taxi outside the San Diego airport, running late for work, tripping on acid. So yeah, maybe the words aren't verbatim. It was a Friday. That much is certain. June 12, 1970. Three years after psychedelic Pied Piper Timothy Leary invited America to 'Turn on, tune in and drop out.' Four years before Richard Nixon's resignation marked an inglorious denouement to the counterculture era. The middle of things. A purple haze. The perfect moment for the first and only known no-hitter in major league history pitched under the influence of lysergic acid diethylamide, thrown by the first and only player in major league history to inspire both a biography penned by a future American poet laureate and a seminal article in High Times."
ESPN
Dock Ellis and the LSD No No (Video)
amazon: Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball
ESPN: Ex-pitcher Ellis dies of liver disease
Snopes - True

2010 June: Dock Ellis

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Walk-off home run


Wikipedia - "In baseball, a walk-off home run is a home run that ends the game. It must be a home run that gives the home team the lead (and consequently, the win) in the bottom of the final inning of the game—either the ninth inning, or any extra inning, or any other regularly scheduled final inning. It is called a 'walk-off' home run because both teams walk off the field immediately afterward, rather than finishing the inning, though it originally was directed to the pitcher, who had to 'walk off' the field alone as the other team celebrated."
Wikipedia
MLB Notebook: Thome is king of walk-off homers
YouTube: Scott Hatteberg Walk Off Home Run (Clinches the Oakland A's 20th Consecutive Victory, Featuring both "Moneyball")

Hilldale Daisies


Wikipedia - "The Hilldale Athletic Club (also known as Hilldale Daisies, Darby Daisies) was an African American professional baseball team based in Darby, Pennsylvania, west of Philadelphia. Established as a boys team in 1910, the Hilldales were developed by their early manager, then owner Ed Bolden to be one of the powerhouse Negro League baseball teams. They won the first three Eastern Colored League pennants beginning 1923 and in 1925 won the second Colored World Series. Hall of Fame player Judy Johnson was a Hilldale regular for most its professional era with twelve seasons in fifteen years 1918–1932. Pitcher Phil Cockrell played for Hilldale throughout those years. Oscar Charleston, Biz Mackey, Louis Santop, Chaney White, Jud Wilson, and Jesse 'Nip' Winters all were team members for shorter terms."
Wikipedia
eMuseum: Hilldale Daisies
agate type: Hilldale Club
amazon: Fair Dealing and Clean Playing: The Hilldale Club and the Development of Black Professional Baseball, 1910-1932
African American Baseball in Philadelphia Historical Marker
Hilldale Eastern Colored League (c. 1920’s)

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

W.P. Kinsella


Wikipedia - "William Patrick Kinsella, OC, OBC (born May 25, 1935) is a Canadian novelist and short story writer who is well known for his novel Shoeless Joe (1982), which was adapted into the movie Field of Dreams in 1989. His work has often concerned baseball, First Nations people, and other Canadian issues."
Wikipedia
Guide to Baseball Fiction: W. P. Kinsella
amazon: W.P. Kinsella
SI: State of Dreams
“The Iowa Baseball Confederacy” by W. P. Kinsella

The 30, Week 23: Halos Are Born Again


"For the rest of the stretch run, we'll be dividing teams into two categories: Contenders and Also-Rans. The idea is simple: We want to focus on 2012 trends for contending teams, while looking at 2013 and beyond for those ballclubs whose seasons are more or less over. These are judgment calls, with some chance for error. Here's hoping we don't whiff this badly. It's Week 23 of The 30."
Grantland

Sunday, September 9, 2012

The History of How We Follow Baseball


1912, Boston Red Sox, New York Giants
"... He's just lucky he lives in this century. Its a luxury of modern sports that you can bring the game with you. Santorum was watching football on a small tablet; he could as easily have been streaming a ballgame over an iPhone, or watching a constantly-updated gamecast. Should he have had more discretion, he could at a minimum have peeked at scores over the web. A hundred years ago, sports fans -- read: baseball fans -- were not so lucky. In 1912, the Red Sox played the New York Giants in the World Series. Here's how people in Washington watched that game..."
The Atlantic, Oct. 2011 (Video)
SABR - Action Jackson: Watching Baseball Remotely, Before TV
Baseball Games Re-Created in Radio Studios

2010 September: Baseball scorekeeping
2010 December: 1919 World Series - Black Sox Scandal
2011 September: Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series
2011 May: The Black Sox Trial - 1921
2012 June: Kenesaw Mountain Landis

Larry Rogers - "For Andy Who Signed with the San Francisco Giants in 1972 Written after Finding His First Bubble Gum Contract in the Smokehouse"

He wanted his ashes spread
over a pasture in Logan County
that decades earlier had been
a ball field on which the Dean brothers,
Dizzy and Daffy, had played
when they were boys.
When he was a boy
he would go there
and commune with
their carefree spirits
when he wanted to
get away from the worries
of this world.

Accommodating him
one bright, April morning
I did not hear the pop
of a fastball shooting
into the heart of the catcher's mitt,
or early 20th century
infield chatter,
only my own unsteady voice
giving the barefooted Diz
a glowing scouting report
on another local boy.


Spitball Magazine

Friday, September 7, 2012

Herb Score


Wikipedia - "Herbert Jude Score (June 7, 1933 – November 11, 2008) was a Major League Baseball pitcher and announcer. ... In 1956, Score improved on his rookie campaign, going 20–9 with a 2.53 ERA and 263 strikeouts, while reducing the number of walks from 154 to 129, and allowed only 5.85 hits/9 innings, which would stand as a franchise record until it was broken by Luis Tiant's 5.30 in 1968. On May 7, 1957, against the New York Yankees at Municipal Stadium in Cleveland, Score was struck in the face by a line drive off the bat of Gil McDougald, breaking numerous bones in his face and leaving him bloodied. McDougald reportedly vowed to retire if Score was blinded as a result, but Score eventually recovered his 20/20 vision, though he missed the rest of the season. Score returned late in the 1958 season."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference
SABR: Herb Score
Herb Score Being Hit by a Liner in 1957
SI: How Herb Score changed my life
Herb and Rocky - The Curse of Rocky Colavito by Terry Pluto
#88 Herb Score and #359 Gil McDougald
NYT: Herb Score, 75, Indians Pitcher Derailed by Line Drive, Dies
A Closer Look: The greatness of Herb Score
YouTube: Herb Score Tribute

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Dodgers–Giants rivalry


Pitcher Juan Marichal, catcher John Roseboro, Candlestick Park, Aug. 22, 1965
Wikipedia - "The Dodgers–Giants rivalry is regarded as one of the greatest, most competitive, and longest-standing rivalries in American baseball. The feud between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants began in the late 19th century when both clubs were based in New York City, with the Dodgers playing in Brooklyn and the Giants playing at the Polo Grounds in Manhattan. After the 1957 season, Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley decided to move the team to Los Angeles for financial and other reasons. Along the way, he managed to convince Giants owner Horace Stoneham ... to preserve the rivalry by bringing his team to California as well. New York baseball fans were stunned and heartbroken by the move. Given that the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco have long been competitors in economic, cultural, and political arenas, the new venue in California became fertile ground for its transplantation."
Wikipedia
Dodgers-Giants: Baseball's Greatest Rivalry
Bleacher Report: Los Angeles Dodgers-San Francisco Giants Rivalry Entering a New Golden Age
SI: Dodgers-Giants once again year's best rivalry and best race
ESPN: Giants-Dodgers Rivalry
amazon: The Giants and the Dodgers: Four Cities, Two Teams, One Rivalry, After Many a Summer: The Passing of the Giants and Dodgers and a Golden Age in New York Baseball, The Dodgers - Giants Rivalry 1900 - 1957
YouTube: Dodgers Giants Rivalry Origins, Dodgers-Giants Rivalry, SF Giants vs LA Dodgers Fight 08-22-1965

The 30, Week 22: Oakland's Tunnel Vision


"Hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend. This is how you spend it if you're a crazy person like me. It's Week 22 of The 30. ... 1. Cincinnati Reds, 82-54 (594 RS, 510 RA) (last week: 3). By the time you read this, Joey Votto will likely have come off the disabled list and joined the Reds' lineup for the first time since July 15. We've already talked about the numbers-game issues Cincinnati will have once Votto's back, with Todd Frazier and his potent bat in danger of losing a lot of playing time."
Grantland

Monday, September 3, 2012

1925 World Series


Griffith Stadium
Wikipedia - "In the 1925 World Series, the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the defending champion Washington Senators in seven games. In a reversal of fortune on all counts from the previous 1924 World Series, when Washington's Walter Johnson had come back from two losses to win the seventh and deciding game, Johnson dominated in Games 1 and 4, but lost Game 7. The Senators built up a 3–1 Series lead. After Pittsburgh won the next two games, Johnson again took the mound for Game 7, and carried a 6–4 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning. But errors by shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh in both the seventh and eighth innings led to four unearned runs, and the Pirates become the first team in a best-of-seven Series to overcome a 3–1 Series deficit to win the championship."
Wikipedia
Baseball Almanac
1925 World Series: Pittsburgh Pirates over Washington Senators four games to three
1925 World Series: A great story worth retelling
Did Sam Rice reveal a World Series secret in a letter opened after his death?
YouTube: World Series 1925, Walter Johnson Pitching Footage

Wild Bill Hagy


Wikipedia - "William 'Wild Bill' Hagy (June 17, 1939 – August 20, 2007) was an American baseball fan and cab driver from Dundalk, Maryland who led famous 'O-R-I-O-L-E-S' chants during the late 1970s and early '80s from section 34 in the upper deck at Memorial Stadium. Hagy's chants and persona developed him into an icon associated with the Baltimore Orioles for years. While leading cheers from 'The Roar from 34' at Memorial Stadium, Wild Bill became a Baltimore institution. Standing at six foot two inches tall with what most would describe as a 'beer belly', Hagy was an easily recognized figure at the ball park, always adorned in sun glasses and a straw cowboy-styled hat."
Wikipedia
He embodied Orioles Magic
YouTube: Wild Bill Hagy

Walt Alston - "Smokey"

Sandwiched between Durocher/Dressen and
Lasorda like a thick slab of Havarti aged
twenty-three years

Proving that sometimes
doing nothing
gets the job
done
But did the W's ever erase the rancid
moldy aftertaste of your solitary

K


Cooperstown Verses: Poems About Each Hall of Famer

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game - John Thorn


"Among the many books that have educated us about the birth and infancy of baseball, John Thorn’s extraordinarily detailed and well-documented 'Baseball in the Garden of Eden' is the advanced seminar, the one that begins by telling you that everything you thought you knew is wrong. Its premise is that when it comes to baseball, what is generally thought to be history is myth, and the two most prominent myths — the one that Abner Doubleday invented the game in Coopers­town, N.Y., in 1839, and the other that the responsible party was a New Yorker, Alexander Cartwright, who formalized the game’s rules in 1845 — were promulgated by men with ulterior motives."
NYT: The Prehistory of Baseball
npr: The 'Secret History' Of Baseball's Earliest Days (Video)
Seamheads
Our Game Blog
amazon
YouTube: John Thorn The Secret History of the Early Game Book Interview

Thursday, August 30, 2012

The Mini 30, Week 21: Those Pesky O's


"For the first time this season, a Monday passed without an edition of The 30. Blame the Dodgers for taking the first step toward a $950 million payroll and the Red Sox for helping to make it happen. As penance, I wanted to send each of you a copy of this amazing book I've been reading, but the postage fees were untenable. We'll be back with a full version of The 30 just in time to nurse your Labor Day weekend hangovers. In the meantime, here are a few of our favorite happenings from the past week in baseball."
Grantland

Don Mattingly


Wikipedia - "Donald Arthur 'Don' Mattingly (born April 20, 1961) is a professional baseball first baseman, coach, and manager. Mattingly is currently the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball. Nicknamed 'The Hit Man' and 'Donnie Baseball', he played for the New York Yankees during his 14-year playing career. ... Mattingly was named to the American League (AL) All-Star team six times. He won nine Gold Glove Awards, three Silver Slugger Awards, and was the 1985 AL Most Valuable Player. Mattingly served as captain of the Yankees from 1991 through 1995, when he retired as a player."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference
SABR: Don Mattingly
Don Mattingly
NYT: Raised a Yankee, Mattingly Is Happy to Be a Dodger
YouTube: Don Mattingly Walkoff Home Run - May 13, 1985, Tribute To The Hitman
MLB: Don Mattingly reminisces about snagging popcorn from a fan

How MLB Announcers Favor American Players Over Foreign Ones


"... To answer this question we dispatched a group of ten people to combine to watch every single television broadcast of a Major League Baseball game for a week last season—95 games total, and nearly 200 separate broadcasts, since nearly every team fields its own broadcast for every game. We analyzed these games for the words announcers used to describe players, with the goal of finding out whether broadcasters spoke about white players and players of color differently. Our analysis shows that while black players are not discriminated against, foreign-born players—of which the vast majority are Latino—find themselves at a disadvantage."
The Atlantic: Adam Felder and Seth Amitin

Grover Cleveland Alexander - "Had the Great Alexander Lived to See His Own Movie"

they yanked him from
some dive scrubbed him clean
dried him out perched him next
to Ronnie for the Hollywood Premier
but the truth remained
forever etched in the tired lines
and vacuous stare and ducking the
ovations as if they were line drives
back through the box he
muttered as he bobbed
to the next saloon where the hell was
my Doris Day


Cooperstown Verses: Poems About Each Hall of Famer

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

The End of Baseball - A novel by Peter Schilling Jr.


"The year is 1944. Bill Veeck has assembled a major league baseball dream team of Negro League all-stars. Is America ready for the greatest baseball team in history? Bill Veeck, the maverick promoter, returned from Guadalcanal with a leg missing and $500 to his name, has hustled his way into buying the Philadelphia Athletics. Hungry for a pennant, young Veeck jettisons the team’s white players and secretly recruits the legendary stars of the Negro Leagues, fielding a club that will go down in baseball annals as one of the greatest to play the game."
The End of Baseball - Peter Schilling Jr.
Hardball Times
The Baseball Book Review
City Pages
Interview: Peter Schilling, Author of “The End of Baseball”
amazon

Monday, August 27, 2012

Closing


Goose Gossage
Wikipedia - "In baseball, a closing pitcher, more frequently referred to as a closer (abbreviated CL), is a relief pitcher who specializes in getting the final outs in a close game when their team is leading. The role is often assigned to a team's best reliever. Before the 1990s, pitchers in similar roles were referred to as a fireman, short reliever, and stopper. A small number of closers have won the Cy Young Award. Dennis Eckersley, Rollie Fingers, Goose Gossage, Bruce Sutter and Hoyt Wilhelm are closers who have been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame."
Wikipedia
Top 10 Relief Pitchers In Baseball History
NYT: How Mariano Rivera Compares to Baseball’s Best Closers
Britannica: closer
SI: With more closers breaking down, it's time to rethink modern bullpen
amazon: Fireman: The Evolution of the Closer in Baseball


Saturday, August 25, 2012

Willie Wells


Wikipedia - "Willie James Wells (August 10, 1906 - January 22, 1989) was an American shortstop who played from 1924-48 for various teams in the Negro Leagues. ... Nicknamed El Diablo by Mexican fans for his extraordinary intensity, Wells was a superb all-around player. He was a fast baserunner who hit for both power and average. But Wells was at his finest with his glove, committing almost no errors and having the speed to run down anything that came in his direction. He is widely considered the best black shortstop of his day."
Wikipedia
SABR: 1930 Negro National League
El Diablo: Willie Wells and the lost history of black baseball in Austin
Baseball Reference
Negro Leagues Baseball Museum
amazon - Willie Wells: 'El Diablo' of the Negro Leagues

Friday, August 24, 2012

Brooklyn Dodgers: Ghosts of Flatbush


Wikipedia - "Brooklyn Dodgers: Ghosts of Flatbush is a 2007 documentary film produced by HBO sports chronicling the last ten years of the Brooklyn Dodgers tenure in the borough of churches. The film documents how in 1947 Jackie Robinson broke the baseball racial barrier in previously segregated major league, the struggles to win what seemed an unreachable World Series title in 1955, and the issues and community feelings involved in the team's sudden departure to Los Angeles after the 1957 campaign."
Wikipedia
IMDb
Variety - Brooklyn Dodgers: The Ghosts of Flatbush
SI: Bye-bye Brooklyn
YouTube: Brooklyn Dodgers Ghosts Of Flatbush Pt. 1, Pt. 2, Pt.3, Pt.4, Pt.5, Pt.6, Pt.7, Pt.8, Pt.9, Pt.10, Pt.11

Gregory Corso - "Dream of a Baseball Star"

I dreamed Ted Williams
leaning at night
against the Eiffel Tower, weeping.

He was in uniform
and his bat lay at his feet
-- knotted and twiggy.

"Randall Jarrell says you're a poet!" I cried.
"So do I! I say you're a poet!"

He picked up his bat with blown hands;
stood there astraddle as he would in the batter's box,
and laughed! flinging his schoolboy wrath
toward some invisible pitcher's mound
-- waiting the pitch all the way from heaven.

It came; hundreds came! all afire!
He swung and swung and swung and connected not one
sinker curve hook or right-down-the middle.
A hundred strikes!
The umpire dressed in strange attire
thundered his judgment: YOU'RE OUT!
And the phantom crowd's horrific boo
dispersed the gargoyles from Notre Dame.

And I screamed in my dream:
God! throw thy merciful pitch!
Herald the crack of bats!
Hooray the sharp liner to left!
Yea the double, the triple!
Hosannah the home run!


JCBA v21 at the COSMIC BASEBALL ASSOCIATION - Notes - Tony Trigilio

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

The 30, Week 20: The Rays Don't Care


"No long, flowing intro this time. Wait, I'm sorry, Tim. There's a lot to get to this week, and … no, I didn't mean any harm. Please don't toss me. Please! NOOOOOOOOO!!! It's Week 20 of The 30."
Grantland

Field Notes


"I arrived at the spring-training complex of the Tampa Bay Rays in Port Charlotte, Florida, around ten A.M. It would be a typical mid-nineties March day under a relentless sun. I was looking for Charlie Montoyo, the forty-six-year-old manager of the Rays’ top minor-league affiliate, the AAA Durham Bulls. Outfielder Jeff Salazar pointed me toward the 'half-field,' a regulation infield with no outfield on the outskirts of the sprawling complex. A chain-link fence separated the infield dirt from a swamp."
The Paris Review

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Paul Richards


Wikipedia - "Paul Rapier Richards (November 21, 1908 — May 4, 1986) was an American professional baseball player, manager, scout and executive in Major League Baseball. During his playing career, he was a catcher and right-handed batter with the Brooklyn Dodgers (1932), New York Giants (1933–35), Philadelphia Athletics (1935) and Detroit Tigers (1943–46). After retiring, he became the manager of the Chicago White Sox (1951–54, 1976) and Baltimore Orioles (1955–61). He also served as the General Manager for the Orioles, the Houston Colt .45s and the Atlanta Braves."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference
SABR: Paul Richards
amazon: The Wizard of Waxahachie
SI Vault
NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture
Tony La Russa: proud pupil of mentor Paul Richards

Friday, August 17, 2012

Cursed: Yinz and Losses in Pittsburgh


"Somewhere around midnight, as Francisco Cabrera lined a baseball into left field and Sid Bream chug-a-chug-chugged around third base and then spilled underneath the tag of a catcher nicknamed Spanky, thereby euthanizing a generation's worth of baseball in Pittsburgh, my friend JB briefly lost control of his faculties. It was a Wednesday night, October 14, 1992, Game 7 of the National League Championship Series, bottom of the ninth, and JB stood alone in a dorm room the size of a walk-in closet, brandishing a 7-iron for channel-changing purposes (his remote control was broken). As soon as it was over, as soon as Bream scored the winning run for the Braves and completed a three-run comeback, JB took aim at a bottle of Rolling Rock and perpetrated a senseless act of violence against what was then western Pennsylvania's finest pale lager." Grantland

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Federal League


Wikipedia - "The Federal League of Base Ball Clubs, known simply as the Federal League, was an American professional baseball league that operated as a 'third major league', in competition with the established National and American Leagues, from 1914 to 1915. It was the last serious attempt to create an independent major league outside the established structure of professional baseball, and the last competing third league of any kind to actually make it to the playing field."
Wikipedia
SABR: Was the Federal League a Major League?
flickr: Federal League
Federal League
Hardball Times: How competitive was the 1914 Federal League?
Project Ballpark
The Battle for Baltimore, 1914: The Federal League Moves In (Part 1), (Part 2)
Baseball Reference
The Federal League
The Battle that Forged Modern Baseball; The Federal League Challenge and Its Legacy
amazon: The Federal League of 1914-1915: Baseball's Third Major League
vimeo - Lost Ballparks of New York: Washington Park (Video)
Qwiki: Federal League


Washington Park (1915, Brooklyn Tip-Tops)
W - Brooklyn Tip-Tops
Brooklyn Ball Parks
Tale of the Whales: The Forgotten Story of Chicago’s Original North Side Ballclub
St. Louis Terriers: Federal League (1914-1915)

2012 February: The Glory of Their Times - Lawrence Ritter

the territorio libre of baseball


"Watching baseball, sitting in the sun, reading Ezra Pound. Lawrence Ferlinghetti wants an Hispanic or African American [not 'Chicano' per se] member of the San Francisco Giants to hit a hole through the Anglo-Saxon epic. He sees Willie Mays flee around the bases as if being chased by the United Fruit Company. The entire panoply of political consequences of his love of the American Other are played out in front of him on the diamond, the nation's traditional (and Irish coplike ump-dominated) game."
Jacket2 (Video)

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, "Baseball Canto"

Watching baseball, sitting in the sun, eating popcorn,
reading Ezra Pound,
and wishing that Juan Marichal would hit a hole right through the
Anglo-Saxon tradition in the first Canto
and demolish the barbarian invaders.
When the San Francisco Giants take the field
and everybody stands up for the National Anthem,
with some Irish tenor's voice piped over the loudspeakers,
with all the players struck dead in their places
and the white umpires like Irish cops in their black suits and little
black caps pressed over their hearts,
Standing straight and still like at some funeral of a blarney bartender,
and all facing east,
as if expecting some Great White Hope or the Founding Fathers to
appear on the horizon like 1066 or 1776.

But Willie Mays appears instead,
in the bottom of the first,
and a roar goes up as he clouts the first one into the sun and takes
off, like a footrunner from Thebes.
The ball is lost in the sun and maidens wail after him
as he keeps running through the Anglo-Saxon epic.
And Tito Fuentes comes up looking like a bullfighter
in his tight pants and small pointy shoes.
And the right field bleechers go mad with Chicanos and blacks
and Brooklyn beer-drinkers,
"Tito! Sock it to him, sweet Tito!"
And sweet Tito puts his foot in the bucket
and smacks one that don't come back at all,
and flees around the bases
like he's escaping from the United Fruit Company.
As the gringo dollar beats out the pound.
And sweet Tito beats it out like he's beating out usury,
not to mention fascism and anti-semitism.
And Juan Marichal comes up,
and the Chicano bleechers go loco again,
as Juan belts the first ball out of sight,
and rounds first and keeps going
and rounds second and rounds third,
and keeps going and hits paydirt
to the roars of the grungy populace.
As some nut presses the backstage panic button
for the tape-recorded National Anthem again,
to save the situation.

But it don't stop nobody this time,
in their revolution round the loaded white bases,
in this last of the great Anglo-Saxon epics,
in the territorio libre of Baseball.