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.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Big Leagues Monthly


"The second issue (August) of Big Leagues Monthly, a new e-magazine, is out and as a senior writer for the new work, your favorite Fan was asked to write a piece on Derek Jeter. That might be one reason to go read. But the truth is that the magazine is chock full of great baseball writing from the likes of Stevo-sama, Lew Freedman, Lincoln Hamilton, Jared Thatcher, Nathaniel Stoltz, Blaine Blontz, Mike Rosenbaum and many others. There are 64 pages chock full of great baseball writing all in one spot for you to read. Big Leagues Monthly!" - The Flagrant Fan
Big Leagues Monthly Blog
Big Leagues Monthly

Monday, August 13, 2012

The 30, Week 19: Bonjour, Washington


"Eighteen years ago, on August 12, 1994, fearing aggressive salary-limiting moves from owners in the next collective bargaining agreement, Major League Baseball's players went on strike. That labor stoppage would wipe out the rest of the regular season, the playoffs, and the World Series, the first time baseball would fail to crown a champion in 90 years. The team with the best record at the time of the strike was the Montreal Expos. With the ball club already under duress due to limited revenue streams and a host of behind-the-scenes problems, the cancellation of the World Series erased the team's last and best hope to win a championship, accelerating the Expos' demise and eventually leading to their move to Washington. This year's Nationals aren't quite as good as 1994's Expos, at least by wins and losses. But they do own the best record in the game. Today, we pay tribute to these Nats and those Expos. It's Week 19 of The 30."
Grantland

Sunday, August 12, 2012

1982 World Series


Ozzie Smith
"The 1982 World Series matched the St. Louis Cardinals against the Milwaukee Brewers, with the Cardinals winning in seven games. ... Though the teams had never met, the cities had an existing commercial rivalry in the beer market, as St. Louis is the home of Anheuser Busch while Milwaukee is the home of Miller Brewing. This led to a few minor references to the Series being nicknamed the 'Suds Series.' Paul Molitor set a World Series record with his fifth hit, in the ninth inning of Game 1. Robin Yount would set another record in the seventh inning of Game 5 by becoming the first player in Series history to have two four-hit games."
Wikipedia
Baseball Almanac
SI: For All You Do, This Hug's For You
Quotes After Game 7 of 1982 World Series
MLB: Recalling the 1982 World Series (Video)
StlToday: Remembering the 1982 World Series (Video)

Saturday, August 11, 2012

2012 All-Underrated Team


A.J. Pierzynski
"As Major League Baseball heads into the second half of its season chatter increases about the frontrunners for various end-of-year awards. Although these awards recognize some of the greatest players in the game, there are others who toil in relative obscurity despite their own excellent production. They are not overlooked because of unfairness, but rather because of playing in smaller markets, manning a position with many high profile players, or because their intangibles just don’t leap off the page like some sexier stats do. My All-Underrated Team includes the following..."
MLB Dirt

Can't Anybody Here Play This Game?: The Improbable Saga of the New York Met's First Year


"Like every other baseball team, the New York Mets have fielded their fair share of squads revered by their fans, teams which struck a note with followers more than any of the others. They’ve been to the World Series four times, so those teams certainly have plenty of fans, and their effort in 2006 won over many people too because the Mets showed character and talent even as they ended up on the losing end of a classic NLCS series – the seventh game in that series is still the best baseball game I’ve ever seen."
Lit Bases
NYT: Affectionate Scorn for ’62 Mets
The New York Mets 50th Anniversary: A Look Back At Casey Stengel
amazon: Can't Anybody Here Play This Game?: The Improbable Saga of the New York Met's First Year

Stephen Cormany - "The Frenchman"

Once there was an ump
Of French descent
Still knew a few words in
His native tongue.
In conference one day
On a disputed double steal
He was asked if he
And all his kind
Were blind.
He was heard to reply,
"Oui um peu!
Oui um peu!
Oui um peu!"
Later that season
In the hulking
Five o'clock shadows of
Old League Park
His body was found
A gash in his forehead
(Broken beer bottle)

At his side these two volumes
were neatly placed:
A French/English Dictionary
An American League Rulebook

Pinned to to his chest protector were
These words on a slip of paper:
"Napoleon Lajoie, 2B Cleveland."

Next afternoon, his office
Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis
Acknowledged that the protest
Had been properly filed
And was legally binding.



Baseball I Gave You All the Best Years Of My Life

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Roger Angell


Wikipedia - "Roger Angell (born September 19, 1920) is an American essayist. He has been a regular contributor to The New Yorker and was its chief fiction editor for many years. He has written many essays on baseball as well as numerous fiction, non-fiction, and criticism pieces, and formerly wrote an annual Christmas poem for the magazine."
Wikipedia
amazon: The Summer Game, Five Seasons: A Baseball Companion, Late Innings, Once More Around the Park, Game Time, A Pitcher's Story, Let Me Finish
The New Yorker - Contributors: Roger Angell
The New Yorker: “The Sporting Scene”
The New Yorker: Roger Angell on Pitching
Kelly Writers House (Video)
A conversation about baseball with Roger Angell (Video), A conversation about the World Series with Roger Angell (Video)

2011 October: Season Ticket: A Baseball Companion
2011 December: Diamonds Are Forever

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Al Kaline


Wikipedia - "Albert William 'Al' Kaline (... born December 19, 1934 in Baltimore, Maryland) is a former Major League Baseball right fielder. He is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Kaline played his entire 22-year baseball career with the Detroit Tigers. Immediately after retiring from playing, he became the Tigers' TV color commentator, a position he held until 2002. Kaline still works for the Tigers as a front office official. Because of his lengthy career and longtime association with the Tigers organization, Kaline's nickname is 'Mr. Tiger.' For most of his career, Kaline played in the outfield, mainly as a right fielder, where he was known for his strong throwing arm. Near the end of his career, he also played as first baseman and, in his last season, was the Tigers' designated hitter."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference
SABR: Al Kaline
Al Kaline Overcame Handicap and Injury to Reach Baseball’s Hall of Fame
YouTube: Ernie Harwell on Al Kaline, Baseball Hall of Fame - Biographies: Al Kaline

The 30, Week 18: Fear the NL East


"Every week, we dig through reams of data to evaluate Major League Baseball's 30 teams. We consider win-loss record, run differential, recent trends, injuries, trades and other transactions, and overall quality of rosters. Reasonable people can and will disagree with these rankings. Just know that no matter how heated the disagreements might get, we can handle it. This guy? Not so much. It's Week 18 of The 30."
Grantland

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Crazy '08


"Chicago Cub fans, that numerous and inexplicable cohort, have a weird rallying cry: 'Remember 1908!' Not one of them really does remember that season, the last time the Cubs won the World Series. That is all the more reason for them to join Cait Murphy on her jaunty walk through that tumultuous season. All other baseball fans should tag along. So should anyone interested in the rough texture of this bumptious nation in the early 20th century, when 25 cents — not a piddling amount for a low-skilled factory worker making $7 a week — would get you into a ballpark where whiskey, waffles and pigs’ knuckles were served."
NYT: Perfect Season - George F. Will
Hardball Times: Crazy '08
Cardboard Gods: Interview with Cait Murphy
Lit Bases
Can't Stop The Bleeding
Dan Agonistes
amazon: Crazy '08

2011 April: Dead-ball era

Tim Peeler - "There Was A Ball Game Somewere"

Before video parlors, PCs and
Nintendo, on our ragged bicycles
We scrambled to one house or the other—
Hefners, Peelers, then the Swansons who moved
In the neighborhood, sometimes the Coffeys
From church, or the Swansons' friends from their church -
For the really big affairs with full teams,
Baseball games with football scores. Out in the heat
Most of the day, just breaking for lunchtime—
Easy pitches and little guys taking
Big cuts, ghost runners and no catcher, weird
Rules like ground rule doubles for balls driven
Into the short cow pasture fence in left
Or how to play a pop fly that rolled off
The eight-sided parsonage roof or smacked
The huge oak trees in center field or the
Maple in right-center.
Barefoot sometimes, always in shorts only,
Crew cuts and popsicle stains on our mouths—
Before Play Station and VCRs there
Was a baseball game somewhere in dust and
Sweltering heat, a game to be played by
Our rules only.


Waiting for Godot's First Pitch

Thursday, August 2, 2012

The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract


"True to form, James's new Historical Baseball Abstract is filled with often fascinating and frequently quirky evaluations and insights regarding the history of baseball. Starting with the 1870s, James explores, decade by decade, how and where the game was played and who played it. He discusses nicknames, top minor-league teams, and the most admirable superstars, among other matters. At the close of the initial 13 chapters, the author highlights each ten-year period "in a box," with a player or two tagged as the best-looking, the ugliest, the fastest, the slowest, and so forth. The last half of the book presents James's evaluations of the top 100 or more players at each position. - Library Journal"
amazon
Baseball Crank
Commentary: The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract by Bill James
ESPN: 'Abstract' thinking on grand ol' game
Should Bill James be fired?
Baseball Prospectus: Baseball ProGUESTus, A Statistician Rereads Bill James

2011 November: The Bill James Guide To Baseball Managers
2012 May: The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers
2012 June: Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame?: Baseball, Cooperstown, and the Politics of Glory

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Subway Series


Wikipedia - "The Subway Series is a series of Major League Baseball games played between teams based in New York City. The term's historic usage has been in reference to World Series games played between New York teams. The New York Yankees have appeared in all Subway Series games as they have been the only American League team in the city, and have compiled an 11–3 record in the fourteen championship Subway Series. The rivalry between the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers, both of the National League, from their origins in the 1880s until both left the city after 1957 was not considered a Subway Series."
Wikipedia
Meet the Mess