Ryne Sandberg

Wikipedia - "Ryne Dee Sandberg (born September 18, 1959 in Spokane, Washington), nicknamed 'Ryno' is a former Major League Baseball second baseman. During a 16-year baseball career, he played from 1981–1994 and 1996–97, spending nearly his entire career with the Chicago Cubs. He was named after relief pitcher Ryne Duren, and is recognized as one of the best second basemen in baseball history. Sandberg was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in January 2005; he was formally inducted in ceremonies on July 31, 2005."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference

Polo Grounds

The Polo Grounds during a 1913 World Series game
Wikipedia - "As its name suggests, the original Polo Grounds was built in 1876 for the sport of polo. Of the four stadiums that carried this name over the years, the original structure was the only one actually used for polo. The field was originally referred to in newspapers simply as "the polo grounds," and over time this generic designation became a proper name."
Wikipedia, W - Shot Heard 'Round the World, Ballpark Tour, Google, YouTube - Final Game for the New York Giants, The Polo Grounds: The End of the Road, The Shot Heard 'Round The World

Chris Christensen and EFQ Staff - "The All-Eddie Team"

C Eddie Ainsmith

1B Eddie Murray
2B Eddie Collins
SS Eddie Joost
3B Eddie Mathews

OF Eddie Murphy
OF Eddie Burke
OF Eddie Miksis

RHP Eddie Cicotte
Eddie Rommell
Eddie Fisher

LHP Eddie Plank
Eddie Dyer

BENCH Eddie Robinson
Eddie Yost
Eddie Waitkus
Eddie Miller
Eddie Moore
Eddie Kasko

PH Eddie Gaedel

MGR Eddie Stanky


Elysian Fields Quarterly

Jim Palmer

Wikipedia - "James Alvin 'Jim' Palmer (born October 15, 1945), nicknamed 'Cakes', is a former Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher. He played his entire 20-year baseball career for the Baltimore Orioles (1965–1984). He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1990."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference

"Goodby To Some Old Baseball Ideas' - Branch Rickey

"Baseball people generally are allergic to new ideas. We are slow to change. For 51 years I have judged basebal by personal observation, by considered opinion and by accepted statistical methods. But recently I have come upon a device for measuring baseballl which has compelled me to put different values on some of my oldest and most cherished theories. It reveals some new and startling truths about the nature of the game. It is a means of gauging with a high degree of accuracy important factors which contribute to winning and losing baseball games. It is most disconcerting and at the same time the most constructive thing to come into baseball in my memory."
Baseball Think Factory

Jim Daniels - "World Series, 1968"

My mother's friend Angie from work
knew how much I liked baseball
and gave me the ticket she got
from Vic Wertz, the beer distributor
for the wedding hall her mother ran.
Angie gave me allergy shots every week-
she was beautiful in her white uniform.

I went with her fiance, who didn't know much
about baseball. I was twelve, caught
between sports and the sexual wake-up call.
Art was his name, and as we sat
in left field box seats, upper deck,
I wished Angie were with me instead.
I bought ginger ale and shivered.
He drank beer and shivered.
The Tigers lost 10-1. Lou Brock's stolen bases.
Bob Gibson's strike out. The wind blasted
our faces. He wanted to leave early
but I wouldn't budge. I kept whispering
The World Series, The World Series...
but I was still cold.


Hummers, Knucklers, and Slow Curves
Edited Don Johnson

Morris "Moe" Berg

Wikipedia - "Morris 'Moe' Berg (March 2, 1902 – May 29, 1972) was an American catcher and coach in Major League Baseball who later served as a spy for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. Although he played 15 seasons in the major leagues, almost entirely for four American League teams, Berg was never more than an average player, usually used as a backup catcher, and was better known for being 'the brainiest guy in baseball' than for anything he accomplished in the game. Casey Stengel once described Berg as 'the strangest man ever to play baseball'."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference, SABR, amazon, YouTube: Episode 36 - Moe Berg podcast

David S. Pointer - "Gum Based Good Times"

The antique gumball
machine tech patted
his little globe dispenser
saying it was "the gum"
that really got each
baseball game started
and helped a fastball
burn hot as a fireplace
front or brought out a
cartridge box boom
at the crack of the bat
or helped the coach
keep up maintenance
on all our game gear
stored in that Nicaraguan
coffee gunny sack
season after season,
so in baseball’s brief
little league time line
it’s the chewing gum
that may be going down
into history with the
chomping rest of us.


Spitball: The Literary Baseball Magazine

Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy - Jules Tygiel

"In this gripping account of one of the most important steps in the history of American desegregation, Jules Tygiel tells the story of Jackie Robinson's crossing of baseball's color line. Examining the social and historical context of Robinson's introduction into white organized baseball, both on and off the field, Tygiel also tells the often neglected stories of other African-American players--such as Satchel Paige, Roy Campanella, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron--who helped transform our national pastime into an integrated game."
Oxford University Press, amazon, PDF: Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy

Paul Molitor

"Paul Leo Molitor (born August 22, 1956, Saint Paul, Minnesota), nicknamed 'Molly' and 'The Ignitor', is an American former Major League Baseball designated hitter and infielder. During his 21-year baseball career, he played for the Milwaukee Brewers (1978–92), Toronto Blue Jays (1993–95), and Minnesota Twins (1996–98). In 2004, he was elected to the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference

19c Base Ball.

"Today a multi-billion dollar industry, Baseball has come a long way from its crude and humble beginnings in the fields of 19th century America. More than a game, Baseball remains an inseparable part of the American heritage and an intrinsic part of our national psyche. For many of us, notions of team, fair play, and athletic excellence first occurred on a red clay diamond cut from a grassy field."
19c Base Ball

James Finn Garner - "Spring Injury Report, 2011"

Zach Grienke’s arm is hinky.
Jake Peavy’s feeling skeevy.
Adam Wainwright’s wing ain’t right.
Rich Harden’s asked for pardon.
Brad Lidge is off a smidge.
That goes ditto for Johnny Cueto.

And an inflamed elbow is causing
Pain for Jason Isringhausen.

Thank God for March,
So these great apes
Have one less month
To fall out of shape.


Bardball

Mikhail Horowitz - "The All-Civil War Team"

C Milt Gray

1B Lu Blue
2B Lew Camp
SS John Richmond
3B Howard Battle
OF Art Rebel
OF Bill North
OF Joe Cannon

RHP Mike Lincoln
Mudcat Grant

LHP Bill Lee
Mark Davis

MGR George F. Gore


Elysian Fields Quarterly

Stolen base

Wikipedia - "In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a baserunner successfully advances to the next base while the pitcher is delivering the ball to home plate. In baseball statistics, stolen bases are denoted by SB."
Wikipedia, W - List of Major League Baseball leaders in career stolen bases

Franz Douskey - "Babe & Lou"

when babe hit
number 714 he was
playing for Boston
and washed up

he was a big tipper
a big eater a big
drinked and every
body loved the babe

lou was the iron
man and played
in 2130 consecutive
games and when he coughed
into the microphone
he said he was
the luckiest man alive

he betted clean up
right behind the babe
and together they
represented fear
power and (judging
from the full stands)
absenteeism

this was before the unions
before the depression before
the war and when the smoke
lifted the forties were over and
both men had died slowly
each weighing less
than a 100 lbs


Into the Temple of Baseball
Edited by Richard Grossinger & Kevin Kerrane

Rickey Henderson

Wikipedia - "Rickey Henley Henderson (born Rickey Nelson Henley, December 25, 1958 in Chicago, Illinois) is a former Major League Baseball left fielder who played for nine teams from 1979 to 2003, including four stints with his original team, the Oakland Athletics. Nicknamed The Man of Steal, he is widely regarded as the sport's greatest leadoff hitter and baserunner."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference, MLB - Video

Another Side of Kerouac: The Dharma Bum as Sports Nut

"Almost all his life Jack Kerouac had a hobby that even close friends and fellow Beats like Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs never knew about. He obsessively played a fantasy baseball game of his own invention, charting the exploits of made-up players like Wino Love, Warby Pepper, Heinie Twiett, Phegus Cody and Zagg Parker, who toiled on imaginary teams named either for cars (the Pittsburgh Plymouths and New York Chevvies, for example) or for colors (the Boston Grays and Cincinnati Blacks)."
NYT, NYPL, (1), Jack Kerouac and Fantasy Baseball, Jack Kerouac: Fantasy baseball, ‘Beat’ style

John Maloney - "Good!"

The ball goes up off glass and rebounded
down the court, outlet flung to the quick guard
like clicking seconds: he dribbles, hounded
by hands, calls the play, stops short, looking hard
for a slant opening, fakes it twice, passes
into the center—he lobs to the small
forward, top of the key, a pick: asses
crash (the pick-and-roll), he cuts, bumps, the ball
reaches him as he turns, dribbles, sends it
back to the baseline, forward back to him,
jump—and in midair, twisting, he bends it
over a tangle of arms—SHOOTS, the rim
rattles as it jerks against the back joints,
and into the net, trippingly drop two points.


The Writer's Almanae

Timothy Lincecum

Wikipedia - "Timothy Leroy Lincecum (... born June 15, 1984) is a Major League Baseball starting pitcher for the San Francisco Giants. He is nicknamed 'The Freak' and 'The Franchise.' He throws right-handed and bats left-handed. Lincecum is known for his long stride, unorthodox mechanics, and ability to generate high velocity despite his slight build of 5'11", 172 lbs. Lincecum won the 2008 and 2009 National League Cy Young Awards, and was the first second-year player to win the Cy Young since Dwight Gooden and Bret Saberhagen both won in 1985."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference

The Longfellow War: Red In Tooth and Claw

Karl Marx
"Some are rooting for the Philadelphia Poe to win the Scarriet Baseball Poetry Championship because Poe represents a ratiocinative aesthetic ideal which avoids those inevitable crudities of didactic impulses of overt morality; but whether Poe can actually win on the field is another question. ..."
scarriet

Fred Chappell - "Spitballer"

A poet because his hand goes first
to his head & then to his heart.

The catcher accepts the pitch
as a pool receives a dripping diver;
soaks up the curve like
cornflakes in milk.

The hitter makes great
show of wringing out his bat.

On the mound he grins, tiger
in a tree, when the umpire
turns round & round the ball
magically dry as alum.

He draws a second salary as maintenance man.
Since while he pitches he waters the lawn.


baseball i gave you all the best years of my life.
Richard Grossinger and Lisa Conrad

Every Hall of Famer

"I discovered Summer Anne Burton’s site — Every Hall of Famer — through another new and equally engaging site, Bethany Heck’s Eephus League of Baseball Minutiae. This was about the time I started compiling the lists of books about inducted members of the Hall, so it was kismet. As I’ve said before, I don’t much much about art, but I know what I like, so I thought I’d ask Summer for some background about her project..."
Bookshelf artist interview: Summer Anne Burton, Every Hall of Famer

The Baseball Research Journal

"The Baseball Research Journal is a publication of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). Published in a magazine format, it comprises articles on the history of baseball, biographies of former players, officials and other figures associated with the game, and analytical articles that evaluate various statistical aspects of the game (the term sabermetrics is derived from these articles, which appeared in this publication in the late 1970s - before being more widely dissiminated in the general public)."
Baseball Reference, SABR - The Baseball Research Journal, amazon

William Conelly - "Out In Left Field"

After the Tuesday ballgame
Men linger on the gloaming lot
One foot ahoist to tire or fram.
They grope an ice chest,
Talk up double plays,
Say how transmissions slip
Or gravel scores bring rust.

And from dark inks that seep
The porous boundary trees,
The men beg off in twos or threes,
Switch engines on, blare lights,
Raise grit for home, or just away,
Till one remains to stare low-beamed
Across the tattered playing lawn:

After heavy snows in March
And pelting April rains,
Its low spots will not drain.
They skim his lights like cellophane.
There's comfort in delay.


Baseball & the Lyrical Life. Edited by Tom Colnay.

Barry Larkin

Wikipedia - "Barry Louis Larkin (born April 28, 1964 in Cincinnati, Ohio) is a retired Major League Baseball player. Larkin played shortstop for the Cincinnati Reds from 1986 to 2004 and was one of the pivotal players on the 1990 Reds' World Series championship team."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference, Great Barry Larkin, (2)

1936 Joe DiMaggio

YouTube

Rolfe Humphries - "Polo Grounds"

Time is of the essence. This is a highly skilled
And beautiful mystery. Three or four seconds only
From the time that Riggs connects till he reaches first,
And in those seconds Jurges goes to his right,
Comes up with the ball, tosses to Witek at second,
For the force on Reese, Witek to Mize at first,
In time for the out—a double play.
(Red Barber crescendo. Crowd noises, obbligatio;
Scattered staccatos from the peanut boys,
Loud in the lull, as the teams are changing sides) . . .

Hubbell takes the sign, nods, pumps, delivers—
A foul into the stands. Dunn takes a new ball out,
Hands it to Danning, who throws it down to Werber;
Werber takes off his glove, rubs the ball briefly,
Tosses it over to Hub, who goes to the rosin bag,
Takes the sign from Danning, pumps, delivers—
Low, outside, ball three. Danning goes to the mound,
Says something to Hub, Dunn brushes off the plate,
Adams starts throwing in the Giant bullpen,
Hub takes the sign from Danning, pumps, delivers,
Camilli gets hold of it, a long fly to the outfield,
Ott goes back, back, back, against the wall, gets under it,
Pounds his glove, and takes it for the out.
That's all for the Dodgers. . . .

Time is of the essence. The rhythms break,
More varied and subtle than any kind of dance;
Movement speeds up or lags. The ball goes out
In sharp and angular drives, or long slow arcs,
Comes in again controlled and under aim;
The players wheel or spurt, race, stoop, slide, halt,
Shift imperceptibly to new positions,
Watching the signs according to the batter,
The score, the inning. Time is of the essence.
Time is of the essence. Remember Terry?
Remember Stonewall Jackson, Lindstrom, Frisch,
When they were good? Remember Long George Kelly?

Remember John McGraw and Benny Kauff?
Remember Bridwell, Tenney, Merkle, Youngs,
Chief Meyers, Big Jeff Tesreau, Shufflin' Phil?
Remember Mathewson, Ames, and Donlin,
Buck Ewing, Rusie, Smiling Mickey Welch?
Remember a left-handed catcher named Jack Humphries,
Who sometimes played the outfield, in '83?

Time is of the essence. The shadow moves
From the plate to the box, from the box to second base,
From second to the outfield, to the bleachers.

Time is of the essence. The crowd and players
Are the same age always, but the man in the crowd
Is older every season. Come on, play ball!


Leasing News

William Miller - "T-Ball"

Many coaches consider suicide;
many umpires want a drink
so badly they call more
strikes than balls.

And the parents?

No Roman mob
could be more vicious
in its demand for blood,
howling, cursing
when their side
loses or wins.


Elysian Fields Quarterly