Lou Boudreau

Wikipedia - "Louis 'Lou' Boudreau (July 17, 1917 – August 10, 2001) was an American Major League Baseball player and manager. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1970. He was also a radio announcer for the Chicago Cubs of the National League. In 1948, he won the American League Most Valuable Player Award and managed the Cleveland Indians to the World Series title. Boudreau was an eight-time All Star Game selection, starting three times. He won the 1944 AL batting title (.327), and led the league in doubles in 1941, 1944, and 1947. He led AL shortstops in fielding eight times. Boudreau still holds the record for hitting the most consecutive doubles in a game (four), set on July 14, 1946."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference

Ebbest Field Flannels

"EFF Founder Jerry Cohen grew up fascinated with sports emblems and uniforms. As a youngster, he would purchase baseball cards to see the uniform changes and colors rather than for the players. Fast-forward to 1987, when he was trying to find a vintage flannel baseball jersey to wear onstage with his rock & roll band back in. Not satisfied with what was available, he became a bit obsessed, and eventually tracked down some old wool baseball flannel and had a few shirts made for himself. When people literally wanted to buy the shirt off his back, Ebbets Field Flannels was born. Focusing on non-major league history such as the Negro leagues and the pre-1958 Pacific Coast League gave the Company a unique twist, and brought relatively unknown baseball history to the public at large."
Ebbest Field Flannels

Ember Nickel - "Yeah? So?"

I am a fan. I have not always been.
But I could not point to the moment when
I became more than just a rider on
A bandwagon whose station is long gone.

Perhaps disappointment is the real test?
To root for the best takes little, they say.
Was it when outcomes didn’t go my way
But I kept rooting with all of my zeal
That I was for real? That depends on what
Is meant by “outcomes”. The score’s one thing, but
There’s worse. What if the bandwagon’s wheels were
Wrongly greased to lure in fools like me? It
Shouldn’t matter now, even if each hit
That drew me to the game was wrong. I’m still
A fan, and I will keep being one. The
Ends don’t justify the means. Ends can’t be
Burdened, on the other hand, with means’ blame.
We can’t save the game from its saviors past.
Too big to save or destroy, it will last.


The Baseball Chronicle
"Ember Nickel’s hobbies include playing chess, saxophone, and with the AM radio dial to listen to games 400 miles away. The results of various attempts to play with the English language can be found at Lipogram! Scorecard!"

Bo Belinsky

Wikipedia - "Robert 'Bo' Belinsky (December 7, 1936 – November 23, 2001) was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball, who became an instant southern California celebrity as a rookie with the original Los Angeles Angels, especially when the fourth of his season-opening four straight wins was a no-hit, no-run game against his former organization, the Baltimore Orioles. Belinsky is one of only two pitchers in Angels franchise history to start his career with a four game winning streak or better."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference, Pat Jordan Recalls Bo Belinsky: A Modern-Day Athlete From A Bygone Era, Mamie's Romance with Bo Belinsky

Peter Gammons

Wikipedia - "Peter Gammons (born April 9, 1945) is an American sportswriter, media personality, and a recipient of the J. G. Taylor Spink Award for outstanding baseball writing, given by the BBWAA. ... Gammons was a featured writer at The Boston Globe for many years as the main journalist covering the Boston Red Sox. (1969–1975, 1978–1986), or as a national baseball columnist."
Wikipedia, MLB: Peter Gammons, NESN, WEEI - Peter Gammons on The Big Show: Don’t expect Victor Martinez back, MLB: Peter Gammons talks Opening Day (Video)

Micheal Waters - "Singles"

I don't know anyone more lonely
than the woman listening
to the late news, memorizing
baseball scores for coffee.

She must undress so carefully,
folding her beige blouse
as if for the last time,
not wanting to be found unkempt

by detectives in the morning.
Sometimes I hear her talking
as she roams from from room to room
watering her plumeria,

the only splash of color.
She sets to places at the table
though no one ever comes,
then turns to the boredom of bed

thinking Indians 7-Yankees 3,
Cardinals 11-Mets 2
until sh rises before dawn
and drives crosstown to work.

Could anyone be more lonely?
She doesn't acknowledge, again,
the man in the tollbooth
who's spent the whole night there,

not even a magazine before him,
grateful now to be making change
and touching fingers, briefly,
with such a beautiful stranger.



Line Drives

Summer of '49 - David Halberstam

"The year was 1949, and a war-wearied nation turned from the battlefields to the ball fields in search of new heroes. It was a summer that marked the beginning of a sports rivalry unequaled in the annals of athletic competition. The awesome New York Yankees and the indomitable Boston Red Sox were fighting for supremacy of baseball's American League and an aging Joe DiMaggio and a brash, headstrong hitting phenomenon named Ted Williams led their respective teams in a classic pennant duel of almost mythic proportions--one that would be decided in an explosive head-to-head confrontation on the last day of the season..."
amazon, ESPN: Joe D and the Summer of '49 , Culture Cartel

Minor League Baseball

"Welcome to the official site of Minor League Baseball. MinorLeagueBaseball.com is committed to connecting Minor League Baseball fans to the game. Our goal is to be the most comprehensive, up-to-date, informative and exciting source of Minor League Baseball information on the Web."
Minor League Baseball, Wikipedia

Robin Rule - "1st Inning, Glove Minus Zero Equals No Limit"

OK I gotta preoccupation
I dig Baseball, Sex and Mysticism
These things are crucial to my existence
and the Ultimate I mean listening
to Kevin Mitchell walk up to the box
with all that potential...
and I'm standing in the kitchen
melting under this cat's eyes
and thinking about
what we could be doing while dinner is cooking
and then I get this sudden Flash
What if we went all the was
to the pennant what if we had another shot
at the World Series
and suddenly I have this urge to light candles
and take off all my clothes



Baseball I Gave You All the Best Years of My Life

Lou Piniella

"Louis Victor Piniella (... born August 28, 1943 in Tampa, Florida, United States) is a former Major League Baseball outfielder and manager. He has been nicknamed 'Sweet Lou,' both for his swing as a major league hitter and, facetiously, to describe his demeanor as a player and manager. He finished his managerial career ranked 14th all-time on the list of Managerial Wins."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference, Books on Baseball - Lou Piniella: The Early Years, MLB - Prime 9: Lou Piniella (Video)

The Baseball Biography Project

"The Baseball Biography Project is an ongoing effort to research and write comprehensive biographical articles on people who played or managed in the major leagues, or otherwise made a significant contribution to the sport. The project is run by the Bioproject Committee of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR)."
The Baseball Biography Project

1927 World Series

Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth
Wikipedia - "In the 1927 World Series, the New York Yankees swept the Pittsburgh Pirates in four games. This was the first sweep of a National League team by an American League team. That year, the Yankees led the American League in runs scored, hits, triples, home runs, base on balls, batting average, slugging average and on base percentage. It featured legends Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig at their peaks. The team won a then-league record 110 games, finished with a 19-game lead over second place, and are considered by many to be the greatest team in the history of baseball."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference, The Babe vs. Bernie: You decide, ThoughtEquity (Video)

Tim Peeler - "The Cathers Learns the Motion"

and is often the hub of the movements,
he reads the Morse code of the pitcher
and returns the speech of the dumb,

he loves the sphere and its ridges,
rips it from the tight mitt
with or against the seams
whistles it from a frog squat.

the catcher learns
he is the hat of the hat dance,
the pitcher may think himself
the center of gravity,
but the catcher
waits at the apex of the great angles,

slaps the leather trap
on the errant razor
as it spits up from the dust.

the catcher imprints the motions of the hitters,
checks the rhythm of their passages,
knows he must slip an extra measure
at the end of their cha-cha-cha,

the catcher is the great disturber,
can cock twice on his return throw,
spit on the plate, call for the "buzzer"
block the ump's clear visage,

bilingual kamikaze
chattering like a wired chimp,
muttering with silent busted digits,
sacrificing legs
to the varicose crouch and
the ruinous crunch
of the few that get through
to thin armor.


Leasing News

Bill Spaceman Lee: High & Outside

"In the 1970s, Red Sox pitcher Bill Lee aka, "Spaceman" became a folk hero to the Fenway faithful. He lived in a world like no other; where competitive fire, Tibetan Buddhism, slapstick comedy, social activism, and counter-cultural medication co-existed in relative harmony. He baffled opposing hitters and management alike with a variety of pitches and verbal aerobatics. As a pioneer in the baseball labor movement, he beanballed corporate duplicity and worked to end the era of indentured servitude in baseball. Was he blackballed from the game as a result?"
YouTube, Netflix

Galen Cisco

Wikipedia - "Galen Bernard Cisco (born March 7, 1936 in St. Marys, Ohio) is a former pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for three different teams between 1961 and 1969. Listed at 6' 0", 200 lb., Cisco batted and threw right-handed. He was signed by the Boston Red Sox in 1958 out of Ohio State University. ... A curveball specialist, Cisco entered the Majors in 1961 with the Boston Red Sox, playing one-and-a-half years for them before joining the New York Mets (1962-1965), again with Boston (1967), and the Kansas City Royals (1969)."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference, The Society for American Baseball Research

Green Cathedrals

"October 31, 2006. Green Cathedrals is a celebration of the sport of baseball, through the lens of its ballparks--the "fields of dreams" of players and fans alike. In all, some 405 ballparks have, over time, hosted a Major League or Negro League game, and each one of them is given its due, from hard statistics about dimensions to nostalgic and current photographs, to anecdotes that will inspire the memories of fans all over the country. From Fenway Park and Gus Greenlee Field (home of the Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords), to Ebbets Field, Camden Yards, and the brand-new parks that have opened in the past two years, Green Cathedrals presents a cavalcade of the most beautiful sporting venues in history. Fully revised and updated since its previous edition a decade ago, with more than 130 new ballparks and hundreds of new photographs, Green Cathedrals is an essential reference for baseball aficionados and a perfect gift for baseball fans everywhere."
amazon

Pete Gray

Wikipedia - "Pete Gray (March 6, 1915 – June 30, 2002) was a professional baseball player best known for playing in the major leagues despite having lost his right arm in a childhood accident."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference, Google: One-armed wonder:
Pete Gray, wartime baseball, and the American dream, Flannel of the Month: Pete Gray, The "One-Armed Wonder" (Video)

Sarah Freligh - "Foreign Affairs"

In every, ballpark, a pair of girls in halter-tops
breasts displayed like fruit on a tray; tan, spandex skin,
hair a guy could lose himself in. Boonie flips
him for the blond, tails Al gets the brunette. Nothing
to write home about but okay for a night.
He buys her some kind of rum drink, five shots
of booze and juice, topped by a little red kite.
He sips a beer and tries not to stare at her tits
while she tells him she once saw Nolan Ryan
down to the Shell station pumping his own
gas, smaller than he looks on TV. Al practices when
and how he'll say he loves her. Tossed like a bone
to a dog or coins at a tollbooth. The arm lifts, you're in.
This highway's crowded. A gridlock of women.


Sort of Gone

The Greatest League Championship Series (1994)

"Journey into the crisp fall evenings of October, where the familiar sound of a bat making contact with a ball can only mean one thing -- championship baseball! MLB: The Greatest League Championship Series takes a behind-the-scenes look at some of the most classic A.L.C.S. and N.L.C.S. games ever played. This retrospective video includes exciting championship game footage from the four-year war waged by the Yankees and Royals in the late '70s and early '80s, from the unforgettable 1980 series between the Astros and the Phillies that featured four straight extra-inning games, and of the Angels falling one strike short of the World Series versus the Red Sox in 1986."
BLOCKBUSTER, YouTube - The Greatest League Championship Series (1994), part 1 of 6, part 2 of 6, part 3 of 6, part 4 of 6, part 5 of 6, part 6 of 6

Merritt Clifton - "Ted Williams, Age 63, Takes Batting Practice"

He's instructing rookies when, impatient, he grabs the bat.
Motions toward the coach at Iron Mike.
Thrusts bat like a pointer at his awestruck pupils
taking a ball inside. "Like this. Don't let 'em jam
you," & for emphasis, gently raps one through
between short & second,
three pimple-faced rabbits gaping at each position.
"Make 'em put it out here, where you can get good
wood." Shuffles backward, diligently off-field
hitting pitch after pitch, as he never did at Fenway,
teaching .250 farmhands to poke & slash.

The change comes gradually, but the balls start rising.
white moons in the sunlit sky,
then meteors, plunging into the warning track,
drifting toward the right field fence.
"I'm Ted fucking Williams,"
he growls beneath his breath,
"batting champion of the major fucking leagues,"
& everybody ducks sudden hard line drives,
the crash of his bat the only sound in the park
for five, ten, fifteen minutes,
until one disappears. Embarrassed, he quits.

"Here, kid." Hands the bat to some young stringbean
who can barely swing it, from stunned amazement.
"You try it."

"Mr. Williams," he blurts, as ballboys scramble,
out past the light tower,
"why'd you quit?"

Toweling off, Williams doesn't answer.
Scowls at the DH, loosening up near the dugout,
21 years since his last home run,
4 years before the kid was born.


Baseball & the Lyrical Life
Edited by Tom Colnoy

The Untold Truth

"The Untold Truth will show the overall history of the Negro Baseball Leagues; from newly freed slaves playing the game in the fields they once sowed, to the inventions of the batting helmet and night baseball that came from the Negro Baseball Leagues, to the thriving hotels, jazz clubs, and restaurants that supported 'Black Baseball,' to the most “Ironic” moment in sports history, and finally, an examination of the players, coaches, and owners from the leagues that spawned a bridge and legacy to so many success stories in today's sports, music, entertainment, and political fields. Using interviews with iconic figures from today’s pop culture to tell the story, the film brings social awareness to the Negro Baseball Leagues; the great achievements, undeniable facts, and true life stories that have been lost, forgotten, deemed not important, and to some…invisible."
The Untold Truth, (1), YouTube

Trade Deadline Power Rankings: Part 1, the Vanquished

Carlos Beltran
Jonah Keri: "Welcome back, noble traveler! We trust your two-week vacation in beautiful Flin Flon was as restful as it was invigorating. Did you gaze in wonder at the statue of Josiah Flintabbatey Flonatin? Did you marvel at a town so impressive it needs two different provinces to host it? Were you kicking yourself for traveling all that way without reading the news from two years ago?"
Grantland: Part 1, Part 2

David Allen Evans - "Will You Sign My Brand-New Baseball, Louie?"

the best thing in my head
of baseball and Kansas City
is the Royals playing the
Red Sox and the drunk trying
to get Louie Aparicio
to sign his brand-new baseball:
every time Louie comes loping in
from shortstop at the end
of the half inning there he is
the drunk elbowing his way
from high up in in the grandstand
down into the box seats and all
those turned-around wrinkled
foreheads and goddammits and
uplifted cups of Hamms and
Dr. Pepper with amazing
timing to catch his man
exactly at the screen except
that Louie every time
fields with his eyes that
white routing ball coming
out of the crowd and drops
his look and speeds up just
a little than disappears
into the dugout safe as the
fans cheer and cheer and
cheer for both of their heroes



Hummers, Knucklers, and Slow Curves
Edited Don Johnson

Bob Uecker

Wikipedia - "Robert George "Bob" Uecker (... born January 26, 1935) is an American former Major League Baseball player, later a sportscaster, comedian, and actor. Uecker was given the title of 'Mr. Baseball' by Johnny Carson. He is currently the announcer for the Milwaukee Brewers radio broadcasts on WTMJ and the Brewers Radio Network."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference, YouTube - Bob Uecker on Tonight Show 1984

Mikhail Horowitz (cont.)

Walt WHITEY WHITMAN

Banned from appearing in mist of the respectable ballparks of his day, Charles BABE BAUDELAIRE was nevertheless voted. Most Valuable Madman for three years in a row, possessing an almost unhittable spleen-ball. He ended a great career with the Left Bank Heads by reclining in the dugout & dissipating away into nothingness.

Art WHIZZ KID RIMBAUD was the game's original bonus-baby, breaking in with the old St. Louis Seers at the age of 14. His chief claim to fame was playing an entire Season in Hell. He flamed out early, however, and finished up in relative obscurity with the Harar Traders in the Ethiopian Hot Stove League.

Henry SIMPLE-SIMON THOREAU: Little is known about the old-time catcher depicted here, except that he played for the Walden Ponderers, was given to ruminative sitting behind the the plate, and had a phenomenal Thoreau-ing arm.

Herman SKIPPER MELVILLE was a Budd-ing star for many campaigns who played for the New Bedford Figureheads and the Nantucket Pissbuckets. A spray-hitter, he could really whale the ball at times, on which account his bat was christened "MOBY STICK".

Walt WHITEY WHITMAN was a vagabond outfielder (and a switch-hitter as well) who sang, celebrated and assumed himself when lilacs last in the ballpark bloomed. His magnum opus: LEAVES OF ASTROTURF.


Big League Poets

Wrigley Field

Wikipedia - "Wrigley Field ... is a baseball stadium in Chicago, Illinois, United States that has served as the home ballpark of the Chicago Cubs since 1916. It was built in 1914 as Weeghman Park for the Chicago Federal League baseball team, the Chicago Whales. It was called Cubs Park between 1920 and 1926 before being renamed for then Cubs team owner and chewing gum magnate, William Wrigley, Jr.."
Wikipedia, Chicago Cubs, Ballparks of Baseball, amazon, Wrigley Field Rooftops Directory, Google, YouTube - Behind the Scenes of the Wrigley Field Scoreboard, Wrigley Field in August 2008, MLB - Footnotes: Wrigley Tour

The Straw that Stirs the Drink

Honus Wagner 1910
"Awesome sports photographs with a New York state of mind."
The Straw that Stirs the Drink

Walt McDonald - "Where Baseball's the Only Game in Town"

Nothing could be boring as it sounds,
the plains. Here, Comanches roamed a thousand years.
No one was safe. Landing, look out. You'll see

why they rode hard. the two-prop commuter drags
a long, straight-in approach and taxies across flat asphalt
to the shack, a squat brown terminal of mud.

Follow natives strangely in a hurry, a surly crowd,
and find your bags, a yellow cab outside, a skyline
lonely as you've heard, too gaudy wide to be the sky -

more like a laser show in the Astrodome. Nothing
for miles but fields of maize no taller than the car.
The ball-capped driver smokes and flick hot ashes

in the breeze. Ignore the backseat sign, No Smoking.
You'll find me sweating on one of four ball fields in town.
Bring a glove and beware: it's scrub, and we always

need good fielders who can run. You might stick in
a bat, just to be safe. And cleats, don't forget
a good, sharp pair of cleats.


Line Drives

Nomar Garciaparra

Wikipedia - "Anthony Nomar Garciaparra (...born July 23, 1973, in Whittier, California) is a former Major League Baseball player. After playing a decade as an All-Star shortstop for the Boston Red Sox, he played third base, first base, and designated hitter for the Oakland Athletics, first base and third base for the Los Angeles Dodgers, and shortstop and third base for the Chicago Cubs. He is one of 13 players in Major League history to hit two grand slams during a single game, and the only player to achieve the feat at home."
Wikipedia, Baseball Reference

1954 Topps Baseball Card Set

"1954 was the first in a number of years of peace in the US. The Korean War had ended. The USSR would test a nuclear weapon and the Cold War would start, though no one knew it at the time. After one hundred years of colonial rule, France was forced to leave Vietnam, having been defeated by Communist forces. The Baseball Card Wars continued en masse with Bowman and Topps battling for cardboard supremacy. The effect of the baseball card war was felt big time by the diminished sets of each combatant. Each set was watered down by players that could be considered missing in action. The Topps set would include only 250 cards." Vintage Baseball Card Blog

Bill Davis - "White Shoes"

After I began working on Don's crew
I discovered there were only three of us
employed by the Boston Red Sox
who were not Catholic.
Don, myself and Billy Clark,
one of the supervisors.
We were all Protestant, of course.

It occurred to Billy
that we needed to stick together,
to look out for each other.
Billy was an Episcopal.
He sang in the choir
and turned completely red at roll call
if someone asked him to sing,
or mentioned his shoes.

Don was a Unitarian who smoked Tampas under the stands
and talked to me for hours about his garden,
about the committees he served on at church,
about how good the Sox looked, about Thoreau,
about what an asshole Nixon was.
He would wave me out to go home sometimes
after the seventh inning.

One night
when I was helping Don
get Billy in his car
before he passed out completely,
he asked me if I believed in God.
Before I could answer,
Billy rallied, broke into
"Have Thine Own Way Lord"
and puked on his shoes.


Local 254, 1976