Weather permitting, Wednesday night will be my first visit to Yankee Stadium this season. It goes without saying that each year’s inaugural trip to the ballpark is filled with anticipation, but there’s one particular facet of visiting the House That Ruth Built which preoccupies my seasonal debut. Namely, has somebody killed off “Cotton Eye Joe” …
An Opening Day blowout in wintry conditions with the team’s marquee signing being booed off the field would have been preferable to what the Yanks experienced on Monday night. Less than three innings into their first ballgame, a season flashed in front of the Yankees’ collective eyes at the sight of Derek Jeter writhing in …
My friend John Perricone’s been having some technical difficulties that that have taken a bite out of his Only Baseball Matters weblog. As a fellow Blogger user, I can only shudder at the potential havoc he must have endured, having barely skirted disaster on that front myself recently. John’s asked me to tell you, dear …
Why is this man smiling? Because Opening Day is finally here. After a winter of my discontent, and some seriously nasty weather, the arrival of the baseball season feels completely refreshing. Perhaps especially so, since this season carries no imminent threat of labor strife. There’ll be no strikes, just balls flying every which way for …
It’s tempting to say that 91-year-old Buck O’Neil has forgotten more about baseball than I’ll ever know. But in his interview with Bronx Banter’s Alex Belth (who after interviewing Marvin Miller and Ken Burns is, dare I say, en fuego), it’s abundantly clear that the Negro League legend hasn’t forgotten much at all. Still with …
Since I wasn’t online for a whole five days, I’ve missed plenty of interesting baseball articles, some of which I’d like to call to your attention… • Bronx Banter’s Alex Belth interviews Marvin Miller. THAT Marvin Miller. In the name of a book proposal, Belth phoned the 86-year-old former Executive Director of the Major League …
Continue reading ‘Banters, Ranters, and Other Stuff I Missed’ »
War makes a very strange backdrop for a vacation, and I can’t say the current situation didn’t dampen my spirits a bit while down in Florida. I never did get my web access to work while I was down there. And I’ll never refer to Tampa and culture in the same sentence again. But the …
I’m packed for my six-day Spring Training trip, which begins on Wednesday. I counted about seven different baseball-themed shirts as I packed. Bought a new scorebook for the occasion (one of those softball-style vertical ones that can handle lots of substitions; hey, I’d keep score at a tee-ball league), and a brand new ball to …
In the baseball website racket, keeping a fantasy team is as much obligation as hobby. Gotta have a side to wear the corporate colors, after all, and some poor middle infielder to jettison after a losing streak. And lest you get the idea that you’re the smartest guy on the block, a sorry-assed roster full …
In early January, a rumor surfaced that Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation might sell the Dodgers. To anyone capable of counting on their fingers, this hardly came as a surprise. Count five: having purchased the Dodgers in 1998, News Corp’s five-year window to depreciate player contracts had just closed. The five-year rule (brainchild of Bud Selig …