As you may or may not have noticed, the comments feature on this blog has been nonfunctional over the past month. As of December 23, the third-party system I used, YACCS (Yet Another Collaborative Comment System), discontinued its service, but it’s only now that I’ve had a chance to clean up my template and enable …
As a general rule, I avoid overt political content in this space. I started writing about baseball to escape writing about politics and the long-running culture war, and with a few exceptions, I’ve stuck to that. I might fundamentally disagree with readers on matters far more important than baseball, but I enjoy finding common ground …
By all rights it should be a happy day in my household this morning with the Brewers opening a one-game lead on the Mets in the NL Wild Card race, but I was bawling in my coffee when I found out that Paul Newman had passed away at age 83, the latest big-name celebrity death …
I grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, largely among Mormon kids for whom swearing was taboo. From a young age I learned that bad words could get you into a little bit of trouble, but I never had my mouth washed out with soap or anything so dramatic. At worst I was lectured by …
Continue reading ‘George Carlin, RIP (Not Fucking Safe For Work)’ »
As I’ve said before, I’ve often traced my yen to write about baseball back to my paternal grandfather, Bernard Jaffe. Last Tuesday, May 20, marked his centennial birthday, and with my various deadlines and other obligations out of the way, I’d like to honor his life and share some fond memories. Bernard — “Bernie” or …
Continue reading ‘Bernard Jaffe: a Centennial Celebration’ »
Less than two weeks after the passing of Kurt Vonnegut, the world of letters lost another giant on Monday when David Halberstam was killed in a car accident near San Francisco. Halberstam was 73 years old but had shown no sign of slowing down; the crash occurred as he was on his way to interview …
First things first: this site turned six years old on Monday, and as with last year’s milestone, I was too busy to stop and serve notice via this blog. Yes, I wish I’d had the time to bake myself a cake, but I’m hardly complaining. The busyness has become business, and the idea that I …
• After 12 years of living in the East Village, I’m Brooklyn-bound. On Thursday, my wife and I signed a contract and put down a deposit on a 1,250-square foot apartment in downtown Brooklyn, one that will allow me to have a dedicated home office AND keep a room in reserve for a Jaffe To …
I read the news today, oh boy… Last week my good pal Alex Belth called me to gab about baseball and the various projects we’ve been working on this winter. Facing multiple deadlines, I had to defer our catch-up call, and I didn’t get back to it until this morning. I called his work number, …
• The results for the 2006 Hall of Fame voting have been announced. Not surprisingly, Cal Ripken Jr. (98.53 percent of the 545 votes) and Tony Gwynn (97.6 percent) were elected. Ripken appeared on the most ballots ever, but had “only” the third highest percentage behind Tom Seaver (98.83) and Nolan Ryan (98.79). • Rich …