Quick radio note: in addition to my usual gig on Toledo’s WLQR 1470 AM at 4:10 PM Eastern today, I’ll be this week’s Baseball Prospectus representative on Boston’s WWZN 1510 on “The Young Guns Show” at 3:05 PM Eastern. The Toledo gig doesn’t have a means of listening via Internet (hey Norm, get on it!) …
Safely ensconced in our new Brooklyn apartment, I took a lengthy timeout or three from burrowing away at my winter work to plug the Hall of Fame candidacy of Tim Raines. The BBWAA ballot was announced on Monday, leading me to pen not one but two Baseball Prospectus Unfiltered posts as well as my SI.com …
When one door closes, another opens, goes the old saying. Today’s news not only finds Joe Girardi accepting the Yankees’ offer to manage, but the man he replaced and the man he beat out headed to the dugout of the Dodgers. Reports out of LA have the Dodgers firing Grady Little and hiring Joe Torre, …
Just a quick and somewhat overdue note here to publicize a rapidly approaching talk and signing to promote It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over: the Baseball Prospectus Pennant Race Book. With our editor Steven Goldman on the 15-day DL with the Dreaded Gamboo (get well soon, Steve), Clay Davenport and I will take the ball …
Continue reading ‘Mr. Pennant Race Book Goes to Washington [BP Unfiltered]’ »
Rockin’ the blockquote: Last night, Sammy Sosa hit his 600th home run, becoming just the fifth player in baseball history to do so. Ironically, he hit it against the Chicago Cubs, the team for whom he walloped 545 of those homers, including 243 over a four-year span. While that barrage arguably made him the game’s …
Continue reading ‘Sammy Sosa, 600, and the Hall of Fame [BP Unfiltered]’ »
Given my recent disappointment with the tense Yankee Stadium scene and its heavy-handed security, Friday evening at Shea Stadium felt like a breath of fresh air — the first time in the history of the English language that sentence has been written, I’m sure — with the Brewers and the Mets squaring off for the …
As I cobble together this week’s Hit List, here’s a link to a New York Sun piece I did on Alex Rodriguez’s hot start. Sun articles are now free, but here’s a taste if you need extra encouragement: Before A-Rod this spring, only three hitters have hit more than 11 homers in April — Pujols, …
This ESPN Deportes poll asking readers to choose the greatest Latino shortstop of all time got me to pull out my JAWS spreadsheet. Not surprisingly, the choices ESPN offered — Luis Aparicio, Dave Concepcion, and Omar Vizquel — while fine players, are a not-quite-representative trio that conformed to the image of the light-hitting glove man …
Two days shy of two years ago I found a dog-eared copy of John Helyar’s classic book on the business of baseball, The Lords of the Realm, randomly discarded atop a community newspaper box, as if waiting for me to walk by and claim it. I’d never read LOTR, but it quickly became one of …
• 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 …