My first visit to Dodger Stadium — and a Brewers’ playoff victory

I paid my first visit to Dodger Stadium on Wednesday, watching the Milwaukee Brewers defeat the mighty local nine in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series. It was a thrill on two levels. First, merely getting to Dodger Stadium in person was a big deal for me. I flew into LA at noon […]

Baseball and American history intertwine in ‘The First All-Star Game’

I am always on the lookout for great books on baseball, and I was recently given one by a friend to celebrate my retirement. “The First All-Star Game” by Randall Sullivan is more than just a baseball book. It’s an excellent summary of American history, walking the reader down the parallel paths of the national […]

Catching a bit of “fall ball” at Princeton’s Clarke Field

I was able to catch the last few innings of a Princeton baseball team scrimmage on Friday afternoon. The weather was delightfully pleasant under bright sunshine, a contrast to the expected chilly, gray days when the Tigers will play their first home games of the 2027 season. That will be the last hurrah for Bill […]

Scramble golf tournaments are the way to play

I write infrequently about golf, and I come today to praise the scramble as the ideal format for an outing among friends. On Sunday, I played in the annual nine-hole tournament that good friends host at a course in the Princeton area. The last few years we’ve played at the Hopewell Valley Golf and Country […]

Princeton’s Scott Bandura makes it to The Show

Following the Princeton baseball team for the past 10 years, I figured that someday one of the players I knew would make it to the majors. That day came Sunday when the San Francisco Giants called up Scott Bandura from AAA Sacramento. As the designated hitter, Scott went 1-for-3 with a walk. He struck out […]

Nothing beats a big box of Topps

The nearby Costco has been carrying Topps’ “super box” sets of baseball cards for the past few months, and I treated myself to one for my birthday. Tempted as I was to open the 12 Series 2 packs of cards plus the three “Flagship Collection” packs at once, I decided to spread the joy over […]

Monster trucks put on a show in Newark

Are monster truck competitions a sport? With one of my sons and one of his, I went to the MonsterJam event Saturday afternoon at the Prudential Center, home of the NHL New Jersey Devils hockey team. My answer to the question I posed is yes, and I decided to post about it here (not on […]

Watching the Yankees’ AA team tear it up

On Tuesday evening I drove an hour north to watch the New York Yankees’ AA affiliate Somerset Patriots clobber the New Hampshire Fisher Cats 12-1 at TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater, New Jersey. The Patriots pounced on the Cats, a Toronto Bluejays affiliate, for five runs in the first inning and six in the second. […]

Mike Krukow: A fan’s appreciation

Mike Krukow has announced that he’s retiring from broadcasting San Francisco Giants’ baseball games at the end of the season. All good things must come to an end, and Kruk’s 36 years of providing color commentary were a very, very good thing. Having moved to New Jersey 14 years ago, I no longer catch his […]

Where have you gone, Billy Dick?

On a whim the other day, I asked Google to find pro baseball players from my hometown, Cleveland Heights, Ohio. I grew up knowing that Steve Stone went to Brush High School in neighboring South Euclid, and that Mike Hegan and Gary Roggenburk attended my high school, St. Ignatius in Cleveland. As with many of […]