Rooting for the BLue Jays (and hoping against hope)

Led by Shohei Ohtani, the Los Angeles Dodgers are a formidable force heading into the 2025 World Series. After whipping the Yankees in five games last year, the Dodgers are back and well-positioned for a repeat victory. As a San Francisco Giants fan, I am genetically encoded to root against LA, and I will do […]

Baseball cards to celebrate the playoffs

At the hardware store last weekend, I was surprised to find baseball cards for sale at the checkout counter. Single packs with sticks of desiccated pink gum weren’t on offer as in my childhood days — just cube boxes containing eight Topps packs. I hadn’t bought or even seen baseball cards for sale yet this […]

Hammerin’ Hank is forever

I missed the news last year when the United States Postal Service issued a “forever” stamp in honor of Hank Aaron. But a lovely surprise arrived in the mail the other day. A friend and former Associated Press colleague had stuck one of the stamps in a notecard and mailed it to me in an […]

A beautiful day for baseball on the Princeton campus

We won’t have many more sunny, warm days like the one we had today. With the temperature in the low 80s and puffy white clouds speckling the sky, I made my way to Bill Clarke Field on the Princeton University campus to watch a baseball team intra-squad scrimmage. It was great to reconnect with Coach […]

Brewers and Phillies: Which to choose?

Root for the home team, Dad told me when I was a kid. As someone who has lived, worked and studied in several states, I’ve followed a lot of local nines over the years. As the Phillies start a series in Milwaukee with playoff implications for both teams and those chasing them, I find myself […]

Making peace with interleague play

As I listen to the Phillies playing the Rangers at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, near Dallas, I am no longer kvetching about interleague play in Major League Baseball. While I still miss the classic clashes in the World Series between the AL and NL champions who had not played each other since, maybe, […]

Hot summer for Princeton baseball: Four players go pro

What a summer it has been for the Princeton University baseball team. The Tigers posted a 12-31 record during the season for a .279 winning percentage. But the percentage of players turning professional is much, much higher. Pitcher Sean Episcope, who spent most of the season injured, was selected in the fifth round of the […]

Looking back fondly on my ball-playing life

Playing softball again this year has got me thinking about the arc of my ball-playing life. It began as a toddler trying to hit a plastic ball tossed by my dad and has morphed into the 60-something trudger that I’ve become. As a kid, I learned the rules and how to play the game. “Meet […]

The MLB store in New York stirs emotions

I spent yesterday in New York City to help watch my two grandsons who live there. At his request, I took my 4-year-old grandson to the F.A.O. Schwarz store at Rockefeller Center early in the afternoon. As we were walking down 6th Avenue, I spotted the flagship MLB Store across the street and suggested we […]

Face it: We’re playing ‘The New York Game’

As Kevin Baker abundantly and entertainingly makes clear, America’s pastime is “The New York Game.” Baker’s book with that title examines the development of baseball from its organizational stirrings in the mid-19th century to the cusp of racial integration at the end of World War II. The setting? New York City. My friend Jerry and […]