Voodoo and the art of fantasy baseball

I could have told you that Aubrey Huff was going to break out of his slump. I benched him on my fantasy team this week. Those who play in gung ho competitive leagues or in the more casual settings that I prefer harbor voodoo beliefs that our maneuvers on the fantasy diamond have an impact […]

Walk-off grand slam lifts Cleveland Indians to best April record ever

Of all the surprises in this first full month of the 2011 Major League Baseball season, the most stunning has to be the improbable success of the Cleveland Indians. Winning 9-5 on a walk-off grand slam last night by Carlos Santana, the Tribe improved to 17-8, the most April victories in franchise history. The Indians […]

The Houston Astros go green, caps and all

Checking MLB.com this morning, I was puzzled to see green caps on a static image culled from a video of the ending of the Cardinals-Astros game last night. Turns out the Astros wore the green caps as part of the kickoff to the Houston club’s “Play Green” campaign. It’s an environmental promotion celebrated this week, […]

Taking the specialty relief pitcher to extremes

One of the aspects of baseball that must bore casual and haphazard fans is the game’s increasing reliance on short term relief pitching. Such maneuvers even test the patience of diehard fans like me. It happened again tonight as I watched the late innings of the Giants-Pirates game. In the top of the eighth, the […]

It’s baseball season. Enough of these other sports.

I turned on the car radio this afternoon hoping to catch a baseball game only to find a couple of NBA playoff games. I found that a bit depressing – not because I don’t like the NBA, but because it’s April 16 and these are just the first games of the first round. The hockey […]

Adios, Carlos Delgado. Thanks for a great career.

Overcome by injuries, Carlos Delgado has retired from baseball. Even though he’s been inactive since early in the 2009 season, his departure still resonates. There’s a nice farewell piece on Carlos in the Globe and Mail that summarizes the man and his career. Delgado piled up some impressive numbers on offense during his years with the […]

Giants, Dodgers embrace rivalry, denounce violence

When you get 25,000 or 50,000 people together for a baseball game and throw in a few beers, it’s inevitable that some fans are going to misbehave. I’ve seen that ugly side of baseball in major league stadiums up close. One of the worst episodes was in 1977 or 1978 when a nasty fight broke […]

After the first full week of play, some startling names atop the baseball standings

As I write this post, the Yankees and Red Sox (again!) are playing on the Sunday night telecast. If the Yankees win, they’ll manage a tie in first place of the American League East not with the Sox but with the Baltimore Orioles. Whoa. And check the AL Central standings. The Indians, who (be honest) […]

What cap will Manny Ramirez wear on his Hall of Fame plaque?

That’s a question that’s likely to remain hypothetical. Manny Ramirez slipped away quietly into retirement Friday after it was revealed he flunked a drug screening. Unless some future commissioner grants a pardon for the stars of the Steroid Era, I doubt Manny will ever make the Baseball Hall of Fame. He has the stats to justify […]

Wowed by the new WordPress iPad blog display

I use the WordPress platform to write this blog, and the other night in my preferences I activated a new option that changes the way the blog appears on iPads. Last night I finally got a chance to see the results, and wow! The display is similar to Flipboard, an iPad app that takes Facebook, […]