I put a toe back in the softball waters

It’s been years since I’ve played on a softball team, and I made my rookie debut last evening in the Princeton University league. The game was a test of my overall stamina and flexibilty, but especially a test drive of my new left knee. I did OK, although by playing catcher I was not severely […]

Trying a new angle on Princeton baseball

The dimensions of each baseball field rarely change, and when I’m shooting games I want to make sure I don’t overlook some new vantage points that I hadn’t tried before. At today’s Brown-Princeton doubleheader, I knew I’d have time to try something different. Inspiration struck in the nightcap, when Jacob Faulkner started for the Tigers. […]

Weather cold, bats hot at Princeton-Rider baseball game

Most years that I can recall, Princeton plays a mid-week, non-conference game against Rider University. The Broncs play at Sonny Pitaro Field on the campus in Lawrence Township, roughly 8 miles from Princeton’s campus. On Wednesday, I had a late meeting at work but was able to drive to the Rider campus in time to […]

Princeton baseball is back home

Princeton and other college baseball teams in the Northeast typically start their seasons on long road trips down South, where the weather is warmer and a bit more predictable than it is on campus. That was the case again for Princeton, and I had to wait until this weekend for their home opener series and […]

A gripping story of the Detroit Tigers and a 1930s wave of terror

I am forever on the hunt for baseball books, and by chance I discovered through an electronic library “Terror in the City of Champions.” The book, published in 2016, chronicles the exploits of the Detroit Tigers and other Motor City sports teams in the 1930s against a backdrop of violent crime perpetrated by a ruthless […]

Super Bowl omen: A bald eagle visits

Happy Super Bowl, everyone. I’m rooting for the Philadelphia Eagles, and we just had what I consider a very good omen for the the team. As my wife and I were eating lunch, a bald eagle landed on the golf course that adjoins our lot. The eagle flew off, then came back to the course […]

Baseball mitt reissues: One can hope

Volkswagen brought back the Beetle. Ford reissued the Thunderbird. And Corgi toys have reissued its Batmobile model, as my Facebook and Instagram feeds remind me nearly every day. As a baseball fan, I’ve long wished that sporting goods companies would offer us reissued versions of the mitts we had in our younger days. Several years […]

Go Birds! The Super Bowl, the Eagles and the eagles

As the Philadelphia Eagles head to another Super Bowl, The Associated Press took that as a cue to write more broadly about how eagles — Philadelphia and bald — are “having a moment.” The football team’s good fortune is widely l known, and there’s also been a lot of good news lately about our national […]

‘Love and Loss’ — the tragic tale of Ray Chapman

One of my Christmas presents was the book “Love and Loss; The Short Life of Ray Chapman,” the only player to die of injuries suffered in a Major League Baseball game. The Cleveland Indians shortstop was fatally struck in the head at the Polo Grounds by a pitch from New York Yankees hurler Carl Mays. […]

Saying farewell to my left knee

I underwent replacement surgery for my left knee on Thursday, Jan. 23. As with many things in my life, a connection to baseball is involved. In all my years as a kid and teenager playing baseball, only once did play come to a halt because I was injured. It happened when I was 11 years […]