The 2016 Baseball Solstice

After the 2016 World Series ended in a nationwide outpouring of anguish over the Cleveland Indians’ heart-rending loss in worldwide jubilation over the Chicago Cubs’ victory ending more than a century of frustration, the realization slowly sunk in that another winter without baseball was approaching. We’re in the thick of that long, agonizing, “wait ’til next […]

Flash! It’s the 2016 Baseball Solstice

Happy New Year and Happy Baseball Solstice, everyone! Today — January 1st — not only is the first day of the new calendar year but it’s also the midpoint between the last out of the 2015 World Series 2015 and the first pitches of Spring Training exhibition games on March 1. I dreamt up the […]

Setting the annual Baseball Solstice

With the temperature flirting with 70 degrees today here in New Jersey, I’m aching for baseball even as I acknowledge we must endure weeks of winter before we hear “Play ball!” again. So it’s high time to announce the annual Baseball Solstice, that precise point between the final out of the World Series and the […]

Ending the year with the Baseball Solstice: Dec. 31, 2014

The high priests of baseball emerged deep from inside the clubhouse today, where they’ve been holed up since the final out of the World Series to declare Dec. 31 the Baseball Solstice between the 2014 and 2015 seasons. The solstice each year marks the midpoint between the final out of the World Series and the […]

You can’t slide home again: A trip to the diamond of my youth

Several weeks ago I was back in the neighborhood where I grew up in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and I took a stroll down Memory Lane. More accurately, I walked up and down Bluestone Road, the major thoroughfare of my youth, connecting our home on Erieview Road to my grade school in neighboring South Euclid. In […]

Meet the Mets: A first visit to Citi Field

Spending a day at the ballpark with family is always a treat, and yesterday I had the special pleasure of visiting Citi Field for the first time to catch a game with both my sons. With a temperature in the low 80s, a nice breeze and seats in the shade in Section 311, conditions were […]

My National League picks for the 2014 baseball season

These picks and $3 will get you a coffee and donut at Dunkin’ Donuts: East 1. Atlanta – Top of a weak heap 2. Washington – They’ll make it interesting 3. New York – Struggle, they will 4. Philadelphia – It’ll be a long summer 5. Marlins – It’s always a long summer Central 1. […]

My Amerian League picks for the 2014 baseball season

These picks and $4.50 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks: East 1. Boston — Sizemore, win more 2. New York — A close second 3. Tampa Bay — Another “so close” season 4. Baltimore — One of these years, but not 2014 5. Toronto — Still the best team in Canada Central […]

Agreed: The Tribe should retire Chief Wahoo

The Plain Dealer came out forcefully in an editorial Friday recommending that the Cleveland Indians drop their long-serving, cartoonish mascot, Chief Wahoo. I agree. Years ago, I didn’t. I made the usual arguments: Chief Wahoo is part of our Cleveland heritage, a rallying point for the whole community — black and white — that unites […]

Baseball: The Winter Game

Yes, baseball is the summer game. But that is precisely why it resonates so warmly in the dead of winter for those of us in cold climes. As I write this post on a Sunday morning from my home in New Jersey, a good deal of snow still dominates the view through the picture window […]