New batting helmets in minor leagues getting high marks for safety

Here’s a story from today’s Modesto Bee about the new batting helmets being used in Minor League Baseball. The specs from Rawlings say their S100 model is built to protect a batter struck by a pitch thrown at up to 100 mph. The Bee story says the helmets are getting rave reviews for their safety, […]

Major League Baseball can do the right thing and give Galarraga a perfect game

[picapp align=”right” wrap=”false” link=”term=Galarraga&iid=8821298″ src=”2/e/3/5/MLB_Red_Sox_a16f.jpg?adImageId=13084662&imageId=8821298″ width=”234″ height=”156″ /] Due to a unique set of circumstances, Major League Baseball can overturn the horrible call that cost Armando Galarraga his perfect game and do so without jeopardizing the integrity of the game. The replay evidence is overwhelmingly conclusive that umpire Jim Joyce made the wrong call. Joyce […]

The Habs have it

[picapp align=”right” wrap=”true” link=”term=Montreal&iid=8774278″ src=”3/7/4/9/Montreal_Canadiens_Win_6b81.JPG?adImageId=12837698&imageId=8774278″ width=”234″ height=”187″ /] Why are these men smiling? They’re fans of the Montreal Canadiens, who defeated the Pitsburgh Penguins 5-2 tonight to advance to the Eastern Conference finals in the NHL playoffs. The Habs will play either Philadelphia or Boston, who play tomorrow night. I haven’t paid much attention to […]

Great baseball rivalries: Yankees and Red Sox

[picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=Babe+Ruth&iid=4606837″ src=”f/d/d/8/New_Yorks_dfce.jpg?adImageId=12802092&imageId=4606837″ width=”500″ height=”356″ /] It all goes back to the Bambino. Once Babe Ruth moved to New York from Boston, the die was cast for the greatest baseball rivalry of them all. The two franchises have battled venomously ever since, and only in the last decade have the Red Sox (this […]

RIP Ernie Harwell, the Tigers’ announcer extraordinaire

One of the greatest voices from baseball history went silent today as Ernie Harwell died at age 92. For 42 years, he was the voice of the Tigers. As a kid in the Midwest, I spent many evenings listening to him and partner Ray Lane on WJR radio booming out of Detroit. My all-time favorite […]

Great baseball rivalries: Giants and Dodgers

For some time I’ve been debating how to categorize and present the top rivalries in Major League Baseball. I’ve contemplated rankings, countdowns and the like in an effort to stoke some traffic on this blog. If I were a more savvy blogger, I’d probably start tying these posts to whenever the teams start their next […]

The MLB app for iPhone blows me away

Resistance is futile. If you love baseball, you must get the MLB app for iPhone. I used a $10 iTunes gift card from my Easter basket (yes, the bunny still delivers to baseball bloggers of a certain age) and another $4.99 to spring for the app the other night, and all I can say is, […]

Rocky Colavito remembers the Detroit years, and a whole lot more

The Detroit Free Press today has a terrific interview with my boyhood baseball hero, Rocky Colavito, who was famously traded from Cleveland to the Tigers in exchange for Harvey Kuenn. Even if you’re not familiar with Colavito — one of the best players in the game from the late 50s into the 1960s — I […]

A crazy day for baseball!

[picapp align=”left” wrap=”true” link=”term=Ubaldo&iid=8438873″ src=”b/b/6/0/MLB_Brewers_vs_237f.jpg?adImageId=12521858&imageId=8438873″ width=”234″ height=”156″ /] Here it is, nearing the end of Week 2 of the Major League Baseball season and I’ve yet to post on anything. This is a good day on which to break my silence. Ubaldo Jimenez (shown in a photo from earlier this season) no-hit the Atlanta Braves, and […]

Congress caps off the drive to health care reform in historic vote

[picapp align=”right” wrap=”false” link=”term=health+care&iid=8314826″ src=”5/2/9/d/House_Votes_On_d0f8.jpg?adImageId=11544699&imageId=8314826″ width=”234″ height=”319″ /] This blog mainly focuses on sports, but I couldn’t let tonight’s historic Congressional vote on an overhaul of health care go without some sort of comment. And to find a photo of a Capitol police officer standing watch in front of the dome while wearing a ball […]