An American icon: The pocket baseball schedule

CLEVELAND – Besides the crocuses poking their way up through the snow, one of the first signs of spring in northeast Ohio is the emergence of the annual Cleveland Indians’ pocket schedule. I picked my copy up at a shop counter the other day while visiting relatives. The schedule, neatly folded and tucked into my […]

Tim Lincecum start rained out in Arizona

Rain washed out a lot of Cactus League games in Arizona today, including a Giants game in which Tim Lincecum was scheduled to start. The young San Francisco ace brings consecutive National League Cy Young awards into the 2010 season. He and Matt Cain make a fearsome duo to lead the pitching staff, and when […]

From the old Coast League: The story of Spider Baum

Here’s a gem of a slideshow about Charles “Spider” Baum, a member of the Pacific Coast League Hall of Fame who spent his best years pitching for the Sacramento Senators (a.k.a. Solons) and San Francisco Seals. The piece is by my McClatchy Co. colleague Mark Morris, multimedia director of The Sacramento Bee. The presentation is […]

Baseball and the folly of retaliation

[picapp align=”right” wrap=”true” link=”term=barry+zito&iid=5013585″ src=”c/d/d/1/Texas_Rangers_v_d498.jpg?adImageId=11010285&imageId=5013585″ width=”234″ height=”314″ /] The Cactus League season has just gotten under way, and controversy has already come out of the San Francisco Giants’ camp. In a game yesterday, Barry Zito plunked Prince (not Cecil, as I first had) Fielder with a fastball to the back. Although no one has definitively […]

Iconic baseball caps: Chicago White Sox

[picapp align=”right” wrap=”true” link=”term=chicago+white+sox&iid=5050132″ src=”7/0/8/1/Chicago_Cubs_vs_393f.JPG?adImageId=10913160&imageId=5050132″ width=”234″ height=”332″ /] The Chicago White Sox cap has gone through several iterations over the long history of the South Side franchise, and I write tonight to recognize the classy gothic lettering that now adorns the current model (displayed by infielder Gordon Beckham last summer). The script has that old-timey […]

Spike Lee sports a special Yankees championship cap

[picapp align=”left” wrap=”true” link=”term=NBA&iid=7939913″ src=”5/d/7/0/NBA_All_Star_165a.jpg?adImageId=10325689&imageId=7939913″ width=”234″ height=”294″ /] Check out the slick New York Yankees cap that Spike Lee wore to the NBA All-Star game last night in Dallas. I hadn’t seen this one before. It celebrates the Yanks’ recent World Series triumph — the 27th in franchise history — and notes the years of […]

Don’t look back

[picapp align=”left” wrap=”true” link=”term=satchel+paige&iid=6251079″ src=”e/8/0/f/Feller__Paige_0079.jpg?adImageId=9058614&imageId=6251079″ width=”234″ height=”351″ /] It’s the middle of the winter, roughly midway from the World Series to the opening of spring training, and I need some baseball inspiration. I found it in this photo of Bob Feller and Satchel Paige, from Oct. 15, 1946. Feller led an All-Star team of American […]

Mark McGwire comes clean

[picapp align=”left” wrap=”true” link=”term=Mark+McGwire&iid=7520370″ src=”2/e/7/0/FILE_PHOTO_Mark_0cd9.jpg?adImageId=8935258&imageId=7520370″ width=”234″ height=”350″ /] Mark McGwire finally admitted publicly today that he used steroids and human growth hormone during his brilliant yet tarnished Major League Baseball career. He’s a pitiable figure. I vividly recall the night he overtook Roger Maris for the single-season home run record, how he circled the bases […]

Tres bien: Andre Dawson elected to the Hall of Fame

[picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=Andre+Dawson&iid=7473497″ src=”1/2/4/6/ANDRE_DAWSON_2172.JPG?adImageId=8829023&imageId=7473497″ width=”500″ height=”330″ /] Andre Dawson was elected to the Hall of Fame today, a rich reward for the speedy outfielder. He’s pictured above with Expos teammate Vance Law. Dawson only experienced the playoffs in two of his 21 years in the big leagues, so he didn’t get as much network […]

A tip of the cap to the Big Unit, Randy Johnson

[picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=Randy+Johnson&iid=3277461″ src=”3/6/3/9/Randy_Johnson_51_421b.jpg?adImageId=8809165&imageId=3277461″ width=”500″ height=”336″ /] This is how I’ll remember Randy Johnson – snarling, defiant, dominant. His long hair a tangle, his facial hair prickly, his fastball hurtling menacingly toward the plate from that lanky 6′ 11″ frame. I’ll remember him most in a Mariners’ cap as above, for it was in […]