The Angels compile the best record in baseball

The Los Angeles Angels go for victory No. 100 tonight. Even if they lose and lose again tomorrow on the final day of the season, they’ll still have the best record in baseball with 99 wins. No matter the record, no team is a lock to advance even past the first round of the playoffs. […]

The final game at Yankee Stadium

A tip of the cap to all the great Yankees players who turned out tonight for the pre-game festivities at the last game at Yankee Stadium. The white-on-navy caps have stayed the same over the years, as is right. Those old-style cream flannels that Larsen and Whitey and Yogi were wearing sure are great.

The ecstasy – and the agony – of September baseball

April is the cruelest month, T.S. Elliott said. But he never had to suffer through September on a baseball club eliminated from playoff contention in August. That’s the plight of the Seattle Mariners, who’ve been left in the dusty cellar of the American League West. As I write this post, the M’s are 30.5 games […]

These baseball caps freak me out

When I have some time to kill, I’ll often head over to the Major League Baseball or Minor League Baseball Web sites to salivate and dream over the ballcaps and other merchandise they offer. This morning, I decided to broaden my search and entered a Google search for baseball caps. The major cap-making companies popped […]

McCain or Obama: Who looks better in a ball cap?

Ready or not, the Democratic National Convention begins in Denver on Monday, to be followed a week later by the Republican convention. There’s no doubt about the nominees: Barack Obama for the Democrats, John McCain for the GOP. Which leaves us with one serious question: which president will look better in a baseball cap? Making […]

In praise of minor league baseball

If there’s anything more American than baseball, it’s minor league baseball. I grew up knowing only the big-league variety, although one could argue that the Cleveland Indians of the 1960s and 70s were anything but major league. Over the past decade I’ve become a fan of minor league ball, which has enjoyed a resurgence across […]

Network TV baseball choices play it safe

If there’s a network TV baseball game on the tube, chances are it involves the Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals, or some combination thereof. I know that New York rules the media world — I worked in Manhattan for a certain worldwide wire service for five years — but the air and cable time the Yankees […]

Manny being Manny in the City of Angels

Manny Ramirez is switching caps, donning Dodger blue after getting traded by the Red Sox. I had my hands on a Dodger cap once, a giveaway in a swag bag at a convention in Los Angeles. From an aesthetic viewpoint, the Dodger cap is appealing, the crisp white LA standing out on the blue background. […]

The Yankees as Evil Empire

For days I’ve been putting off this post, but with news of the Tigers trading Pudge Rodriguez to the New York Yankees, I can hold out no longer. The Yankees are the Evil Empire of baseball, an eternal force against which all others must contend. The Yanks are the archetype of the invincible. If they […]

The Cubs in ’08: It could be, it might be…

Is this the year for the Chicago Cubs? As the all-star break wraps up, one of the big questions in baseball is whether the Cubs can end their 100-year drought and win the World Series. To add atmosphere to the frenzied speculation, I present a relic from a quarter century ago. I bought this mesh-back […]