Indians fans: It is our lot in life to suffer

This blog has been silent through the September wild card chases, and it took the Indians’ disheartening performance last night to stir me to write again. Although their pitching ranged from acceptable to excellent, the Indians failed utterly at the plate. I credit a gutty performance by the Rays’ starter for much of that, but […]

Cirque du Phillies: An entertaining evening at Citizens Bank Park

Last night I attended my first Phillies home game at Citizens Bank Park, and it was a delight. My younger son and I donned San Francisco caps to cheer on the visiting Giants, who crushed the Fightin’ Phils 9-2 with some unexpected and welcome power from AAA call-ups Brett Pill and Roger Kieschnick. We had […]

Remembering George Scott

With sadness I learned last evening of the death of George Scott, who had a fine career primarily with the Red Sox and Brewers. I have a particularly clear memory of seeing Scott play third base for the Red Sox at old Municipal Stadium in Cleveland. My dad played third base as a kid and […]

Just a flesh wound: Some thoughts on baseball at mid-season

Wow, have I been a baseball blogging phantom this season. I cringe at the mere thought of checking the date on my last post, which itself was weeks and weeks after the previous post. My lack of posting doesn’t mean I haven’t been a fully engaged baseball fan. In fact, I’ve watched plenty of games […]

Baseball: You can go home again

Last weekend I went back to Cleveland to play golf with my oldest friends on the planet, the guys I grew up with in our old neighborhood straddling the border between Cleveland Heights and South Euclid. The trip was planned solely on our availability to get together for 18 holes, and it was a happy […]

A Father’s Day tribute to my dad

Baseball is an integral part of my life, and I have my father to thank for that. As I peer back through more than half a century of memories to my childhood, baseball and my father are fused. Dad taught me to throw, to catch (two hands, Danny!), to grip the bat and swing (meet […]

For baseball bloggers, a Father’s Day project

Inspired by William Tasker’s moving Memorial Day post, I propose that all members of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance compose a Father’s Day post on their own fathers. Most of us men and women with a passion for baseball likely picked it up from our fathers, who handed us our first balls and mitts, taught us […]

The Mets honor Mariano, and then defeat him

The New York radio airwaves are abuzz over how the Mets did the improbable last night and scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning off Mariano Rivera to beat the Yankees 2-1. It was a stunning victory — the second in as many nights at Citi Field — and even more amazin’ […]

Pass the hotdogs — and my change

It’s impossible to discuss the economics of Major League Baseball without discussing the “major market” and “small market” divide so eloquently illustrated in the movie “Moneyball.” Yet even the smallest of markets today is exponentially larger than the hundreds of small towns where baseball developed in its early decades. A nice perspective on baseball’s rural […]

This year’s spring training caps are hideous

Let me repeat that headline: This year’s spring training baseball caps are hideous. As my long blogging layoff will attest, I’ve paid little heed to the Grapefruit and Cactus leagues these past few weeks. So what I saw on a television set in a neighborhood shop a short while ago hit me harder than it […]