The right way to sing the national anthem at a baseball game

At baseball games we spectators join the players in removing our caps for the singing of our national anthem, a notoriously difficult challenge that has produced some excruciatingly horrid renditions over the years. The most recent came a few nights ago by Victoria Zarlenga before the Scotland-USA soccer match (listen, if you dare!). Last night […]

How many major league ballplayers died serving their country in World War II?

On this Memorial Day, I awoke early, wondering how many major league baseball players lost their lives in the service of their country. The son of a World War II veteran, I was most curious about that conflict, and a Google search quickly pointed me to the Baseball in Wartime site. The site reveals that […]

New York Times profiles the ‘father of baseball card collecting’

The New York Times has a fine story today on the man considered the father of baseball card collecting, Jefferson R. Burdick. I’d never heard of Burdick, and I certainly didn’t know that he donated his card collection and other materials to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. I’ll have to check […]

Adjusting to baseball life in a new time zone

Back on the East Coast, I left work about 6 o’clock tonight and came home to make dinner and listen to a ballgame. But to my chagrin, I was home too early for our national pastime. The first games weren’t starting until 7:05 EDT, so I had to prepare the evening meal without a baseball […]

What’s a baseball cap worth? Half a million bucks if it belonged to Babe Ruth

A Babe Ruth baseball cap fetched more than half a million dollars at auction yesterday, but its value is a pittance compared with one of Ruth’s New York Yankees road jerseys that sold for $4.4 million. (The New York Daily News has the details.) The cap, which Ruth had worn in the 1930s with the […]

Justing Verlander comes oh-so-close to a no-hitter

The Pittsburgh Pirates have just broken up a no-hitter bid by Justin Verlander, who held the Buccos hitless for 8 and 1/3 innings tonight. A solid hit up the middle by Josh Harrison broke the spell. Verlander was able to wrap up the game and finish a one-hitter as the Detroit Tigers won easily, 6-0. […]

Another magic night in Baltimore: Josh Hamilton clouts four home runs

When I heard last night that Josh Hamilton had hit four home runs in Baltimore, the Cleveland Indians genetic coding in my brain lit up. It was in Baltimore back on June 10, 1959, when Rocky Colavito knocked out four homers against the Orioles at old Memorial Stadium. Hamilton homered twice, doubled, then homered twice more […]

Finding the right baseball caps for a cross-continent drive

One of the critical questions I face this week as I prepare to drive cross-country is what baseball caps to bring on the trip and when to wear each of them. I could, for example, stick with my San Francisco Giants caps all the way. I could wear the standard cap Thursday, a vintage one […]

Getting the number right on the uniform

Something’s been bugging me this season about the San Francisco Giants, and I finally figured it out while watching the game tonight. Brandon Crawford wears No. 35, and that’s wrong for a shortstop. A shortstop ought to have a number in the teens or single digits. The mid-30s? No. Give that to an outfielder or […]

A great night with the Modesto Nuts

I caught my first ball game of the year at John Thurman Field in Modesto, watching the hometown Nuts defeat the Stockton Ports 4-0. It was a special night, hanging out with a couple of buddies from work and getting an unexpected tribute from the ball club. Before the game along the concourse I came […]