Manny Ramirez signs with the Athletics, and mlb.com takes no notice

This is telling. I just logged on to MLB.com to see what news they might have of Manny Ramirez signing a minor-league contract with the Oakland Atheltics. While the blog entry about Ramirez is the top link on ESPN.com’s story stack, there’s not a word on Ramirez out front on the Major League Baseball site. […]

On Presidents’ Day, a tip of the cap to William Howard Taft for starting the ‘first pitch’ tradition

For most Americans, William Howard Taft is not the first chief executive to leap to mind as we celebrate Presidents’ Day. But we baseball fans owe him homage for starting one of our country’s most enduring traditions: the president throwing out the ceremonial first pitch of the season. From a specially built box at National […]

In praise of Pebble Beach and Phil Mickelson

Pebble Beach is one of those special places that all Americans, at least anyone who has ever picked up a golf club, should visit. I’ve had the good fortune to stop by the course a couple of times, and my wife and I were in the galleries during the third round of the tournament in […]

Missing the Washington Senators

A national touring production of “Damn Yankees” is swinging by the Modesto area, and the news dredged up some unexpected pleasant memories. I’ve always had a soft spot for the Senators, and I think I know why. Growing up an Indians fan in the 60s, I knew that if I went to a game at […]

New York vs. Boston again – but I’m OK with that

On these posts I’ve complained, whined and kvetched about how America’s major television networks and the media overall are obsessed with the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry. Super Bowl XLVI is upon us, and we have another Boston-New York matchup with the Patriots and Giants. The network executives must be mighty pleased that those two big northeastern […]

My TV is too lame, so I can’t host a Super Bowl party

At a measly 36 inches on the diagonal, the low-def television set in our family room is simply too pathetic for me even to begin thinking about inviting people over to watch the Super Bowl. Our Toshiba is a hand-me-down from my brother. He gave it to us when he moved overseas back in 2001, […]

My friend Kelly makes a bid for the MLB Fan Cave

A colleague at work and a huge baseball fan, my friend Kelly Jones is making a bid for the MLB Fan Cave for this baseball season. She’s put up a YouTube video making her case, which you can watch here. That way you can find out why she talks through her mitt so much! (Good […]

Happy birthday, Jackie Robinson!

I probably would have missed noting Jackie Robinson’s birthday today had it not been for a Facebook post by the Baseball Hall of Fame linking to Robinson’s page. Robinson, of course, broke the “color barrier” by becoming the first black to play major league baseball in the modern era. Baseball today, with its polyglot roster […]

Saying farewell to Jorge Posada and Pat “The Bat” Burrell

Two players who never failed to impress me during their long major league careers have retired in recent days: Jorge Posada, who played only for the Yankees, and Pat Burrell, who has World Series rings from the Phillies and Giants. Through the past decade or so, Posada was my favorite Yankee. That’s probably because he […]

Old-school baseball: How I learned to catch with a flat mitt

My education in baseball was old-school, beginning with my father tossing the ball back and forth to me in our back yard. I had one tool for the job, and that was my mitt. And it was flat. Odd as it may seem, in late 1950s and early 1960s America, I was a kid using […]