Up in the air: Wearing my Indians cap in a hot air balloon

For my first hot air balloon ride, I wore my Cleveland Indians cap. Somehow that was appropriate.

The West Coast: A wasteland for baseball offense

AL, NL, all around the game: the West Coast is a barren landscape for hitters in Major League Baseball. I’m most acutely aware of the offensive struggles of the San Francisco Giants, the defending world champions who rank last in runs, 28th in hits and 25th in home runs. The Giants play a lot of […]

The Giants cut two veterans, and the sobering reality of Major League Baseball

The San Francisco Giants shook up their roster today, jettisoning veterans Aaron Rowand and Miguel Tejada while calling up Brett Pill from the minors. I’ve had days in my career like Rowand and Tejada are having, and I’ve also had a few call-up moments. I congratulate Pill on his ascension to the big leagues, a move […]

I finally make it to Kauffman Stadium, and the Kansas City Royals still stink

When Kauffman (nee Royals) Stadium opened years ago, I remember the announcers cooing about how cool the fountains were. Presumably they concentrated their gaze beyond the grass because the grass was plastic. Kansas City prides itself as the city of fountains, and through the many times I’d visited over the years I’d never managed to […]

Impressed with the Houston Astros

The Houston Astros pulled out a hard-earned victory over the Giants in 10 innings today at AT&T Park. Houston has the worst record in baseball, but you’d never know it from how they battled to split the four-game series with the defending world champions. All four went into extra innings, 10 in three of them […]

Getting an eyeful of great automobiles at the Canepa Motorsports Museum

Rarely do I stray from baseball on this blog, and more rarely still do I venture into auto racing. But I am compelled to share the great experience I had yesterday visiting the Canepa Motorsports Museum and showroom in Scotts Valley, Calif. Planning a day with my son and a friend in Santa Cruz, I […]

Tiger Woods fires his caddy, and that’s OK with me

A few weeks ago Tiger Woods dumped longtime caddy Steve Williams, and as someone who spent six summers caddying I have a bit of perspective to offer on that. I’d categorize the response of the media and the public to Tiger’s decision as mostly negative. It would be easy to join the majority here. Really, […]

Great moments in childhood: My 1966 Rocky Colavito baseball card

On this, the 78th birthday of Rocky Colavito, permit me to reminisce on one of the great events of my childhood. Like most kids in Cleveland in the late 50s and 1960s, I idolized Rocky Colavito, my favorite Indians player. I was only 3 when Frank Lane traded him to the Tigers for Harvey Kuenn at […]

Phillies-Giants brawl was a battle of the sore losers

The Phillies, stewing over losing to San Francisco in the playoffs last year, got into a brawl last night with the Giants, who are stewing over losing to the Phillies this year. Call it the battle of the sore losers. I didn’t watch the game and was only able to sneak a few score updates […]

Bits and bobs as the trade deadline passes

I’ve posted mighty infrequently of late. I attribute that to most of my energy being sponged up by a couple of major project at work. Nonetheless, here are a few thoughts that have been passing through my brain in recent days: – It sucks to get swept. The San Francisco Giants dropped three straight to […]