Nothing beats a big box of Topps

The nearby Costco has been carrying Topps’ “super box” sets of baseball cards for the past few months, and I treated myself to one for my birthday. Tempted as I was to open the 12 Series 2 packs of cards plus the three “Flagship Collection” packs at once, I decided to spread the joy over […]

Watching the Yankees’ AA team tear it up

On Tuesday evening I drove an hour north to watch the New York Yankees’ AA affiliate Somerset Patriots clobber the New Hampshire Fisher Cats 12-1 at TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater, New Jersey. The Patriots pounced on the Cats, a Toronto Bluejays affiliate, for five runs in the first inning and six in the second. […]

Mike Krukow: A fan’s appreciation

Mike Krukow has announced that he’s retiring from broadcasting San Francisco Giants’ baseball games at the end of the season. All good things must come to an end, and Kruk’s 36 years of providing color commentary were a very, very good thing. Having moved to New Jersey 14 years ago, I no longer catch his […]

Where have you gone, Billy Dick?

On a whim the other day, I asked Google to find pro baseball players from my hometown, Cleveland Heights, Ohio. I grew up knowing that Steve Stone went to Brush High School in neighboring South Euclid, and that Mike Hegan and Gary Roggenburk attended my high school, St. Ignatius in Cleveland. As with many of […]

Another great outing to Baltimore and the Orioles

For the fourth consecutive year, I headed to Baltimore for a baseball wallow with my brother-in-law and two of my nephews. We took in three Orioles games at Camden Yards in which the home team defeated the Chicago Cubs once and the Kansas City Royals twice. For the O’s, it was the front end of […]

Retirement treat: A Philadelphia Phillies day game

My retirement from Princeton University took effect Wednesday, and I thought catching the first available day game at Citizens Bank Park would be a dandy way to celebrate. I drove to Philadelphia late this morning, knowing that I’d likely roast in a heat wave promising a triple-digit high temperature. Roast I did, along with 38,000 […]

The ‘Bible of Baseball’ goes to the gamblers

As a teenager, I couldn’t wait for the mailman (in those pre-gender neutral letter carrier days) to stuff my copy of The Sporting News into our mailbox on Erieview Road in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. I read — no, scoured — that newsprint magazine cover to cover, reading the columns by Joe Falls out of Detroit […]

PitchCom: No more shaking off signals

It has slowly dawned on me over this baseball season that a ritual component of the game has gone the way of barehanded fielders. What’s missing? The pitcher shaking off signs from the catcher on which pitch to throw. PitchCom, the secure way for hurlers to get instructions on the next pitch from the catcher […]

Princeton baseball drops a wild one to Wagner

With a two-team total of 28 hits and 27 runs, the Wagner-at-Princeton baseball game had plenty of action over 3 hours and 40 minutes of play. Wagner took an early lead, lost it, then reclaimed it to win 16-11. I roamed the sidelines as I always do, but today was the first time I shot […]

A nice day for Princeton baseball in New York City

Princeton entered its weekend series with Columbia on a nine-game losing streak, and the Tigers were able to break free in the first game of the Saturday doubleheader. They dropped the nightcap, and I went into New York for the third and final game of the series. The Lions play at Robertson Field at Satow […]