Celebrate the baseball solstice (and put a new equinox on your calendar)

Today, Dec. 28, 2017, marks the annual Baseball Solstice. That’s the mid-point day between the last out of the World Series and the first exhibition game or games of Spring Training. The World Series ended the night of Nov. 1 in Los Angeles, with the Houston Astros defeating the Dodgers. I am still processing the […]

Baseball: The Winter Game

Yes, baseball is the summer game. But that is precisely why it resonates so warmly in the dead of winter for those of us in cold climes. As I write this post on a Sunday morning from my home in New Jersey, a good deal of snow still dominates the view through the picture window […]

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 […]

Not to blaspheme against spring training, but I’m still waiting for the real baseball season

The sun was shining and baseball was on the radio again this weekend, and that’s marvelous. But it’s not the real thing. I listened to bits of a couple of games, and I enjoyed hearing the sounds of the ballpark again: the crack of the bat (yes, the Giants got some hits!), the banter of […]

Ready for the season with the MLB At Bat app

With the first exhibition games about to start this afternoon, I downloaded the MLB At Bat app last night onto to my smartphone. I had Sirius satellite radio for a couple of seasons, which enabled me to listen to the home broadcasts of all the major league games. But I only had access in my car. Last […]

Tim Lincecum start rained out in Arizona

Rain washed out a lot of Cactus League games in Arizona today, including a Giants game in which Tim Lincecum was scheduled to start. The young San Francisco ace brings consecutive National League Cy Young awards into the 2010 season. He and Matt Cain make a fearsome duo to lead the pitching staff, and when […]

Baseball and the folly of retaliation

[picapp align=”right” wrap=”true” link=”term=barry+zito&iid=5013585″ src=”c/d/d/1/Texas_Rangers_v_d498.jpg?adImageId=11010285&imageId=5013585″ width=”234″ height=”314″ /] The Cactus League season has just gotten under way, and controversy has already come out of the San Francisco Giants’ camp. In a game yesterday, Barry Zito plunked Prince (not Cecil, as I first had) Fielder with a fastball to the back. Although no one has definitively […]