Looking back fondly on my ball-playing life

Playing softball again this year has got me thinking about the arc of my ball-playing life. It began as a toddler trying to hit a plastic ball tossed by my dad and has morphed into the 60-something trudger that I’ve become. As a kid, I learned the rules and how to play the game. “Meet […]

‘Love and Loss’ — the tragic tale of Ray Chapman

One of my Christmas presents was the book “Love and Loss; The Short Life of Ray Chapman,” the only player to die of injuries suffered in a Major League Baseball game. The Cleveland Indians shortstop was fatally struck in the head at the Polo Grounds by a pitch from New York Yankees hurler Carl Mays. […]

The day they traded Gorman Thomas

For 23 years, I worked for The Associated Press in five bureaus across the country and at headquarters in New York. I joined the wire service in Milwaukee in 1981, as the Brewers were gaining momentum that would carry them to the memorable 1982 World Series. The Brewers lost that series to the St. Louis […]

Requiem for a Cubs fan

Bob Newhart has died, and it’s fair to say that any and all Americans who enjoyed his comedy are deeply saddened. I’m squarely in that category. I alway felt an affinity for Bob and his Bob Hartley character on the Bob Newhart Show. Newhart grew up in Chicago and was Jesuit-educated: St. Ignatius High School […]

Saying farewell to the Say Hey Kid

Willie Mays died last night at age 93, news that most Americans woke up to today. So did I, by checking the text my daughter sent me last night shortly after I’d dropped off to sleep. Although I never saw Willie play in person, I saw him play on TV in many an All-Star game […]

My quest for the Classic Cleveland Indians cap of my childhood

I started this blog years ago with the idea that I could comment on sports and life while riffing off the many baseball caps I owned, each one inspiring some memory or insight that I thought others might like to read. Today, I’ll tell the tale of my latest acquisition, one I spent several frustrating […]

A visit to the Pro Football Hall of Fame

Driving to Cleveland for a high schoo reunion this weekend, I had time to stop in Canton and visit the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Even though I grew up about an hour away and had been in Canton a number of times, I’d never walked through the doors of this shrine to football in […]

A tribute to Vic Davalillo

In my schoolboy days in the 1960s, Vic Davalillo was a fixture in the Cleveland Indians lineup. Sadly, I learned today that he has died at age 84. Davalillo, a good-fielding center fielder, finished third in the American League in batting average in 1965 at .301. I remember the Topps “league leader” baseball card the […]

A Salute to Tito Francona, his dad and an old mitt

The Cleveland Guardians gave a wonderful tribute last night to Terry “Tito” Francona on his last home game managing the team before his retirement. It was a well-deserved sendoff, as illustrated by this video the team produced in his honor. That tribute video prominently mentioned that he spent a lot of his early childhood with […]

The daily challenge and pleasure of Immaculate Grid

For roughly a year running, I played Wordle _ The New York Times’ puzzle _ virtually every day. And then along came Immaculate Grid, a daily sports challenge from Baseball Reference, one of my go-to sources for information on baseball players and their stats. Throughout July and August, I stopped playing Wordle and instead got […]