Red Sox Nation shows its pride on Massachusetts license plates

Red Sox fans are crazy for their team, and as I traveled New England while on vacation last week I was struck by the number of BoSox specialty Massachusetts license plates I saw. They were a common site on Cape Cod, on Boston area highways, and I even spotted them in New Hampshire and Vermont. […]

What’s the proper look for a baseball cap brim?

Straight? Gently curved? Bent like a barrel? Multiple variations mark the way guys shape (or don’t) the brims of their baseball caps, and I’ve always been of the “gentle curve” persuasion. Ten, maybe 15 years ago, there was a big movement to an exaggerated curve, almost as if the bill were wrapped around a beer […]

The right way to sing the national anthem at a baseball game

At baseball games we spectators join the players in removing our caps for the singing of our national anthem, a notoriously difficult challenge that has produced some excruciatingly horrid renditions over the years. The most recent came a few nights ago by Victoria Zarlenga before the Scotland-USA soccer match (listen, if you dare!). Last night […]

Another magic night in Baltimore: Josh Hamilton clouts four home runs

When I heard last night that Josh Hamilton had hit four home runs in Baltimore, the Cleveland Indians genetic coding in my brain lit up. It was in Baltimore back on June 10, 1959, when Rocky Colavito knocked out four homers against the Orioles at old Memorial Stadium. Hamilton homered twice, doubled, then homered twice more […]

Finding the right baseball caps for a cross-continent drive

One of the critical questions I face this week as I prepare to drive cross-country is what baseball caps to bring on the trip and when to wear each of them. I could, for example, stick with my San Francisco Giants caps all the way. I could wear the standard cap Thursday, a vintage one […]

Gomer Hodge and other forgotten baseball heroes of Opening Day

Opening Day in baseball always brings up memories for me, most of them taking me back to the finger-stinging cold that usually accompanied an Indians opener on the shore of Lake Erie. And somehow this week popped into mind Gomer Hodge, a utility infielder who was the toast of Cleveland in April 1971. Keep in […]

The stars (of baseball) in the sky

One of the pleasures of winter is a crystal clear sky revealing the sparkling stars in all their glory. On a walk this evening, I got to thinking how cool it would be to reconfigure the sky with baseball constellations. Citing their heroes and legends, the ancient Greeks affixed names to the many patterns 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 […]

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 […]

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 […]