Baseball Cards, the Astros, and other Garbage Pail Kids

As I dashed into Target last week to pick up a few food items that needed restocking, I swung by the display for the trading cards on my way to the checkout line. If there’s not going to be a baseball season, I reasoned, I need some baseball cards by which to remember it. I […]

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 […]

Fixing the date for the annual Baseball Solstice: Dec. 29, 2013

The World Series is behind us, at least some of the Red Sox are shaving off their beards and baseball fans the world over are gathering scraps to light the fire for the Hot Stove League. It’s a time for reflecting on the season past and recognizing that we have several fallow months ahead before […]

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 […]

The new Miami Marlins logo: Nice design, wrong context

The new Miami Marlins logo is a fantastic look for somebody pulling down $8 an hour at a burger joint or a juice shop. But on a professional athlete making a couple of million dollar a year for hitting .236? I don’t think so. Detached from baseball, the logo is appealing. The font is light, […]

And the most valuable player in major league baseball, 2011, is ….

The Baseball Bloggers Alliance, of which I am a proud member, bestows its annual Stan Musial Award on the best player in baseball by a vote of the group’s members. This is my first year casting a ballot for what is the equivalent of the Major League Baseball most valuable player awards, and it’s a […]

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 […]

The Houston Astros go green, caps and all

Checking MLB.com this morning, I was puzzled to see green caps on a static image culled from a video of the ending of the Cardinals-Astros game last night. Turns out the Astros wore the green caps as part of the kickoff to the Houston club’s “Play Green” campaign. It’s an environmental promotion celebrated this week, […]

Caps, logos and the aesthetics of baseball

While baseball teams have plenty of crass commercialism in the names of their arenas and stadiums, at least the uniforms aren’t sullied by corporate logos as they are in other countries. Over at ESPN.com, Jim Caple laments that major league baseball team logos are becoming more corporate, blander and not nearly as much fun as […]

Astros fan makes great catch with his cap

Here’s great use of a baseball cap: An Astros fan, sitting along the left field foul line in Houston, uses his cap to snag a foul ball out of the clutches of the Mets fan sitting beside him. And the Astros fan made the catch while talking on his cell phone! Here’s a link to […]