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 […]

Thanks to television, the NFL is truly the national sport

Baseball may traditionally be America’s national pastime, but as a spectator sport football is king. That’s a tribute to television broadcasting. In a continent spanning four time zones (and I’m excluding Alaska and Hawaii), football has an enormous advantage in capturing the attention of the public. Even in an era of Monday night and occasional […]

A tip of the cap to Paul Waner, in memory of my father

Paul Waner Originally uploaded by doug.goodman Had cancer not claimed him years ago, my father would have celebrated his 90th birthday today. Dad handed down to me many values, not the least of which was his lifelong love of baseball. Dad was born in western Pennsylvania in 1920, which meant he grew up a Pittsburgh […]

Matt Garza no-hits the Tigers

[picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=Matt+Garza&iid=9263262″ src=”http://view4.picapp.com/pictures.photo/image/9263262/tampa-bay-rays-matt-garza/tampa-bay-rays-matt-garza.jpg?size=500&imageId=9263262″ width=”500″ height=”365″ /] Matt Garza entered his named in the record books at Cooperstown as he threw a no-hitter against the Detroit Tigers tonight. In the old days, I’d have been lucky to catch the game late at night on the radio if the right stations with the right wattage […]

And the blue holiday baseball caps are cool, too

[picapp align=”left” wrap=”true” link=”term=baseball&iid=9289359″ src=”http://view3.picapp.com/pictures.photo/image/9289359/hat-and-glove-member-the/hat-and-glove-member-the.jpg?size=500&imageId=9289359″ width=”234″ height=”156″ /] I didn’t realize when I posted the other night that many Major League Baseball teams are wearing special holiday caps with blue bills this weekend. The mix of red and blue is pretty cool, and I think MLB has a winner. Hard as it is to adjust […]

Major League Baseball can do the right thing and give Galarraga a perfect game

[picapp align=”right” wrap=”false” link=”term=Galarraga&iid=8821298″ src=”2/e/3/5/MLB_Red_Sox_a16f.jpg?adImageId=13084662&imageId=8821298″ width=”234″ height=”156″ /] Due to a unique set of circumstances, Major League Baseball can overturn the horrible call that cost Armando Galarraga his perfect game and do so without jeopardizing the integrity of the game. The replay evidence is overwhelmingly conclusive that umpire Jim Joyce made the wrong call. Joyce […]

A crazy day for baseball!

[picapp align=”left” wrap=”true” link=”term=Ubaldo&iid=8438873″ src=”b/b/6/0/MLB_Brewers_vs_237f.jpg?adImageId=12521858&imageId=8438873″ width=”234″ height=”156″ /] Here it is, nearing the end of Week 2 of the Major League Baseball season and I’ve yet to post on anything. This is a good day on which to break my silence. Ubaldo Jimenez (shown in a photo from earlier this season) no-hit the Atlanta Braves, and […]

An American icon: The pocket baseball schedule

CLEVELAND – Besides the crocuses poking their way up through the snow, one of the first signs of spring in northeast Ohio is the emergence of the annual Cleveland Indians’ pocket schedule. I picked my copy up at a shop counter the other day while visiting relatives. The schedule, neatly folded and tucked into my […]

Tres bien: Andre Dawson elected to the Hall of Fame

[picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=Andre+Dawson&iid=7473497″ src=”1/2/4/6/ANDRE_DAWSON_2172.JPG?adImageId=8829023&imageId=7473497″ width=”500″ height=”330″ /] Andre Dawson was elected to the Hall of Fame today, a rich reward for the speedy outfielder. He’s pictured above with Expos teammate Vance Law. Dawson only experienced the playoffs in two of his 21 years in the big leagues, so he didn’t get as much network […]

A tip of the cap to the Big Unit, Randy Johnson

[picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=Randy+Johnson&iid=3277461″ src=”3/6/3/9/Randy_Johnson_51_421b.jpg?adImageId=8809165&imageId=3277461″ width=”500″ height=”336″ /] This is how I’ll remember Randy Johnson – snarling, defiant, dominant. His long hair a tangle, his facial hair prickly, his fastball hurtling menacingly toward the plate from that lanky 6′ 11″ frame. I’ll remember him most in a Mariners’ cap as above, for it was in […]