City-connecting with friends old and new

With few exceptions, my reaction to the funky City Connect uniforms that Major League teams are wearing has ranged from revulsion to loathing, On Friday, I finally got to see the Phillies’ City Connect uniforms in person, and my stance on the alternative togs is starting to soften. As we hung out at Comcast LIve […]

Surprise! Baseball players bunting

I could scarcely believe my eyes. During the three-game weekend college baseball series between Yale and Princeton, several batters squared to — wait for it! — bunt. The Bulldogs and Tigers each laid down a successful sacrifice bunt in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader, and Yale laid down two in the nightcap. Neither team […]

Baseball is in the air at Princeton

Baseball in the Northeast is always dicey early in the year, as winter often lingers well into spring. So it was an extra special treat today to watch the players on the Princeton baseball team scrimmage one another outside, on their home turf. After a stretch of several days without rain and with the temperature poking […]

On a winter’s day, a warm well of baseball history

As snow blanketed New Jersey and much of the Northeast on Friday, I headed to the Princeton University campus for a wonderful treat: a special class showcasing rare and unusual baseball artifacts and memorabilia donated to the university over the years. The class was part of Wintersession, the annual between-the-semesters opportunity for students, faculty and […]

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 […]

Comerica Park, the return: Just as nice at night

I first visited Comerica Park for a day game in 2019 and thoroughly enjoyed it. My daughter and her family moved to the Detroit area a short while later, and after a long COVID-induced delay my wife and I finally got to see them in their new home this month. Being the great daughter she […]

Cleveland gets it right: The Guardians is a great name

For this Cleveland native and lifelong Indians fan, the news of the pending switch to the name “Guardians” came Friday morning after I’d finished loading the car for the long drive home from my daughter’s home in suburban Detroit. I did a quick check of Twitter and the news was at the top of my […]

The beautiful game, in under 3 hours

As the Euro 2020 final between England and Italy neared the halfway point of extra time, it dawned on me that, even with a penalty kick shootout, the match would take less time than the average Major League Baseball game. Think about that. In what turned out to be 2 hours, 54 minutes, the Lions […]

The phenom(onology) of MLB Draft League baseball

If a line drive falls into left field and no one’s in the stands, does it make a sound? That question came to mind as I cycled away from Sonny Pittaro Field this evening after watching several innings of an MLB Draft League game between West Virginia and Trenton. Pittaro Field is at Rider University […]

Hanging, not flattening the curve

Sean Doolittle has it right: to counteract COVID-19, we’ve done little. Multiple media accounts are carrying the remarks of the Nationals’ reliever about the pandemic, and I think he spells out its perils very well. Doolittle noted that the coronavirus outbreak is worse now than it was when the baseball season was put on hold […]