Manager of the year in baseball? Bob Melvin

Who was the best manager in baseball in 2012? I’m going with Bob Melvin of the Oakland Athletics. My criteria are twofold: I go with the skipper whose team is a winner and whose team achieved its success in disproportion to its expectations and talent. By those standards, Melvin is a slam dunk (and I […]

Baltimore-Washington wins the 2012 Major League Baseball metro-area title

Which metro area had the most successful baseball season? After listening to the Athletics overtake the Rangers on my way home from work last evening, I was all set to declare the Bay Area the cross-league, total victory champions. But then I remembered that Baltimore-Washington is eligible, and a check of the standings this morning […]

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 a baseball cap worth? Half a million bucks if it belonged to Babe Ruth

A Babe Ruth baseball cap fetched more than half a million dollars at auction yesterday, but its value is a pittance compared with one of Ruth’s New York Yankees road jerseys that sold for $4.4 million. (The New York Daily News has the details.) The cap, which Ruth had worn in the 1930s with the […]

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 […]

Paving the way for women sports writers in the locker room

The Baseball Hall of Fame saluted a pioneering female sports reporter the other day in noting that a couple of her press passes from the late 1970s will be on display in a new exhibit on women in baseball. The reporter was Melissa Ludtke, who was writing for Sports Illustrated during the 1977 World Series […]

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 […]

Manny Ramirez signs with the Athletics, and mlb.com takes no notice

This is telling. I just logged on to MLB.com to see what news they might have of Manny Ramirez signing a minor-league contract with the Oakland Atheltics. While the blog entry about Ramirez is the top link on ESPN.com’s story stack, there’s not a word on Ramirez out front on the Major League Baseball site. […]

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 […]

Saying farewell to Jorge Posada and Pat “The Bat” Burrell

Two players who never failed to impress me during their long major league careers have retired in recent days: Jorge Posada, who played only for the Yankees, and Pat Burrell, who has World Series rings from the Phillies and Giants. Through the past decade or so, Posada was my favorite Yankee. That’s probably because he […]