Face it: We’re playing ‘The New York Game’

As Kevin Baker abundantly and entertainingly makes clear, America’s pastime is “The New York Game.” Baker’s book with that title examines the development of baseball from its organizational stirrings in the mid-19th century to the cusp of racial integration at the end of World War II. The setting? New York City. My friend Jerry and […]

Spills and thrills for the Renegades softball team

I came off the disabled list and got back onto the field with the Research Renegades softball team this week. With a game in the near-100-degrees heat Tuesday and another on cooler, cloudier Wednesday, my hands were continually switching from glove to camera to bat. We lost a tough one Tuesday, 9-8, but prevailed in […]

A farewell to the Oakland Athletics

For six years in the 1990s, I lived about two and a half miles from the Oakland Coliseum. From the front lawn of our home in Alameda, I could occasionally hear cheers from an Oakland A’s game, if the wind was just right. I followed the A’s regularly back then, listening to their games on […]

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 […]

Giants’ baseball is on the air

I haven’t lived in California for 12 years, but I still love listening to the San Francisco Giants’ radio broadcasts. As I type this short post, I can hear Duane Kuiper’s soothing voice coming clearly from Arizona through my iPhone with the KNBR broadcast out of San Francisco. Yes, the Cubs are ahead 3-0, but […]

Coffee shop baseball talk: Long may it rage

Last weekend I was up in the Berkshires in Massachusetts, visiting family, and I was delighted to encounter incontrovertible evidence that baseball is still a point of passion for fans, at least among men of a certain age. As we started our drive back home, my wife and I stopped at a Dunkin shop in […]

Gabe Kapler: From Rockhead to Genius

What do I know? When Gabe Kapler took over as manager of the Philadelphia Phillies, I thought he could do nothing right. I remember listening to the opener in 2018, and I forget what managerial gaffe or gaffes Kapler made as the Phils fell to the Braves. Things didn’t get much better for Philadelphia that […]

Every desk needs a baseball

Office trends have come and gone over the years of my career, from fax machines to Zoom screens, but one constant has been baseball. Not in the James Earl Jones/Thomas Mann sense from “Field of Dreams.” I mean literally a single baseball. Years back when I was working in San Francisco, a PR firm sent […]

Dodgers and Giants: Let’s bring them back to New York for a series

Knotted in a tie for first place in the National League West Division with the best records in baseball, the Giants and Dodgers begin a marquee weekend series tonight, Friday, Sept. 3. First pitch is scheduled for 6:45 p.m. Pacific time. The Giants and Dodgers left New York for the West Coast a lifetime ago, […]

The Giants come out in rainbow colors

The San Francisco Giants debuted their new rainbow logo caps and sleeve patches for Pride Month, and good for them. Supporting the LGBTQ+ community is nothing new for the Giants. In the mid-90s when I worked in The City, the Giants became the first pro sports team to have an HIV/AIDS awareness game. They have […]