Google’s news archive a treasure for baseball researchers, fans

For the baseball fan and the baseball researcher, the Google News Archive is a dream come true. Point your browser to news.google.com/archivesearch and at your fingertips you have access to an unimaginable bounty of newspaper and magazine clippings on the grand old game, not to mention just about any subject you might care to […]

Peering past Super Bowl Sunday to the start of Spring Training

We have one more week of bread-and-circus hoopla leading up to the Super Bowl, and then we can shift our full attention to what really matters: baseball. Spring training is just around the corner. Knowing that pitchers and catchers will soon be breaking out the balls and mitts keeps us going through the cold months. […]

Andres Torres re-signs with the San Francisco Giants

One of the best stories of 2010 was Andres Torres, who bounced around the minors for more than a decade before supplanting Aaron Rowand as the Giants’ center fielder. Even more engaging: Torres had an appendectomy late in the season only to return and make significant contributions as the Giants drove to their first World […]

Sights and sounds of the Giants’ World Series trophy in Modesto

Here’s some more detail on the fun all the San Francisco Giants fans had in Modesto last evening as the World Series trophy tour pulled into town. The Modesto Bee (my employers, bless them!) has a story, videos and photo gallery at this link. As I noted in the previous post, I wasn’t able to […]

The Giants’ World Series trophy comes calling, and the Ball Caps Blog goes uptown

The San Francisco Giants brought the World Series trophy to Modesto today, coaxing hundreds of orange-and-black-clad fans into the cold January air to queue up to see it. By the time I walked from my office to the convention center, the line snaked around the block and I spent a few minutes at the end […]

Blowing the NL West notwithstanding, Bud Black wins NL manager of the year

Here’s how the story should read: “Bud Black, who guided the San Diego Padres on a 10-game losing streak that cost them the Western Division title, was named National League manager of the year on Wednesday. He edged Dusty Baker, whose Cincinnati Reds took the Central Division but didn’t win a playoff game, by one […]

Buster Posey is the National League Rookie of the Year

What a treat it was to get the news late this morning that Buster Posey was named rookie of the year in the National League. In my estimation, he deserved the award — and his excellent post-season performance wasn’t even a factor in the voting. Rookie of the Year is a coveted award, but it […]

Iconic baseball caps: Yomiuri Giants (and dreams of a true world series)

For a nation settled by immigrants from all points of the compass, Americans have a notoriously narrow view of the world. That manifests itself in many ways, from our indifference to bilingualism to our widespread shunning of soccer or what the rest of the world calls “football.” Most American baseball fans at least know the […]

Tim Lincecum wears Red Bull to the Giants’ World Series celebration

As I watched the Giants’ victory parade wind through the streets of San Francisco, I peered hard at the TV screen to see what kind of cap Tim Lincecum was wearing. Turns out it was a Red Bull cap, something I could only verify by checking the remarkable string of pictures rolling in over the […]

A new cap to celebrate the Giants’ World Series victory

I couldn’t resist. Our office planned a luncheon celebration today to mark the San Francisco Giants’ victory in the World Series, and everyone was encouraged to wear orange and black. I had picked up the Tim Lincecum T-shirt a few days ago at Target, and I also had my cool, non-authentic pinstriped black Giants jersey […]