Baseball caps and beyond
Major League Baseball completed its first season with a pitch clock, and as far as I can tell the world is still spinning on its axis. I am a traditionalist at heart when it comes to baseball, but as much as I sentimentally resisted the idea of a pitch clock, I was glad when the […]
Read More A season with the pitch clock: We survivedI am not a fan of the expanded baseball playoffs, with three wild-card teams in each league. While I’m sure millions of fans are stoked that their franchises have made the playoffs, I find little to crow about. Long ago I accepted the divisional playoff system as legitimate, a recognition that Major League Baseball had […]
Read More Even the new wildcard rules wouldn’t have helped tribeMore than 100 years removed from the Black Sox scandal, betting is still a bad word in Major League Baseball. Shoeless Joe Jackson and his White Sox teammates accused of throwing the 1919 World Series are not and probably never will be in the Hall of Fame. Pete Rose, who like Jackson had the stats […]
Read More Baseball and betting are not social distancingThe World Series is behind us, at least some of the Red Sox are shaving off their beards and baseball fans the world over are gathering scraps to light the fire for the Hot Stove League. It’s a time for reflecting on the season past and recognizing that we have several fallow months ahead before […]
Read More Fixing the date for the annual Baseball Solstice: Dec. 29, 2013Ever since the Indians got knocked out (not to mention the Giants failing to make the playoffs altogether), I have sulked and turned my back on the baseball postseason. Oh, I caught a half inning here of the NLDS, a few outs there of the ALCS. Most mornings I woke up to check for the […]
Read More Cardinals and Red Sox in a World Series rematchWe’ve seen some outstanding performances by starting pitchers in the league championships and the World Series this year, but has anyone pitched a complete game? No. The closest anyone came was Justin Verlander, who went 8 and two-thirds as the Tigers defeated the Yankees in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series. Barry Zito […]
Read More Will we ever see someone pitch a complete World Series game again?It’s no coincidence: The baseball season concluded last night as the Cardinals knocked off the Rangers in St. Louis, and it’s snowing this morning in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and New York. What more do fans of the Phillies, Pirates, Yankees and Mets need to remind them that the 2011 season didn’t go their way? But what […]
Read More The baseball season ends, and winter beginsCHICAGO — It’s a miserable night here, and not just because of the dreary, cold rain drenching the city. Three hundred miles to the south in St. Louis, the Cardinals have opened the World Series against the Texas Rangers. In Chicago, I wager most Cubs fans are trying to ignore the game. But deep inside, […]
Read More A miserable night in Chicago as the World Series begins some miles south in St. LouisIt probably was an omen. Over the weekend, I found in our garage an old cassette tape. Onto the cassette was dubbed a recording I made for The Associated Press radio network after the 1982 World Series, in which the Brewers lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games. This year, the Brewers lost […]
Read More Remembering the Milwaukee Brewers post-World Series parade of 1982FOX Sports ran a commercial today during the Cardinals-Phillies game on TBS that got under my skin in a bad, bad way. It was a misty-eyed paean to the Yankees, with lots of images of Derek Jeter and Reggie Jackson implying that the Bronx Bombers own October. I hate that. Let me say that again: […]
Read More Salary cap for baseball? It’s not the American way
