Who’s your daddy, Pedro?

[picapp src=”1/3/c/c/Phillies_Practice_for_d923.JPG?adImageId=7048325&imageId=6762295″ width=”234″ height=”177″ /] The highlight of Game 2 for me, the fan sitting in the recliner in front of the 36″ screen in his family room, was the Yankees fans chanting “Who’s your daddy?” to taunt Pedro Martinez. The self-proclaimed most influential man ever to set foot in Yankee Stadium took the loss. […]

What exit? Yes, It’s the Jersey Turnpike World Series!

1985: The Cardinals and the Royals meet in an all-Missouri matchup, and it’s the I-70 World Series. 1989: The Giants and Athletics endure an earthquake to play in the Bay Bridge Series. 2000: The Bronx Bombers rumble with the Metropolitans of Queens in an all-NYC Subway Series. This is 2009, Yankees versus Phillies, and there’s only one possible […]

Ex-Indian vs. Ex-Indian in Game One of the World Series

Cliff Lee warming up Originally uploaded by DDay209 Fans of the Cleveland Indians (count me among them) will be in a rueful mood when the World Series opens Wednesday night in New York. Not long ago, the starting pitcher for each team sported an Indians’ cap. Cliff Lee, who gets the start for the […]

The baseball gods are angry

There’s only one plausible explanation for the rainout that postponed Saturday’s American League Championship Series game between the Yankees and Angels: The baseball gods are angry. They’re angry that the mere mortals who run Major League Baseball would show such hubris to schedule the playoffs so late into the year. Assuming no weather delays and a […]

Iconic baseball caps: The St. Louis Cardinals

Decade after decade, the St. Louis Cardinals manage to field great teams. While they haven’t amassed quite as many World Series championships as the New York Yankees, no other National League team has as many titles as the Redbirds. The Cardinals have had an amazing collection of stars over the years, chief among them in […]

For most of us, it’s ‘Wait Until Next Year’

Playoffs notwithstanding, for most baseball fans today is the first day of the long winter. The season is over, the concession stands are empty, the lockerrooms bare as the players have packed up to go fishing or hunting or whatever they do in the off-season. For followers of the Chicago Cubs, the Cleveland Indians, the […]

Less than excited about baseball wild card races

We’re in a wild card race. Awesome!!! Well, hardly. Wild-card races in Major League Baseball have been running for a couple of decades, and I still can’t fully accept them. Don’t get me wrong. I’ll take a wild card berth. As I write this post, I’m listening to the Giants and the Dodgers. I want […]

Autumn dreams of … spring dreams

The World Series is fading into memory. As the weather turns colder, a baseball fan must turn to the “Hot Stove League” of speculation on who’s going to deal for whom in the coming months. Amazingly, it was the Oakland Athletics who made the first significant move, acquiring slugger Matt Holliday from the Colorado Rockies. […]

Celebrate the Phillies’ win: Have a cheesesteak and a Yuengling

This is tough for a baseball fan to admit, but I completely missed tonight’s half-game conclusion to what turned out to be the final game of the 2008 World Series. I was either finishing my bike ride home or hunting for pot lids in the kitchen when Brad Lidge recorded the final out. I had […]

Phillies follies: Winter caps on the diamond

Until the other night, I had never seen a baseball cap with cold-weather earflaps. But there was Jimmy Rollins on national TV, doing a postgame interview. Although I actually think the cap is cool in a this-is-weird kind of way, it also underscores a major flaw of the baseball playoffs. They come too damn late […]