A Prayer for the Tampa Bay Rays While the Cubs fan has the pity of national baseball writers and the consolation of a fraternity of similarly deluded millions, Rays fans are seen as a possibly spectral phenomenon. Dick Vitale is the team's only celebrity fan; a great proportion of the typical Rays crowd shows up wearing a Manny Ramirez or Derek Jeter shirt. In enemy territory, even at home in Floridathat's the life of a Rays fan.
October 07, 2008
Baseball versus Cricket While the NLCS and ALCS occupy our minds, over in England they took a pub table debate and put it into practice. What if a team of professional cricketers took on a baseball team on the diamond? Who would win?
October 05, 2008
Dodgers win their first playoff series in 20 years. After dispatching the Cubs in 3 straight games, the Dodgers will face the Phillies in the NLCS.
September 29, 2008
Milwaukee Brewers return to the postseason after a 26 year absence. The Milwaukee Brewers are headed to the postseason for the first time in 26 years after clinching the NL Wild Card spot yesterday.
September 23, 2008
100 Years ago, he "pulled a Merkle" September 23 is the 100th anniversary of what was, at the time, the biggest bonehead play in the history of baseball. Or, as Bob Ryan points out, maybe it wasn't such a dumb play.
September 19, 2008
Pitcher battled back from near death Dusty Baker used fisherman's terminology to describe left-hander Adam Pettyjohns slashing and sliding fastball. He waved his hand like a trout captured in a net. "Thats what he throws," Baker said. "In and out, cutting and tailing and sinking. Nothing straight." It took seven years of swimming upstream for Pettyjohn to complete an unlikely return to the major leagues. He pitched one scoreless inning Sunday for the Cincinnati Reds, his first appearance since 2001. His story is hard to believe, but this is no fisherman's tale. read more
September 15, 2008
Brewers Fire Ned Yost With 12 games to go in the season, the Brewers attempt to stop their meltdown by firing the manager.
September 14, 2008
Zambrano fires no-hitter! The Big Z was never bigger for the Cubs, returning to the mound 12 days after leaving a game because of shoulder discomfort to throw the Cubs' first-no-hitter since Milt Pappas in 1972.
September 04, 2008
A-Rod's homer in ninth passes instant replay test It almost seems fitting. The first use of instant replay in Major League Baseball was to confirm a long home run hit by Alex Rodriguez - the man who one day could hold the all-time home run record and who knows a thing or two about being surrounded by controversy.
September 03, 2008
Fan Ejected From Yankee Stadium For Bathroom Break During 'God Bless America' The no movement rule has been in place since 9/11, much like the playing of the song.
September 01, 2008
A September call-up deserving of a hand 29-year-old Koyie Hill is in the bigs and back behind the plate this fall for the Chicago Cubs. Unremarkable -- except Hill cut off three fingers and a thumb with a table saw less than a year ago.
August 31, 2008
Recalling Al Campanis' 'Nightline' nightmare I turned to my wife, horror-stricken that the man I had invited to honor his old friend was committing professional suicide on live television, and predicted he might not survive this interview.
August 28, 2008
A Radical 'Radial' Solution: "Even under the most severe conditions, the worst that will happen with one of the Radial Bats is one of the wedges will crack. No danger will be presented to any of the players, umpires, coaches or spectators in the stadium."
August 26, 2008
9 year old with a 40 mph fastball, gets the boot. I'm not sure what to make of this. On one hand I can see the punishment for being very good. On the other hand they allowed him to either play a different position or go up to the next level. I really dont know what to think about this but I have a 9 year old who I think could hit him :)
August 22, 2008
Revenge of the Baseball Gods "'Outside the Lines' revisits the battle between Danny Almonte and Matt Cerda in the 2001 Little League World Series.
Two airplanes destroyed the Twin Towers, and two boys went back to the rest of their lives.
Nineteen days before, these boys had played a crisp Little League World Series ballgame, a ballgame that would make one of them an icon and one of them weep." read more
August 19, 2008
Baseball Hall of Famer YAZ hospitalized BOSTON - Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski, the last player to hit for the Triple Crown, was hospitalized for tests Tuesday after experiencing chest pains.
The popular Yaz was an 18-time All-Star and spent his entire career in Boston, taking over left field for Ted Williams in 1961 and playing through 1983.
Rays Walk Hamilton Intentionally with Bases Loaded The Tampa Bay Rays made history Sunday night, walking Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers on purpose with the bases loaded so they could face Marlon Byrd, who struck out to cement a 7-4 Rays win. The intentional walk was the first time in 107 years that an American League player was walked intentionally with the bases full and only the fifth overall since 1900. "You don't pitch to Superman when you have Wonder Woman on deck," said Rays closer Troy Percival.
August 02, 2008
"Whatcho talkin' 'bout, ump?!" Kudos to the team for taking a potentially dull publicity stunt and ratcheting it up a couple of notches on the entertainment meter.
July 30, 2008
The MLB Trade Deadline is Looming. We've already seen a couple of big trades. Will Manny be next? A few blogs to keep you knee-deep in trade rumors and talk: MLB Trade Deadline Blog, ESPN Trade Deadline Blog Lastly, for your perusal: Deadline Disasters
Beeping ball helps blind play baseball. Just as keen eyesight is important in baseball, acute hearing is critical in beepball. At one point, the noise of a plane flying overhead briefly halted Saturday's tournament. Yes, beepball, or "beep baseball" if you would rather call it that.
July 25, 2008
A Baseball Career Without Steroids. "My first team was the Hanover Park Braves," he says. "The very first game I ever played in, I hit a home run." Fasano had watched his father work as a carpenter, his mother as a custodian. As he honed his skills on the baseball diamond, he began to crave the golden ring -- the fame and fortune that accompanied major-league success. He wanted the dream.
July 24, 2008
Making Time Stand Still Today, for a few hours, he's part of the crowd, just another fan watching Tom Glavine paint the black, just another daydreaming kid picturing himself running hard from first to third.
The Yankees ban sunblock at the stadium.....to fight terrorism From the article: Yankee fans are seeing - and turning - red over a ban on sunscreen, which Stadium security guards say was widely expanded in the last few weeks. (via Boing Boing)
July 19, 2008
Robot Bob Sheppard? There is a suggestion by some that Bob Sheppard voice (announcer at Yankee Stadium) be converted into a text-to-speech program so that he may always be the announcer at new Yankee Stadium. One gentleman has compiled a result of what it might sound like.
July 16, 2008
It was very ugly for Uggla NEW YORK -- They cheered the legends. They cheered the hometown heroes. They cheered the old owner. They booed the commissioner, booed Terry Francona and Billy Wagner, even booed Sarah Jessica Parker. But towards the merciful end of The All-Star Game That Would Never End, the Yankee Stadium Bleacher Creatures had energy only for one chant: "Hit it to Uggla."