From Dylan to Steinbrenner: The ‘Catfish’ Chronicles

Ashes and Diamonds …In the early ’60-s Bob Dylan wrote “Poor Boy Blues,” a song about the travails of a young man down on his luck. It’s a life of struggle for Dylan’s protagonist as he seeks to hop a train, convince a bartender he’s of legal age and assure a long-distance operator “this phone call is on [...]

Will There Ever Be Another All-Star Game In Washington, DC?

The Washington Nationals did an about face in their 2013 Rule 4 draft last week. For several years GM Mike Rizzo has pursued an aggressive draft strategy in which the team spent well beyond MLB recommended signing bonuses. If you were looking for a continuation of the Nationals spendthrift ways, look again. Jake Johansen was [...]

Tyrus (The Georgia Peach) Cobb

One of the greatest players that ever played baseball Tyrus Raymond (The Georgia Peach) Cobb was born in Royston, Georgia, December 18, 1886.  He had a brother, John Paul and a sister, Florence Leslie.  He was a highly complex and misunderstood man. He was also the greatest player of his time and one of the [...]

The Only All-Star Team Without Miguel Cabrera

I could make this easy on myself and just talk about the best players at each position but sports is goofy sometimes. You likely have one or two guys on your team that you hadn’t heard of when the season opened. Those guys are real the fantasy All-Stars, the ones who slipped under the radar, [...]

Jen Royle is at Home with the Boston Red Sox

There is little doubt that people living in the Boston area love their baseball. Accordingly, the local media is constantly seeking to provide comprehensive and entertaining coverage of the Red Sox. This has led to the region boasting some of the best broadcasting and sports writing talent anywhere. One of the best is Jen Royle, [...]

Baseball History Notes for May 27, 2013

The 2012 season saw Detroit Tigers’ slugger Miguel Cabrera win the Triple-Crown with a .330 batting average, 44 home runs and 139 RBI. Although it’s hard to fathom, he may be headed to an even better season this year, which could see him make history. Cabrera is currently hitting .385 with 14 home runs and [...]

Negro Leagues DB Update: 1928 NNL & ECL

Today we add the 1928 Negro leagues to the DB.  This was the year the Eastern Colored League fell apart, putting an end to the first edition of the Black World Series.  Meanwhile the Negro National League continued with a split-season format.  The St. Louis Stars won the first half going away; in the second [...]

Clearing The Bases

Arizona Diamondbacks: Outfielder Jason Kubel was kept out of the lineup again Wednesday, the sixth time in eight games that he hasn’t started. While it’s true that he has been nursing a couple of nagging injuries since the end of spring training, this doesn’t seem to be injury related. If manager Kirk Gibson continues to [...]

Kid Blogger’s Interview with Mets GM Sandy Alderson LIVE!!!!!

Hey baseball fans!  I have another interview for you. It is with Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson. I actually got to interview him live at his office in Citi Field and the video of the interview is on YouTube. So, please click here to see me interview Sandy. I’m not sure that you all know about Sandy’s [...]

The Air Was Shattered by the Force of Danny’s Blow

Strikeouts are proliferating throughout the game of baseball like never before.  Last year was the highest strikeout rate in the history of the game and the American League is on a record-setting pace in 2013. Batters in both leagues flail helplessly just over twenty percent of the time. Historic rates were usually no higher than [...]

Mike Augliera: Boston Red Sox Pitching Prospect Talks Baseball

The Boston Red Sox have some of the better-known pitching prospects in baseball with Rubby De La Rosa, Allen Webster and Matt Barnes all leading most peoples’ lists. It turns out that they are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Boston’s farm system, as there are a number of other promising [...]

A Save Was a Save Was a — But No, It Wasn’t

Don’t ask me why, but this morning I was looking at the New York Times obituary of Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Jim Hughes, who died in 2001 at the age of 78. The headline identified Hughes as “Relief Pitcher Who Set Dodger Mark for Saves.” Despite the title of this post, the headline contained not one but two [...]

An Interview with Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins

Hey baseball fans! I have another interview for you today! It is with Hall of Fame pitcher Fergie Jenkins! If you’d like to first learn some more about the only Canadian in the Hall of Fame, just click here for a prior blog post that I did about him. So, let’s get to the interview. Matt: If you could [...]

SABR, Bud Fowler and a Taste of Cooperstown

Last Thursday I made my way to Upstate New York for the fifth annual Frederick Ivor-Campbell 19th Century Base Ball Conference. I have gone each year so that means it has been five times that I have attended if my math is correct. Driving to Cooperstown can be challenging since I cannot wait to get there and [...]

Ben Chapman and Jackie Robinson

(Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on Seamheads.com in March 2010. With the release of “42″ I thought it appropriate to re-post it—ML). Ben Chapman or “Chappy” as I was instructed to call him, (see my previous article for my introduction to him) was born and reared in the Deep South during a time when [...]

A Conversation with Dan Duqeutte

It’s completely fine with the Baltimore Orioles if national pundits and soothsayers again pick them to finish close to the bottom of the always competitive American League East. They believed this time last season they were much better than the 100-loss aggregation most predicted, and they took that quiet confidence into a season that eventuated [...]

Teammates Sharing Birthdays

If you are like me, then you are a child of the 90′s and you rooted for America’s Team, the Atlanta Braves. And you probably know that today, April 14th, is Greg Maddux, David Justice, and Steve Avery’s birthday. Alright, you don’t need to be a child of the 90′s OR have rooted for the [...]

Negro Leagues DB Update: 1933

This week we’re making a slight break with chronological order and adding the 1933 Negro leagues to the DB. Many thanks to Scott Simkus, the creator of the Strat-O-Matic Negro leagues set, who did most of the heavy lifting on this. The year 1933 marked something of a fresh beginning for the Negro leagues, with [...]

Are 1800s Innings Pitched Totals Valid?

Should the enormous innings pitched totals of hurlers in the nineteenth century be adjusted based on the distance thrown? In order to compare eras, let’s take a closer look at the progression of distances from the pitching “box” to home plate since 1876. 1876-1880: 45 feet 1881-1892: 50 feet 1893-2013: 60 feet 6 in In [...]

Early Look at Possible NL Pennant Match Up in Cincy

The baseball season is the sum of a million small parts, “millions and millions of stars” as Carl Sagan used to say. As with the cosmos, the magic of baseball is both the enchanted aggregate and its many component parts. And that is why even at this early juncture there is no shortage of excitement [...]

White Sox Opening Day: 39 Degrees and Billion-Dollar Burgers

The Chicago White Sox opened the 2013 season on Monday by beating the Kansas City Royals, 1-0, at U. S. Cellular Field in front of an announced crowd of 39,000 people. In other words, there were one thousand people in the ballpark for every degree in the air. The high temperature in Chicago for the [...]

We Declare Peace on War

The 2013 Major League Baseball season begins Sunday night. In preparation for another exciting campaign, the founders at 60ft6in.com has introduced a new pitching metric called Pitcher Evaluation ACE (PEACE). This new tool compares each pitching season to the average historical season. The structure of PEACE is similar to Factor12. However, adjustments have been made to account for [...]

Kevin Pillar: How the Toronto Blue Jays’ Prospect is Raking His Way Through the Minor Leagues

The Toronto Blue Jays traded a significant amount of their minor league talent to the Miami Marlins this past offseason in a huge trade that netted Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle and Josh Johnson among others. Despite the deal, their cupboard is far from bare. Outfielder Kevin Pillar is one of the organization’s best young players [...]

Fair Trade?

March 17, 2013 something bizarre occurred in major league baseball.  Mike Cisco, the grand son of Galen Cisco, former MLB pitcher, and pitching coach , was traded to the Los Angeles Angels.  So, what was so unusual about that?  The Angels acquired the Philadelphia pitching prospect for nothing! Mike Cisco, a prospect, pitched at Reading [...]

Lonely at the Top–Jeffrey Loria’s Vision for Baseball in South Florida

Jeffrey Loria’s lawsuit against the only two remaining season ticket holders in the Miami-Dade area has sparked a debate about the worst owners of professional baseball teams over the years. Charlie Comiskey was an early favorite in the race based on his penurious handling of payroll that some have argued was the reason for the [...]

March Gladness: Further Thoughts on the World Baseball Classic

It isn’t always pretty, the timing stinks, the umpiring is spotty, the pitch count limits are a drag, many of the games are half-attended and God only knows what the TV ratings are, but I’d still rather watch The Kingdom of the Netherlands battle Chinese Tapei in the World Baseball Classic than one inning of [...]

Cole Frenzel: Seeking His Opportunity with the New York Mets

The New York Mets face a bleak situation with their offense as the 2013 season nears. Other than third baseman David Wright and first baseman Ike Davis, they lack any above-average bats, but hope that help may be on the way courtesy of their minor league system. One player who could be in the mix [...]

Clearing The Bases

The position of shortstop is traditionally weak, and this year is no exception.  The first 3-4 players are studs, next two I wouldn’t mind having, then everyone else is pretty much a dartboard throw, hoping they help me more than they hurt me.  What I mean by that is that if I take someone like [...]

Brooklyn Dodgers, Jackie Robinson and the 1946 Pennant

I’m currently in the middle of reading a handful of Jackie Robinson/Branch Rickey/Brooklyn Dodger themed books. The reason being is that I am pumped to see the movie “42″ next month. After watching this trailer, how could you not get excited? Recently, one of the books went through Robinson’s 1946 season with the Montreal Royals [...]

Underdogs, Yes, But Independent-Packed Team Spain Players Are Used to Fighting for Approval

Spain seems to be a long shot among the 12 teams remaining in the third World Baseball Classic, but there were plenty of smiles and expressions of hope when I tracked down several of the 13 current or former Independent Baseball players on the 28-man roster shortly before they left Florida for their first round [...]

Can’t Anybody Here Play This Game…Without Getting Injured in a Bizarre Fashion?

I finally figured out how Cal Ripken Jr. managed to play 2,632 consecutive games for the Orioles. Evidently he didn’t wrestle his dog, take his kids shopping or shovel his driveway during the streak. “The Iron Man” was fortunate to stay relatively healthy, but he was also smart enough not to leave anything to chance. [...]

Remembering Jennifer

This article first appeared on Seamheads.com on March 2, 2009, a little more than three years after my sister’s tragic death, and will be re-posted here every year on this day, her birthday, with slight modifications. My sister would have been 42 today. But for the senseless act of a coward who took her life [...]

Remembering Jennifer

This article first appeared on Seamheads.com on March 2, 2009, a little more than three years after my sister’s tragic death, and will be re-posted here every year on this day, her birthday, with slight modifications. My sister would have been 42 today. But for the senseless act of a coward who took her life [...]

Tools of Ignorance

The essence of baseball is the matchup at home plate.  One man stands alone in a box against a battery.  The pitcher is the howitzer of the battery; firing from the heights at enemy hitters.  But nothing happens until the forward observer makes his call for fire.  That forward observer is the catcher.  They are [...]

The One and Only Rube Waddell

Hey baseball fans! I recently reached out to Dan O’Brien (see pic below), the screenwriter of a play called Rube the Screenplay, a play that talks about a very famous pitcher in the Deadball Era named Rube Waddell. O’Brien also has a website called rubewaddell.net. Dan is a very nice man and a former Emmy award-winning producer and television [...]

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