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 [...]

ML”what would”B: What if Tex was a Red Sox Part Two

Hey baseball fans! I just put up another ML”what would”B post on More Than a Fan. In every ML”what would”B alternative history post, I discuss what would have happened if a famous event in baseball history had gone differently than it did in reality. For my latest post, I continued the discussion I started back in February [...]

NJBM Kids’ Hot Korner: Ichiro Suzuki

Hey baseball fans! I just put up my latest post in the Kids’ Hot Korner section of New Jersey Baseball Magazine.  This one is in honor of my aunt Rie Suzuki’s favorite player. Can you guess who it is?  If you want to read more about my aunt’s favorite MLB player from Japan, just click here. And [...]

An Interview with the First DH Ever

Hey baseball fans! I was recently invited to cover the AJHS Baseball Night charity event by Marty Appel, writer of Pinstripe Empire, one of my all time favorite Yankees biographies and baseball books! He also used to be the PR Director for the Yanks, so that’s also really cool. I will be interviewing Marty soon [...]

Kid Blogger Interviews the Gator, Ron Guidry

Hey baseball fans! I have another interview for you! This one is with New York Yankees pitching great: Ron Guidry! Some of you probably have no idea who he is, which is why I will tell you all about the “Gator” in the next paragraph. Ron Guidry played for the Yankees from 1975-1988. In those years, [...]

What Kind of Word is “Poosh”?

Hey baseball fans! Today is Babe Ruth‘s birthday! To be specific, he was born on February 6, 1895. So, if the Sultan of Swat were alive today, he would be 118 years old. Anyway, in honor of the Babe’s birthday, I’m going to tell you about one of his teammates who is in the Hall of [...]

Whitey is Mighty

Hey baseball fans! Today’s post is about one of my favorite players of all time. He is one of the only Yankee pitchers in the Hall of Fame, and he is considered one of the greatest clutch pitchers of all time. Ladies and gentleman, Whitey Ford! Edward “Whitey” Ford was the best pitcher on the great [...]

Clearing The Bases

Tonight’s column isn’t going to deal with the fantasy relevance of Major League Baseball, but more of some of the rules I would like to change if I were the commissioner.  I wrote a similar column last season and I’m happy to say that Bud Selig listened to one of my suggestions and moved a [...]

Clearing The Bases

I completed all of my spring training rankings for each position last week.  Now that I have done that it’s time to go back and take a look at each set of rankings and see if there are any changes that I would make.  Now by changes I’m not talking about one or two spots, [...]

Time for Phillies Fans to Root for the Yankees

Was there ever any doubt? The Phillies just wrapped up a 162-game warm-up schedule and now their real season begins. Starting in April and running through the end of September it was merely an exercise in the inevitable. First place? Better be. Never a doubt. Their biggest competition was themselves. How many games over .500 [...]

The Most Egregious MVP Snubs of All Time (at Least on Paper)

Not long ago I was watching an episode of “Prime 9″ on the MLB Network about the nine biggest MVP snubs of all time. Before the show even began, I knew what would be ranked number one because it’s always mentioned as the biggest injustice in the history of MVP voting: Yankees second baseman Joe [...]

Clearing The Bases

Unless you have been living in a cave all week you have undoubtedly heard about the Yankees Jorge Posada’s decision to pull himself out of the lineup and refuse to play last Saturday versus Boston.  What you may not know are the details preceding this decision. When Posada first came up with the Yankees he [...]

Fearless forecast for 2011 flag chases

The first rule in making baseball predictions is to expect the unexpected. Don’t go with last year’s winners, popular favorites, or big-money ballclubs. Unless they deserve it, of course. Now that we’ve gotten past the obvious rules, there are the string of unknowns that can pop up anywhere during the course of a 162-game schedule, [...]

10 Reasons You Should Already Be Especially Psyched for Opening Day

The smell of freshly laid sod, ballpark hot dogs and seven-dollar beer is in the air (or on the ground). Baseball season is quickly approaching, and fans everywhere — well, perhaps except for Houston, Pittsburgh and Seattle — are champing at the bit to find out how the 2011 MLB season will unfold. Opening Day [...]

Joba, I’m Going to Need You to Stay After Class

Professional athletes are like high school girls.  “I get older, they stay the same age.”

Only a Friend Would Know

Learned. The dictionary defines the adjective “learned” as “having much knowledge”; “acquired by experience.” Yep, I’d say 95 years of life qualified Elden Auker. This week, read the righty’s take on baseball’s biggest stars along with proud and humbling moments from his years around the game. “Sleeper Cars and Flannel Uniforms“ by Elden Auker with [...]

MLB Preview, 2011: Red Sox Rank Best in Positional Analysis of the AL East

A few weeks ago, I initiated a series of articles analyzing and ranking the starters for all of the clubs in the American League East. The series concluded with the belated publication of my analysis of the DH’s on Friday. So, now it’s time to rank the organizations within the division on the relative strength [...]

Sincerely, Adrian Gonzalez

What if you broke into the hotel room of Adrian Gonzalez, looked through his things, and found a diary? What would it say? Here is a possible answer: June 2000 I DID IT!!!! Today is a day I will never forget. I was the first overall pick of the 2000 draft today. Looks like I [...]

Pride v. Power

Since 1901, only nine shortstops, age 37 or above, hit over .270 in a season. Derek Jeter will qualify to be the 10th player in that category next season, and the Yankees are well aware of that. Sure, if you are going to bet on someone entering that group – that happens to include six Hall [...]

Dear Yankee Fans: Be Proud, Be Grateful

Just a day removed from the Yankees elimination, it isn’t hard to find a disappointed New Yorker. The beloved Yankees are done for the year, and their dreams of a second consecutive world championship are diminished. As many love to do, we can sit here and talk about what could have happened and what should [...]

The Song Doesn’t Always Remain The Same

Baseball history, as far as I’m concerned, was made during Tuesday night’s 10-3 victory for the Texas Rangers over the New York Yankees in Game Four of the American League Championship Series.  In the bottom of the 7th inning actor Patrick Wilson came out to perform “God Bless America,” the singing of which has become [...]

Cliff Lee Builds Drama With Every Pitch

When Cliff Lee poured three fastballs past Brett Gardner to end the eighth inning, it marked 122 of the best post-season pitches since Roy Halladay threw his no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds. Lee did not have to finish this most recent of his numerous post-season gems. The Rangers busted the game open in the ninth [...]

2010 Off-Season Will Be Historically Tough For Yankees

Two seasons ago, the Yankees missed the playoffs for the first––and last––time this decade. They went into the off-season with a sense of urgency––a sense that holds none of the connoted nerves for Yankees fans, considering they always have the financial power to get the job done. And they did. The Yankees signed three of [...]

Burnett Does Not Fit on Yanks ALDS Roster

With the postseason set to begin on Wednesday, the Yankees announced their roster for the American League Division series against the Twins. As expected, AJ Burnett is on the roster––although he is not in the starting rotation––while Ivan Nova and Javier Vazquez has been left out. Now, it would seem to be a ridiculous decision to [...]

CC Sabathia Does Not Deserve Cy Young

The 2010 Cy Young conversation had been a fascinating debate. It had raised questions about how to determine if a pitcher is successful, and the value of certain statistics. But, unlike other years, the 2010 debate has recently become quite a silly argument as the season comes to a close. The main discussion has been between CC [...]

Yankees: Why Losses Today May Mean Wins Tomorrow

Yankee fans were unhappy—to say the least—on Monday night, when the Yankees surrendered first place to the Rays for the first time since August 3. Tuesday night, the Yankees got first place back, and breathed a sigh of relief. Amidst all that anger came an interesting thought: what if, by some chance, the Yankees didn’t win [...]

Why Is A.J. Burnett So Inconsistent?

To say the least, 2010 has been a season of inconsistency for A.J. Burnett. After his first start of the season, his ERA was 5.40. By his sixth start, it was 1.99. 10 starts later, it was 5.25. Now, after his 27th start, his ERA stands at 5.15, and unless he can bring that down [...]

Is Robinson Cano Less Aggressive This Season?

Robinson Cano’s career has been a battle of improvement. And, for the most part, it has been extremely positive. After nearly winning the batting title in 2006, and hitting .306 in 2007, things looked pretty good for Cano. But, once he hit .271 in 2008, the Yankees needed an answer. The answer was Cano’s aggressiveness. [...]

A-OK without A-Rod? Not quite.

The Yankees placed Alex Rodriguez on the 15-day disabled list Saturday. The move is looked at as a precautionary one; the Yankees want to make sure that the injury does not turn into a bigger problem as we approach the playoffs. With a win on Saturday, the Yankees improved to 11-0 when Alex Rodriguez is not [...]

Memories of the Shot Heard Round the World

I suspect everyone my age with an interest in baseball knows where they were when Bobby Thomson hit his historic home run in 1951.  I was in my 11th grade physics class at South High School in Denver.  I was an avid Brooklyn Dodger fan growing up and listened to part of the game on [...]

The story of Joba Chamberlain: Frustration, frustration and more frustration

Believe it or not, Yankee fans can be frustrated too. Hard to believe considering they have won 27 championships and are in the playoff race year in and year out. But occasionally, Yankee fans find something to complain about, something to criticize. And once you get Yankee fans going, there is no stopping them. This [...]

Dunn can be a big difference maker

What would you say if I told you that your team has just acquired Adam Dunn? You would probably sigh and say something like, “we better prepare ourselves for a lot of strikeouts,” or “another classic hit or miss player.” While those two things may be very true, Adam Dunn can be a very valuable [...]

Have-Nots Would Benefit From Realignment

It’s a known fact that attendance at the Toronto Blue Jays’ home games has been dwindling for some years, even more so in the last couple of years. Many reasons have been brought up to try to explain the situation but one thing is clear: lots of fans have lost any hope of watching a [...]

Questions, Answers and Tigers…

I was recently asked to give my two cents about the upcoming Tigers season.  Being one to never turn down an opportunity to speak my mind (well, lets be honest it’s not like people have to ask, I just do it) here are some of my opinions, thoughts and quandries about the upcoming 2010 season… [...]

Memories of Billy Martin From Mike Pagliarulo, Rod Carew, and Rickey Henderson

Billy Martin’s death on Christmas evening 1989 provided the troubled finish to a melancholy year for baseball. As a way to look back on that day and Martin’s career, as well as the reasons why he had such an impact on baseball and the players he managed, here are some memories of the man. In [...]