Rambling On About My Glory Days: The True Measure of a Ballpark

One of the signs that you are getting old is that most of the ballparks that you played in are no longer in existence.

Rambling On About My Glory Days: The Key to Mental Toughness Quiz

I have had this debate with friends before. It all started with a question from a friend about how important mental toughness is in an athlete and if it could be taught. I set out to find what I thought was the key to mental toughness for athletes. Before coming to my conclusion I would […]

Remaking “The Chosen One”

Hollywood script writers go back to the same well-worn ideas time and again because it requires intellectual rigor to create something genuine and new.  Baseball writers can fall into their own ruts.  Last year’s drum beat that Stephen Strasburg was a “once in a lifetime” talent had not reached its climax before Sports Illustrated trotted out […]

Touring the Bases With Tommy John

Tommy John was a major league pitcher from 1963 to 1989. He won 288 games and, most famously, underwent a risky elbow surgery that ended up bearing his name. Now, he’s one of several players who supports a children’s book called A Glove of their Own. The book has a great message for kids, and […]

Rambling On About My Glory Days: A League of Our Own

To be part of something that is considered truly great is a special feeling.

Rambling On About My Glory Days: The Fast Moving Mental Game of Baseball

Many sports enthusiasts complain that baseball is boring and too slow. I certainly do not agree with them nor do I argue or try to convince them otherwise. I am thinking to myself though, “If only they knew what good baseball people know, they would not think it boring or slow.” There are so many […]

Rambling On About My Glory Days: Teaching the Game and So Much More

Not as thrilling as a hit in the big leagues but having a book published is exciting.

Bang, Zoom Go the Fireworks”

News that Stephen Strasburg had signed a contract with the Washington Nationals will be greeted with a sigh of relief as the news seeps into what has been called a sleepy southern town.  The sleep will disappear quickly as news spreads that the Nationals got their man–driving a hard bargain and keeping the $15.67 million price tag well below […]

Rambling On About My Glory Days: “Put ’em Down, Rabbit”

As a follow-up to my last post I am continuing with common phrases heard coming from the dugout.

Rambling On About My Glory Days: Learning Baseball Lingo

Back when I played pro baseball which was some time ago, there were standard phrases that players yelled in certain game situations.

It’s a Beautiful Day

It was gray and raining this morning in DC with an 80 percent chance of rain for the afternoon game.  After starter Craig Stammen was hammered for six runs in the first two innings it was business as usual, but by the end of the afternoon the news copters were circling the stadium, U2 had broken […]

Rambling On About My Glory Days: Don’t Believe Players When…

No, this is not another story about players using or not using steroids.

Rambling On About My Glory Days: A Fan’s Guide to Hitting Major League Pitching

How to Hit Mark Buehrle

“It Hath the Primal Eldest Curse Upon It”

Polonius thought Hamlet had it bad, but that was before the Nationals.  New Washington manager Jim Riggleman went 0-for-4 against the Cubs at home this past weekend .  Then with the Mets playing sans Beltran, Reyes and Delgado, Riggleman pulled Zimmerman and Willingham to even the odds.  Cha-ching!!  Zero and five.  The only rational explanation […]

Rambling On About My Glory Days: Perplexing Managerial Move #2

Continuing with “head shaking managerial moves” from my previous post and later in the same game, my team was involved in a tense ball game with the score tied in the 10th inning.

Rambling On About My Glory Days: Head Shaking Managerial Move #1

Being around the game for a number of years, I’ve seen some questionable managerial moves.

Rambling On About My Glory Days: Role Reversal – Major Leaguers Learning From Little Leaguers

I promise not to turn my posts into a rant on the Major Leagues and how baseball used to be played better, meaning more fundamentally sound, back in the day.

The Seamheads Ballparks Database is Here!

The latest version of the Seamheads (aka KJOK) Ballparks database has been loaded to the site (see http://seamheads.com/db/databases.htm, then click Ballpark Stat Splits.  There is also a link for the documentation file.)

Rambling On About My Glory Days: Great Snap

Sooner or later all players snap.

Rambling On About My Glory Days: Pre-game Fireworks

Most major league ball players have a story or two about bench clearing brawls when they were involved. All of them that I recall were pretty sedate where there was a lot of yelling and finger pointing, but no real blows were thrown. My most memorable brawl happened in the minor leagues and did not […]

Shaking It Up

The rumored firing of Nationals Manny Acta is akin to shaking up the printer cartridge when the “Toner Low” light has been blinking for three months. It’s hard to believe much will happen when the new manager presses the print button, but why the heck not give it a try.

Strasburg–Some Numerical Reference Points

Last Tuesday the Nationals set off down the yellow brick road to Strasburgville where the wizard is Scott Boras.  But Ted Lerner is no scarecrow.  The senior owner of the Nationals responded when asked how much the economic downturn hurt him by saying, “I own buildings, not bullshit.”  He wants a six-year lease on a very real Stephen Strasburg and the man has […]

Rambling On About My Glory Days – X-Rated Rookie Mistake

There is a big difference from major league baseball and minor league ball, besides the obvious of the caliber of players. To state the obvious, everything is better at the big league level including the hotels, ballparks, meal money, clubhouses, travel arrangements and equipment. It is this latter ingredient that caused my most embarrassing moment […]

Rambling On About My Glory Days – Say It Ain’t So

A day that should be a great memory turned out to be one of my worst recurring nightmares.

Nationals Can Do da Limbo Rock

In the ‘Limbo Rock,’ Chubby Checker asked the question back in 1962, “How Low Can YOU Go?”  That very year, the New York Mets under Casey Stengel answered with one of the lowest winning percentages–.250–in the modern era.*  Those Mets are the standard against which bad teams are measured.  The Washington Nationals are at .265 and have […]

Rambling On About My Glory Days: One Thing I Never Learned – A Home Run Trot

Being from the Chicago area I often get caught up in talk about the plight of the Chicago Cubs. It never takes long for someone to mention the trite phrase, “Anybody can have a bad century.” I was in a similar situation in my career.

Bullpen Love

Washington manager Manny Acta has a bullpen that only a mother could love, yet it is the busiest pen in baseball.  Why does Manny trudge head down to the mound more than any other skipper in the game?  Who has the answer, Lyndon Johnson or Jeff Polman? 

Rambling On About My Glory Days: The One That Got Away

Saw the movie Big Fish for the umpteenth time the other night, and I was thinking about some of my major league experiences and how, sometimes, the stories seem to be right out of that movie.

Rambling On About My Glory Days: My “Little League” Homer

I once hit a “Little League” homer on a 30-foot bunt. How many others have ever done that?

Rambling On About My Glory Days: Toughest Pitchers I Faced

Going to see Springsteen next week and it made me think about guys that could throw that “speed ball”by you. I was thinking about the pitchers who I least liked to face in my major league career (think early to mid ’80s here). I am sure you will remember these guys but they intimidated for […]

Looking for Follow Through

With Washington’s major league organization going literally from bad to worse, it is natural to look for relief–so to speak–in the minor league system. Team president Stan Kasten almost three years ago committed himself to building a world class organization modeled on that of the Braves. In baseball and many sports “follow through” is all […]

Crying the Tale of Two Cities

There have been two starts to the season here in suburban Maryland, one in Baltimore, one in Washington. One season began in Baltimore where the Orioles showed heart and class, their booing Mark Teixeira lustily every time he came to the plate while the team won two of three from the $200 million dollar, gold-plated […]

Fighting Fire with Fire

One of the defining features of our national pastime—and what lends it to such close statistical scrutiny—is the head-to-head match-up between the batter and pitcher. It’s an intricate dance that, repeated hundreds of times over the course of a season, yields meaningful insight into the nature of the game. This inherent importance is only heightened […]

A Reason to Believe

Baseball legends that end in the top 100 have to start somewhere and Stephen Strasburg inches forward every Friday night as he takes the mound for Tony Gwynn’s San Diego State Aztecs. At the end of those evenings, the myriad scouts leave asking themselves when was the last time they saw anyone this good.

Touring the Bases with…Gary Gillette

The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) is giving away free copies of The Emerald Guide to Baseball 2009.  Here esteemed baseball historian and editor Gary Gillette discusses the new Emerald Guide, his current and past projects, and his beloved Detroit Tigers.

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