Touring The Bases With…Norm Coleman

Norm Coleman is an actor, sports writer, inspirational speaker, humorist and photographer. He lives in Half Moon Bay, California. Jack Perconte:  When did your love of baseball begin? Norm Coleman: It began when I was ten years old living in Brooklyn. The year was 1946. My sister Louise, seven years older then me took me […]

Touring The Bases With…Bob Lazzari

Bob Lazzari and I have become friends over the internet and he is one of those guys that you just immediately know that you would like. He is very thorough and interesting with his reporting and is a great writer. Bob has a way of writing that touches you and makes you reflect on your […]

The Plot Thickens

Major League Baseball has often been charged with a lack of competitive balance serious enough to make pennant races predictable. It was as if the plot lines driving each season were as formulaic as a bad Hollywood script.  After reading the first few pages, you could tell the winners and losers without breaking a sweat. […]

Touring The Bases With…Lexington Legends GM Andy Shea

Andy Shea is the General Manager for the Lexington Legends located in Lexington, Kentucky. They are in the South Atlantic League and have been an Affiliate of the Houston Astros since 2001. Their stadium is Whitaker Bank Park. (a) www.lexingtonlegends.com Seamheads.Com: What was your first job working in baseball? How did you obtain that job? […]

Strasburg, Part Deux

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Labor Day in Baseball

It was Labor Day in DC and the Nationals bats were booming. It was a great day at the park. There was only one thing missing from the action and the celebrations, the Labor Movement or any mention of working Americans. There were two big ladder trucks from the DC Fire Department parked outside the […]

Chasing History

Not long ago I was preparing for some podcasts and projected the stats of a handful of players to see what their final numbers might look like and how they would look stacked up against each other as well as others throughout baseball history.  Three of those players—Jacoby Ellsbury, Curtis Granderson and Justin Verlander—are definite […]

Something Stirring Beneath the Surface

The younger set cannot remember one of the iconic pictures of my youth: Nikita Kruschev, Russian Premier and head of the original Axis of Evil in Moscow, angrily banging his shoe on the desk at the United Nations, screaming to the US envoy to the UN, “We Will Bury You!” It was the headline in […]

Touring the Bases with…Garrett Totty

Garrett Totty is the Head Batboy for the Texas League Tulsa Drillers.   Garrett also plays catcher on his high school baseball team at Morris (Oklahoma) High School, where this past season he was teammates with Yankee’s 18th round draft choice Hayden Sharp. Seamheads:    Being a batboy on a professional team is probably something that many young […]

Two and Half Hours with Chip Caray

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Atlanta Braves play-by-play announcer Chip Caray to talk about his career, his life experiences and how he goes about making the excitement of Atlanta Braves baseball come alive for millions of fans across the country.  Over a 7 day period I had the privilege of interviewing […]

A Nationals Hot Sheet in the Offing

A young man called in to the “Outta the Parkway Show” on Friday night and wanted to know whether the Nationals are headed in the right direction and how long it will take before the Nationals are a competitive presence in baseball. How long before the Nationals run at the front of the pack? As […]

A Death in the Family

Baltimore is the biggest small town in America. Everyone has a sense that they’re either related to, or that they know, most everyone else in town. We feel that way about the athletes who represent us as well, beginning with the old Baltimore Colts who lived in the city year-round and who worked regular jobs […]

When Will Girardi Learn?

The Athletics and the Yankees endured quite an intense battle Tuesday night. The Yankees, after trailing 6-0 going into the eighth inning, scored five runs and ultimately lost by just one run. The game ended with the bases loaded and a fly ball just four or five feet shy of a walk-off grand slam. The […]

Slugger Jim

Anyone who isn’t happy for Jim Thome probably also hates ice cream and loves velour. OK, I like the way velour looks on some people but it’s not in my wardrobe. What I do have in my closet is an abundance of Chicago White Sox items and one of the reasons I’m proud to wear […]

Touring The Bases With…Fort Wayne TinCaps President and GM Mike Nutter

Mike Nutter is the President and General Manager of the Fort Wayne TinCaps located in Fort Wayne, Indiana. They have been an Affiliate of the San Diego Padres since 1999 and are in the Midwest League. They play at Parkview Field. (a) www.tincaps.com. Seamheads.Com: What are your responsibilities for the TinCaps? Mike Nutter: Lots of […]

Touring The Bases With…John D’Acquisto

Former big league right-hander John D’Acquisto was the 17th pick of the 1970 amateur draft, going to the San Francisco Giants in a draft that also featured Mike Ivie, Darrell Porter and “Disco Dan” Ford.  D’Acquisto got his feet wet in the Pioneer (rookie) League before the 19-year-old blossomed in Single-A in 1971, posting a […]

Time to Take Realignment Seriously

Realignment is a complex issue filled with equal support and opposition. For some, it amounts to an unnecessary and indefensible change. For others, it is an exciting and thought-provoking issue. Both sides have a justifiable stance, but the key is to remain somewhere in the middle. Change for the sake of change is no good, […]

More Travel Means More Wins?

Realignment has become a serious issue in the ongoing labor talks in Major League Baseball. Everything from turning the Houston Astros into an American League team to abolishing divisions has drawn serious consideration. One issue, though, stands above all in complexity and also seems most logical. That issue has to do with evening out the […]

Know When to Hold Them, When to Fold Them

Last year at this time the Washington Nationals were patting themselves on the back about reeling in Wilson Ramos for Matt Capps. It was a good trade because everyone was a winner. Fishing for Denard Span off the same pier in July 2011 has proved not as productive. The Twinkies wanted the keys to the […]

All Phillies… All the Time –Three’s Company, 18’s a Crowd

Trying to narrow the Phillies field of outfielders down to the top three all time is like trying to pick out Steve Carlton’s three best wins, or Mike Schmidt’s three most memorable home runs (OK; the pennant clincher against the Expos in 1980, and number 500 against the Pirates… now choose a third… the game […]

Touring the Bases With…D. Bruce Brown

D. Bruce Brown is the chairman of the Bob Davids Chapter of the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR). The chapter serves the Mid-Atlantic region of the country and is the oldest SABR chapter–named for the founder of SABR, Washington, DC resident, Bob Davids. D. Bruce Brown has attended the last ten SABR national conventions […]

Touring The Bases With…Lehigh Valley IronPigs GM Kurt Landes

Kurt Landes is the General Manager for the Lehigh Valley IronPigs located in Allentown, PA. They have been a AAA Affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies since 2008 and are in the International League. They play at Coca-Cola Park. (a) www.ironpigsbaseball.com Seamheads.Com: What was your first job in baseball? Kurt Landes: My first job in baseball […]

When John Kruk Was Quiet, Slender, and Attacked by a Grandma

John Kruk was a skinny kid out of Keyser, West Virginia in the summer of 1981, but he had already attracted the attention of several scouts. “A great guy . . . a natural athlete,” remembers Preston Douglas, the head coach that season of the New Market Rebels, the collegiate summer team with whom Kruk […]

Koufax or Ryan? Tough choice for Torborg

Don’t ask Jeff Torborg to choose between Sandy Koufax and Nolan Ryan. The only man to catch no-hitters thrown by both can’t make up his mind. A former back-up catcher for the Dodgers and Angels, Torborg caught a perfect game thrown by Koufax in 1965 and no-hitters thrown by Bill Singer in 1970 and Ryan […]

Touring The Bases With…Princeton Rays GM Jim Holland

Jim Holland is the General Manager for the Princeton Rays located in Princeton, West Virginia. They have been an Affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays since 1997 and are in the Appalachian League.  They play at Hunnicutt Field.  (a)  www.princetonrays.net Seamheads.Com: What is your history with the Princeton Rays? Jim Holland: This will be my […]

Philip Hochberg and A Nationals’ Report Card

Friday night on the Outta the Parkway Show, Philip Hochberg–long time public announcer for Washington sports teams–looked back over more than sixty years of baseball history and his report card on Washington baseball was a disappointing one. On Friday night one game stood out in his memory, one  from the first year of the expansion […]

What’s Next For Derek Jeter?

Even before Yankees shortstop and captain Derek Jeter belted his 3,000th career hit, fans and media wondered aloud what would happen to him once he reached the coveted mark.  It’s not that we all expect him to turn into a pumpkin or anything, but the question remains: will the Yankees be willing to keep running […]

All Phillies…All the Time — J-Roll

The last time I undertook the task of trying to figure out the Phillies’ All-Time Team at each position was something like 18 years ago… I think it might have been early in 1993, while riding in Jim Hardy’s BMW M3 in the wilds of Central Pennsylvania. Since Central PA is both pretty wild, and […]

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 […]

Cubs, White Sox, Paul for the Hall…Or At Least Phoenix

The Cubs are the darlings of Chicago but the White Sox are the better baseball team. The Sox took two-of-three from the Cubs at Wrigley Field over the weekend and four-of-six this season, gracefully allowing the North Siders one victory on the South Side a few weeks ago and then also a triumph on Sunday, […]

Spahn-Marichal Marathon: Best-Pitched Game?

Long before pitch counts, five-man rotations, and an array of relief pitchers became the backbone of baseball philosophy, two future Hall of Famers locked horns in a 16-inning marathon that both completed. According to author Jim Kaplan, who chronicled that July 2, 1963 match in a book called The Greatest Game Ever Pitched, it will […]

The Clark Griffith Monument

In 1956 a monument was dedicated to Clark Griffith outside old Griffith Stadium just months after the former owner of the team and stadium died.  His passing was marked by every major newspaper, his funeral attended by every official of the game.  He was recognized as a giant of the game whose place in Cooperstown […]

Are We There Yet, Davey?

As if in answer to Jim Riggleman, the Nationals gave Davey Johnson a contract that keeps him with the organization through 2013. He manages out 2011 and is in charge of finding a permanent manager. Yet that resolution to the immediate crisis leaves so many things still un-resolved. Who will manage in 2012? Will Davey […]

How to Spell Quitter in One Easy Lesson

Today Nationals fans are caught up with the news of Jim Riggleman’s departure and the backwash therefrom.  Tom Boswell’s column in the morning paper provides some insights, but the headline, “Riggleman Proves He Wasn’t the Man,” says it all. Riggleman was not a particularly good manager.  He had his good qualities: his straight-shooter, old school […]

Wilderness Days Yield to Surge

Six years ago to the day, the Washington Nationals sat atop the National League East with a three game lead over the Braves. They would remain in first place in the summer of 2005 until July 26th. Since the end of July 2005, the Nationals have been lost in the wilderness, searching for team defense, […]

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