Touring The Bases With…Norfolk Tides GM Dave Rosenfield

Dave Rosenfield is the General Manager for the Norfolk Tides located in Norfolk, Virginia. They have been an Affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles since 2007 and are in the International League. They play at Harbor Park. (a) www.norfolktides.com Seamheads.com: This year marks your fifty-sixth consecutive year you have been associated with a professional club. Is […]

All Phillies…All the Time — What’s on Second?

Having previously answered the burning question, “who’s on first?” the time has come to address, “what’s on second?” The answer, unlike that given by Bud Abbott, is simple… an all-time Hall of Famer and the current best second baseman in baseball. Oh sure, there are others worth mentioning; Tony Taylor (backwards, Ynot Rolyat), Juan Samuel, […]

Childhood and Wally Bunker

The year 1964 when I was 7 years old, was a landmark for me.  In February of that year, I saw the Beatles for the first time on my grandmother’s 13″ black and white television; a set so full of vacuum tubes and other hardware that it weighed as much as our big screen TV […]

All Phillies…All the Time — Who’s on First?

The Phillies have had several outstanding first basemen over the years… it’s just that very few of them, for various reasons, bothered to hang around for very long. Most notable among this group are Jim Thome (three years), Dolph Camilli (four years), Dick Allen (three years at first), Von Hayes (ditto, three years primarily at […]

Touring The Bases With…Lansing Lugnuts GM Pat Day

Pat Day is the General Manager for the Lansing Lugnuts located in Lansing, Michigan in the Midwest League. They have been an Affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays since 2005. They play in Jackson Field at Thomas M. Cooley Law School Stadium. (a) www.lansinglugnuts.com. Seamheads.com: Your team has an unusual name. How did the name […]

Touring The Bases With…Terry Tata

Umpire Terry Tata officiated in the National League from 1973-1999, and umpired in four World Series, seven National League Championship Series, three All-Star games and five no-hitters, for two of which he was behind the plate.  During his major league career, he umpired in 3,743 regular season games. Click here to see a video of […]

Touring the Bases With…Jim Northrup (May He Rest in Peace)

In 1968, Jim Northrup hit two grand slams in one game and became the first person in history to hit three grand slams in a week (and only the second to hit three in a month). He hit four grand slams that season, plus one more in the World Series. In Game 7 of the […]

All Phillies…All the Time — The Catchers

Herewith is the first installment of the All-Time Greatest Phillies Team. Before undertaking this endeavor, some ground rules… This is one version of the “Greatest Phillies of All Time.” The key word is “great,” and it will be used in the larger meaning of the word, that is, beyond pure statistics. This is sort of […]

Double No-No Equals Yes

As a high school pitcher growing up in small-town New Jersey, Johnny Vander Meer drew plenty of attention. Watching one of the young man’s starts, you never knew what you might see. “They never made a hit off me,” Vander Meer said. “They couldn’t. I walked them all. I could throw hard in those days, […]

Math v. March Madness

On July 27, 1975, a child was born in Washington Heights, New York. Four years later, his family moved to the Dominican Republic, and soon after to Miami, Florida. He grew up rooting for the New York Mets, and idolized Cal Ripken and Keith Hernandez. Like most children, he dreamed about becoming a professional athlete. […]

Anthony Rendon in Washington? Who Knew?

Early in the day there had to have been excitement about the prospect that Bubba Starling would fall to the Nationals with the sixth pick in the amateur draft. Finding a center fielder has been a vexing problem for the team and Starling playing alongside Bryce Harper was a vision of joy for the DC […]

Valley Fans Have a Long-Standing Love Affair With Baseball

The day that many Shenandoah Valley residents have eagerly awaited since last August will arrive tomorrow when the Valley Baseball League begins its 89th season. The Haymarket Senators pay a call on the Strasburg Express to kick off the latter’s inaugural season, but the passion of Valley fans for their local teams is nothing new. […]

The “Mental” Game

Baseball, more than most other sport, is impacted by the player’s internal mental landscape. Players make it to the majors because their confidence in their own abilities is unshakable and flourishes even in the most high pressure environments. But there are some teams where bad karma chews nails for breakfast, where the most confident players […]

Touring The Bases With…Rico Petrocelli

Rico Petrocelli was signed as an amateur free agent by the Boston Red Sox in 1961 and went on to have a productive 13-year big league career, all with Boston.  After a cup of coffee with the Sox in 1963, Petrocelli arrived in the big leagues to stay in 1965, and by 1969 was one […]

Washington Posting

Brad Peacock continued his rise from obscure origins on Saturday afternoon–he was a 41st round draft choice in 2006–as he struck out ten over six innings, winning his sixth game. Peacock posted 14 Ks in his prior start and those eye-popping numbers have brought the Nationals 23-year old right hander a little extra attention. He […]

Touring The Bases With…Harrisburg GM Randy Whitaker

Randy Whitaker is the General Manager for the Harrisburg Senators located in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in the Eastern League. They have been an Affiliate of the Washington Nationals since 2005.  Their Stadium is Metro Bank Park. (1)  www.senatorsbaseball.com SEAMHEADS.COM: What was your first job working in baseball? How did you obtain that position? How did that […]

Gambling on the 1917 White Sox-Giants World Series

The recent New York Times article about speculation that the Cubs threw the 1918 World Series to the Red Sox brings up the broader issue of how deeply major league baseball was corrupted by gambling and a money culture in the 1910s. A while ago I looked up how the Chicago Tribune covered the end […]

The Catch of the Young Season

Several years ago I went up to Harrisburg to interview Justin Maxwell, the promising young outfielder of the Harrisburg Senators at the time. He was a warm and sincere young man and I spoke to John Stearns about the Maryland native and came away impressed. Yet truthfully it was another player who caught my eye […]

Stanley “Doc” Glenn Fondly Remembered in Quebec

Word came down the other day that 84-year old Stanley “Doc” Glenn had passed away on April 16. Glenn, a rangy 6’ 2” son of a Virginia fisherman who once described himself as a journeyman catcher, was in fact a superior defensive rearguard with a great arm. During the 1940s he made his mark with […]

Touring The Bases With…Lindsey Knupp

Lindsey Knupp is the Promotions and Entertainment Director for the Lehigh Valley IronPigs located in Allentown, PA. They have been an Affiliate of the 2009 National League Champions Philadelphia Phillies since 2008, the year they were World Champions! SEAMHEADS: What was your first job working in baseball? How did you obtain the position? How did […]

If Montreal Gets Stadium, Indy Team Will Follow

     The French counterpart to the word “if”, I am told, is “si”.  Well, si got considerable attention north of the United States border this week.       Miles Wolff, the commissioner of  the Canadian-American League, which this corner tends to shorten to Can-Am, sat down to talk baseball in bustling Montreal this week, along with […]

Brad Peacock, Selig Man with Upside Heart

Brad Peacock was taken in the 41st round of the 2006 draft as a “draft and follow” pick by the Washington Nationals. For Washington the 2006 draft was a disaster. Conducted when the team was still under management by Bud Selig and MLB, Inc., it might serve as a tutorial on all of the things […]

Touring the Bases With Barbara Gregorich

Barbara Gregorich is one of the best authorities on women in baseball and her book Women at Play is testament to that knowledge.  Barbara has recently published a portion of her original research notes for Women at Play. This interview talks about her books and her experiences in baseball.  The full, in-depth interview will appear […]

Bryce, Madison, and the Faithful Few

Late on a sunny afternoon, an hour and a half before uber-prospect Bryce Harper will make his debut in front of the hometown Hagerstown Suns fans, little Madison McGillivray is skipping about outside the gate at Municipal Stadium. She is wearing a tiny Washington Nationals home jersey with a red 34 and Harper stitched on […]

Let’s Play Two

The Sunday doubleheader was a staple of baseball in the Golden Era of the game, you know, when the World Series was played in the first half of October and kids listened to Don Larsen’s perfect game on the radio in Ms. Hill’s sixth grade class.  The Nationals and Brewers played a Sunday doubleheader today. […]

Touring The Bases With…Kelly Hallquest

Kelly Hallquest is the Food and Beverage Director for the Eugene Emeralds located in Eugene, Oregon. They have been an Affiliate of the San Diego Padres since 2001 and are in the Northwest League. Check out Emeralds on Facebook. www.-ems.com Seamheads.Com: What are your responsibilities for the Emeralds? Kelly Hallquest: I am the Director of […]

Motivational Speakers

Not only was the Philadelphia radio station giving away tickets to the Nationals game last week, but the seats were in the first row, right field bleachers closest to Jayson Werth.  And Werth got an earful from the Philly faithful. Every time he touched the ball it set them off. Suze Orman couldn’t have provided […]

Bryce Harper Gets It

Bryce Harper is not only extremely talented, he gets it. For the rest of us, our talent ran out at some point, whether it was Little League or high school or college or even the minor leagues. If the game abandoned us, however, we never abandoned it; and so we talk about it and write […]

Centerfield in Washington Is Ankiel’s Now

When Rick Ankiel laid down the perfect squeeze bunt in the seventh inning yesterday all the thoughts of the Nationals nagging center field question disappeared like Brad Wilkerson going back into the dugout after waving to the crowd upon hitting for the cycle early in the 2005 season.  Nyjer who?  And what was that other […]

The Day the 1994 Expos Came Back to Town

What do you get when you put Felipe Alou, Cliff Floyd, Marquis Grissom and Rondell White; Denis Boucher, Mel Rojas and John Wetteland; Pedro Martinez …and loveable former Expos mascot Youppi, in the same room, all at the same time? A class reunion of the 1994 Montreal Expos, that’s what; with the operative word being […]

Quiet and Steady as She Goes

The Nationals traded Nyjer Morgan for Cutter Dykstra and during the wee hours. The move was no surprise to anyone, but some had opined that the Nationals would take almost anything to get rid of the distractions surrounding Morgan. Dystra is not “almost anything,” but he knows a little bit about distractions. Anyone who has […]

COMMUNITY PLAYING TIME FORECASTS

Tom M. Tango at the The Book Blog is requesting fans to fill out playing time estimates for the team they follow closely.   In the past, these fan generated playing time forecasts have proven to be better than the ‘expert’ forecasts and better than ‘automated’ forecast systems. If you want to participate, the link is: […]

Deviating from the Past

Every baseball ranking—even those based on statistics—is biased in some way. It’s what makes practically every list debatable. For instance, take a list as fundamental as “hit leaders.” As a counting stat, a player’s hit total is impacted by his place in the batting order as well as his lineup’s offensive strength, two factors that […]

FEATURES OF THE BALLPARKS DATABASE

Besides the basic field dimensions and batting event factors, there are some other features of the ballparks database that I’d like to highlight: Starting with the index page, you’ll see that the default order is number of games played in the stadium.   Fenway Park and Wrigley Field are at the top.   This can be an […]

Rob Nelson on the Future (and Could-Have Been Past) of Pro Baseball in Portland

I recently talked with Rob Nelson, the co-creator of Big League Chew shredded bubble gum, Portland Mavericks pitcher (and pitching coach) in the mid-1970s, and all-around fixture of Portland’s baseball scene. Our conversation centered on Big League Chew and the Mavs, but we also eventually got around to the plight of pro baseball in Portland […]

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