While Uncertainty Prevails for Many Free Agents, Kris Johnson Has a Date in Major League Camp

Kris Johnson was playing video games in the basement of his home outside Kansas City when he picked up the phone to hear a voice say he would like to talk to him about his latest news as well as his days pitching in an Independent league little more than one year ago. While he […]

Any Way You Look At It, Mike Trout Is The 2012 AL MVP

WAR, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing; at least within the confines of this article. While they aren’t the end-all, be-all, I am a major proponent of advanced baseball stats because I believe they greatly enhance the understanding of many components of the game. Not everyone agrees, and traditionalists prefer more time-honored metrics like batting average, […]

Bryce Harper, Rookie of the Year, And More

Bryce Harper was named the National League Rookie of the Year this evening. It is a great award for the Washington Nationals and their fans. It is a great decision for the game. But as much as it means to the fans of DC and the game, there is the very personal issue of what […]

Baseball Notes for November 12, 2012

*** To say I loved the Red Sox signing catcher David Ross to a two year, $6.2 million free agent would be an understatement. He brings the kind of leadership, experience and defensive presence the Sox have lacked behind the plate for years. Although he won’t be a full-time starter he could play a significant […]

Yankee Miracles: Life With the Boss and the Bronx Bombers

When my buddy Joe Favorito asked for my address because he had something he wanted to send me, I gladly forwarded it to him not knowing what to expect, but figuring it would be worth my while.  The package arrived and when I opened it I couldn’t believe my eyes; there in front of me […]

Baseball Folly Struck Out

They stopped playing baseball games for awhile last night, and I’m not very happy about that even though I was rooting for the team that won. Now we’re plunged The Void and, in this part of the country, facing the latest storm of the century. The wind is picking up outside my window, and my […]

How Stan Musial Gave Dickey Kerr of the Chicago Black Sox His White Picket Fence

The Chicago “Black Sox” (White Sox) are the most infamous team in the annals of baseball. In 1919, led by the likes of Shoeless Joe Jackson and Eddie Cicotte, the team roared into the World Series and shocked the country by losing to the underdog Cincinnati Reds. It subsequently came out that eight players on […]

Higher Education: The Chicago Cubs College of Coaches

An old proverb states that two heads are better than one. During the early part of the nineteen sixties, Cubs’ owner, Philip Wrigley took it a little further. He felt that eight heads were better than one. Wrigley decided to employ eight rotating managers. There would be four on the major league staff and four […]

Tailoring Washington for 2013: A Hot Stove Preview

Since Sandy blew out of town, the weather has been cold and windy. The stove has been cooking constantly, so it must be time to starting thinking about the 2013 Washington Nationals. They should improve on the best record in baseball without doing anything, but playing a pat hand is downright arrogant. Maybe they need […]

Red Sox Prospect Steven Wright: Continuing Baseball’s Knuckleball Tradition

Successful knuckleball pitchers are about as common in baseball as a Triple Crown winner, and they are always in danger of going extinct. R.A. Dickey is the only current major league pitcher regularly throwing the pitch, but he could soon have a fellow adherent if Boston Red Sox prospect Steven Wright has anything to say […]

More Independent Baseball Personalities Prove Success Can Come From Anywhere

When one looks up the word SUCCESS in the dictionary there is absolutely zero indication of pedigree or size or background being a requirement in order to reach this coveted stature.  Of course it does not hurt to come from a long gene pool of standout athletes or to be 6-foot-5 or to be considered […]

19 to 21…Aging Knuckleballers and Knucklehead Comments‏

One of the problems with the communications explosion engendered by the Internet is that it gives seemingly every Tom, Dick and Harry, and every blogger under the sun, a public forum, whether or not they know what they’re talking about. This embodiment of the old saying, “don’t believe everything you read,” was underscored earlier in […]

An Interview with Greg Hibbard

There are untold numbers of baseball players who had promising careers derailed by injuries; a sad reality in a sport so connected with the fulfillment of dreams. Pitcher Greg Hibbard, who once won 50 games in a four year period was one of those players, and saw his playing career come to an end by […]

World Series 2012 Observations

With the success that Marco Scutaro has had with his short stroke, will other hitters follow suit? Not likely. Chicks still dig the long ball. If Lasagna is nature’s perfect food (according to Garfield) then Matt Cain is nature’s perfect pitcher. Durable, no wasted motion, works quickly and commands his pitches. For the third straight […]

Dentro de un Caracas – Magallanes ( Inside a Caracas- Magallanes baseball match)

Dentro de un Caracas – Magallanes   Inmersos entre la broma y la burla, la discusión y la amistad, lo insólito y lo excéntrico muchos aficionados sólo pueden explicar con acciones el significado de un enfrentamiento entre estos equipos de béisbol. A diferencia de otras rivalidades (Boston-Yanquis, Real Madrid -Barcelona, Boca -River, etc.) cada juego […]

Negro Leagues DB Update: 1902-1906 Negro Leagues

The newest update to the Negro Leagues DB adds no fewer than five deadball seasons—1902 through 1906—plus a number of additional games for later seasons, and lots of new and corrected biographical information. We loosely use the term “season” here, as the farther back you go in history, the fewer and fewer games African American […]

Playing Matchmaker for Some of the Top Free Agents This Offseason

Even with the playoff action at a fever pitch, it’s not too early to look ahead at the free agent class of 2013 and how they might impact teams next season. Ultimately the number of zeroes on the checks will determine where the players sign, but unfortunately that doesn’t mean that they will go where […]

Touring The Bases With…Denny McLain

From 1968 to 1969, few hurlers could keep up with Denny McLain, the Detroit Tigers ace and workhorse.  McLain went 55-15 in those two seasons and became the last man to win 30 games when he went 31-6 in 1968 and led the Tigers to an American League pennant and World Series title.  McLain easily […]

Dick Bosman Talks Strasburg Innings Limit and More

As the roving minor league pitching instructor for the Tampa Bay Rays, former Senators pitcher Dick Bosman has helped groom some of the best pitching talent in the majors. I asked Dick to comment on the Washington Nationals handling of Stephen Strasburg this season on our podcast show Friday night. The response was one of the most […]

Catchers Manage to Succeed at Managing

If and when Jim Leyland, manager of The Detroit Tigers, ever decides to hang up his spikes, he’s got a potential replacement for his job waiting in the wings. Or behind the mask, so to speak. Of course, with the Tigers now advancing to their second World Series appearance under him in the last six […]

Appreciative Lew Ford Is Major Leaguer Today, But Will Get Championship Ring From Long Island

The delightful story of Lew Ford’s journey from the Atlantic League in April and May to the parent Baltimore Orioles in late July to the American League Postseason in October still has, dare we say, “a nice ring” to it for Independent Baseball as the major league season marches to a conclusion. Pardon the reach […]

How A-Rod Has Derailed His Yankee Career and Defined His Legacy

Alex Rodriguez’s alarming inability to make contact during the playoffs leads many to believe that the clock is about to strike midnight on his immensely talented but polarizing career. The Yankees are likely to find the 5 years and $114 million he is due after this season to be an unpalatable mouthful to swallow, making […]

Terry Doyle: Minor League Pitcher Circling the Globe to Get His Major League Shot

Projections are an increasingly important part of baseball; particularly young player development. With myriad statistics and tools of evaluation, teams often look past players who can’t be defined by criteria like how hard they throw a ball or their physical measurables. It’s a safe approach that allows teams to move quickly through an ever-surging tide […]

Is Nick Swisher Hair Today and Gone Tomorrow?

It hasn’t been an especially good 2012 post-season for Nick Swisher. Mired in a miserable 4 for 26 slump, Swisher through seven post season games is hitting an anemic .154, with only one double and one run batted in. Over his entire post-season career, he has an embarrassing stat line of 1 for 34 with […]

A Closing Argument Falls Flat

The Washington Nationals season ended in agony on October 13 at 12:30 pm. What had been the best pitching staff in baseball was no where to be found over the final six innings of baseball last night. When Washington scored six runs in the first three innings off Adam Wainwright, the momentum of the previous […]

Picking the 2012 MLB Award Winners

With the focus in baseball being on the fantastic matchups being waged in the playoffs, the intense debate about the end-of-season awards has been tempered for the time being. It’s a temporary lull that will heat up again once the announcement of the award winners near, as many will try to get in their opinions […]

A Transformative Baseball Moment in Washington

In every life there are those moments when your life takes a sudden turn, when you are standing still in one place and then events sweep you away to a very different place. Your life is changed, moved from one platform onto another from which you take off in a totally different direction. Call them […]

LETTERS FROM QUEBEC: An Autumn Reading Recommendation

Autumn…when baseball fans prepare for the post-season – and the unexpected delights only baseball can provide. The Division finals are already underway and assuming the universe unfolds as it should, the World Series will begin Wednesday, October 24, in the home park of the National League representative. One of the four NL clubs still in […]

Negro Leagues DB Update: 1924 ECL & NNL

This week we’ve added the 1924 Negro leagues, both the Negro National League and Eastern Colored League.  This year marked the end of the war between the leagues and saw the champions meet in the first Colored World Series, one of the classic postseason series of all time. The ECL expanded to eight teams, adding […]

The 1890 Athletics: The Worst Team in Major League Baseball History

The worst team in Major League Baseball history. It didn’t start off that way, of course. But a series of twists and turns brought the Athletics to that point. Ordinarily, losing three regulars and your pitching ace, and replacing them with career minor leaguers and faded veterans isn’t a recipe for success. But 1890 was […]

Overcome by Smelly, Blood-Stained Socks

Seven years ago, American-born Canadian children’s author Robert Munsch and his illustrator, Michael Martchenko, published a children’s book about a girl named Tina, who loves her brand-new socks so much that she doesn’t take them off. Titled, appropriately enough, Smelly Socks, (Scholastic Cartwheel Books, 2005).  The Globe and Mail had nothing but praise for the […]

The 1986 California Angels

In the first half of the 1980’s, California waged war with Kansas City, attempting to break the Royals grip as the team to beat in the American League West. The Halos roster was aging, and the organization’s propensity to sign free agents placed the team into a “win-now” mode. In November 1985, the Angels granted […]

Some Completely Useless But Fun Numbers From The 2012 MLB Regular Season

The 2012 baseball regular season was one of excitement and surprises. Only part of the story is what was seen from game to game, and taking a closer look at numbers can bring even more richness to what transpired over the past six months. I love statistics, particularly when they are within the context of […]

Potential Clues to Post Season Success

In discussing how little the regular season matters in the playoffs, Ron Gardenhire said that the post-season is determined by which team gets hot.  It is a simplistic but quite accurate formula if you look at recent playoff runs by various teams. How hot were they going into the post-season? Certainly there are other consistent […]

Look No Further Than 67 Victories Posted by Pitchers To See How Independent Baseball Contributed to 2012 Major League Season

Major league baseball does not get any better than it is in October when it is keeping us glued to our seats on a daily basis, but in order to reach this plateau it seems necessary to spend some time looking back on the last six months to see the role products of the Independent […]

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