Did a Young Robin Yount Almost Quit Baseball for a Career in Professional Golf?

Robin Yount forged a 20-year Hall of Fame career with the Milwaukee Brewers as a shortstop and then outfielder. He accumulated over 3000 base hits and won two Most Valuable Player Awards. However, that almost didn’t happen, as he threatened to quit baseball at the age of 22 to go join the PGA as a […]

Is it 1924 All Over Again?

For decades the spring dawned in Washington, DC with false hopes that the local nine might have hidden talent. Then, as quickly as you could say “Shirley Povich,” reality was restored by the end of April.  But a new century has created a reality that bends like a pretzel and just when you think you […]

Chance Sisco’s Violation of One of Baseball’s Dumbest (Unwritten) Rules

The 2018 major league baseball season is not even a week old and there is already a strong candidate for the dumbest story of the year. With his team trailing 7-0 in the ninth inning on April 1st, Baltimore Orioles’ rookie catcher Chance Sisco laid down a bunt for a single against a shift employed by the […]

2018 Baseball Hall of Fame Inductees’ Highs and Lows

The National Baseball Hall of Fame boasts a robust 2018 induction class, with six former players being enshrined. Jack Morris and Alan Trammell, who was tapped by the Veteran’s Committee, and Jim Thome, Chipper Jones, Vlad Guerrero and Trevor Hoffman, who were elected by the writer’s ballot will all have brand spanking new plaques in […]

Revisiting an Interview with Branch Rickey

An interview can reveal a lot about its subject as long as the right questions are asked. There is little more fascinating than coming across such sources that had largely disappeared into the ether. One of the most interesting men in baseball history was Branch Rickey, the forward-thinking Hall-of-Fame front office man (he also played and […]

Frank Howard, Bryce Harper, and a Tip of the Hat to That

Frank Howard only played in Washington for seven years after coming over from the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1965 trade. Bryce Harper is likely to play only seven seasons as well–the hour glass emptying steadily on what is likely his last in DC. In terms of longevity and in several important statistical categories, there […]

Which Former Major League Players Have Become Stars in Korea?

Making it to the major leagues is a monumental task that is accomplished by a mere fraction of the players who are lucky enough to have professional careers. Getting there and staying there for any length of time is another matter altogether. For many, opportunity ends up being in other professional leagues. Many know about […]

The Forgotten Bash Brother

Gary Sanchez is the forgotten or third wheel of the bash brothers. Yesterday’s enormous home run that ended up clearing the scoreboard made fans both of the Yankees and of the rest of the league realize that there is another bash brother in Sanchez. In 177 total games, Sanchez has 53 home runs. Of those […]

Mickey Mantle’s Forgotten Twin Brothers

In baseball, it’s rare for a player to be deified to the level of former New York Yankees outfielder Mickey Mantle, who could seemingly do it all on the field. However, few baseball fans are aware that he had two younger twin brothers, Roy and Ray, who also played professional ball, but never reached the same heights as the […]

Jackie Robinson: Revisiting an Interview With a Baseball and Civil Rights Legend

The age of the internet is a blessing in that it allows for the preservation of so many primary sources—the collection of video, audio and written materials from our past. This is particularly important to baseball history, where there is so much to keep track of. On April 14, 1957, legendary player and civil rights […]

History of a St. Louis Baseball Franchise: The St. Louis Stars

St. Louis Stars The St. Louis Stars were born when Richard William Kent, Sam Sheppard, Dr. J. W. “George” McClelland and Dr. G. B. Keys purchased the NNL St. Louis Giants franchise after the 1921 season. Dick Kent was a very successful businessman, who went from being a shoe shine boy to a real estate […]

Could Amazon.com Nationals Park Be a “Thing?”

Naming rights are a very boring topic in the vast universe of what falls under the constellation known as “baseball.” Who really cares what you call the stadium as long as baseball is played there, unless you care about the old place names like Fenway Park and player names like Smoky Joe Wood and Dizzy […]

Corrections That Are Moving Towards a Rational Marketplace

You can almost hear the unsigned players grinding their collective teeth. After years of escalating salaries, there may be a principle at work that confounds the dumb-struck baseball player, namely a rational economy. When the average American was getting their economic bell rung in 2008-2010, losing their homes, their jobs and their emotional well-being, baseball […]

Out of the Park Baseball 19 Announced for March 22 Release

Out of the Park Baseball 19 Releases Worldwide on March 22, 2018 OOTP 19 features dramatic 3D enhancements, a redesigned interface, new scouting systems, ultra-realistic artificial intelligence, 2018 Opening Day rosters, and more! Available For Pre-Order Now With 10% Discount & Early Access Out of the Park Developments, an official licensee of MLB.com, the Major […]

Negro Leagues DB Update: 1946 NNL & NAL

In 1946 the Negro leagues began to face the inevitable. The Brooklyn Dodgers finally broke Organized Baseball’s 60-year-old color line, signing several black players for their minor league system—including the best player in the 1945 Negro American League, the Monarchs’ shortstop Jackie Robinson, and arguably the best player in the 1945 Negro National League, the […]

Soft Salary Cap or Soft Headed Under the Cap?

There are two weeks until pitchers and catchers report to spring training camps in Florida and Arizona. Yet the most prized pitching prospects, Yu Darvish and Jake Arrieta remained unsigned as do Lance Lynn and Alex Cobb. Among position players, J.D. Martinez, Mike Moustakas, Lorenzo Cain, and Eric Hosmer are the four most notable unsigned […]

Winter Leagues and Serie del Caribe updates

The latest on the Winter Leagues’ final series and Serie del Caribe 2018 are at the link below: http://www.sabrhornsby.org/2017/08/serie-del-caribe-2018/ I will be updating this link daily from now (Jan. 25) through the Serie del Caribe finals on February 8.  You can stay tuned by accessing the link (it’ll continue to be the same URL) above. […]

All Quiet Along the Potomac??

The Potomac River is laced with ice near Nationals Park, but it is likely that life abounds beneath the serene white exterior that catches the afternoon sun from the south.  Yes, the water is moving despite the ice and things are heating up hot stove wise. There was the brief flurry of rumors that had […]

Winter Leagues Status – January 3, 2018

January 3 – “regular season” play in the Winter Leagues has wrapped up and the winter “post-season” is getting underway (Puerto Rico is an exception – see below).  Here’s the status of the various leagues, and which clubs are still playing in January: DOMINICANA – the final standings for the rol regular , the regular […]

The Epic Pitching Duel That Changed the Future of Two Franchises

October 7, 2011 and the melting pot that is South Philadelphia is stirring. From the Parisian redesign of Rittenhouse Square to the William Penn statue at Broad and Market; from South Street to the Mexican and Asian influences of Washington Avenue; from the African-American neighborhood of Point Breeze to the hipsters’ hangout in Northern Liberties, […]

From the Archives: Punch Drunk—The Art Shires Story

The following was originally published on this site on May 18, 2009. Former major league first baseman Art Shires was many things; dapper, over-dressed, well-spoken, loud-mouthed, confident, cocky, entertaining, clownish; a hard drinker and a harder fighter. But was he also a murderer? A Dallas District Attorney thought so and charged him with that crime […]

Winter Meetings/Hot Stove/Gio Gonzalez

A recent article by Pete Kerzel about the possibility of the Washington Nationals trading Gio Gonzalez at the Winter Meetings in Orlando lit my stove. The rumor is an annual one that excites hope that Washington GM Mike Rizzo is a magician, that he can get something of value for Gio and we won’t have […]

Winter Leagues Update – Nov. 26

Play continues south of the border as the Latin American winter leagues enter their final month of “regular season” action.  Here’s the latest: MEXICO – first-half play in the LMP (Liga Mexicana del Pacifico) concluded on Sunday, November 19.  First-half results were: Naranjeros de Hermosillo were awarded first place, and the eight points that go […]

From the Archives: Bob Lemon and the Hall of Fame

(Editor’s Note: The following was first published on this site on January 21, 2008.) A couple days ago Dr. Michael Hoban posted an article about strange Hall of Fame voting in which he wondered why Bob Lemon was suddenly regarded as a better pitcher than Allie Reynolds in 1972 after Reynolds received more votes in […]

From the Archives: Harry Lunte—The Man Who Tried to Replace Ray Chapman

On August 16, 1920 the Cleveland Indians prepared to take the field against the New York Yankees to start a crucial three-game series at Yankee Stadium that pitted the first-place Indians against the third-place Yankees. Cleveland was a mere four percentage points ahead of the Chicago White Sox in the standings; New York stood within […]

Swans and Dolphins

Baseball’s Winter Meetings are an event that dates to the beginnings of the 20th Century and before the advent of the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA), were one of the prime venues for addressing the state of the game. In their earliest history, the meetings effected momentous rules changes that made major alterations in […]

Serie Del Caribe 2018

November 3 – there’s no need for “baseball withdrawal” after an exciting World Series in the U.S. — there’s plenty of baseball action south of the border.  Here are some highlights from the leagues playing in South America, Mexico and the Caribbean. CUBA– Serie Nacional 57 second-half action is underway.  Defending champs Granma, along with Artemisa, won their […]

From the Archives: Touring the Bases with…Jim Bouton

“You see, you spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time.” Former major league pitcher Jim Bouton ended his controversial book Ball Four with those lines in 1969 and the nation has been in his grip […]

On the 2017 MLB Records: Home Runs, Strikeouts, Complete Games, Relievers, and Time

The 2017 Major League Baseball season saw several records set — not season or career records for individual players, but rather records for MLB as such. The one that has understandably gotten the most attention is regarding Home Runs. Overall, more HRs were hit this year than in any season in MLB history — yes, […]

A Season Skitters Between Matt Wieters’ Wickets

Scroll to the end of the Washington Nationals 2017 season and you will see at the bottom of the final box score this entry: “Fielding E: Wieters 2 (throw, catcher interference). PB Wieters” Therein lies their season. Javier Baez, whom Ron Darling described throughout the series as swinging at the ball as soon as he […]

Bell Jar Baseball

Watching the Washington Nationals in the playoffs is like reading Sylvia Plath’s Bell Jar. You root for the protagonist as she descends further into depression, but there is no escape, no uplift that takes you away from the slow descent, only further slipping into a bottomless pit. Washington fans deserve better than classic levels of depression. […]

Brooks Robinson Is Only A Hall of Famer on the Playing Field

I know it’s practically sacrilegious to write this, but Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson is a terrible advocate for retirees. Now don’t get me wrong. I’ve met Brooks Robinson. He signed an Orioles cap for my father-in-law. He was arguably the greatest third baseman the game has ever known. But as the president of the […]

Sports Book Reviews

The seasons keep changing and the sports books keep coming. They are focused on all kinds of subjects, approaches, dealing with different sports. Herewith, for your reading, exciting tomes dealing with baseball, football, tennis. Hank Greenberg in 1938 by Ron Kaplan (Sports Publishing, $24.95, 235 pages) is an important book for its subject, its time […]

Remembering Elston Howard

“A man of great gentleness and dignity” –on his Plaque in Monument Park “He deserves credit and where would I be without him?  Phew! He can give me a job in the outfield and he can catch, too.  Good kid, too. He’s good.”—Casey Stengel With all the newspaper headlines today documenting angst and anger and […]

The Member of Congress Who Can Help The Retirees w/o MLB Pensions

Florida United States Representative Matt Gaetz (Republican — 1st District) can help Orlando’s Bill Denehy, Pensacola’s Jim Hutto and 500 or so former players who don’t receive pensions from having played Major League Baseball (MLB). Denehy, who coached Hall of Famer Jeff Bagwell at the University of Hartford, was once a bright pitching prospect. He was famously […]

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