Wally Yonamine and the Integration of Japanese Baseball

A rock whizzed by Wally Yonamine’s head. Jeers and taunts followed. “Yankee Go Home!” “Go Back to Hawaii!” Some yelled insults in Japanese, while a few yelled the only English they knew, “One, Two, Three!” The abuse had begun the minute Wally took his position in Koshien Stadium’s left field. The home-town Hanshin Tiger fans […]

Seamheads.com Launches Negro Leagues Database Powered by The Baseball Gauge

Welcome to the Seamheads.com Negro Leagues Database, powered by The Baseball Gauge. We are creating the first comprehensive statistical encyclopedia of the great black baseball teams and leagues that operated behind the color line in the days of Jim Crow segregation.  The database also collects a vast amount of biographical information about these players, much […]

The Hall of Famers: The 5 Levels of Greatness – Part 3

In this article, I will present the Level 3 and Level 4 position players.  There were a total of thirty-one (31) players in Levels 1 and 2 – the position players with the best careers of the 20th century.  In Levels 3 and 4, we have the fifty-seven (57) next best careers of the century […]

The Hall of Famers: The 5 Levels of Greatness – Part 2

In this article, I will present the Level 1 and Level 2 position players.  These are the thirty-one (31) major league players who had the best career numbers in the 20th century.  I think it is fair to say that there are few surprises on these two lists. Level 1  -  Players with a CAWS […]

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 […]

The Hall of Famers: The 5 Levels of Greatness – Part 1

Consider the following statement: One third of the players in Baseball’s Hall of Fame do not have the credentials to be there. Or, to be more precise, 35% of the 20th century major league Hall of Famers do not belong in Cooperstown according to their performance records (on the field in the regular season). This […]

Giants Fever in a Post-2010 World

I saw my first signs of acute Giants fever in the waning weekends of their 2010 championship year, when the team was in a neck-and-neck battle with San Diego for the NL West title. It wasn’t your standard rising crowd roar that accompanies two-strike counts for the home pitcher late in the game.  It wasn’t […]

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 […]

Once More–With Feeling

One year ago today I posted the third part of a series on the myth of the “writers and broadcasters wing” at the Hall of Fame (titled “A Wing and a Player”). The confusion over whether such “wings” exist has existed since the J. G. Taylor Spink Award for baseball writing was created in 1962. […]

Finally Back to Normal!

After two and a half weeks of fretting, calling techies and switching to a new web host, we’re finally fully operational again!  I apologize for the infrequency of fresh content, but we’ll do our best to post as much as we can from here on out.  And if that’s not enough, no worries; we have […]

Still Suffering Technical Difficulties

I apologize for the infrequency of fresh content, but we’re still suffering from technical difficulties that haven’t been resolved yet. We’ll continue to post if and when we can and once the problems have been solved, we’ll be back to a more regular posting schedule. Thank you for your patience.

Desmond Redux

Carlos Marmol was on the mound; he of the league leading 7 blown saves. He had faced three batters in the ninth inning and had scarcely gotten a ball close enough to the strike zone to call a cab for it. The bases were loaded thanks to two walks and a single and there was […]

What Happened to the Red Sox/Yankees Rivalry?

As a Red Sox fan, the highlight of the season always used to be the games Boston played against the New York Yankees. The regular season games in particular seemed to be the real rivalry, knowing that inevitably the playoffs would end in some sort of catastrophic fashion for Boston. Even with that fatalistic view, […]

Kid Elberfeld’s Trip From Washington T0 Montgomery–Through Milwaukee

I have not read a lot about Norman “Kid” Elberfeld, but between the very informative books “Clark Griffith: The Old Fox of Washington Baseball” by Ted Leavengood, and Jim Riesler’s “Before They Were the Bombers”, plus the splendid Terry Simpkins biography on Elberfeld at the SABR Biography Project, I have a working knowledge of him. […]

“All In” – Starting Pitchers and the Hall of Fame

With the induction of Bert Blyleven into the Hall of Fame in 2011, every starting pitcher in the second half of the 20th century who has HOF numbers is now in Cooperstown. Let me be a bit more precise.  According to the CAWS Career Gauge, every starting pitcher whose career began after World War II […]

Gambling at the Hall of Fame: Part Three

In the last of this three-part series on gambling at the Hall of Fame (please read the first two parts if you haven’t already), it’s time to talk about gambling that goes on AT the museum every day of the year. I’m referring to fantasy sports, and if your reflex response is “gee, that’s no […]

The Most Egregious Cy Young Award Snubs of All Time (at Least on Paper)

I recently listed the most egregious MVP snubs of all time and thought it was time to give the pitchers a little love (although not the ones who were awarded a Cy Young they didn’t deserve based on my WA2RB formula).  Rather than plagiarize myself and explain my thoughts and formula, you should head over […]

No Retirement in Site for Ageless Milo

As a broadcaster, Milo Hamilton doesn’t have to worry about his arms or legs giving out. He can still read his voluminous notes and talk about baseball with the best of them. Plus his voice still projects the dulcet tones that accompanied his call of Hank Aaron’s record 715th home run on April 8, 1974. […]

Mantle In Milwaukee: Sixty Years Ago

Milwaukee commuters wrestling their way down highway 43 may not know that the pavement between Locust and Burleigh Streets is hallowed ground, the former site of Borchert Field, home of the minor league Milwaukee Brewers for much of the first half of last century. Borchert Field was an old, rickety ballpark with crazy dimensions: the […]

Gambling at the Hall of Fame: Part Two

Are you ready for the bizarre story I promised you last time, about gambling AT the Hall of Fame? If you haven’t read “Part One” please do so before reading this one. In it, I told about the Hall of Fame refusing to hire me in the mid-1990s because of my background as a Las […]

The BBWAA Report Card for the 21st Century: Part 4

In Part 1 of this series, I indicated that the BBWAA (Baseball Writers Association of America) has been quite successful since 2001 in their selection of major league players for induction into the Hall of Fame.  Of the eighteen inductees from 2001 through 2011, sixteen do indeed have Hall of Fame numbers according to the […]

Gambling at the Hall of Fame: Part One

I want to tell you an amazing story about gambling at the Hall of Fame, but to appreciate the irony of the story fully, you need the background to put it in context. For that, I have to take you back twenty years to my first tenure in Cooperstown. I arrived here in April 1991, […]

The BBWAA Report Card for the 21st Century – Part 3

In Part 1 of this series, I indicated that the BBWAA (Baseball Writers Association of America) has been quite successful since 2001 in their selection of major league players for induction into the Hall of Fame.  Of the eighteen inductees from 2001 through 2011, sixteen do indeed have Hall of Fame numbers according to the […]

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 […]

The BBWAA Report Card for the 21st Century – Part 2

In Part 1 of this series, I indicated that the BBWAA (Baseball Writers Association of America) has been quite successful since 2001 in their selection of major league players for induction into the Hall of Fame.  Of the eighteen inductees from 2001 through 2011, sixteen do indeed have Hall of Fame numbers according to the […]

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 […]

Native American Son : The Life and Sporting Legend of Jim Thorpe

Finally Jim Thorpe has the authoritative, comprehensive biography he deserves. Winner of the Larry Ritter Award, it is a nifty and compelling read. Kate Buford spent years retracing the life of the sad, peripatetic man, one of the world’s all time great athletes. The reader follows Thorpe from his birth and childhood in Oklahoma in […]

Out of the Park Baseball 12 Available Now!

Now Batting: Out of the Park Baseball 12! Own the Greatest Baseball Sim We’ve Ever Shipped For Just $39.99! Swing, batta, batta! Sa-wing, batta! The baseball season is underway, and now you can launch your digital version of the annual pennant chase in Out of the Park Baseball 12, the most comprehensive version yet of […]

Seamheads.com Partners with The Baseball Gauge, Meebo.com

I’m proud and thrilled to announce that we at Seamheads.com have merged with one entity and formed a partnership with another that we feel will enhance your Seamheads.com experience while bringing you terrific new content from our friends at The Baseball Gauge and Meebo.com. Dan Hirsch, founder and sole contributor to The Baseball Gauge, has […]

The Most Diabolical Hall of Fame Quiz Ever

I don’t know if “diabolical” is the right word or not for this quiz. I’ve been working on it for a few weeks, and at different times it has seemed demented, ingenious, absurd, hilarious, or just plain sick. The one person I ran some of it by e-mailed me a few days later to call […]

19 to 21…Jose?

Volume 9, #15 Jose Bautista has become such a big name in baseball that, before every game, everyone in the park stands up and asks in unison how he was following the ball in BP. “Jose, can you see…?” Alright, so that’s a lousy joke. The more important issue is, what’s up with Jose Bautista, […]

Touring the Bases With Mike Devereaux

In the run up to the 2011 first-year amateur draft, Mike Devereaux was called the best baseball talent to come out of Wyoming until Brandon Nimmo was taken 13th overall by the Mets. It’s a tough call. After all, Mike played in the same outfield at Arizona State with Barry Bonds and Oddibe McDowell. However, […]

Ward Miller Monument Unveiling Date Set

On Sunday August 21, at 4:00 PM, at the old Lee County courthouse grounds in Dixon, Illinois a dedication ceremony, followed by the unveiling of a monument for Ward Miller, will take place. On display will be a collection of Ward Miller memorabilia, which includes original photos and recreations of major league uniforms that Ward […]

Matsuzaka Likely Needs Tommy John Surgery… Season, Remainder Of Red Sox Career, Hang In The Balance

Red Sox RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka and team officials will meet tomorrow to discuss the pitcher’s options with respect to his injured right elbow. Several published reports this evening have indicated Matsuzaka has already decided to have Tommy John surgery to repair a tear in his ulnar collateral ligament, and that he will use tomorrow’s meeting […]

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