Bill James, Crime Writer

I have a confession to make. Every time I walk into a bookstore the first two sections I visit are Baseball and True Crime. You would think no two subjects would be further apart, and yet they do have an odd symmetry. Both are treasure troves of curious tales with colorful characters. Both create an […]

The Memorial Day Brawl of 1932

Administrative duties have kept me from writing much lately, so I thought I’d dust off an article I wrote for Memorial Day 2009. Enjoy! Twelve years after the Black Sox scandal decimated the White Sox and led to lifetime bans of eight players, a postgame brawl with umpire George Moriarty on Memorial Day 1932 could […]

Looking Back at Alex Rodriguez, the Young Seattle Mariner: 1993 Through 1995

I recently looked through the news archives for information about Alex Rodriguez’s introduction to Seattle as a 1993 draftee from Miami, then as a minor leaguer, a rookie in 1994, and a backup in 1995, to see what foreshadowings of his future controversies and successes were present when he was still a teenager. Rodriguez’s seasonal […]

The Braves’ Secret Ingredient

I had the great fortune to spend some time recently with Braves Director of Player Development Kurt Kemp. Kurt was our guest on the April 21st edition of “Braves Banter,” a Thursday evening podcast that I co-host along with Dan Schlossberg here on seamheads.com. Kurt was a fantastic guest. If you have an opportunity please […]

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 […]

Donnie Baseball Hits Another Home Run

Toms River, NJ, Apr. 23, 2011—Bob Salomon, Co-Creator and driving force of “A Glove of Their Own,” an award winning book, is pleased to announce Don Mattingly and Mattingly Charities has joined the “Glove Team.” Mattingly, or Donnie Baseball, as he is so often referred to as is a lifelong baseball figure. After playing 14 […]

Red Sox Front Office Must Confront The Lackey Dilemma

Red Sox pitcher John Lackey, with his wife Krista, during less troubling times… More than a dozen years ago, I struggled as my first marriage was disintegrating. While I had always prided myself on being able to separate my personal life and my professional life, I suddenly found myself unable to do so. I brought […]

George Steinbrenner’s Dirtiest Deed

Recent FBI documents dug up by the Associated Press reveal that George Steinbrenner blamed his lawyer for his troubles relating to the illegal campaign contributions he made to the Committee to Reelect the President, who at the time was Richard Nixon. Nothing could be further from the truth. In 1981 while researching my book George: […]

A Haunting in the Bronx

Call the Fantastic Four!  Call the Ghostbusters!  Hell, somebody at least get in touch with those meddlesome kids who travel around in a van with their dog.  (Just tell them to leave Scrappy Doo at home.) Ghosts are haunting Yankee Stadium! The Curse of the Bambino—Babe Ruth’s posthumous revenge for Harry Frazee’s decision to sell […]

Don’t Make Me Keep Explaining This

In case you haven’t noticed, relief pitchers are taking it in the shorts so far this season, and there’s no help in sight. Tony LaRussa’s Cardinals alone blew a half-dozen leads in the ninth inning in April, and the late-inning meltdowns are becoming a daily staple. The fact is that more leads are blown in […]

Red Sox Report Card On May 1st… For Many Players, It Can Only Get Better

As bad as the Red Sox offense was in April, it would have been a lot worse if not for SuperSub Jed Lowrie So, April is finally (mercifully) done. Overall, it was a disappointing month that started with hundred-win potential and aspirations of a world championship and ended with an 11-14 record, including four losses […]

The 2011 June Amateur Draft, A Last Hurrah

This year’s Rule 4 Amateur Draft will be held on June 6-8. College and high school players are feeling its heat in the final weeks of their season. But the paydays awaiting them will make it worth the sweat a little longer. This year’s well-publicized affair will be the last in the 46-year history of […]

The Seamheads.com Radio Hour Now Taking Your Questions

The Seamheads.com Radio Hour is now taking your questions via e-mail. Send along your questions to radiohour@seamheads.com to be featured on the next edition of the show. Feel free to send questions during the show or throughout the week. Questions for guests are also encouraged. Just include your first name and location. The Seamheads.com Radio […]

The Great MLB2K11 Giveaway

I was given a copy of MLB2K11 (Xbox 360) to use as a prize for our readers and podcast listeners and I’ve decided that rather than hold a blind drawing in which I reach into a hat and pull out a name I’m going to make you work for it. If you’re not familiar with […]

Ultimate Sacrifice Baseball Card Set

Of the 142 professional baseball players who lost their lives during World War II, I doubt any of them ever appeared on a baseball card. This got me thinking about how nice it would be to create cards for each of them and I have to admit I have taken my inspiration from Gary Cieradkowski’s […]

Manny turns in his Hall of Fame ticket

photo © 2008 Keith Allison | more info (via: Wylio) The recent retirement of Manny Ramirez was more than just a pre-emptive strike on his behalf against having to serve a 100-game sentence for testing positive for steroids a second time. The action all but eliminated him from any future consideration for the Baseball Hall […]

Opening Day – The Great South Side Nacho Helmet Inauguration

Life is Good: Nachos in a White Sox Helmet The only thing better than seeing the Chicago White Sox christen their home schedule in person at cozy and getting-better-with-each year U.S. Cellular Field was seeing the 5-1 opening triumph over the Tampa Bay Rays with the accompaniment and nourishment of a nacho helmet. The White […]

A Good Old Fashioned Mano a Mano Fight in Milwaukee

Baseball fights still occur, but very seldom are they only a two-man affair. It seems the entire team has to show up now. But in baseball’s Deadball Era I have come across a number of one-on-one fights. One of the nastiest occurred in Milwaukee on May 8, 1913. The press coverage gives us the feeling […]

Fearless forecast for 2011 flag chases

The first rule in making baseball predictions is to expect the unexpected. Don’t go with last year’s winners, popular favorites, or big-money ballclubs. Unless they deserve it, of course. Now that we’ve gotten past the obvious rules, there are the string of unknowns that can pop up anywhere during the course of a 162-game schedule, […]

Major League Baseball And Major League Baseball Players Association Announce New Protocols On Concussions

New York, NY, Tuesday, March 29, 2011 … Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) announced today that they have adopted a series of protocols under its new joint policy regarding concussions, which will be in effect from Opening Day forward. On behalf of MLB and the MLBPA, a committee […]

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 […]

The Plot to Kill Comiskey (and Other Interesting Research Finds)

It’s about that time again to share more incredible stories that I’ve stumbled upon while digging for information during my daily research. No Relation to Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown August 3, 1920: During a robbery attempt at the Illinois Vinegar Manufacturing Company, three armed bandits gunned down highly-respected Detective Sergeant Frank McGurk, a veteran of […]

Jim Robertson: 140th Former Pro Killed in WWII

Jim Robertson was an outstanding college athlete who had just begun his professional career in baseball when military service called during the summer of 1942. He is the 140th former pro ballplayer to have been killed during the war.

Ballparks Database Updated!

Last month we rolled out the online version of the Seamheads Ballparks database, which contained descriptive information about every park ever used as a major league stadium, plus calculations of the impact on batting components for LH and RH batters beginning in 1950. Today we’ve released an update to the original data.   The latest detailed […]

Measuring a Pitcher’s Ace Factor

Below is a statistical collection of the seasonal performances of every starting pitcher between 1950 and 2010. Each pitcher’s season, represented by a blue diamond, was measured by a calculation that didn’t consider any of the usual suspects typically used in measuring a pitcher’s effectiveness, such as ERA, strikeouts, WHIP, shutouts, or even ground ball percentages, contact […]

The Greatest Pitching Duels of the Century

Sticking to my policy of reviewing only books I can highly recommend, I bring you a gem by Jim Kaplan, long-time “Sports Illustrated” writer and author of a dozen previous baseball books, including a fine biography of Lefty Grove. His new volume, titled The Greatest Game Ever Pitched: Juan Marichal, Warren Spahn, and the Pitching […]

Starting Pitchers: Judging Their Careers

How do you judge whether a starting pitcher had a Hall of Fame career?  Obviously, there are many fans who will have different opinions on this question.  And many of the answers may be influenced by which team the fan supports.  But is there a completely objective way to answer this question? Yes, according to […]

John Thorn, New Official Baseball Historian of MLB, to Appear Monday on “What’s On Second” Podcast

I’m pleased to announce that my friend and colleague, John Thorn, who was recently named Major League Baseball’s Official Historian, will appear on “What’s On Second: The Seamheads.com Radio Hour” on Monday, March 7 at approximately 9:10 PM EST.  “What’s On Second” runs on Blog Talk Radio from 9:00-10:00 PM EST every Monday on the […]

Talkin’ Baseball: And Then There Was One… RIP, Duke Snider

Former Brooklyn Dodgers outfielder Duke Snider has passed away. The Hall-of-Famer died of natural causes this morning at the age of 84 at the Valle Vista Convalescent Hospital in Escondido, Calif. Snider was a part of the fabled “Boys of Summer” with the Dodgers in the late-1940s and 1950s. He helped lead the club to […]

Thanks For the Memories, Woodie

I was saddened recently by the announcement of the passing of Woodie Fryman at the age of 70. The lefthander played for Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Detroit, Cincinnati, Chicago and Montreal (twice). He was a man of principles who was enormously popular in Montreal, as the fans acknowledged that there was no bull about him, that he […]

Is Josh Beckett tipping his pitches to the Yankees?

Another View from the Lone Red Seat It looks like the Yankees have figured out Josh Beckett, so much so that he’s tipping his pitches to them.  Over the last two seasons Josh Beckett’s ERA versus the Yankees is a lofty 7.45.  He has pitched into or beyond the 7th inning only twice and has […]

Seamheads.com Partners With “A Glove of Their Own” to Help Raise Awareness About Domestic Violence

Baseball stars across the country are stepping up to support the award-winning children’s book A Glove of Their Own, which promotes the message and importance of sharing what you have with those in need. So it is with great pleasure that I announce that The Jennifer A. Lynch Fund has joined the Glove team and […]

Schuerholz Headlines Week of New Seamheads Podcasts

I’m happy and proud to announce that we’ve successfully launched the Seamheads National Podcasting Network sponsored by Big League Chew on Blog Talk Radio and we’ll be bringing you four new podcasts in the coming week in addition to those that recently debuted and those we’ve been doing since May and September, respectively.  Our goal […]

Clemente’s spirit remains alive with Roberto’s Kids

In 2010, 35 tons of donated baseball equipment went to communities in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico and Native American reservations in South Dakota.  Bats, balls, gloves, socks and every item necessary to play the game found its way to needy neighborhoods. This was all part of a collaborative effort headed by Steve Pindar, […]

The Anatomy of a Hall of Famer

It’s been a month now since Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven were introduced as the two newest members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. I think both deserve it. I also think Blyleven should have been a Hall of Famer a long time ago, but that’s neither here nor there. He’s finally in and […]

« Previous Page — Next Page »