Part II of the Rob Nelson Interview: Playing for the Portland Mavericks, a Game Called Boku, Et Cetera

I earlier posted the portion of my talk with Rob Nelson in which he talks about co-creating Big League Chew and his 30 years managing one of the legendary bubble gums. In this part, Rob Nelson describes how he came to be a Portland Maverick, what it was like to be on the team, and […]

Talking With Rob Nelson About Big League Chew

The story of the creation of Big League Chew in the Portland Mavericks’ bullpen in 1977 is told in shorthand on the back of every package of “the ballplayers bubble gum,” and Rob Nelson, the co-creator, along with Jim Bouton, has told the longhand story on a few occasions. I talked with Nelson recently about […]

Seeing Red: When to Catch the Phillies in 2011

I cannot wait for Valentine’s Day.  There I said it.  As a matter of fact I will tell this to anyone who will listen to me.  Sometimes I will find myself just staring at the calendar with January at the top and tease myself and flip the page over to February.  I will then scan […]

Jim Riggleman, Still Light on His Feet

Baseball personalities rarely lead lives connected to their home communties, which is what makes Jim Riggleman’s tenure as manager of the Washington Nationals so unique.  This morning Jim was introduced to a breakfast crowd by a local Bethesda, Maryland woman who said “Jimmy” was the first boy to ask her to dance, back when they […]

Just How Good was Bert Blyleven?

Bert Blyleven is in the Hall of Fame at last!!  It took fourteen years on the ballot to do it but the writers finally saw the light.  This was a true victory for sabermetrics – as recognized in the following clip from the Associated Press. “The great curveballer won 287 games, threw 60 shutouts and […]

Check Yes or No

The difficulties sportswriters seem to have with multiple-choice questions after the jump.

Murphy’s Law: 2 MVP Trophies, 4 Silver Slugger Awards, 5 Gold Gloves, and 7 All-Star Games May Not Get You Into the Hall of Fame

Introduction The purpose of this study is to compare Dale Murphy to other Hall of Fame position players from the same era (1976-1993). His .265 batting average, 2,111 hits, and 398 home runs seem to be on par with other Hall of Fame hitters. This study will identify how many Hall of Famers performed below […]

Nostalgia

(Here’s an old poem to keep the holiday kindling. 1989—Jeromy Burnitz was in right field for the Columbia, S.C. Mets that day.—GVH) Nostalgia The ball field in Columbia, Capital City Park, ramshackle but benign, with bleachers that sag like a hammock, squats in a now-abandoned neighborhood, all the better to foster fans to the stands […]

What Might Have Been…J.R. Richard

By the spring of 1980, James Rodney Richard — J.R. for brevity’s sake — had become one of the most feared pitchers in baseball. The 6’8, 250-pounder had finally harnessed the immense potential that made the Houston Astros select him as their first round choice in the 1969 draft. The Ruston, Louisiana resident quickly reached […]

Remembering “Rapid Robert”

The numbers are staggering:  266 victories, over 3,800 innings pitched, 279 complete games, twelve one-hitters–all while missing nearly four seasons due to military service.  Oh, he was also a World War II hero (gun captain on the USS Alabama), World Series champion, and an eventual baseball Hall of Famer.  When I first heard about the death of legendary pitcher Bob […]

The Balance of Power Has Officially Shifted in Baseball

When Cliff Lee finally announced he was taking his talents to Philly, it marked the final proof that the balance of power has shifted in baseball. No longer can the Yankees money-whip the best players into coming to the Bronx and no longer do the Yankees and Red Sox reside alone in the big-spenders group. […]

The 1928 Negro Leagues – The Two Leagues

The Negro National League (1920-1931).   Also known as the Western League. The Eastern Colored League (1924-1928).   Also known as the Eastern League. The Product How they played the game: (Negro Leagues Data from National Baseball Hall of Fame) In the 1920’s, the two Negro Leagues had both Batting Averages and Slugging Averages slightly lower than […]

Fraudulent History 101

So Marvin Miller got screwed again this week in the Hall of Fame balloting. Who didn’t see that coming? Miller certainly saw it coming, undoubtedly the reason why he requested that his name be kept off future Veterans Committee ballots after being snubbed in 2008. That time around, the committee was heavily stacked against him, […]

“Jews and Baseball, An American Love Story”

“Jews and Baseball, An American Love Story” is a new documentary film written by long-time and Pulitzer prize-winning New York Times sports writer, Ira Berkow, and directed by Peter Miller.  It was featured Sunday night to a packed house at the American Film Institute theater in Silver Spring, MD. It is not just any movie house, […]

Lincecum Helped Shape, Reaffirm Tribe’s Draft Process

Lincecum almost became an Indian in the summer of 2005 (Photo: AP). Imagine for a moment a Cleveland Indians rotation headlined by CC Sabathia, Cliff Lee, and Tim Lincecum. That is a rotation that would go down as one for the ages and match up with the all-time great ones of the past. Such a […]

The 2011 HOF Ballot – How Many REAL Hall of Famers?

The BBWAA 2011 Hall of Fame Ballot contains the names of thirty-three players that the baseball writers may vote for if they feel they belong in the Hall of Fame.  Of the thirty-three players, I view sixteen position players and four pitchers as “serious candidates.”  They are mentioned below. As we all know, the writers […]

The Favorite Toy and…Babe Ruth

With the 2011 season still a few months away, I thought it was too early to bust out The Favorite Toy to determine what milestones we might see next year, so I thought I’d go retro and look at some of the game’s greats, not-so-greats and what-might-have-beens to see what odds The Favorite Toy gave […]

Maximum Feasible Dunn

And all through the house not a creature was stirring, no baseball news from even a mouse.  Black Friday shoppers are out in force, but baseball has only the near silent whisperings of General Managers waiting to see which players accept arbitration before the Tuesday night deadline. One quiet household could be turned on its […]

Rare Baseball Bat Uncovered

On March 8, 2009 I posted an article on Seamheads titled “A Tribute to Billy Sullivan.” The article received a comment from Craig Brooks from the state of Oregon. He was looking for information about a curved bat that belonged to Billy Sullivan Sr., that he received from his grandfather in its original case. When […]

The All-Time Detroit Tigers (a draft book chapter)

Who would be selected for a mythical All-Time Tigers dream team roster? And how have others answered this fun question throughout the years?

LETTERS FROM QUEBEC: The Kirk Rueter Revelation

The most shocking and compelling conclusion … is that Kirk Rueter was the Mozart of fielding pitchers – John A. Knox. A Few Words Up-Front Baseball is a complex game. Unlike those other activities which dominate the Sunday sports pages, baseball’s very essence engenders a measureless range of options and possibilities. Rife with ageless imperatives […]

Expansion Era Hall of Fame Ballot

There will be a Veterans Committee Hall of Fame election in December, 2010 for what is being called “The Expansion Era (1973-Present).”  There are twelve names on the ballot: eight players, one manager (Billy Martin) and three executives (Pat Gillick, Marvin Miller and George Steinbrenner).  A player must be retired for at least twenty-one (21) […]

The Ultimate Seven-Game Fall Classic: Game Seven

In part one of my Ultimate Seven-Game Fall Classic series, I featured Game One of the 1988 World Series between the Oakland A’s and Los Angeles Dodgers, won by the latter on Kirk Gibson’s walk-off two-run homer off Dennis Eckersley, ironic because it was Eck who coined the phrase “walk-off piece.” Part two featured an […]

The Ultimate Seven-Game Fall Classic: Game Six

In part one of my Ultimate Seven-Game Fall Classic series, I featured Game One of the 1988 World Series between the Oakland A’s and Los Angeles Dodgers, won by the latter on Kirk Gibson’s walk-off two-run homer off Dennis Eckersley, ironic because it was Eck who coined the phrase “walk-off piece.” Part two featured an […]

The Ultimate Seven-Game Fall Classic: Game Five

In part one of my Ultimate Seven-Game Fall Classic series, I featured Game One of the 1988 World Series between the Oakland A’s and Los Angeles Dodgers, won by the latter on Kirk Gibson’s walk-off two-run homer off Dennis Eckersley, ironic because it was Eck who coined the phrase “walk-off piece.” Part two featured an […]

The Ultimate Seven-Game Fall Classic: Game Four

In part one of my Ultimate Seven-Game Fall Classic series, I featured Game One of the 1988 World Series between the Oakland A’s and Los Angeles Dodgers, won by the latter on Kirk Gibson’s walk-off two-run homer off Dennis Eckersley, ironic because it was Eck who coined the phrase “walk-off piece.”  Part two featured an […]

The Ultimate Seven-Game Fall Classic: Game Three

In part one of my Ultimate Seven-Game Fall Classic series, I featured Game One of the 1988 World Series between the Oakland A’s and Los Angeles Dodgers.  Part two featured an epic 14-inning battle between the Boston Red Sox and Brooklyn Robins in Game Two of the 1916 Fall Classic.  For Game Three, I’m staying […]

The Ultimate Seven-Game Fall Classic: Game Two

In part one of my Ultimate Seven-Game Fall Classic series, I featured Game One of the 1988 World Series between the Oakland A’s and Los Angeles Dodgers.  This time around, I’m traveling back to the Deadball Era when pitchers still dominated the game and runs were hard to come by.  It wasn’t until the “Roaring […]

The Ultimate Seven-Game Fall Classic: Game One

With all due respect to the San Francisco Giants and Texas Rangers, the 2010 World Series wasn’t exactly one for the ages, although I’m happy for the city of San Francisco, the Giants and their fans. Don’t get me wrong, I commend both teams for their efforts, but the 2010 Fall Classic had me scouring […]

The Day the World Met the Ryan Express

Nolan Ryan was far from the perfect pitcher. He walked the most batters in baseball history (2,795), 52% more than the next highest total belonging to Steve Carlton (1,833). He lost the most games of any pitcher (292) except for Cy Young (316) and Pud Galvin (310), two players who peaked in the 1800s. He […]

The Class of 2010 – the New Hall of Famers

At the beginning of the 2010 baseball season, there were eight active major league players who had already earned obvious Hall of Fame numbers during their careers.  Here are those players: Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez, Ken Griffey, Jr., Chipper Jones, Derek Jeter, Jim Thome, Jason Giambi and Mariano Rivera. By the end of the 2010 […]

Bill James’ World Series Predictor Goes With…

More than 25 years ago, Bill James introduced a prediction system that picked the World Series winner with 70% accuracy. He wrote about the system for Inside Sports magazine in 1982, then expounded on it in his 1984 Baseball Abstract. He developed the system in 1972 and it accurately predicted the World Series winner at […]

An Over-the-Shoulder Preview

If it had been the Giants and the Yankees, the World Series would have had old world flavor and been a big television draw.  The money lenders cannot win them all.  Still, it will be an old fashioned World Series, one in which the very strong pitching of both teams will do much to decide […]

Bermuda Triangle Behind Home Plate

Something strange has been going on at home plate during the two LCS series. In the space of five games, we have seen five clearly blown calls on balls that never got past the plate. It’s as if there’s no umpire at all back there, or like a wrestling referee the assigned umpire is somehow […]

Rafael Soriano, Brian Wilson Dominate Goose Gossage Award Voting

For an inaugural vote, it wasn’t much of a contest. Tampa Bay closer Rafael Soriano and San Francisco closer Brian Wilson handily won the Baseball Blogger Alliance’s first-ever Goose Gossage Award, handed out to the best reliever in each league. Soriano and Wilson, besides leading their teams to the postseason, posted numbers that well-distanced themselves […]

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