Marvin Miller Again Denied Hall of Fame Induction

From the MLBPA: New York, NY, Monday, December 06, 2010 … The following statement was issued today by Major League Baseball Players Association founding Executive Director Marvin Miller regarding the Hall of Fame Expansion Era Committee election results. “The Baseball Hall of Fame’s vote (or non-vote) of December 5, hardly qualifies as a news story. […]

“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, […]

Marvelous Mack

Connie Mack, “The Tall Tactician”, Major League Baseball’s longest-tenured manager for 50 seasons with the Philadelphia A’s, employer of the $100,000 infield. If ever you wanted to discover something about Mack or the dawn of baseball, chances are you will find it in “Connie Mack and the Early Years of Baseball“ by Norman L. Macht. […]

Yankees & Jeter: Where Business Meets Baseball

Pretend for a moment that you are the general manager of a Major League Baseball team. You have a bunch of money coming off the books this offseason, and your job is simple: Get your team to the World Series. As you enter the offseason, you have your priorities. In your particular situation, you need […]

Postseason Reform Is a Bad Idea

With the upcoming collective bargaining agreement set to occur, Major League Baseball is considering some ground-breaking changes that could change the course of baseball for years to come. ESPN reports that Major League Baseball could make a series of changes to the 2012 regular season and postseason. Changes could include shortening the regular season, making […]

Dear Yankee Fans: Be Proud, Be Grateful

Just a day removed from the Yankees elimination, it isn’t hard to find a disappointed New Yorker. The beloved Yankees are done for the year, and their dreams of a second consecutive world championship are diminished. As many love to do, we can sit here and talk about what could have happened and what should […]

Breaking Down The MVP Candidates

While the Cy Young debate in the American League is getting a lot of attention, the Most Valuable Player award is not. Although it is discussed occasionally, people are not giving it the attention that it deserves. The front-runner(s) at this point are Robinson Cano, Miguel Cabrera, and Josh Hamilton. All have had incredible seasons, but […]

Can-Am May Be First League to Add Teams for ’11

While October always means autumn leaves, cooler temperatures, pumpkins and major league baseball postseason excitement to many people, it also is the month when Independent Baseball leagues seriously shake the trees to see if all their franchises are ready for the next season.  Rumors begin to become fact. This certainly will be true starting as […]

Strasburg-by-the-Sea

Strasburg Was Here Part Four: Strasburg-by-the-Sea Saturday, September 25: Atlanta 5, Washington 0 We have reached the last week of the season, and because Major League Baseball has instituted the “Dull Card,” not much is happening. Never mind that the Phillies and the Braves, the Rays and the Yankees might have played out historically exciting […]

Yankees Should Avoid Using Burnett in the Postseason

Since 1920, 391 Yankees pitchers have had a seasonal ERA of at least 5.30. Of all those pitchers, no pitcher has been allowed to pitch as many innings as A.J. Burnett. Why? Because Burnett is on a five-year deal, and he is making $16.5 million this season. Essentially, he is here to stay and the […]

2010 Season Presents Puzzling Mathematical Results

If you can understand correlations, you can begin to understand something essential to success in baseball. Why? Because correlations show how one variable affects another variable. For example, we can see how strikeouts influence runs scored, and we would find that there is no notable correlation (actually true). The dictionary describes a correlation as a […]

Lazzari’s Baseball Roundup 4

TRIVIA QUESTION: The 1987 Cincinnati Reds–who finished 2nd in the NL West under Pete Rose–had four players who hit more than 20 home runs apiece. How many of these players can you name? Answer to follow……….I used to think that a Steve Carlton slider was a pure thing of beauty–that is, until I saw a […]

“Helping Those Who Have A Greater Need Than Our Own”

What’s the measure of a person?  How do you gauge his or her character? It’s the sort of question that people have been debating for years. Indeed, no less than the founder of the American Newspaper Guild, the late Heywood Campbell Broun, once weighed in on the topic. “Sports do not build character,” he remarked. […]

York to Test Brett Jodie’s Latest Work

Since it may boil down to a classic example of hitting vs. pitching when the Atlantic League playoffs begin Wednesday, certain logic has to point to the two-time defending champion Somerset Patriots having the upper hand when they square off with the York Revolution to decide the Freedom Division’s representative in the league’s championship series. […]

Who’s the Alpha?

The battle over who’s the alpha dog of the American League East has commenced, and the Tampa Bay Rays drew first blood.

Joe Girardi’s Crucial Mathematical Error Costs Yankees Game

Picture this: a game lasts over four hours, uses 41 players, features 374 pitches, has two blown saves, and ends in a walk-off hit by pitch — by Mariano Rivera. Welcome to Yankees-Rangers, September 11 (and part of 12), 2010 It was a peculiar game to say the least, and it was no surprise that such […]

Steroids and Kids: Trying to Answer the Unanswerable Question

It started with an innocent question, as are all questions which come out of the mouth of an 8-year-old. Except this question cut at the heart of Major League Baseball – past, present and future. I was at Miller Park, attending a Brewers-Cardinals game with my wife and two sons. Up to the plate stepped […]

Touring The Bases With…Doug Gladstone

Doug Gladstone is the author of A Bitter Cup of Coffee: How MLB and The Players Association Threw 874 Retirees a Curve, in which he champions the cause of former major league players who don’t qualify for a pension because they didn’t meet the required service time.  An excerpt from an article Doug wrote for […]

The Test of Leadership

“Management is doing things right,” the late management guru Peter Drucker once said. “Leadership is doing the right things.” I was reminded of that sage phrase after being emailed recently by Wanda Burbach, the wife of former New York Yankee pitcher, Bill Burbach. Born in 1947, in Dickeyville., Wisconsin, Burbach played parts of three seasons […]

Nyjer Needs Some Love

After two whopping suspensions, dumping on Nyjer Morgan at this point should be half the distance to the goal for egregious piling on.  The guy needs some love big time.  So pardon me while I swim against the tide of the conventional wisdom–a concept born and raised here in Washington, DC. I will start at […]

In the Best Interests of Baseball?

What exactly does the leaking of financial information about six teams by Deadspin.com seek to change at the end of the day?  In 2006–in the name of competitive balance–Major League Baseball, Inc. set in place a system to share revenues from the richest teams–those whose markets will always remain demographically enhanced–with the poorest ones.  Upsetting […]

The Famous Names of Not So Famous Players

Through the years a number of baseball players have became so well known that their fame transcended the game. Everyone knew who Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle were, even people who were not baseball fans. Then you have the players whose names attracted attention for other, more unfortunate reasons. Johnny Grubb, John Wockenfuss, […]

If the Granderson trade never happened…

As CC Sabathia and the Yankees beat up on Justin Verlander and the Tigers Tuesday night, a very interesting battle occurred within the war. Austin Jackson, an outfielder who was developed in the Yankee system, hit a home run on the first pitch thrown by the Yankees ace CC Sabathia. The inning later, Curtis Granderson, […]

Wake Up and Smell The (Bitter Cup of) Coffee!

Former Pittsburgh Pirates player and broadcaster Nellie King passed away yesterday at Family Hospice Center in Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania.  Nellie was 82 years old. Signed as an amateur free agent in 1946, King didn’t make his major league debut until 1954. Three years later, at the age of 29, he was out of baseball because […]

Story Lines Terrific for First No-Hitter in 6 Years

While major league baseball has been basking in perfect games and no-hitters this season, it had been nearly six years since the Atlantic League enjoyed such a feat before Southern Maryland’s Joe Newby and Jim Ed Warden combined to hold Newark hitless in a 3-1 victory at Bears & Eagles Riverfront Stadium Wednesday night.  The […]

The Bench is collecting the 2008 Upper Deck Yankee Stadium Legacy Set!

Hello, my name is Tim Danielson.  I am a staff member of The Bench.  www.thebenchtrading.com As an online trading community our goal is to collect the entire 6700 base card 2008 Upper Deck Yankee Stadium Legacy set. We will then auction the set on eBay and donate the proceeds to the “The V Foundation” (for […]

Can Dan Haren be the game-changer the Angels need?

The Angels swooped in to acquire one of MLB’s best in Dan Haren. Seamheads writer Jess K. Coleman wonders if he can he the season-changer that the Angels need.

Mighty Casey Has Struck Out (Again)

Less than two weeks ago, on Monday, July 12th, Matt Holliday, he of the $120 million, seven-year contract, participated in the Home Run Derby exhibition as part of the annual All-Star Game festivities at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California. That same evening, some 1600 miles away from Anaheim, in Sutter, Illinois, 64-year-old Jimmy Qualls came […]

Dunn can be a big difference maker

What would you say if I told you that your team has just acquired Adam Dunn? You would probably sigh and say something like, “we better prepare ourselves for a lot of strikeouts,” or “another classic hit or miss player.” While those two things may be very true, Adam Dunn can be a very valuable […]

2010 midseason awards

MVP: Robinson Cano It’s hard to deny Cano’s talent the most valuable player award for the first half. Despite his numbers — his batting average is fifth in all of baseball — Cano has been the center piece of a Yankee team that holds the best record in baseball. With Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira and […]

LeBron situation brings back Manny memories

This whole Lebron James saga which played out live on national TV and the internet the past couple of weeks was an eerie reminder for Cleveland fans of the whole Manny Ramirez saga which in its own way played out on TV back in 2000.  While ESPN may not have been as big then as […]

Do the Hats Really Have to Be Red, White, and Blue?

Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day.  They’re the holy trinity of American summer holidays.  The triumvirate of patriotic celebrations.  The mention of these three days evokes the image of American flags planted at the heads of lawns, the scent of charcoal slowly burning to its embers, and the mild droning of baseball games playing […]

874 Retired Ballplayers Are Gulping Bitter Cups of Coffee

In the final episode of M*A*S*H, the pompous doctor portrayed by actor David Ogden Stiers gets a sendoff that’s arguably one of the most indelible images in television history. After seven seasons of “Major Charles Emerson Winchester” trumpeting his own self-importance, breeding and surgical skills, this upper-crust scion of a prominent Boston family leaves Korea […]

Touring the Bases with…..Craig Wright

Craig R. Wright was the first of what today would be called a “Sabermetrician” to be hired by a major league baseball team. He was the primary author of “The Diamond Appraised” (1989), and with Texas Rangers play-by-play announcer Eric Nadel has done a radio pre-game show called “A Page from Baseball Past” since 1984. […]

Are Innings Limits Here to Stay?

If Hamlet had been a modern general manager in Major League Baseball instead of the tragic heir to the Danish throne, the doomed Dane would have morosely uncovered the reports on his young talented pitchers and mournfully deliberated: “To cap or not to cap, that is the question.” Innings limits have become ubiquitous as front […]

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