Idle Thoughts on a Boring Team

Watching the Mets-Yankees this weekend, my thoughts turned to Met fans and the nature of their team. I’ll admit, I was once a member of that beleaguered crew. At the start, back in ’62 when the Mets and I were both born, the new New Yorkers paired no-talent youngsters with past-their-prime oldsters, led by an […]

Howdy New Neighbors

Hall of Fame Election Day is the hands down best event of the post-season, with all due respect to the November issuance of the recent season’s hardware. Yesterday, Bert Blyleven and Robbie Alomar became my fellow Cooperstownians, to be enshrined this summer a few blocks away on Main St. My feelings on the pointless selection […]

In Celebration of the Plantation Owners

Back in the good ol’ days, when the working scum knew their places, the great barons of industry were legend. Carnegie, Ford – they made America, not the bohunks, Micks, Sheenys and coloreds who toiled in the factory. Right? That’s how it was written in all the textbooks. Baseball was like that too. The great […]

“It’s Not Personal, Sonny. It’s Strictly Business”

Much has been written about the Derek Jeter situation. I was talking to my brother-in-law last week about it, and I brought up some relevant and relatively obscure illustrative points. One, that I love, is Tom Seaver’s incredulity at ownership’s shock that players, the most competitive people on Earth, were equally fierce at the bargaining […]

Fortunate Sons

Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey, Jr. Once they were inextricably linked. Both were the spawn of superstars. Both came to the game with great fanfare and great expectations. Throughout the 1990’s, they exceeded the wildest hopes of fans and experts alike. It was easy to see them as opposites. Griffey was “The Kid,” cap backwards, […]

The Mirror Seaver

I can still see Jon Matlack, his left leg straight as a pole, his right knee up by his neck, then the long stride towards home. Fastballs and curves, exquisite control. He was the number three man in the starting rotation of the Mets from 1972-77. Tough to get any higher than that, with Tom […]

Bo Belinsky-Livin’ the Life

Perhaps no one got more mileage from a mediocre career than Bo Belinsky. Winning 28 games while losing 51 over an eight-year period (1962-1970) hardly qualifies one for baseball notoriety, even with a no-hitter. It was in his fourth big league appearance that the legend of Robert Belinsky of New York, New York began. On […]

The Enigmatic Willie Davis

Signed as an 18-year-old in 1958, Willie Davis was a ballplayer of many talents and many quirks. A multiple threat in high school, Willie was a basketball star, as well as a right hand hitting lefty pitcher and first baseman with blazing speed. After a makeover courtesy of Dodger scout Kenny Myers, Davis became a […]

The Scapegoat

Rule of thumb – you can tell how nice a place is by the number of stonewalled front lawns. The road through Bedford into Stamford is a rock-rimmed capillary, the barricades protecting the homes of the wealthy which sit safely beyond. Turning off the main drag to Ray Grebey’s home, a different picture emerges. Grebey, […]