Branch Rickey: Utmost Loyalty or Vehement Dislike

I have been enjoying the fine bio “Branch Rickey: Baseball’s Ferocious Gentleman by Lee Lowenfish.  While doing so, an internal debate has erupted in my mind.  The object of discussion is the polarized feelings of those from his baseball life.   Certain members of the Baseball Hall of Fame, such as Rogers Hornsby, and Ralph […]

Kid Blogger Interviews the President of the Baseball Hall of Fame

Hey baseball fans! I have another interview for you! This time, I interviewed National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum President Jeff Idelson! I talked to him a couple of days ago and he was a very nice and friendly guy. Click here to see the Hall of Fame’s website. Anyway, let me tell you a little […]

Gene Carney, 1946-2009

The sad news arrived today that baseball writer Gene Carney has died. Gene had published his newsletter, Notes from the Shadows of Cooperstown, here at the Baseball Archive since 1998. It started in the early 90s as a printed newsletter that he mailed out to fellow baseball fans, and over the years he developed quite […]

Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown: Fifth

I didn’t go far to find the title for this, the fifth and final in my series of Notes on my research last month in Chicago. What started with #489 — not counting #425–426 — ends here, but not really.

Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown: Chicagoed

NOTE: This is the fourth in a series of reports on my research at the Chicago History Museum, May 27-29. The first appeared in NOTES #489, and the last, I think, will be in #493.

Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown: Puzzle Pieces Galore

NOTE: This is the third in a series of reports on my research at the Chicago History Museum, May 27-29.

Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown: The Chicago Press

This is the second in a series of reports on my research at the Chicago History Museum, May 27-29. The first appeared in NOTES #489, and contained a kind of overview of my findings in the CHM “Black Sox Scandal Records.” In this issue, I report on what I found in the CHM’s newspaper microfilm […]

Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown: There’s Gold in Them Thar Documents

This issue will be a preliminary report on my visit to Chicago, where, with the assistance of a SABR-Yoseloff research grant, I just spent parts of three days at the Chicago History Museum.

Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown: Notes on the Run

I am fond of saying that my favorite issue of Notes is the next one (Picasso used to say that about his paintings) — but this time, I really mean it. Because the next issue will be from the other side of three days of research in Chicago.

Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown: Pennsylvania Digging

BUT FIRST, THIS JUST IN: The documents purchased by the Chicago History Museum in December 2007 at auction for about $100,000 are now accessible! If this is news to you, see NOTES #425–426. I am planning to travel to Chicago to spend some time with them, May 26-29. I suspect they will provide material for […]

Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown: So Much to Read, So Little Time

Last issue, I mentioned that I ran across something from the White Sox bat boy in 1919. Since then, believe it or not, I found an interview of sorts with the assistant bat boy.

Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown: Notes From Home and Away

This issue has been put together between and after a couple of road trips. Most of the notes from “home” arrive via the internet these days, but I still frequent my local library, too. In any case, this has been a fun issue to write, and that usually means it will be a fun read, […]

Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown: Cradle to the Grave

The phrase seemed to fit this issue, after the opening essay was written. Requiem for a Rookie is, I believe the sixteenth Requiem that has appeared in NOTES over the past, well, sixteen years. But they are not annual features, and never planned. Never really wanted. But they happen.

Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown: Another Openin’ (Day), Another Show

It’s a raw day here in the shadows of Cooperstown, and any team opening in central New York would likely be postponed. It will be a while before the local fields are truly playable, the grass has not reeled out its greenness yet; it is suspicious that there may be one more snowfall out there. […]

Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown: Digging It Out

Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown: The Fourth Estate

If the press is the Fourth Estate for society, keeping an eye on the clergy, nobility (the wealthy), and the commoners (the rest of us) — then sports writers are surely the Fourth Estate of Baseball. They keep an eye — or should — on the players, the team owners (”the Lords of the Realm”) […]

Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown: St. Patrick’s Day Edition

The following is from Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown #125, which was first published way back in 1996.

Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown: Spring Hopes Eternal

I know that title looks twisted, but we are not talking about what comes out of the human breast here. We are talking spring as in spring training. The time of year when my Pirates trail nobody in the standings, and we can all dream away.

Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown: Time Marches On

Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown: A Song For All Sinners

This issue’s curious title comes from the last item below, a poem featuring Shoeless Joe Jackson, that I found tucked neatly inside a column by Grantland Rice, in the Atlanta Constitution, October 22, 1929. The poem is not Rice’s — it was penned by Eugene Manlove Rhodes, and while you can Google him, I don’t […]

Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown: A Convenient Amnesia

I think we’ve all read or heard some variation of George Santayana’s, “Those who fail to remember the past, are condemned to repeat it.” Santayana, despite that name which will mean delays at the airport check-in, was a born-in-Spain American (1863-1952), who thought and wrote in the wake of the Civil War, a voice for […]

Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown: Just an Idea

Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown: Pilgrim’s Progress

Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown: January Thaw

The headline above is a hopeful phrase here in upstate NY, where the temperatures are heading for negative double-digits. We don’t always get a thaw, but after a while, the teens start to feel warm. The snow piled up between the roads and sidewalks can be more of a problem for drivers, especially those backing […]

Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown: Return to Normalcy

Spend enough time researching in the newspapers and magazines of 1919-1920, and the phrase “Return to Normalcy” is drummed into your head. It won the presidential election for Warren Gamaliel Harding some 88 years ago, which demonstrated that candidates’ middle names need not be obstacles, and that change is a promise that usually strikes a […]

Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown: Happy Holidays

This may be the final NOTES for 2008, unless I squeeze in one more … looks like our Christmas will be white and deep here in the shadows of Cooperstown … some traveling is on deck, family home for the holidays, so #472 just might kick off 2009.

Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown: Winter Stars

Feedback on my APBA simulations has been meager so far, and what little I’ve received has been split. So I suspect that I will gradually phase it out, relegating it to occasional mention here, the way it used to be.

Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown: Winter Wonderland

No, the shadows of Cooperstown are not yet falling over deep piles and drifts of snow. (In fact, I’ve guaranteed that we will have a mild winter, by buying a new snow-thrower.) Instead, this title refers to the contents of this issue — pure Fantasyland. My Sweet Sixteen tournament concludes, with the Cubs and Tigers […]

Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown: Then There Were Two

Nothing in this issue but the two semi-final series of the “Sweet Sixteen” (APBA simulation) tournament that has been playing out here in Notes for the last several months, starting with #459. If this was an actual tournament, it would take about a month to complete — kinda like the MLB post-season with its layers […]

Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown: Thanksgiving Doubleheader

SWEET SIXTEEN PLAYOFFS: ROUND TWO, NATIONAL LEAGUE: PIRATES VS PHILS This is the ninth in a series of reports on a simulated playoff of the sixteen “original franchise” teams. The results of the first-round American League “brackets” are in NOTES 459-461. The first results of the NL brackets are in #462-464. See NOTES #459 for […]

Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown: Roots

SWEET SIXTEEN PLAYOFFS: ROUND TWO, AMERICAN LEAGUE: ATHLETICS VS INDIANS This is the eighth in a series of reports on a simulated playoff of the sixteen “original franchise” teams. The results of the first-round American League “brackets” are in NOTES 459-461. The first results of the NL brackets are in #462-464. See NOTES #459 for […]

Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown: Second Time Around

SWEET SIXTEEN PLAYOFFS: ROUND TWO, AMERICAN LEAGUE: SENATORS VS TIGERS This is the seventh in a series of reports on a simulated playoff of the sixteen “original franchise” teams. The results of the first-round American League “brackets” are in NOTES 459-461. The first results of the NL brackets are in #462-464. See NOTES #459 for […]

Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown: Hardball

SWEET SIXTEEN PLAYOFFS: CARDINALS VS CUBS This is the sixth in a series of reports on a simulated playoff of the sixteen “original franchise” teams. The results of the first-round American League “brackets” are in NOTES 459-461. The first results of the NL brackets are in #462 and 463. See NOTES #459 for the background […]

Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown: Chicago

SWEET SIXTEEN PLAYOFFS: PIRATES VS GIANTS This is the fifth in a series of reports on a simulated playoff of the sixteen “original franchise” teams. The results of the first-round American League “brackets” are in NOTES 459-461. The first results of the NL brackets are in #462. See NOTES #459 for the background and “ground […]

Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown: Take Two & Hit to Right

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