Once More–With Feeling

One year ago today I posted the third part of a series on the myth of the “writers and broadcasters wing” at the Hall of Fame (titled “A Wing and a Player”). The confusion over whether such “wings” exist has existed since the J. G. Taylor Spink Award for baseball writing was created in 1962. […]

Gambling at the Hall of Fame: Part Three

In the last of this three-part series on gambling at the Hall of Fame (please read the first two parts if you haven’t already), it’s time to talk about gambling that goes on AT the museum every day of the year. I’m referring to fantasy sports, and if your reflex response is “gee, that’s no […]

Gambling at the Hall of Fame: Part Two

Are you ready for the bizarre story I promised you last time, about gambling AT the Hall of Fame? If you haven’t read “Part One” please do so before reading this one. In it, I told about the Hall of Fame refusing to hire me in the mid-1990s because of my background as a Las […]

Gambling at the Hall of Fame: Part One

I want to tell you an amazing story about gambling at the Hall of Fame, but to appreciate the irony of the story fully, you need the background to put it in context. For that, I have to take you back twenty years to my first tenure in Cooperstown. I arrived here in April 1991, […]

My Proudest Moment at the Hall of Fame

Maybe it’s fitting that my proudest moment at the Hall of Fame did not occur at the museum or even in my office in the library, but outdoors at the Clark Sports Center. Though I enjoyed every day I spent at the library (except for the last one), we’re coming up on the fifth anniversary […]

The Most Diabolical Hall of Fame Quiz Ever

I don’t know if “diabolical” is the right word or not for this quiz. I’ve been working on it for a few weeks, and at different times it has seemed demented, ingenious, absurd, hilarious, or just plain sick. The one person I ran some of it by e-mailed me a few days later to call […]

From Worst To First At The Hall Of Fame

You are looking at a photo of part of the Hall of Fame’s newest exhibit, “One For the Books,” which covers the records and record-keeping of the game. Those of you who have visited the Hall of Fame might recall the exhibit it replaced, which wasn’t called anything–with good reason. The old “records room” was […]

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 […]

2010 Was Not the “Year of the Pitcher”

Last summer I posted a blog titled “Not Yet the Year of the Pitcher,” in which I reported on being interviewed by a Bloomberg News reporter who wanted to know why people were calling 2010 the “Year of the Pitcher.”  I disagreed, saying that a half-season was not conclusive. The two pitchers he cited as […]

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 […]

The Duke’s-Eye View

This has been a tough winter for baseball Hall of Famers. Sparky Anderson died in November, the seemingly indestructible Bob Feller left us in December, and now Duke Snider is gone. I never got to meet Snider, which I’m told was my loss. But he was the protagonist in one of my favorite Hall of […]

To Preserve History–Or Not To

In my last blog (“Censorship The Hall of Fame Way”), I wrote about the editors of the Hall of Fame’s membership publication, “Memories & Dreams,” censoring the last article I wrote while still working at the Hall of Fame. I urge you to read that article if you haven’t, since this is a follow-up to […]

Censorship The Hall Of Fame Way

Did you hear about the new edition of “Tom Sawyer” and “Huckleberry Finn” in which there is no evidence that Mark Twain ever used the word “nigger”? If seeing that word here–in any context–bothers you, stop reading this now, go out and buy the latest Bowdlerized edition of a literary classic, and have a nice […]

Checking A Swing–And Checking It Twice

Baseball fans and historians received an early Christmas present last night from the MLB Network with its special telecast of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series. Only a few months after a long-forgotten kinescope was found in the vault of Bing Crosby, part-owner of the Pirates in 1960, MLB Network staged a long-to-be-remembered event […]

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, […]

Sparky Anderson Even Argued With Class

As a lifelong Reds fan, I was saddened to hear of the death of Sparky Anderson, the man who managed the team during the most glorious period in franchise history. In 1970, he took over a team that had led the National League in runs scored the previous two years, but had finished in the […]

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 […]

A Wing And A Player

Did you know that 153 of the 387 members of the Baseball Hall of Fame never played a game in the major leagues? That seems like a large percentage, doesn’t it, nearly 40%? What are the folks in Cooperstown thinking, putting such a major emphasis on non-players? Does that seem right to you? Well, it […]

You Heard It Here First

Even though the Mets have entered the phone-it-in stage of the 2010 season, my wife and I found ourselves watching a couple of very good pitching duels between the Mets and Rockies the last two nights. First it was Mike Pelfrey outgunning Ubaldo Jimenez (17-2 coming into the game) to win 1-0. That game hinged […]

Let’s Re-Elect Dizzy!

Here we go, folks–sing along with me. . . . As anyone knows who pays close attention To America’s favorite game, The announcers and writers do not have a “wing” In the Cooperstown Hall of Fame. Despite all the protests of well-meaning fans And colleagues of mikemen and scribes, The announcers and writers do not […]

Unfortunately, I Was Right

In 2004, long-time Bay Area sports announcer Lon Simmons won the Ford Frick Award presented annually at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Cooperstown. From that moment, Jon Miller, who idolized Simmons since childhood from listening to him broadcast Giants games, began referring to Simmons as a “Hall of Fame announcer.” Miller, I was […]

Right On The Nose

My sainted father used to say that a pitcher should have the right to smack his fielders on the nose when they make errors that cost him runs or victories. I couldn’t argue then, and still can’t. Of course, it should work the other way, too. A team should be entitled to pummel any starting […]

Surprising and Not-So-Surprising First Half

Now that we’re on the verge of the National League’s annual humiliation in the All-Star Game, it’s time to review the first half of the 2010 season. For some teams and players it has been business as usual, with baseball’s daily smorgasbord punctuated by a number of surprises, most recently the failure of the Evil […]

We Urge You To Take Public Transport

My wife and I made our first trip to Citi Field on Tuesday. For some reason we didn’t get there last season, when the reviews were mixed–favorable comments on the park itself, negative comments on the absence of suggestions that the Mets franchise existed before 2009. For that alone I’m grateful that we waited until […]

Not Yet The Year Of The Pitcher

Last week I was interviewed by a reporter for Bloomberg News who sought my views on whether 2010 is indeed the new “Year of the Pitcher.” Apparently some analysts have declared that to be the case, though the news hadn’t reached my neck of the woods until the reporter mentioned it. The reporter, a pleasant […]

The Kids Were Alright

I can’t say I loved every minute or every game of my brief umpiring experience, but I did love the idea of being out there on the field and close to the action of the game. I also can’t say that I was noticeably above average at umpiring. To this day, I’m still hazy on […]

How To Be An Idol

I met a great man last month. Doug Harvey visited the Hall of Fame for the day-long orientation given new electees, including a tour of the museum and collections and a staff reception. At these receptions, the new Hall of Famer usually speaks briefly, lets his wife say a few words, and spends 20-30 minutes […]

A Memorial Day Tribute

Morrie Martin passed away last week at the age of 87, shortly before Memorial Day when the country pauses to remember men like him. I was proud to consider him a friend. Late in 2003, I was looking through the history of Hall of Fame elections and noticed that Morrie Martin had gotten two votes […]

The Game That Changed Baseball History

I don’t have to tell you what happened last night. Armando Galarraga pitched a perfect game–according to the rules of baseball–but umpire Jim Joyce’s failure to apply Rule 6.05(j) [a batter is out if “after he hits a fair ball, he or first base is tagged before he touches first base”] on the 27th out […]

When Cheney Ruled Washington

It was a cool September evening in 1962 when 4,098 citizens exercised their right to assemble, in anticipation of an appearance by the representatives of the nation’s capital. Not surprisingly, John Kennedy was the first to take his turn, though he turned out to be a minor figure in the night’s long drama. Later, a […]

Instants Of Clueless Clarity

I had dinner last night with a couple of friends visiting from out of town, and told two of my favorite Hall of Fame library stories. They’re dandies, so I may as well tell the rest of the world. The stories have two things in common. Both involved telephone inquiries from people who were entirely […]

That Night, They Were Men

Recently I was showing the photo album of my bar mitzvah to some long-lost cousins who only vaguely remembered attending it. Even with the help of the photos, I don’t remember all that much about it myself. I do know that it was the last time I ever spoke–much less chanted–in Hebrew. I ate, danced, […]

Word Gets Around

There’s a bruhaha brewing in Los Angeles, where GM Ned Colletti called center fielder Matt Kemp on the carpet this week and told the press it was because he wondered whether Kemp was resting on his laurels after signing a long-term, eight-figure contract, rather than giving 100% effort on the field. The esteemed ESPN.com columnist […]

Long Night’s Journey Into Nothingness

As I sat through last week’s 20-inning marathon between the Mets and Cardinals, I couldn’t help thinking “I’ve been here before.” The Mets have played a disproportionate number of 20-inning games, and I’ve watched all of them, starting with that ridiculous doubleheader in 1964 in which the Mets lost a 23-inning dandy to the Giants […]

Deserved But Not Earned

I’m still bothered by a game I listened to on the radio when I was a kid. Thanks to http://www.retrosheet.org/, I know that I’ve been upset for nearly 48 years, so isn’t it about time I got this complaint off my chest? I was 11 years old the summer of 1962, and on June 5 […]

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