The Sunday Notes: Goodbye 2015, Hello 2016

So, 2015 is now a permanent part of our history as 2016 will take baseball shape this week when we find out who the writers voted into the Hall of Fame. If you will allow me this time around, instead of giving you a few links to read I thought I would share a few thoughts […]

Dave Henderson (1958-2015)

Dave Henderson passed away Sunday at fifty-seven. In my years of sportswriting that has to be one of the saddest sentences written. Why? Ken Dryden, the legendary goalie for the Montreal Canadiens, is attributed with the following quote. When asked what he thought was the golden age of sport, he answered, “whenever you are fourteen. […]

The Sunday Notes: Frank Robinson Traded

As Major League Baseball clubs spend and trade this holiday season, preparing for 2016, this edition of the Notes looks back on a trade propelling the Baltimore Orioles to a championship and reviews something this week that never happened before. Although the Chicago Cubs backed up a bank vault for outfielder Jason Heyward, other teams wheeled […]

The Sunday Notes: Leftovers Edition

At some point over the last couple days, chances are you rummaged to find a snack in the refrigerator to find the leftover cranberry sauce sprouting some new life form. Yes, the leftovers time forgot is the theme for this edition of the Sunday notes. Whether writers grabbed some badly needed time away or I […]

The Sunday Notes: 2015 Awards Edition

The 2015 award season has come and gone, ending the year. For the twelfth straight year, average attendance per game topped 30,000 and overall gate went up, barely, over last year. All told, 73,760,020 purchased tickets to Major League Baseball games in 2015. Would you believe the first year the average topped 20,000 was 1979 […]

The Sunday Notes: Remembering Tommy Hanson

The first week of the 2015 baseball offseason has not brought the best of news home. In finding ten stories of interest to share with you each week, the goal is to find stories that will make you smile, pass along a tale you might not know or remember someone’s childhood idol. This week, we […]

The Sunday Notes: World Series Leftovers Edition

As the street cleaners of Kansas City swept away the joyous mess left behind by nearly 800,000 fans, the 2015 Major League Baseball season officially ended. With qualifying offers made to soon-to-be free agents and a battery of options declined or accepted, the hot stove season is upon us again. Between now and mid-March, more than a few trees and hard drives will be filled with stories on how certain signings will vault their team into championship contention, only to look silly by mid-May. As sure as the swallows return to Capistrano, the consensus “winner” of the off-season World Series will watch next October […]

2015 World Series Notes

The Kansas City Royals are champions for the first time in thirty years. Can you believe it? Wait, I’m channeling Joe Castiglione above. Still, what a great postseason run by the Royals. No deficit was too big and, in return, they wore teams out. When they needed starting pitching, Johnny Cueto tosses a two-hitter. Down […]

The Sunday Notes: 2015 World Series

Now that we have enjoyed baseball’s playoff appetizer, it is time for the main course, the 2015 World Series. The plucky Kansas City Royals host the New York Mets starting Tuesday night at Kaufman Stadium in what we hope to be a classic matchup. No deficit is too large for the Royals, who pound out hit after hit. […]

The Monday Notes: Jose Bautista’s Bat Flip Edition

For me, one of the highlights last winter writing for Seamheads was reading my good friend Andrew H. Martin’s weekly Sunday notes. Martin has a good eye for linking good reads and videos from days gone by mixed with today’s baseball. He is working on other projects and I asked if he wanted to continue the series? “No.” […]

Why Alex Rodriguez’s Milestone Moments Drew Yawns

New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez recently had his 3,000th base hit and the historic moment drew a collective yawn. A sign of how unpopular baseball is? Hardly. Look at the television ratings the game is drawing at a local level. The national pastime is doing just fine, thank you. So, why was this milestone […]

Boston Red Sox Problems Deeper Than John Farrell

The Boston Red Sox start June at 22-29, adrift in last place in the weak American League East. With a payroll near $200 million, Cot’s Contracts estimates the Opening Day number at $184,345,996, much was expected from a team winning the World Series two years ago. Signing Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez, two of the […]

Making Baseball Work in Montreal

The City of Montreal would like you to know they are ready for Major League Baseball to return. With the help of the Toronto Blue Jays, huge crowds filled Olympic Stadium the last two exhibition seasons to watch the Jays play the New York Mets and Cincinnati Reds. Fans of the old Expos will remind […]

Could MLB Really Return to Montreal?

The Toronto Blue Jays recently held two exhibition games in Montreal, Quebec against the Cincinnati Reds, drawing nearly 92,000 into Olympic Stadium. The home of the Montreal Expos from 1977 until their move to Washington after the 2004 season, the stadium, built for the 1976 Summer Olympics, was considered an albatross. Throw in a shaky […]

Josh Hamilton Situation Provides No Winners

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim outfielder Josh Hamilton will not be suspended for his admission of illicit drug use. The case, settled by an independent arbitrator, is a win for the Major League Baseball’s Players Association and a loss of new MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and the Angels. The reality, however, is more complex. Hamilton, […]

David Ortiz Risks Legacy On PED Article

Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz recently penned an article for the website The Players Tribune professing his innocence and annoyance regarding claims of steroid use. The longtime Sox designated hitter was outed by The New York Times in 2009 as a player failing a drug test during the 2003 season. The paper named seven […]

Should MLB Adopt the 154-Game Schedule?

New Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred recently suggested he was open to the idea of reducing the regular season from 162 to 154 games. The 154 game schedule is not a new idea. The American and National League adopted the format before the 1904 season, ensuring the eight teams in each league played their […]

Alex Rodriguez Undeserving of Record Cleansing For PED Use

Alex Rodriguez should be stripped of the 190 home runs hit over several seasons as punishment for failing drug tests. That is what Chicago Tribune columnist Philip Hersh believes. Why? Using the precedent of the International Olympic Committee stripping athletes who failed drug tests of medals, Hersh suggests in order to show the gravity of […]

What Baseball Means To Me

It is springtime again in America. Yeah, tens of millions are digging out from mountains of snow to go to work, but the trucks carrying our summer obsession have safely reached their destinations in Florida and Arizona. Once unpacked, another baseball season will be upon us and it can never come too soon. For me, […]

Solving Major League Baseball’s Marketing Problem

The National Football League concluded another season with the most watched show in the history of American television, breaking a record held by last year’s Super Bowl and so on. Of course, 114 million pair of eyes on one whale of a football game means baseball is dying, right? Certainly, a sport dragging in $9 […]

Ernie Banks Leaves A Powerful Legacy

Ernie Banks, one of the brightest personalities in Major League Baseball history, passed away Saturday, January 26 at the age of 83 from a heart attack. Best known for his sunny optimism and the catch phrase “Let’s play two,” the Chicago Cubs icon is hardly remembered outside of Chicago for his graceful glove at short […]

2014 Featured Bad Offense in MLB

Offensive levels in Major League Baseball fell in 2014 to levels not seen in a generation. Are we on the verge of another pitching boom? The answer is, not really. The simplest statistic to measure, batting average was .251, the lowest number since 1972. On Base Percentage, .314, also hit a 42-year low. Slugging percentage, […]

Trevor Hoffman’s Hall of Fame Status Anything But Certain

Ken Griffey Jr. and Trevor Hoffman are the headline first-timers next year on the Baseball Writers of America Hall of Fame ballot. Griffey Jr. is a slam dunk. Hoffman is not. The long-time San Diego Padres closer locked down saves for the better part of sixteen seasons, compiling a whopping 601 in his 18-year career. […]

Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds Deserve Hall of Fame Induction

Chances are Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds are not going to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame next summer in Cooperstown, NY, but they deserve the honor. The argument against Clemens and Bonds is valid. They, allegedly, juiced. Both men faced action in court and both beat perjury raps. If you are […]