Halfway Home and Competitive Balance is Winning With Pitching

The first half of the 2013 season is in the record books and surprises abound. Chris Davis is quietly on a pace to hit 62 home runs when most were predicting an end to the offensive surge of prior years. The Boston Red Sox team that unraveled under Bobby Valentine has vaulted to the lead in […]

Rollie Hemsley: How a Hard Drinking Catcher Made Alcoholics Anonymous an International Phenomenon

Particularly in the earlier days of the game, baseball had a well-earned reputation for hard drinking and living players. Because the players often socially mingled with the press, and because the writers depended on access to teams to sell their papers, the vast majority of the more salacious happenings failed to make it to the […]

Bring Unto Me the Little Ranger Fans

Oh, somewhere in this fabled land the sun is shining bright. The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light. And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout. And that would be St. Louis, because around Arlington there are 10-, 11-, and 12-year-olds who are now permanently scarred for life because their team […]

2011 Pre-Season Preview: AL West – Seattle Mariners

Staff ace, Felix Hernandez Seattle Mariners (2010 record: 61-101) Many pundits believed the Mariners could win the American League West last season – I am numbered among those people. The joke was on us. Instead of making a run at the Angels and the Rangers, the Mariners turned in one of the more disappointing efforts […]

Independent Baseball Crowds Back Above Eight Million

Strengthened by the addition of two more teams in the Northern League and with gains reported in three other leagues, Independent Baseball attendance climbed back above eight million fans for the 2010 regular season.  It is the third time in four years the non-affiliated clubs have drawn above that level, this time finishing at 8,130,646.  […]

A Passion For Pitching

As a teenager Doug White was an all-star—”an average player for my age but above average for the area where I played”—but he wanted to improve his game so he attended the Doyle Baseball School after his Freshman year of high school and, through a long-toss program he learned from the instructors, added more than […]

The National Pastime Almanac and the Joy of Numbers

This time of year is my favorite for obvious reasons: Spring Training is in full swing, newsstands are peppered with baseball preview magazines, and the weather starts to warm up, allowing me to hang out in my back yard with a good book or magazine, an adult beverage, a strong cigar, and, eventually, a Red […]