Most Deserving All-Star Candidate From Each American League Team

Most Deserving All-Star Candidate From Each Team: AL Edition   Baltimore: Manny Machado While Mark Trumbo is enjoying a bounce back season and currently leading the American League in homers, Manny Machado has been one of the best players in the MLB this season. He’s hitting .325, good for fourth in the American League, and […]

1925 All-Star Game: Junior Loop Shames Nationals In 19 to 5 Beating

JUNIOR LOOP SHAMES NATIONALS IN 19 TO 5 BEATING Heilmann and Hale Contribute Four-Baggers in Fierce Assault RUETHER SUSPENSION UPHELD PHILADELPHIA, July 14.—As if the legion of walking wounded among American League players wasn’t large enough, junior circuit czar Ban Johnson dealt another blow by refusing to reinstate Washington Senators southpaw Dutch Ruether to good […]

The Bud Selig/Fox Sports Ultimate Wildcard Play-In System

After seeing how crazy of an idea the 2012 Wild-card Play-in game was, I decided that if it was here to stay, then it should be expanded to 15 Play-in games.  This way, MLB teams would play 162 games to determine their opponent in a single elimination Play-in game series with the last two teams […]

Astros Hit Bottom in July

The Astros picked up their first July win on July 3 and closed out the month with an 11-0 win over Baltimore on July 31.  However, they only won four games in between resulting in a 6-18 record for the month, the worst in the major leagues. The Astro finished the month with a record […]

View to a Thrill

Of the thousands who watched the Home Run Derby this past Monday, no one in Citi Field had a better view than George Carroll, who was directly behind home plate. And I mean directly behind home plate: Carroll was one of two catchers who most people saw all night long and probably never noticed. Carroll […]

The Baseball Historian’s Notes for July 15, 2013: Is it Time to Change the All Star Game?

Despite making his major league debut on June 3rd and only playing in 37 games, 23-year-old Los Angeles Dodgers rookie sensation Yasiel Puig received a huge surge of support to make this year’s National League All Star team. The outfielder has done his best Roy Hobbs impression by hitting a blistering .392 with eight home […]

James Brown and Phil Niekro: Not Knuckling Under

On The Good Foot …  Phil Niekro was feeling good. It was Sunday, July 9, 1978 and in two days he’d be in San Diego, pitching for the National League All-Stars. Three days earlier he had pitched a strong eight and a third innings against the defending National League Champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers. Niekro […]

A Kid in the Hall of Fame

Hey baseball fans! I realize I haven’t blogged about actual baseball history in about a week and I apologize for that. Today, I will be blogging about one of my favorite catchers of all time. Yes, I am a Yankee fan, but I’m not talking about Yogi Berra or Bill Dickey. I’m also not talking about Mike Piazza, who […]

Clearing The Bases

I was supposed to write this column last week, but ended up spending way to much time on another project, so I apologize, but here we are with news and notes from the National League.   New York Mets:  Well, 1B Ike Davis may have awoken from his season long slump.  His average is close […]

The Glory Days: Kaline the Selfless Star

Al Kaline never sought the spotlight. It found him at Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park, the All-Star Game and the World Series, places the light shines brightest. Otherwise, he was Everyday Al. He could have been carrying a black lunch pail, the way he went about his job. So workmanlike, so steady. Kaline was a steady […]

Enjoying the All Star Game

This past Tuesday night, I anxiously hurried home from work in anticipation for the 2011 MLB All Star Game. I even prepped before hand – picking up dinner and taking the dogs for a nice long walk so that I wouldn’t have any interruptions during the game. I got myself situated, logged on to twitter and Facebook and then […]

Guaranteed 2011 AL East Predictions!

Led by a rejuvenated Manny Ramirez, Tampa Bay will lead the division at the all-star break.  On his return from the All-Star game in Phoenix, Manny will become rejuveniled and absent-mindedly enter Boston’s clubhouse when the Rays resume their season in Beantown on July 15th.  He’ll don a Red Sox uniform and shag balls in […]

Indies Have Banner Day With Five Taken In Draft

While Boston’s apparent signing of Carl Crawford seemed certain to steal the spotlight on the last day of the Winter Meetings in Orlando, Thursday also was a banner day for Independent Baseball. No fewer than five former Indy players, including three who signed during or after the season, were taken by new organizations during the […]

Southern League All-Star Game Wrap Up

Last week’s Southern League All-Star game was just that; an All-Star game rather than a futures game.  Many of the players selected were older players with good numbers rather than “prospects.”  But there still were some things worth seeing. Foregoing the usual home run derby, Huntsville Stars General Manager Buck Rogers chose to highlight the […]

All-Star Game Showcases Eastern League’s Best and Harrisburg’s New Digs

The last time that I was in Harrisburg, home of the Eastern League AA Senators, was in 2004 to watch them play the Reading Phillies. Two things from that game still stand out to me; watching a kid by the name of Ryan Howard crush the ball all over the field and, to be frank […]

Player survey: Who is the most overrated player in baseball?

187 Major League players were surveyed to answer the question: who is the most overrated player in baseball? Keep in mind that when determining whether a player is overrated or not, evaluation is not the sole factor; public opinion also needs to be weighed in. As determined by the players, here are the top five […]

Lower the Mound or Raise the Players

The score was 1 – 0 heading into the seventh inning in last night’s All Star Game before the NL broke through for three runs.  The low score became an issue this morning after the TV ratings were released.  They were lower than any since 1972.  What does it say?  It is reminiscent of the […]

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 […]

Is it still the Mid-Summer Classic?

Baseball is the Great American Pastime. It is a game we grew up with and many of us love, especially those who are on this site. As I write this, it is the All-Star break and the game is tonight. Yet I can’t help but feel that the game I love has lost something with […]

El Juego de Estrellas que nunca olvidaré (The All Star game I’ll never forget).

Siempre recordaré la noche del 14 de julio de 1970. Papá me había enviado a la cama por enésima vez. Lo disputado del Juego de las Estrellas hizo que accediera a mis solicitudes para que me dejara otro rato más. Pero cuando el juego se empató en el noveno inning Papá me llevó personalmente al […]

Meet the new Park Factors — Part III

Taming the Wind “This will be one of the most beautiful baseball parks of all time.”—Vice President Richard Nixon, 1960, opening day at Candlestick Park So many were fooled. Players, sports writers, and even future presidents were in awe of the new home of the San Francisco Giants. Mesmerizing visitors with its lush green grass […]

Write-In Campaign Adds Pressure on Selig?

Latino advocacy organization Presente.org is ramping up the pressure on Bud Selig with a write-in campaign to take the All-Star Game out of Phoenix in response to the Arizona Hispanic profiling bill.  After huge protest marches several weeks ago, the write in campaign provides a time-honored, American tradition to keep the pressure on Commissioner Selig. […]

Remembering “The Bird”

The year was 1976; “Frampton Comes Alive” was gaining in music popularity, a former football player was still patrolling the White House, and yours truly had just received a driver’s license. Baseball season started with my next-door-neighbor, Al–a HUGE Detroit fan–telling me about this eccentric, young kid who had made the Tigers’ pitching staff. “They […]