The Ultimate Seven-Game Fall Classic: Game Five

In part one of my Ultimate Seven-Game Fall Classic series, I featured Game One of the 1988 World Series between the Oakland A’s and Los Angeles Dodgers, won by the latter on Kirk Gibson’s walk-off two-run homer off Dennis Eckersley, ironic because it was Eck who coined the phrase “walk-off piece.” Part two featured an […]

The Ultimate Seven-Game Fall Classic: Game Four

In part one of my Ultimate Seven-Game Fall Classic series, I featured Game One of the 1988 World Series between the Oakland A’s and Los Angeles Dodgers, won by the latter on Kirk Gibson’s walk-off two-run homer off Dennis Eckersley, ironic because it was Eck who coined the phrase “walk-off piece.”  Part two featured an […]

The Ultimate Seven-Game Fall Classic: Game Two

In part one of my Ultimate Seven-Game Fall Classic series, I featured Game One of the 1988 World Series between the Oakland A’s and Los Angeles Dodgers.  This time around, I’m traveling back to the Deadball Era when pitchers still dominated the game and runs were hard to come by.  It wasn’t until the “Roaring […]

Just How Good were Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens?

Here is the short answer.  According to the numbers alone, Barry Bonds had the #2 best career of any position player of the modern era (behind only Babe Ruth) and Roger Clemens is the greatest right-handed pitcher of the period (since 1920).  And yet neither of these great players may make it into the Hall […]

Story of 1921 Expertly Researched and Written

1921: The Yankees, The Giants, & The Battle For Baseball Supremacy In New York by Lyle Spatz and Steve Steinberg is one of the best books I’ve read in quite some time.  Spatz and Steinberg put a lot of time and effort into their 515-page recollection of the 1921 season and it shows.  In fact, […]

Hammering Away with Henry

For much of his life, Henry Aaron has felt marginalized. Hank Aaron arguably sits atop the baseball pyramid as its home run king. But what about Henry? Blessed with baseball talent that landed him among the best all-around players ever, Hank Aaron assumed a public persona. Meanwhile, “The Hammer” effectively subjugated his private side, Henry. […]

Babe Ruth Talking About His Called Shot

Some time ago I picked up an early ’90 vhs of classic baseball plays, and partway through, there was Babe Ruth, hitting and then talking about his called shot in the 1932 World Series vs. the Cubs. The less-than-perfect audio (with music in the background) is on Archive.org. I’ve written out the most relevant part of what […]

The All-Time Yankees (a draft book chapter)

Who would be selected for a mythical All-Time Yankees dream team roster? Who would be the starters and who the backups? Who gets snubbed, not quite good enough to make the squad? And how have other authors, as well as fan surveys and the like, answered this fun question throughout the years?

The Curse of the Virtual Bambino

Even in the world of virtual reality, Babe Ruth is king. It seems that I’m always working on serious research for my next book or article, spending almost all of my free time on it, that I almost forgot what it was like to have fun. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the research/writing process […]

Babe Ruth Homered in $800 Million Baseball Game

On August 26, 1943, 48-year-old Babe Ruth hit a home run off 43-year-old Walter Johnson into the right field stands at the Polo Grounds. The blast – one of the last by the Babe – was witnessed by 35,000 fans and helped raise $800 million in War Bonds. Organized by the long-since defunct New York […]

Psst… Wanna know a secret?

“Wanna know a secret? A lot of your heroes weren’t the men you thought they were. The reality of the game they played differs from your ideal picture too. OK, I guess that’s not really a surprise. But more often than not, histories paint romantic pictures of yesterday’s stars. Perhaps some childhood mischief or an […]

“Ball Talk: Baseball’s Voices of Summer”

I was recently sent a free copy of Kevin Bender’s DVD, “Ball Talk: Baseball’s Voices of Summer,” a 1989 documentary hosted by Larry King that “celebrates Hall of Fame-honored baseball announcing pioneers Mel Allen, Red Barber, Jack Brickhouse, Jack Buck, Curt Gowdy and Ernie Harwell…” I watched it on Saturday and it’s fantastic!  The film […]

Are the Yankees Ready for an Encore Performance?

New York City had not finished sweeping up the confetti from the latest parade down the Canyon of Heroes before the Yankees’ relieved fans asked the obvious question: can they repeat? It may have taken nine years to deliver championship number 27, but that doesn’t mean the team’s spoiled fans are satisfied. The difference in […]

Steiner Sports Steps To Plate With Original Babe Ruth Bat

Ultimate “Bambino” Collectible Now Available in Yankees Legends Auction; One of Fewer than 20 Known to Exist NEW YORK, March 16, 2010 — An original, near-pristine, and extremely rare autographed Babe Ruth model bat is now available as part of the “Yankees Legends Auction” at Steiner Sports (www.steinersports.com).  The brown bat, a promotional model circa […]

When Charlie Keller Tried to Come Back

In the spring of 1947, the Yankees’ Charlie Keller was at his peak as a power hitter. Now 30 years old, he’d long ago mastered the kind of left-handed swing New York management had envisioned when they signed Keller off the University of Maryland campus; he was the consummate pull-hitter, routinely muscling the ball into […]

Rambling on About My Glory Days – How I Became a Lifetime .380 Hitter – No Thanks to Nolan Ryan

Now that I have your attention and before you think of me as a liar, let me explain.

Remembering a Baseball Player So We Don’t Forget the Mistakes of Our Past

A good friend of mine lost a good friend yesterday. My friend is Claire Smith, and her friend was Alfred “Slick” Surratt. Slick was a player for the Kansas City Monarchs, a teammate of Satchel Paige and Jackie Robinson in the Negro Baseball League. He died at 87. Claire was one of the first women […]

Nelson, How Could You Forget?

Back in the mid-70s, when I was perhaps 11 or 12 years old, I vividly recall asking my grandfather if he ever pitched to Babe Ruth. At the time, it seemed like a logical question; not knowing much about baseball history, nor about granddad’s career, I simply pulled from thin air the most famous old-time […]

The Looie (Aparicio) Curse

The news that Luis Aparicio has let the White Sox unretire his jersey, number 11, to let Omar Vizquel wear it in tribute to his Venezuelan predecessor called to mind the story of the Looie Curse, said to have been pronounced on the Sox by Aparicio in revenge for being traded to Baltimore in January […]

Babe Ruth, Movie Actor

Many baseball fans already know about how Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees after the 1919 season, apparently to fund his production of the play My Lady Friends in 1920, which became Frazee’s musical hit, No, No, Nanette, in 1925. But the superstar he sold did some acting of his […]

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