A Baseball with Matt Year in Review

Hey baseball fans! Happy blog-iversary! Yup, that’s right, folks; today is the one year anniversary of Baseball with Matt. I just want to thank all of my viewers, without whom I would have never gotten to this point. Anyway, in honor of this special day, I am going to give you all a year in […]

My First Trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame

Hey baseball fans! I am off this week because of spring break, so naturally I took a baseball-related vacation… to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York! If you can believe this, it was actually my first time there and it was AWESOME!!!!!! I had a lot of fun and […]

The Greatest Youngster Around

Hey baseball fans! Let’s get something straight: not all Hall of Famers have a World Series ring. For example, Ernie Banks never got one because he played on the Cubs. Harmon Killebrew almost got a ring in ’65 with the Twins, but never got that close to a championship again in his career. Finally, even the great Ted Williams never got […]

ML”what would”B: What if Tex was a Red Sox Part Two

Hey baseball fans! I just put up another ML”what would”B post on More Than a Fan. In every ML”what would”B alternative history post, I discuss what would have happened if a famous event in baseball history had gone differently than it did in reality. For my latest post, I continued the discussion I started back in February […]

Wamby Pulls a Dandy

Hey baseball fans! I’m pretty sure you’ve all heard of a triple play before, but have you also heard of an unassisted triple play? If you haven’t, let me explain: an unassisted triple play is when one player on the field makes all three outs of a triple play without any help, for example no […]

March Gladness: Further Thoughts on the World Baseball Classic

It isn’t always pretty, the timing stinks, the umpiring is spotty, the pitch count limits are a drag, many of the games are half-attended and God only knows what the TV ratings are, but I’d still rather watch The Kingdom of the Netherlands battle Chinese Tapei in the World Baseball Classic than one inning of […]

Springtimes Past and the Changes They Have Wrought

Watching Anthony Rendon play third base for the Nationals last week in Kissimmee, Florida reminded me of so many past Spring Training games. Osceola Stadium, where the Astros train in March each year, is one of my favorite places to watch major league baseball. It is the closest ballpark to Viera, FL where the Washington […]

Reviewing The Baseball Hall of Shame: The Best of Blooperstown

Let’s face it; for many of us baseball fans the game is not always about who won or lost. It’s about the story and the journey of our favorite teams and players, which are comprised of plays; the unusual, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Perhaps more than any other sport baseball has a […]

Bob Gibson’s 1968 Season Is Overrated

The 1968 MLB season featured the greatest pitching statistics in the live ball era (since 1920).  However, thanks to the Factor12 (F12) Rating on 60ft6in.com, baseball fans can delve deeper into the statistical minutia and uncover the real truth. Bob Gibson 1968 F12:   22-9 / 1.12 ERA/ 0.85 WHIP / 28 CG / 13 SHO / 304.67 IP […]

A Grooved Pitch—Hall of Famer vs. Three Game Cup of Coffee Youngster

On Sunday, May 26, 1912, the sixth place American Association Milwaukee Brewers opened a series against the second place Minneapolis Millers, facing future Hall of Fame member Rube Waddell. The eccentric Waddell is known to most baseball fans. Although on the downside of his career, he was still a pitcher to be reckoned with. During […]

U.S. Postal Service Expands All-Star Stamp Lineup To Honor Each Icon Individually

U.S. Postal Service Expands All-Star Stamp Lineup To Honor Each Icon Individually (via PR Newswire) Joe DiMaggio, Larry Doby, Willie Stargell and Ted Williams to be honored on Individual Forever Stamp Sheets July 21 WASHINGTON, May 31, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Baseball fans can celebrate their favorite All-Stars as a group or individually. Responding to overwhelming […]

Phiguring Out The Phillies

Memorial Day is the “unofficial-official” start of summer for many. It is also the time when even the most casual of baseball fans start to peruse the standings and pay attention to the everyday reality show grind known as baseball’s dog days of summer. If you happen to live in the Delaware Valley chances are […]

An Interview with ESPN’s Baseball Insider Jerry Crasnick

ESPN has grown from a cable sports news channel to a media conglomerate over the past few decades. They have been able to accomplish this by providing comprehensive analysis in the world of sport through all forms of media- print, online, television, radio, and anything else I may be forgetting. As one of the major […]

The Juju Rules: A Review

The dictionary defines juju as “an object venerated superstitiously” and “the magical power attributed to such an object.” Despite the lack of scientific evidence, scores of baseball fans swear that they have successfully used juju to impact the performance of players and teams; from their favorite to their most hated. One of the foremost adherents […]

Driving Mr. Yogi

In the recently released book, Driving Mr. Yogi by Harvey Araton, the front seat is occupied ably by Yogi Berra and Ron Guidry, but the back seat is filled with the Pantheon of modern day Yankee heroes. Characteristically, George Steibrenner spills over into the front and tries to take the wheel. But Yogi Berra is too much […]

Review of John Grisham’s Baseball Novel, Calico Joe

Calico Joe is the newest novel by my favorite fiction author John Grisham. It arrived on my ipad late on Tuesday afternoon. I finished it by Wednesday night and most of it was finished on a trip to see our Gator softball team take on UCF a couple of hours away. We lost the game […]

Harper-Less Hagerstown Suns Open with a Flourish

A very respectable crowd of 2,078 turned out on a very chilly Opening Night, to watch the Bryce Harper-less Hagerstown Suns play the West Virginia Power in Sally League action on Thursday. Still, the contrast between this year and last year when 6,017 came to watch Harper’s minor league debut was stark to the point […]

Just Another Gated Community

We arrived back from Spring Training last night, three games in three delightful mad dash days that left us wishing there was time for one more. When I got home there was a wonderful surprise: a copy of the new biography of Bill Veeck by Paul Dickson. I went to sleep reading it. Yes I […]

A Brief Dissection of the 2012 Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot

First off, congratulations are in order for the Baseball Hall of Fames’ newest member, Barry Larkin. His selection today caps off an excellent 19 year major league career that was spent exclusively with the Cincinnati Reds. With 86.4% of the votes, Larkin was the only player on this year’s ballot to garner the necessary 75% […]

Poetic Justice

Following the winter meetings is like watching grass grow. Washington baseball fans are waiting anxiously to see whether Santa wraps Mark Buerhle up and places him in the Nationals stocking and if so, what else might there be under the tree. There is the issue of center field with so many options there that even […]

Bobby V. is Coming to Town

Well, it’s happened. After two months of speculation and plenty of smoke and mirrors, the Red Sox are set to announce Bobby Valentine as their next manager. The world hasn’t come to an end; at least everything looks peaceful when I look out my window. I was not in favor of this move when I […]

Predicting Where the Top Free Agents Will Land

Now that the 2011 World Series finished its exciting conclusion, baseball fans everywhere turn to the hot stove league to give them their fix of baseball until spring training begins in February. As with every year, there are many interesting free agents who could change the fortunes of any number of teams. Before the actual […]

Teddy Ballgame To Be Honored By USPS With Postage Stamp

Red Sox Hall-of-Fame OF Ted Williams was larger than life and possessed the stuff of legend. He was both a baseball hero and a war hero, serving as a naval aviator (USMC pilot) during WWII (1942-46) and the Korean War (1952-53). He was the last baseball player to hit .400 during the regular season while […]

Giants Fever in a Post-2010 World

I saw my first signs of acute Giants fever in the waning weekends of their 2010 championship year, when the team was in a neck-and-neck battle with San Diego for the NL West title. It wasn’t your standard rising crowd roar that accompanies two-strike counts for the home pitcher late in the game.  It wasn’t […]

Feature Film on Roberto Clemente in the Works

A little bit of baseball died on Dec. 31, 1972 when Roberto Clemente was killed trying to deliver food and supplies to the earthquake ravaged people of Nicaragua. Back in Clemente’s baseball hometown of Pittsburgh, a nine year-old boy cried for days over the death of his hero and vowed one day his hero’s story […]

Yakima Bears Hope to Fill Void Left by Beavers

Baseball fans in the Portland, OR area saw their beloved Beavers head south last year for warmer pastures, but the metro-area may not go very long without a professional baseball team. As has been reported, the Yakima Bears (Single A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks) are hopeful a planned and expected move to Vancouver, WA […]

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 […]

What’s Next For Derek Jeter?

Even before Yankees shortstop and captain Derek Jeter belted his 3,000th career hit, fans and media wondered aloud what would happen to him once he reached the coveted mark.  It’s not that we all expect him to turn into a pumpkin or anything, but the question remains: will the Yankees be willing to keep running […]

2011 All-Star Rosters: Analysis in the Context of the Process

Each year casual and serious baseball fans alike enjoying critiquing the selections for the MLB All-Star game. Most often these amount to “snub lists” or selecting preferred rosters without consideration of the process that is in place for choosing the actual all-star squads. It is a separate matter to debate the pros and cons of […]

‘Dugout of Dreams’ Part of New Can-Am Stadium Experience

     The Can-Am League will be the last of the Independent leagues to open, starting next Thursday (May 26), and it will be another three weeks before the new Rockland Boulders get to inaugurate their 4,300-seat ballpark in Ramapo, NY.  But it seems an understatement to say the enthusiasm is building in Rockland County, which […]

An Intro to Perry Hill

Web gems – they are easily one of the most exciting parts of the game. The footwork, quick hands, and the finesse it requires to be a middle infielder ‘turning two’ may be the most poetic and graceful movement in a game of baseball. And whenever you start to think about how easy they make […]

“Havana Heat” by Darryl Brock

Fans of Darryl Brock will find much to admire in his novel Havana Heat. It is very reminiscent in feel and tone to his classic If I Never Get Back and its sequel Two In the Field. There is no time traveling in this novel but it is a  travel back in time. The hero […]

Now It’s Over

“It’s over,” my mother says in the early innings of so many Cubs games. Frustrated, she changes the channel. Those words were uttered by baseball fans across the country in the past few months as their teams were eliminated from the playoff race. (Unfortunately for mom, much sooner than most). In the coming weeks the […]

My Minor Thoughts on the 2010 Season

Labor Day is usually seen as the last marker before the final push for a spot in the MLB post-season.  Interest for fans hoping for a miracle or those just praying to hang on to that final spot gets turned up a notch.  For a small niche of baseball fans though, Labor Day also marks […]

The Famous Names of Not So Famous Players

Through the years a number of baseball players have became so well known that their fame transcended the game. Everyone knew who Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle were, even people who were not baseball fans. Then you have the players whose names attracted attention for other, more unfortunate reasons. Johnny Grubb, John Wockenfuss, […]

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