The Promising Life and Tragic Death of Austin McHenry

(Editor’s Note: The following was originally posted on November 30, 2008.) By the time he was 25 years old, St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Austin McHenry was considered one of baseball’s best outfielders and hitters, especially after enjoying a 1921 season that saw him finish with a .350 batting average, second only to teammate and future […]

There Goes My Childhood

Derek Jeter played in his final game Sunday afternoon at Fenway Park. Realistically, this weekend’s series in Boston acted more as a denouement following the climax of Jeter’s farewell tour last Thursday night in the Bronx. For those of you who have had no access to any form of media over the last five days, […]

Frontier Story With a Curve

In the spring of 1944 Chief of Staff, General George C. Marshall discovered that of the 280 or so major league players in the armed forces, most had never left their domestic bases, and many had not even completed basic training, a fact I learned when researching Boots Poffenberger: Hurler, Hero, Hell-Raiser. Boots, who had […]

Book Review: A Nice Little Place on the North Side: Wrigley Field at One Hundred

Hey baseball fans!   I recently had the chance to read A Nice Little Place on the North Side: Wrigley Field at One Hundred by George F. Will, a book about Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs. The book was written around the time of the Stadium’s 100th anniversary. Overall, it was a very good book […]

My Top Five Favorite Uniforms in Baseball History

Hey baseball fans! When I go out onto a baseball field, I enjoy looking well-dressed. For example, I would never wear an all-pink uniform, just because I would look weird. The same thing goes for MLB uniforms. Some of the uniforms in the past are frowned upon by the players who wore them and by […]

Arguably the Best Second Baseman of his Era

Hey baseball fans! There are three Hall of Famers from Puerto Rico. There was Roberto Clemente, the inspirational and excellent-hitting Pirate, Orlando Cepeda, the Baby Bull who played in St. Louis and San Francisco, and the most recently inducted Puerto Rican Hall of Famer, Roberto Alomar! Alomar played for mainly the Blue Jays, Orioles, and Indians in his […]

The Big Rude

Hey baseball fans! The team that represented the American League in my favorite World Series (1993: Toronto Blue Jays vs. Philadelphia Phillies) was filled to the brim with All Stars like Joe Carter and Jack Morris and Hall of Famers like Rickey Henderson and Paul Molitor. However, perhaps the most important player on the team that season was the AL batting champion […]

The Best Tigers Team There Was

Hey baseball fans! Yesterday, it was my birthday! In honor of my birthday last year, I blogged about Alan Trammell, the only player born on my birthday who I think should be in the Hall of Fame. In honor of my birthday this year, I’m going to talk about the team that Trammell played for that […]

An Interview about the Cooperstown Concert with Music Producer Loren Harriet

Hey baseball fans! I recently had the honor of interviewing Loren Harriet, a producer of music and concerts for over two decades. Harriet has produced music for guys like former Yankee star Bernie Williams, current baseball pitcher Bronson Arroyo, horror writer Stephen King, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the voice of Spongebob Squarepants, Tom Kenny, and so […]

A Man Who Could Lead a Team and an Army

Hey baseball fans! A couple of days ago, it was Babe Ruth‘s birthday! However, considering I’ve blogged about him a number of times, today I will be telling you about one of his fellow Hall of Fame teammates. It’s not Lou Gehrig or Tony Lazzeri. It’s the Kentucky Colonel, Earle Combs! The Pebworth, Kentucky native played with just the Yankees […]

Baseball with Matt’s First Ever Analysis of a Poem

Hey baseball fans! I’m going to do something that I’ve never done before on Baseball with Matt: I’m going to analyze a poem! But don’t worry; the poem is about baseball. This poem is probably my favorite, because it captures the description of a player’s entire personality and career in only a few lines. I […]

The Pine Tar Game

Hey baseball fans! A while back, I got the chance to interview Graig Nettles, a Yankee great and a member of the 300 home runs club. What I did not mention in that post was something he did that helped create one of the oddest, most interesting, and controversial moments not just in the history of […]

The Predecessors to Mariano Rivera

Hey baseball fans! Sadly (for Yankee fans) Mariano Rivera has finally called it quits after playing 19 seasons in the Bronx. In honor of him, I want to talk about other great relievers in Yankee history. Johnny Murphy Murphy was one of the first relievers in the live ball era and he did a pretty good job […]

The AL Counterpart to Ralph Kiner

Hey baseball fans and happy new year! When the name “Hank” is said in a conversation about baseball, many times the name is followed by the surname “Aaron.” However, there is another Hank who played baseball and is enshrined in Cooperstown. This Hank could be compared to Ralph Kiner: both players had pretty short Hall of […]

Cha-Cha Cha-Chas Into the Hall of Fame

Hey baseball fans! As some of you know, there are three Puerto Rican-born Hall of Famers in Cooperstown: Roberto Clemente, Roberto Alomar, and one other person. There are also three Hall of Fame position players who played for the 1962 San Francisco Giants pennant-winning squad: Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, and one other person. The “one other person” on both […]

The Terrific One

Hey baseball fans! Considering I just watched Anchorman 2 on the big screen, here is a little something about a famous Met who was born in the same state that Ron Burgundy reported the news (California). Ladies and gentleman, the Fresno, California native, Tom Seaver! George Thomas Seaver played with the Mets, Reds, White Sox, and […]

NJBM: Whitey Herzog

Hey baseball fans! I just put up my latest post in the Kids’ Hot Korner section of New Jersey Baseball Magazine. This one is about Whitey Herzog, one of the greatest managers in Missouri baseball history. If you want to read more about the man who invented Whiteyball, just click here. I hope you enjoy the post. […]

Matt’s Anti-Dream Team

Hey baseball fans! A while back, I wrote a post about my favorite players of all time at each position, my Dream Team. Recently, I’ve realized that a team is not a team without a rival. So, I’ve compiled a list of players that are rivals with one player specifically on my Dream Team at the […]

An Interview with Graig Nettles

Hey baseball fans! I have another interview today. This one is with All Star third baseman, Graig Nettles! But, before we get to the interview, let me tell you a little bit about one of the most familiar faces to Yankee fans from the 1970s. A native of San Diego, California, Nettles was a power-hitting third […]

If I Had a Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot 2014

Hey baseball fans! The 2014 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot is now announced with a lot of stars’ names on the list for the first time. However, there are only five players on the list for the first time that I think deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. So, without further ado, let […]

Turkey Stearnes Should Not Be Eaten on Thanksgiving

Hey baseball fans! Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you all have an amazing holiday. Anyway, I was looking at the nicknames for Hall of Famers and I found that one HoFer has the nickname (wouldn’t you know it): Turkey. So, without further ado, here is a little bit about Norman Thomas “Turkey” Stearnes! Norman acquired his unusual nickname at […]

An Allegorical Name to Remember

Hey baseball fans! There are only 24 pitchers with at least 300 career wins, but there are only two who have won exactly 300. However, I will not be talking about Lefty Grove. Instead, I will be talking about the other exactly 300-game winner: Early Wynn! Just like his name states (and it is the name that […]

Pitchers Who Can Hit? WHAAAAAAATTTTTT?

Hey baseball fans! Most pitchers in baseball history are meant for pitching (obviously). However, before the creation of the designated hitter rule in 1973, pitchers on every single team in the MLB had to have a pitcher somewhere in the lineup. Even though every American League team has to have a DH in the lineup […]

An Interview with Shoeless Joe Jackson (Sort of)

Hey baseball fans!I’m back with another interview! This time, it is with Shoeless Joe Jackson! I know what you are thinking: “How could you have gotten in touch with a ballplayer who died in 1951?” Well, my answer to you all is this: just like my Babe Ruth interview, a few days ago I sent in questions to Peter […]

ML”what would”B: What if Sandy Koufax Was Never Plagued With Arthritis?

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 wrote about what would have happened […]

The Hitting Version of Sandy Koufax

Hey baseball fans! There were many stars in baseball in the 1940s and ’50s that came out of the Giants, Cardinals, Braves, Yankees, Red Sox and Tigers. But this post is about a very underrated Hall of Famer who played mainly on the Pirates. He had a very short career, but is considered one of […]

The 2013 Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Inductees

Hey baseball fans! I recently realized that I never did a post about the 2013 National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum inductees. Now these inductees are not people who you probably recognize. Why? Well, for the first time since 1996, no one got into the Hall of Fame via the Baseball Writers’ Association of […]

The Mad Dash

Hey baseball fans!As most of you probably know, the Boston Red Sox just won the World Series, beating the St. Louis Cardinals in six games. However, did you know that the Sox and Cards have squared off before in the World Series? Out of the 13 times the Sox have been to the Fall Classic, […]

So You Think You Can Name World Series Winners

Hey baseball fans! I recently posted a video on YouTube. The video is of me trying to name all of the winners of every single World Series from 1903 (the first ever World Series). To see if I succeeded or not, click here. I hope you enjoy the video and check back in a few days […]

The Man of a Great Hitting Class from Grants Pass

Hey baseball fans! The 1922 St. Louis Browns were one of the greatest teams in baseball history…. that didn’t make the playoffs. However, there were many bright spots on the team, one of them being the first player ever to hit over 30 homers and steal over 30 bases in the same season. I am […]

NJBM: Billy Williams

Hey baseball fans! I just put up my latest post in the Kids’ Hot Korner section of New Jersey Baseball Magazine. This one is about Billy Williams, one of the great Chicago Cubs Hall of Famers in baseball history. If you want to read more about Billy, just click here. I hope you enjoy the article and […]

My Top Five Favorite Cardinals Hall of Famers

Hey baseball fans! The 2013 World Series week has officially started! This year’s contenders are the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals. Considering that I’ve already done a top five favorite Red Sox HoFers post, I decided that the time is right to post my top five Cards Hall of Famers of all […]

An Interview with Trevor Hoffman

Hey baseball fans! I have another interview for you today! It’s with the great former closer Trevor Hoffman! It was arranged and recorded by the really cool web site, Sqor.com. By the way, Sqor (www.sqor.com) is a new sports and social networking web site that brings athlete content to fans from over 1,200 professional and amateur athletes, […]

The Man with as Many Career Hits as Career Aches

Hey baseball fans! Like I’ve mentioned many times before, some Hall of Famers never won a World Series ring, or even got a taste of playoff baseball. Naturally, a couple of teams with Hall of Famers without rings come to my mind when I hear this statement. For example, the Expos, Cubs, Padres, Rangers, Angels, […]

Matt Nadel’s 2013 MLB Awards Predictions

Hey baseball fans! As you all know, I’ve started doing some vlog posts where I make different predictions.  Well, since the MLB regular season is now over, I have to make my predictions on who will win all the major MLB awards.  So, without further ado, please click here for a link to my latest vlog post, where […]

Next Page »