Swing Time

Chris Davis was one tired looking hitter coming down the stretch. So was Manny Machado. Both have a reputation for being hard workers. No doubt fans of every team could name a hitter or two (or eight) who despite the hard work, slumped in September. I am starting to believe that it was because of […]

Carroll enjoys staying on his grind

ROCHESTER, NY – More than a decade has passed since Brett Carroll roamed the fields of the New York Collegiate Baseball League. Time hasn’t erased the memories. The veteran of ten years in professional baseball, including parts of six seasons in the majors, has played 180 games in the bigs, hit a home run off a future […]

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 […]

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 […]

Clearing The Bases

What shall we talk about tonight?  So many things going on in the world of fantasy baseball that I feel we need a news and notes column to go over each team.  We’ll do the American League first, followed by the National League on Thursday.  As always, these teams are in no particular order.   […]

‘Fun to Watch’ Double Play Duo Helps Spark ‘Relentless’ Wichita to 13 Wins in Last 14 Games

It is not always easy to find just a word or two that describes a successful baseball team, but Kevin Hooper says he has found himself frequently using “relentless” in describing the Wichita (KS) Wingnuts he manages.  I have a feeling a second word to describe the American Association team that has run off 13 […]

Clearing The Bases

Pretty big night in the world of sports this Thursday.  We have the NFL draft, which I will be following closely along with two Game 7s in the NHL not to mention a smattering of games in MLB, doesn’t really get much better.  As for fantasy owners I have another Top 9 list for you, […]

Batting Practice with the Z-Man

There are so few players who can lift the average fan from his seat during batting practice. It most commonly takes one of those leviathan sluggers like a Frank Howard or Mark McGwire to send ball after ball rocketing into the stands. So I was taken aback when in Kissimmee, Florida for a game between […]

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 […]

In an Instant

What if you were known for one thing most of your life? What if that one thing was not favorable? That’s the story Ralph Branca tells in “A Moment in Time” with David Ritz. Read this book because: 1. Good or bad, baseball is one of life’s few constants. (Well, almost.) There’s nothing like the […]

Any Fish’ll Bite If You Got Good Bait

The Nationals continue to make notable progress in building their minor league organization.  Rated consistently in the bottom tier since the move from Montreal in 2005, the system is on the rise, but an acid test awaits. GM Mike Rizzo wants to trade for a starting pitcher. The rumor mill has the Nationals looking at […]

What Happens When the Little League World Series Ends?

Recently, ESPN has been airing the Little League World Series.  I normally love watching the LLWS.  You see more true emotion and love for the game in two innings of between the teams from Toms River, NJ and Korea than you might in an entire three game series between the Yankees and Orioles.  The coaches […]

He Uses ‘The Only Sane Part of My Body’ to Throw Batting Practice

It often seems that when we dig deeper a story gets more interesting.  That certainly has been the case this summer in the process of trying to find the best possible information for this Notebook.  So today we are going to veer largely away from the usual stories of pennant races and exceptional performances to […]

Around the American League With George Case: 1939-1946

A couple of weeks ago, I got to write the kind of story I love for my blog. The son of a former Washington Senators and Cleveland Indians outfielder named George Case emailed me to say he had a 37-minute DVD compiled from 8 mm color footage his dad shot of his career, which spanned […]

These Are a Few of My Fav-o-rite Teams

Don’t worry, there will be no singing during the writing or reading of this article; Julie Andrews I’m not. As a card-carrying member of Red Sox Nation you’d think my favorite teams are all Carmine Hose, but that’s far from being the case.  Of course, my favorite team of all-time is the 1977 Red Sox […]