The Battle for Chavez Ravine: Eminent Domain and the Construction of Dodger Stadium

Dodger Stadium, home of the Los Angeles Dodgers, is a baseball landmark with few peers. The venue, which opened in 1962, boasts the largest capacity in professional baseball and is roundly viewed as one of the most beautiful places to watch a game. Sadly, in order to be built, an entire community was destroyed, and […]

An Interview with Billy Crystal

Hey baseball fans! I have a really cool interview for you today. This is my first ever actor interview, and it’s someone that I am very honored to have interviewed, Billy Crystal! Before I get to the interview, let me tell you a little bit about this great actor. William Edward “Billy” Crystal was born […]

Ebbets Field 100

The move of the NBA’s Nets this season has allowed fans and journalists to speak a magical word that had disappeared from the lexicon of major sports leagues for more than 50 years: “Brooklyn.” Brooklyn is probably New York City’s most beloved and, possibly, provincial borough and the relocation of the New Jersey Nets to […]

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 […]

Rickey was Right On

In teaming with Jackie Robinson to break the color barrier, Branch Rickey helped make Barack Obama’s presidency possible. That’s one reason why Jimmy Breslin decided to write a biography on Rickey. One could surmise Rickey’s decision to team with Robinson was about morality. After all, he broke the news in a pulpit. In truth, this was […]

Fireworks in the Steel City

With the Pittsburgh Pirates resurgence this summer, I’m reminded of one of the most abysmal pitching performances I’ve ever come across in all my years as a baseball fan. Unfortunately, it happened to my grandfather, Nelson Greene, in the only game he ever pitched in the Steel City. It’s difficult to imagine any modern day […]

“Pitchers of Beer: The Story of the Seattle Rainiers” by Dan Raley

WELL-DONE HISTORY OF BYGONE SEATTLE BASEBALL ERA As someone who used to literally sit at my grandfather’s knee listening to his stories of the old Seattle Rainiers and the Pacific Coast League, I became quite familiar with names of people who built baseball in Seattle in the years from 1938 onward.  Grandpa was the head […]

Talkin’ Baseball: And Then There Was One… RIP, Duke Snider

Former Brooklyn Dodgers outfielder Duke Snider has passed away. The Hall-of-Famer died of natural causes this morning at the age of 84 at the Valle Vista Convalescent Hospital in Escondido, Calif. Snider was a part of the fabled “Boys of Summer” with the Dodgers in the late-1940s and 1950s. He helped lead the club to […]

We Lose Duke Snider, Aged 84

I had the pleasure of meeting Duke Snider and his wife Beverly, in London back in 1980. I was 17 years old at the time; playing baseball with one of Britain’s most successful baseball teams, and had written to Duke asking him for hitting tips. A couple of months later the phone rang at our […]

What was He Supposed to Do?

Who knew a World Series could bring such pain? Fresh off toppling the rival Yankees in 1955, Dodgers Walter O’Malley could only rejoice for so long. Decisions loomed. Death, in a sense, was palpable. O’Malley staved off it off as long as he could. In “Forever Blue,” Pulitzer Prize winner Michael D’Antonio guides readers through […]

Honig Gives Boost to All

Sit down to watch “A Hall for Heroes,” “Baseball’s Golden Age,” “When It was a Game” or any number of other baseball programs. No doubt you will hear plenty from Donald Honig. Maybe you have delighted in one of 12 baseball books he has authored. This week, allow the man with plenty of baseball yarns […]

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 […]

Wake Up and Smell The (Bitter Cup of) Coffee!

Former Pittsburgh Pirates player and broadcaster Nellie King passed away yesterday at Family Hospice Center in Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania.  Nellie was 82 years old. Signed as an amateur free agent in 1946, King didn’t make his major league debut until 1954. Three years later, at the age of 29, he was out of baseball because […]

An All-Star Team of ex-Major Leaguers in Their 90s

A recent quick visit to Wikipedia produced a list of the ex-major leaguers who are 90 and up, and from there it was an easy process to put together an All-Star lineup for these guys, practically all of whom starred in the ’40s. I’m offering it for consideration and debate: Catcher: Mike Sandlock, who spent […]

So Long, Mr. Harwell

The Detroit Tigers happened to be out of town this past May 4th–playing at the new Target Field in Minnesota. Soon came the seventh-inning stretch and a picture of a smiling Ernie Harwell graced the stadium’s bright, new big screen. The news was then announced–though many fans were already privy to the inevitable: the Hall […]

Kaline to Accept Scully Award Wednesday on Behalf of Harwell

From Jerry Milani: Tigers Hall Of Famer Al Kaline To Accept Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award From Fordham’s WFUV Radio On Behalf Of Legendary Tigers Broadcaster Ernie Harwell On Wednesday Night, May 5, At Gotham Hall In New York City At WFUV Spring Gala The Hall of Fame “Voice of the Detroit Tigers,” Ernie Harwell, […]

A Small Town Tale: Phil Paine

When he was six or seven years old, my grandfather, Nelson Greene, who grew up to briefly pitch in the major leagues for the Brooklyn Dodgers, moved with his family from the Philadelphia suburb of Roxborough, to the small town of Lebanon, Pennsylvania. For the rest of his life, despite long periods of absence, Nelson […]

Letters From Quebec: Remembering Willie Davis…

“There was only one Jackie Robinson and he was fantastic,” Willie Davis said about the Dodger immortal who broke baseball’s colour barrier, first with the old Montreal Royals and then with Brooklyn Dodgers.  Then he added, “There’s only one Willie Davis, and I’m fantastic too.” Willie Davis, to Montreal Gazette journalist Tim Burke, June 12, […]

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 […]