Seattle Could Fly Before It Could Swim

Hey baseball fans! The Seattle Mariners were created in 1977 and were placed in the AL West division and have remained there ever since. However, did you know that there was a team prior to the Mariners that played Major League Baseball in Seattle? Did you know that they only played there one season (1969) […]

An Interview with MLB Commissioner Selig

Hey baseball fans! Today I have a very special interview for you. One of my biggest ones yet. It’s with a very famous baseball figure and someone who I am very honored to have interviewed via email. He used to be the owner of the Brewers, but he is currently the Commissioner of Major League […]

The Bud Selig/Fox Sports Ultimate Wildcard Play-In System

After seeing how crazy of an idea the 2012 Wild-card Play-in game was, I decided that if it was here to stay, then it should be expanded to 15 Play-in games.  This way, MLB teams would play 162 games to determine their opponent in a single elimination Play-in game series with the last two teams […]

MLB Blogger’s Baseball Interview with President George W. Bush

Hey baseball fans! Today I have a very special interview for you.  Probably my biggest one yet. It’s with a very famous political figure in American history and someone who I am very honored to have interviewed via email. He used to be the President of the United States, and actually co-owned the Texas Rangers […]

The Essence of Self-Absorption

I want to start by apologizing to all the people who have been wondering where my blog went, or at least to the handful of friends who have mentioned it to me. I’m fine, but two things have kept me away from the blog for. . .holy crap, nearly three months! First, although a few […]

Clearing The Bases

Tonight’s column isn’t going to deal with the fantasy relevance of Major League Baseball, but more of some of the rules I would like to change if I were the commissioner.  I wrote a similar column last season and I’m happy to say that Bud Selig listened to one of my suggestions and moved a […]

Mr. President, Baseball Lasts Til Almost November

The St. Louis Cardinals are in the Rose Garden soon for the customary victory lap stop-over at the White House. It will be a rare baseball event for President Obama, and that is a sad commentary for both the game and for a president whose political advisors are so clearly asleep at the switch. Presidents […]

3 Men Forged 2 Decades of Labor Peace

Sometime early in Bud Selig‘s celebration of baseball’s new collective bargaining agreement on Wednesday, he wondered if the two sides had needed to go through the pain of 1994 in order to achieve the peaceful — and very profitable — coexistence they enjoy today. It was almost certainly meant as a rhetorical question. Selig answered […]

La Pregunta De Los 64,000 (Question Of The 64,000)

El tercer manager con más victorias en Grandes Ligas anunció su retiro después de 33 temporadas dirigiendo clubes. Necesitaba 35 victorias para empatar a John McGraw en segundo lugar de todos los tiempos. El abogado logró construirse una historia por su inteligencia, incluso por tomar riesgos ante decisiones difíciles y esa fue su contribución al […]

Hall of Fame Honors Selig With Locked Door

When the press release was distributed by the Hall of Fame on August 18, it seemed like a cool thing–dedicating a library space to the archives of baseball’s nine commissioners. As the release put it, “Cooperstown will also now be forever celebrated as the archival home for the Office of the Commissioner following the Wednesday […]

Brad Peacock, Selig Man with Upside Heart

Brad Peacock was taken in the 41st round of the 2006 draft as a “draft and follow” pick by the Washington Nationals. For Washington the 2006 draft was a disaster. Conducted when the team was still under management by Bud Selig and MLB, Inc., it might serve as a tutorial on all of the things […]

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL AND MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL PLAYERS ASSOCIATION REACH AGREEMENT REGARDING PAYMENTS FOR PRE-1980 PLAYERS

My friend Doug Gladstone, author of A Bitter Cup of Coffee: How MLB and The Players Association Threw 874 Retirees a Curve, has been championing the cause of MLB players who retired between 1947 and 1980 and who didn’t qualify for a pension if they had less than four years of service time.  It looks […]

John Thorn and Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game

March 2011 was an interesting month concerning author and historian John Thorn. The same can be said for enthusiasts of baseball’s origins and how the game evolved during the 19th Century. On March 1, Commissioner Bud Selig named Thorn the Official Baseball Historian of Major League Baseball, a post held by only one other person—“the […]

The Bud Selig Statue

The Milwaukee Brewers were brought back to life by Bud Selig and no one has done more for baseball in the second half of the 20th century–in Milwaukee that is–than Selig.  So having a statue to Selig outside Miller Park in Milwaukee–alongside Robin Yount and Hank Aaron??–what the heck, why not.  He tried to contract […]

Bryce Harper Is Lucky He Doesn’t Play Basketball

What’s the difference between Bryce Harper and Eric Bledsoe? Money. Lots of money. Harper is the 17-year-old phenom taken first in Monday night’s baseball draft.  A latter day Mickey Mantle, Harper skipped the last two years of high school, was home schooled, got his GED and spent the past year at a junior college where […]

Write-In Campaign Adds Pressure on Selig?

Latino advocacy organization Presente.org is ramping up the pressure on Bud Selig with a write-in campaign to take the All-Star Game out of Phoenix in response to the Arizona Hispanic profiling bill.  After huge protest marches several weeks ago, the write in campaign provides a time-honored, American tradition to keep the pressure on Commissioner Selig. […]

The Man Who Brought The American League to Milwaukee: Matthew Killilea

If asked, most no doubt would answer Bud Selig was the man who brought the American League to Milwaukee–and that answer would not be wrong. But 70 years before the 1970 Brewers first played at Milwaukee County Stadium, Milwaukee had a team in the American League, and Matt Killilea was a major part of the […]

It Could Have Been So Much Worse

Joe Posnanski wrote this week about the release of full economic data on the business of baseball by Forbes Magazine.  I can barely balance a check book and maybe gate receipts, market valuations and operating revenues confuse me more than I know, but they look to be telling a fascinating story.  It’s about how major league […]

What’s with the whining about the length of games?

Okay, I realize I’ll be in the minority with what I am about to write but I just have to say it…

Why the hell does anyone care about the “average length” of Major League games?

Looking Back at the 1990 Lockout

The spring training lockout of 1990 is one of the most obscure disputes in the long stretch of sharp bitterness between MLB players and management from the early ’70s through 1995. As Thomas Boswell wrote just after the lockout ended, “Can anyone remember the details of the baseball strike of 1985, which lasted two days? […]