With Talent and Motivation, Kevin Hooper ‘Without Concern’ As Wichita Powerhouse Readies for Playoffs

“To be honest, there is no concern.” How often does a manager talk in such confident terms?   Never might be too soon, right? Yet, that was exactly what Wichita (KS) Wingnuts Manager Kevin Hooper said this week when I asked him what his biggest concern was heading into next week’s American Association playoffs. Let me […]

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 […]

Camden’s Von Hayes and Chiaravalloti Doing Double Duty

Camden Manager Von Hayes and part-time cleanup hitter Vito Chiaravalloti both have a lot on their mind these days, and it is only partially due to the Riversharks’ uphill battle to make the Atlantic League playoffs.             The postseason is immediate priority No. 1, but Hayes, the onetime Philadelphia Phillies star, also heads up a […]

Strasburg in Syracuse: Start Two: Dwarfing, Part I

Ballplayers, they say, are superstitious; which doesn’t mean that everyone else isn’t, too. After Saturday’s interruption at Alliance Bank Stadium, I simply do not have the heart to drive back to the scene five days later. Through no fault of its own, the park is now a cursed site for me. I am at my […]

The Day “Sunny Jim” Made History

One of the great things about going to a baseball game is you’ll never know what you will see. Perhaps you might witness a no-hitter or a triple play. Or, as was the case for roughly 8,000 fans in Brooklyn on Sept. 16, 1924, a record which has yet to be broken. Certainly there were […]